Commentary on Romans — Book 9
Latin source: J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca 14 (Rufinus's Latin version of Origen's Commentarii in Epistulam ad Romanos). This English translation is in the public domain.BOOK 9
[§1] Since throughout the whole text of the Epistle the Apostle had taught in the preceding sections how the sum of religion has been transferred from the Jews to the Gentiles, from circumcision to faith, from the letter to the spirit, from the shadow to the truth, from carnal observance to spiritual observance, and had shown by prophetic utterances that these things were foretold as destined to come about: now at last he undertakes to establish the customs and institutions of this spiritual observance, to which he taught that the rite of God's worship had been transferred, and he says: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. Since, he says, we have shown that one must withdraw from carnal sacrifices — according to what the Prophet also says: Sacrifices and oblation you did not desire, nor were they pleasing to you — now, he says, I teach you in what sacrifices God delights: and I teach these things not as one commanding, for the command of the law accomplishes nothing, but as one who has undertaken the office of reconciling you to God, I beseech you, brethren; and I beseech you not through power, but through the mercy of God. For because, as I showed above, all have been shut up under sin, now human salvation consists no longer in merits, but in the mercy of God. But what is it that I beseech of you? That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, that it may be your reasonable service. By "service" he here means the worship of God. And since this worship formerly consisted in the bodies of dumb beasts, now, he says, let it be offered in the body of a rational human being, and let your bodies rather than those of cattle become a sacrifice to God, and be placed upon the sacred altars. For those who mortify their members from the incitement of lust and rage, and who keep the acts of their body pleasing to God, offer a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing, reasonably to God, and they fulfill according to spiritual understanding the law of sacrifices that was laid down in Leviticus. For example, as there they offered in the first place a calf, or in the second a ram, or in the third a he-goat, or in the fourth turtledoves or even young pigeons, so that in these the soul of each one might be purified according to the quality of his deeds: these things each one now purifies in his own body, and discerning them by a spiritual sense, offers a living sacrifice to God with reasonable service. Concerning each of these, when we were saying some things on the book of Leviticus, we attempted to explain as best we could how each one, by the reasonable service of God's worship, immolates a calf if he conquers the pride of his body; slaughters a ram if he overcomes anger; offers a he-goat as a holocaust if he conquers lust; sacrifices doves and turtledoves if he cuts off the wandering and slippery flights of his thoughts. But these things, as I have said, anyone who thinks them worth knowing will find discussed there more fully. But now Paul beseeches those who believe in Christ to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. He calls it a living sacrifice, one which bears life — that is, Christ — within itself, and he says: We carry about the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus Christ also may be made manifest in our body. He calls it holy, one in which the Holy Spirit dwells, according to what he said in another place: Or do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? Pleasing to God, inasmuch as it is separated from sins and vices. And all these things are the reasonable worship of God. For a reason can be given for such worship, and it can be shown that it is worthy that such sacrifices be immolated to God; but no right and honorable reason will admit that rams and he-goats and calves be offered to the immortal and incorporeal God. Therefore the Apostle not only teaches those who have believed in Christ so to act and so to worship God, but he also beseeches them by the mercy of God: so that by this he may show that for the human race (since it is prone to sin) sacrifices of this kind have been provided by God's compassion, by which, if ever a fall should occur, the soul may be able through reasonable service and through sacrifices immolated in the manner we have described above to be repaired and restored to salvation. And that the mercies of God are many, Paul indicates in the second letter to the Corinthians, saying: Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. You hear that God, just as he is the Father of Christ, and the father of wisdom, and the father of justice — all of which Christ is — so also is he the father of mercies. Therefore Christ, just as he is all the rest, is himself also mercy, and mercy that is manifold, not single: that is, just as the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him, but are hidden, so also the treasure of mercy is in him, but is hidden — lest perhaps, if it were brought forth suddenly and before the time, it should make me, and anyone who might wish to be like me in sloth, negligent. It will seem, then, that the living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God, is above all an uncontaminated body. But since we see that some of the saints, and even some of the apostles, had wives, we cannot altogether understand this of virginity alone, although virginity may hold the first rank among sacrifices of this kind: just as in the law also one sacrifice was that of the priest, another that of the ruler, another that of the Synagogue, and another that of a single soul. And although in the Church the first sacrifice after the apostles appears to be that of the martyrs, the second that of virgins, the third that of the continent, yet I think that not even those who are placed in marriage and who by mutual consent devote themselves for a time to prayer, as though fulfilling the vows of the Nazirites — if in other respects they act holily and justly — are to be denied the ability to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; nor, on the other hand, are the bodies of virgins or of the continent, if they are polluted either by the stain of pride, or by the filth of avarice, or by a slanderous tongue, or by the uncleanness of lying, to be thought to have offered a sacrifice holy and pleasing to God on the ground of bodily virginity alone: because in the law too, when a sacrifice was offered, it was inspected rather carefully by the priest, not only whether it was from clean animals, but also lest it should have a defect either in its eye, or in its ears, or in its feet, lest a lame, or one-eyed, or deaf animal be brought to the divine altar. So therefore through all its members the living, holy sacrifice, pleasing to God, which is to be offered reasonably, is examined and scrutinized. And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. It should be known that in the Greek it reads: That you may prove what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God. But we, since one and the same sense can be seen in both, follow the custom of the Latins. Be not conformed, therefore, he says, to this world. In this he shows that there is a certain form of this world, and another of the world to come: and if there are any who love the present world and the things that are in this world, they are fitted to the form of the present world; but those who look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen and are eternal, are transformed and renewed to the form of the world to come: and hence it comes about that this world does not recognize them, but holds them in hatred, and persecutes them.But the angels of God, who belong to that age to come, do recognize that form. And this seems to me to be like that saying in which he says: As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly. See therefore lest perhaps, when anger comes into your heart, it make you conformed to this age; and likewise also evil concupiscence, and avarice, and the remaining vices in which the present age delights, impose upon you the form of the present age. But if, on the contrary, meekness, patience, gentleness, continence, faith, truth, and the remaining virtues dwell in your mind, they will make you conformed to the age to come, and will render the beauty of your soul so fair that the Word of God, who has betrothed her to himself in mercy and in faith, will say to her: You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and there is no spot in you. But attend more carefully to what he says: But be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that he may show that the earlier form was indeed blameworthy. For every soul previously had the form of wickedness. But from this the apostolic word exhorts us that, when that form has been cast off, we should be reformed to the beauty of each of the several virtues, and so at last be able, with the face of the heart unveiled, to behold the glory of the Lord, being transformed from an image of this kind. But how we are to be transformed into these things he himself teaches, saying: By the renewal of your mind. Now our mind is renewed through the exercises of wisdom, and the meditation of the word of God, and the spiritual understanding of his law; and the more a man daily makes progress by the reading of the Scriptures, the more deeply his understanding penetrates, the more he is made ever new and daily new. But I do not know whether that mind can be renewed which is sluggish toward the divine Scriptures and toward the exercises of spiritual understanding, by which it might be able not only to understand the things that are written, but also to expound them more openly and to set them forth more carefully. Yet it can come about that not every mind can be renewed in this respect, so as to be enlarged by the recognition of knowledge. For a mind can be renewed unto justice, unto continence, unto mercy, faith, and patience. But see what, in what follows, the Apostle joins to this renewal of the mind. That you may prove, he says, what is the will of God, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. And assuredly, unless the mind has been renewed unto all knowledge, and wholly illuminated by the wisdom of God, it cannot prove what the will of God is. For in many things the will of God is thought to be present, and it is not. In this, certainly, those who do not have a renewed mind err and are deceived. But it belongs in truth not to just any mind, but to one greatly renewed and (so to speak) already reformed to the image of God, to prove in each single thing that we do, that we say, that we think, whether it be the will of God; and to do or say or think absolutely nothing which it has not perceived to accord with the will of God. What is the will of God, he says, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. If we read according to what we find in the Latin codices, this will be the sense: that the will of God is whatever is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect; nor can God will anything other than what is good; and certainly what is good and perfect, this without doubt is pleasing to God. But if according to what we said is found among the Greeks, that is, that you may prove what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God, the same thing which we said above can indeed be seen, namely that every will of God is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. But something of this sort also can be perceived in these words: that the will of God is indeed always good, but we do not always deserve to be governed by his good will, nor by the well-pleasing and the perfect. For example, that Saul should be anointed king was indeed the will of God, but not the well-pleasing, nor the perfect. For being angry with the people, who had refused to have God as king over them, he commanded a man to be appointed king for them. But the Prophet also says in the person of God: I let them go according to the desires of their heart, that they might walk in their own lusts. Thus, therefore, the will of God is sometimes done in those things which we covet and desire; but he who has been renewed in mind ought to prove whether this will of God is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect, and not such as indulges our desires rather than consults our advantage. But let us now turn to what follows.
[§2] For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to all who are among you: not to be more wise than one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety: to each one as God has divided the measure of faith. For as in one body we have many members, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ; and individually members one of another. First it must be known that where we have to all who are among you, in the Greek it stands to everyone who is in you. This saying certainly indicates that the word is addressed to those who, whereas before they were not, have now begun to be. For God, as the same Apostle says, calls the things that are not as though they were. But those are not who are not partakers of him who truly is, who said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. Therefore, when Paul says: For I say to all who are among you; or, as we said it is found in the Greek, to everyone who is in you, it is as if he were saying: For I say to everyone who is in God, not to be more wise than one ought to be wise. Nevertheless it must be observed that Paul, as he says also in other places, speaks not in the persuasive words of fleshly wisdom, but through the grace which has been given to him. For there is a great difference between one who speaks through grace and one who speaks through human wisdom. And indeed it has often been discovered by experience itself that certain eloquent and learned men, powerful not only in speech but also in ideas, though they have said many things in the churches and received immense applause and praise, yet none of the hearers received compunction of heart from the things that were said, nor made progress toward faith, nor was stirred to the fear of God by the recollection of the things that were said; but people depart with their ears captivated by a certain sweetness and delight alone. But often men of no great eloquence, and not devoted to the composition of speech, by simple and unpolished words convert many of the unbelieving to faith, bend the proud to humility, and drive into sinners the goad of conversion. And this certainly is the sign, as the Apostle says in the present passage, of speaking through the grace which has been given to them. But I think that grace is present not only in those who teach the Church in the word of God, if their discourse be such as we described above — one which does not so much delight the hearer as goad him and lead him to some advance in virtue — but you will find that it is so in nearly all the things that are done in life. For there is one man who both in what he does and in what he says has grace; and another who at times speaks more prudently, and acts more carefully and more laboriously, and yet finds grace neither in his words nor in his deeds. Indeed, as we have already said in other places, it is written that Joseph found grace in the sight of the keeper of the prison, and that Esther found grace with the king. Now we have found it written in a certain more secret little book that there is, as it were, a certain angel of grace, who even draws his name from grace: for he is called Ananehel, which is interpreted "the grace of God." This, then, that writing contained: that this angel was sent by the Lord to Esther, that he might give her grace with the king. So then the power of a discourse that is spoken through grace is one thing, and the force of the authority of teaching is another. But another kind of discourse comes from common learning, which, although it be elegant and artfully composed, nevertheless, if it is neither spoken nor written through grace, can perhaps delight the reader, but cannot lead the hearer to advancement. Paul therefore not only himself says through grace the things he says, but also prays that grace be given to his hearers; and not only grace, but a multitude of grace. For thus he writes: Grace be multiplied to you; and in all his Epistles he says: Grace to you, and peace. But let us see what it is that the Apostle says, through the grace given to him, to all who are among the Romans. Not to be more wise, he says, than one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety. He seems still to be fitting this saying also to the proud branches of the wild olive, who insult the branches that were broken off from the good olive, and to be telling them that they ought not to be more wise than they ought to be wise: which is like that saying which he uttered: Do not be haughtily wise; for this is to be more wise than one ought. Yet it must be known that other learned men also employ this definition, so as to place the nature or cause of sin in this: if something be either added to the virtues or taken away from them. For example, justice is a virtue; and if anyone does something less than justice allows, he is without doubt unjust. But if anyone, under the appearance of justice, becomes excessive in regard to punishments, and pursues vengeance too savagely, he has slid from justice into cruelty. Whence Solomon also says: Do not become overly just. Similarly, freedom of speech too, if it be within its own measure, is a virtue; if it have less, it is timidity; if more, it is called rashness. In like manner prudence also, if it be in its own measure, is a virtue; if it have less, it is imprudence; if more than it ought, it is called malice. Hence I think that the serpent in paradise was said to be more prudent than the rest of the beasts — that is, exceeding the measure of prudence, and slipping into the parts of malice. Hence too the sons of this age are said to be more prudent than the sons of light; for they are more wise than they ought to be wise. And thus in each and every virtue someone can be more wise than he ought to be wise. Even in chastity someone can be more wise than he ought to be wise, as are those who give heed to seducing spirits and to doctrines of demons, speaking falsehood in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, and abstaining from foods which God created. These are more wise concerning chastity than they ought to be. But the lustful and incestuous man is less wise than he ought to be. And I say that heretics too are more wise concerning Christ than they ought to be wise, who deny that he is the Son of God the Creator, but of some other, I know not what, better God. And those also are more wise concerning Christ than they ought to be wise, who deny that he came in the flesh and was born of the Virgin, but assign to him a heavenly body. In all these things, therefore, Paul wishes us not to be more wise than we ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety — which in Greek is called σωφροσύνη (sōphrosynē), but in our codices, that is, in the divine Scriptures, has been translated by our predecessors as "sobriety," while by other learned men it is rendered "temperance," which temperance is reckoned as one of the four general virtues. And so in this passage too the Apostle's words would shine more clearly if we also had it written according to the force of the Greek expression, but to be wise unto temperance: that is, that in all things — whether what we do, or what we say, or what we think — we should maintain temperance.
In those things which we enumerated above, temperance alone knows how to preserve the measure, so that neither more nor less be done than ought. After this he says: To each one as God has apportioned the measure of faith: that is, that each one may know and understand what measure of God's grace is in him, which he has deserved to obtain through faith. For sometimes a man receives from God to be wise in the work of charity, or to be wise in the office of visiting, or with respect to acts of mercy toward the poor, or concerning the care of the infirm, or with respect to the defense of widows and orphans, or with respect to the solicitude of hospitality. These things, then, God has apportioned singly to each according to the measure of faith. But if he who has received grace to be wise concerning some one of these does not understand the measure of the grace given to him, but wishes to be wise concerning the wisdom of God, concerning the word of doctrine, concerning the account of deeper knowledge — in which he has not received grace — and wishes not so much to learn as to teach the things he does not know: such a man, while he is wise about less, wishes to be wise about more than he ought. For he is not wise unto temperance, so as to keep for each one the measure of faith as God has apportioned it. But that the Apostle might designate these matters still more evidently, he introduces an example and says: For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same function: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another: composing through these words the whole body of the Church in the most orderly fashion; so that just as the several members of the body have their own proper functions, and each one serves its own offices, and yet it is not possible that they should not yield to one another by mutual consent: so, he says, also in the Church, which is the body of Christ, we severally have diverse functions. For example: one man devotes all his zeal to the wisdom of God and to the teaching of the word, and persists in meditation upon the divine law day and night; and he is the eye of this great body. Another, as we said above, cares for the ministry of the brethren and of the needy; and he is the hand of this holy body. Another is a diligent hearer of the word of God; and he is the ear of the body. Another is untiring in visiting those who lie sick, and in seeking out those in tribulation, and in rescuing those set in necessities; and he without doubt is called the foot of the ecclesiastical body. And thus you may find each one inclined more strongly toward some one office, and giving his labor to it more particularly; yet holding the rest in a following place. For we do not say this, that one alone ought to suffice, but according to the form of the example set forth. Just as, for instance, the eye has the special office of seeing, yet it is one out of all and among all the members, and with the several members it does all things, and with it each several member does all things: so also he who through the grace of faith has merited some one special gift, administers that indeed principally; but in all the activities he is held to be a partner and sharer with the rest. But how this body is in Christ — that is, in truth, and wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, all of which Christ is — we have already often said. But now, if in this body it be, for example, that someone is an eye, which is the nobler thing in the whole body; or a hand, which may be held in the place following; or an ear, or a tongue, or any of the rest which seem to be more honorable: and again, that someone is some other member of those which seem to be less honorable; whether he himself has furnished some cause for this, or whether by the will of God, without any causes whatsoever, this man has been appointed that member and that man this one — I think to be above our understanding. But lest those who assert that there are diverse natures of souls, established by diverse creators, should seem to find a place for confirming their doctrine, let the things which were discussed by us in the earlier parts concerning the vessels of honor and the vessels of dishonor suffice also for the present passage. For it must never be conceded that, whether in the present age, or in ages past, or even in ages to come, divine Providence does not so dispense to each one that the merit of each, gathered by the freedom of choice, has furnished the matter to the one who dispenses. For God is just, and there is no injustice with him.
[§3] Having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, in ministering; or he that teaches, in doctrine; he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that rules, in solicitude; he that shows mercy, in cheerfulness. When he had said that each of the believers were members of the one body of Christ, now he enumerates, as it were, the diversity of work of the diverse members; and for example, as sight to the eye, so to the mind, which is the interior eye, he assigns the office of prophecy; and to another, as to the hand, he ascribes ministry; and to another, as to the tongue, he attributes doctrine: and likewise also the rest. He also resolves that which seemed to us ambiguous in the earlier passage, where we were asking whether each member came to the honorable, or less honorable, offices of the body by furnishing some cause from itself; or whether from no causes, but by the will of God alone, it was assigned to each to be an honorable or a less honorable member. What therefore was there less clear to us, the Apostle has here evidently opened up, saying that whether prophecy, or ministry, or the remaining gifts of graces are given according to the proportion of faith: although this phrase — that is, according to the proportion of faith — seems among the Latins to be translated less properly. For ἀναλογία (analogia) in Greek can be rendered not so much "proportion" (ratio) as "fitting measure," so that, since it cannot be done by one word, it may be explained by two. He declares, therefore, that the diversities of graces are given according to the measure of faith of each one, so that, for example, when a man has received grace, he becomes this or that member in the body of Christ. And here indeed he has set down the measure of faith as the cause of receiving graces; but writing to the Corinthians he says: But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto that which is expedient; and after a few words he adds: But all these things works one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one as he wills. Whence it seems to me that, writing both to the Romans and to the Corinthians, he teaches three modes of receiving grace, so as to show that something in it is done by us, yet that the most part consists in God's bounty. He posits, then, that there is a measure of faith through which one receives grace; he posits also that it is given unto that which is expedient; and that the Spirit divides as he wills. That, therefore, so great a faith be found in us as may be able to merit a more sublime grace, seems to belong to our work and zeal: but that it be given unto that which is expedient, and be useful to the receiver, is God's judgment; or, altogether, whether he will give it at all lies in him. Therefore also in another place the same Apostle says: But now God has set each member in the body as he willed. And God willed according to the proportion or measure of the faith which is in us; or he willed unto that which is expedient. Unless perhaps someone should wish to understand this also in this way, that God has set each member in the body as he willed, so that the "he willed" is referred rather to the member — that is, as it willed, as it chose, as it gave its labor; lest the power of choice should seem to be taken away from man. Nevertheless, from the fact that he says grace is given unto that which is expedient, it may come about that even though there be in someone so great a measure of faith as would deserve to receive a loftier grace, yet if the Holy Spirit, foreseeing things to come, should judge it not expedient for the receiver, he necessarily divides to each one as he wills and as is expedient. And indeed we see that some have received the grace of teaching or of exhortation to the people, and from this very thing, being lifted up and turned to pride, have fallen into the judgment of the devil: and that others have indeed received grace, but have corrupted it by negligence of mind and slothfulness of life: of which sort was he also who bound up the denarius he had received in a napkin, and would not work anything from it. Therefore, finally, the Apostle also writes to his most beloved son, saying: Do not neglect the grace that is in you; as knowing that grace can perish through negligence. But as to what he said, according to the proportion or measure of faith, I think it has already been fully set forth in the earlier parts what that faith is which is required of us, and what that faith is which is given by God through grace, according to what the same Apostle says: To another, faith, in the same Spirit: and likewise where the apostles say to the Lord: Increase our faith: namely, that the faith which hopes and believes and trusts without any doubting is in us; but the account of that faith itself, and the knowledge, and the perfect understanding of the things we believe, is granted by God. But let us not omit in this place that which seems to belong to a more secret mystery. For if in the present age God gives to each one grace according to the measure of faith, without doubt in the age to come also he will give to each one grace in proportion to the measure of merits; and if in the present age such is God's dispensation, and such it will also be in the age to come, how shall it not be believed that in the ages past, which were before us, a like dispensation of God existed toward every rational creature? But let us now see what the gifts are which he enumerates as given according to grace. Prophecy, he says, and ministry, and doctrine, and exhortation, and giving — that is, bestowal — and ruling, and showing mercy. To these he joins also charity, and the rest. Concerning which someone might perhaps say: If all these things are given through grace, a man will not be in fault if he does not prophesy, or does not minister, or does not teach, or does not exhort, or does not give, or does not rule, or does not show mercy, or does not love, because he has not received the grace of all these things. But to this we shall say: Just as there is a faith which we have taught to be in us, and again there is a faith which is given through grace, as we said above that it is written, To another, faith, in the same Spirit; so also in each one of those things which we enumerated above as given by God through grace, there is something in us too, according to whose measure or proportion each one merits the grace. For that which is written is not to be taken of wisdom alone — namely, that even if one be perfect among the sons of men, if the wisdom that is from you be lacking to him, he shall be reckoned as nothing. For in the same way we can say: Even if someone be perfect in faith among the sons of men, if the faith that is from your grace be lacking to him, he shall be reckoned as nothing. So too, even if a man be perfect in ministry, if the grace of ministry from God be lacking to him, he shall be reckoned as nothing. So too, even if a man be perfect in doctrine, and the grace of doctrine which is from God be lacking to him, he shall be reckoned as nothing. And thus in all these things which have been enumerated, there is a certain perfection among the sons of men which they attain by their own labor and zeal, whether in wisdom, or in doctrine, or in the other offices: which nevertheless, if they have not grace given from God, will be nothing: because if the grace of the Spirit be lacking to them, they cannot even be members of Christ's body.
But in these matters it is asked whether there can be in us, or from us, some kind of prophecy which does not have the whole of itself from God, but takes some little part also from human endeavors. To others, indeed, this will seem utterly impossible; in Paul, however, it is plainly proved, when he says: But be zealous for the greater gifts, and rather that you may prophesy. In this, just as one is zealous for ministry, and for teaching, and for exhortation, and the rest, by the fact that he applies zeal and labor toward these things, so also the Apostle shows that it ought to come about with regard to prophecy. Hence this prophecy which the Apostle teaches must be understood as not being that through which it is said: Thus says the Lord — for that one stood until John, according to what is written in the Gospel: The Law and the Prophets were until John — but rather that of which the same Apostle says: He who prophesies speaks to men unto edification, and exhortation, and consolation. Prophecy, therefore, is spoken of in Paul when someone speaks to men unto edification, and when he speaks unto exhortation and consolation; and therefore it is possible for us to apply zeal toward prophecy of this kind, and it is within our power that, as we give our effort to these things, if we do them according to the reason or the measure of faith, there be added also that prophecy which is from God. But according to the Apostle there is also another kind of prophecy, of which he says: But if you prophesy, and there enter someone unbelieving or unlearned, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all, the hidden things also of his heart are made manifest, and then, falling upon his face, he will declare that God is truly among you. For just as the Spirit of God searches all things, so also the Word of God searches through all things, even those that are in secret — especially since the Word is living, and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow. And indeed, when a moral discourse is being handled in the Church, then the conscience of each one within himself is goaded, as he recognizes his own sins from the things that are said, and calls to mind whether he has perhaps committed anything in secret. And sometimes the very discernment of prudent men, who gather each person's conscience either from the countenance, or from the character, or from the bearing, holds a kind of prophecy. Let these things be said by us concerning the grace of prophecy. After these there follows: Or ministry, in ministering. We can recall all these things to that rule which was stated above, that is: Not to be wise beyond what one ought to be wise; so that, for example, we may say that he who ministers ought not, in ministering, to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise; and he who teaches, in teaching, not to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise; and he who exhorts, in exhortation, not to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise. For many, having received a ministry, or having received a teaching office, have been wise beyond what they ought to have been wise; and, lifted up into arrogance, or dissolved into luxuries, they have fallen headlong. He who exhorts, in exhorting. Exhortation is a kind of teaching and of discourse, by which afflicted souls are relieved through the words of the divine Scriptures prudently fitted together and gathered into one. For often despair befalls the soul from the excess of its tribulations; nor can it easily be restored or refreshed by just any words, however polished and plausible they may be. But if a discourse having the power of the grace of God be applied, then it penetrates the heart of that soul, and offers consolation, and calls back hope with despair removed, according to that which was said by the Lord through the prophet: Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
[§3] He who gives, in simplicity; he who presides, in solicitude; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness. He who gives and supplies to the needy ought, he says, to do this in simplicity of heart; that is, that he not merely appear to do good to the needy while in his heart he seeks praise from men. It is not simplicity, therefore, if one thing seems to be done in the hands and another is sought in the heart. But he who presides over the brethren, or who presides over the Church, ought to be in solicitude — not of human affairs, nor of secular matters (for this solicitude ought to be foreign to those who preside over the Church) — but let him take up such solicitude as the Apostle speaks of: My daily press of business, the solicitude for all the Churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not set on fire? He, therefore, who presides over the Churches ought to have such solicitude, and ought by no means to have that other, secular one. He who shows mercy, in cheerfulness. It may perhaps seem that what he said above, He who gives, in simplicity, and this, He who shows mercy, in cheerfulness, are one and the same. But to me it seems that the work is perhaps one, yet the disposition of the work itself is not likewise one. For it is one thing to give to the needy, and another to share with the needy out of an affection of mercy; and therefore he does not wish there to be sadness in such a work. For he who lays out his money, if he is unbelieving and despairs of receiving it back, is necessarily saddened, as one who has lost it. But he who does this with faith and hope does it in cheerfulness and gladness, being certain that these small things which he expends for the commandment of God will confer upon him vast stores of heavenly riches, and beyond that, eternal life as well.
[§4] Love without pretense. I think that every love which is not according to God is feigned and not true. For God, the creator of the soul, implanted in it, along with the other virtues, the affection of love as well, so that it might love God and the things that God wills. Since, then, he has given the soul this work of love, whoever loves anything other than God and the things that please God — the love in that person must be called false and pretended. Moreover, if someone loves his neighbor and yet, when he sees him going astray, does not admonish him, does not correct him, that love must be called pretended. And therefore love ought to have nothing of flattery in it, nothing painted over, just as the same Apostle says elsewhere: Love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.
[§5] Hating evil, clinging to good. It may perhaps seem strange that among the other goods of the virtues hatred too is taken up, and is set down by the Apostle as something necessary. From this it is certain that the affection of hatred is present in the soul: for it is praiseworthy to hate vices, to hate sins. For unless one holds vices in hatred, he cannot love, nor preserve, the virtues. For example, if someone proposes to guard chastity, he cannot keep it safely unless he takes up a certain hatred and abhorrence against unchastity. For difficult, and exceedingly difficult, is that continence in which the very thing one abstains from is still desired, and the soul's craving is restrained by fear alone of the judgment to come. These things are perilous, and exceedingly perilous, unless, according to the Apostle's counsel, hating evils and waging against them, as it were, unappeasable wars of hatred, we thus cling to good. This too is to be observed, that just as he says in another place: He who clings to the Lord is one spirit, so here too he says: Let us cling to good, doubtless so that it may come about that we are one with the good.
[§6] Loving one another with brotherly love. This commandment, that we love one another as God also loved us, though it is the first after the first (for the first is to love God; and again, among human beings, this is first, that we love one another), is somehow despised as though it were the last and least necessary thing among human beings; and the hatred which we said was implanted in us for this purpose, that we might hold evils in hatred, we exercise in a backwards order upon good things, and, loving the vices of the flesh and sins, we hold our brothers in hatred. Nor does it happen otherwise that we hate what we ought not, except because we love what we ought not. We are commanded, then, to love our brothers, not to judge them. For if you think someone is ungodly, and therefore judge that he is not to be loved, hear that Christ died for the ungodly. Or if, because your brother is a sinner, you therefore think he is not to be loved, hear that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. But if he is righteous, he is much more worthy of love, for the Lord loves the righteous.
[§7] Anticipating one another in honor. This is what the Lord also taught, when he marked the Scribes and Pharisees claiming for themselves the first places at banquets, and taught that, when you have been invited to a dinner, you should recline in the last place.
[§8] In diligence not slothful. Above he admonished that the one who presides ought to be in diligence; but now he gives this commandment to all in common, lest any of us hear from the Lord: Wicked and slothful servant.
[§9] Fervent in spirit. This too has to do with being unslothful and diligent. For he wills that we, who live under the law of the spirit, should have nothing slack in us, nothing lukewarm, but should carry out everything with fervor of spirit and warmth of faith.
[§10] Serving the Lord. That person serves the Lord who can say: To us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him, and over whom neither lust, nor greed, nor empty glory any longer holds dominion. But I know that in some Latin copies it reads serving the time, which does not seem to me to have been fittingly inserted — unless perhaps one supposes it was said in the way the same Apostle says elsewhere: The time is short; it remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none; or as that saying goes: Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.
[§11] Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. He rejoices in hope who does not look at the things that are seen, but awaits the things that are not seen; and who knows that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us. That same person will also be patient in tribulation; because tribulation works patience, patience proof, and proof hope — provided, however, that we fulfill the words that follow, that is, persevering in prayer. For where human frailty is not sufficient, God's help must be implored through prayers.
[§12] Sharing in the needs of the saints. I recall that in the Latin copies it more often stands: Sharing in the memorials of the saints. But we neither disturb custom nor prejudge the truth, especially since both readings suit edification. For to contribute to the needs of the saints honorably and becomingly — not as though handing out a dole to the needy, but rather holding our means in a certain way in common with them — and likewise to remember the saints, whether in solemn assemblies or so that we may profit from the recollection of them, seems fitting and appropriate.
[§13] Pursuing hospitality. How worthily does he embrace in a single word the generosity of the one who pursues hospitality! For in saying that hospitality is to be pursued, he shows not merely that we are to receive the guest who comes to us, but that we are to seek him out, to be anxious about it, to pursue and search everywhere for guests, lest perchance any sit in the streets, lest any lie without a roof. Recall Lot, and you will find that it was not the guests who sought him out, but he who sought the guests; and this was to pursue hospitality.
[§14] Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. The Apostle, pursuing the moral topic more broadly, orders the deeds, the mind, the purpose, and also the very mouth and tongue of the disciples. He does not wish those who believe in Christ to bring forth a curse out of their mouth, but to speak well, to bless, to pray well, so that from this they may be believed both to be servants of a good Lord and disciples of a good Master. Yet it must be known that this word "blessing" is found placed in the Scriptures in various senses. For God is found to bless either human beings or the other things he had created; and human beings, or the other creatures, are commanded to bless God. But God's blessing always imparts some gift to those who are blessed by him, whereas human beings are said to bless God in the sense of praising him and returning thanks. Here, however, the Apostle, in saying Bless, and do not curse, admonishes that when we are provoked by enemies, or goaded by injuries, we should not return curses for curses, but should do what he writes of himself where he says: We are cursed, and we bless.
[§15] To rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep. Here too a suitable and fitting distinction must be maintained. For the joys of Christians are not to be joined to just any joys, nor are our tears to be joined to just any weeping. For if I should see someone rejoicing over a gain of money, or over the extent of his possessions, or over the eminence of worldly honor, I ought not to congratulate such people, since I know that mourning and tears follow joys of this kind. Indeed, so far is one from rejoicing over such things, that the Lord did not permit his disciples to rejoice even over the fact that they saw the demons subject to them, but said to them: Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice, he says, that your names are written in the book of life. We too, then, if we see such a work done by anyone as is worthy to be written in heaven — whether a work of justice, or of charity, or of peace, or of mercy — and so done that it deserves to be recorded in the book of life, we ought to rejoice with such people. And also, if we see anyone converted from error, and having left the darkness of ignorance come to the light of truth, and having obtained the remission of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we ought to rejoice with such people. Similarly, we are commanded to weep with those who weep — not with those who weep for their dead, or who weep over worldly losses, since we know that the sorrow of this world works death. Our tears, therefore, are not to be joined with such people; but we must weep with those of whom the Lord says: Blessed are those who weep, for they shall be comforted. If anyone weeps for his sins, if anyone after an offense turns to repentance and washes away his error with tears, if anyone groans even while placed in this dwelling and desires to return to Christ, and consoles his holy longing by the pouring out of tears — let us join our tears with such people, and let us share their groanings; for the sorrow that is according to God works a lasting salvation through repentance.
[§16] Being of the same mind toward one another. This saying has been made obscure not by its own nature, but by the translation. For what he says is this: that we should feel toward a brother as toward our very selves, and should will for our neighbor what we will for ourselves; as the Lord also says in the Gospel: Whatever you wish that people should do to you, do the same also to them. Not being high-minded, but consenting to the humble. He teaches that pride is in every way to be fled; for this is what "to be high-minded" means. And rightly is pride to be fled, since Scripture says that the beginning of departing from God is pride. And well has he set forth the training in humility in a single word; for to consent to the humble, and to love the humble, and to bend oneself down to them — this is to accustom oneself to imitate him who, though he was in the form of God, took the form of a servant, and humbled himself even unto death.
[§18] "Be not wise in your own eyes." He who seems wise to himself is, along with his arrogance, a fool; nor can he know the true wisdom of God, who cultivates his own folly as if it were wisdom. And indeed, in what has gone before, Paul himself taught that this was the cause of unbelief for the Jews, saying of them that, "being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they were not made subject to the righteousness of God." So then, he too who is wise in his own eyes cannot be wise in God's eyes.
[§19] "Rendering to no one evil for evil." If to inflict evil is to sin, then to render evil back is not, as it seems to some, just, but is a like sin — or, as I judge, even a graver one. For he who first inflicted the evil perhaps did not perceive that what he did was evil. But he who rendered evil back, by the very fact that he was moved to take vengeance, has confessed that he perceived that what he rendered was evil. And therefore one must always look to him who said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
[§20] "Providing good things before all men." A man provides good things before all men if he does not seek to please the vices or the manners of individuals. Otherwise that saying of the Apostle himself will be contrary to this, which says: "If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." But he who so holds the balance of his life, his manners, and his acts that he cannot be reproved by any man — he it is who provides good things before all men. But let us also notice this, how the Apostle did not say "that we may please all men," but "that we may provide good things before all men" — that is, that we may do good things before all men, whether the things that are good please them or do not please them.
[§21] "If it be possible, as much as lies in you, having peace with all men." The Apostle knew that peace, among those between whom peace is held, consists not of one party but of both; therefore, lest another's disposition — should it happen to prove unpeaceable — should seem to hinder us from the good of peace, he gave a most measured precept: that meanwhile our own mind should always be prepared for peace, and that the fault of discord should rest not with us but with the other. But perhaps someone may say: How can it come about that we have peace with all men? And what shall we do with the Scripture which says: "You saw a thief, and you ran with him, and with adulterers you set your portion"? Well, therefore, did the Apostle add: "As much as lies in you," that is, what accords with your purpose and your faith. For to have peace and fellowship with the wicked does not accord with our faith and our purpose — although in another place a further distinction may be drawn. For it is one thing to love men, another to love crimes. He who loves men loves the creature of God; he who loves crimes follows after the devil's inventions. Those, therefore, who are perfect love the very men in whom they hate the crimes; and while holding in hatred that in them which sins, they do not cease to love that which God created.
[§22] "Not avenging yourselves, dearly beloved, but give place to wrath. For it is written: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." In what way those who do not avenge themselves give place to wrath seems to me to be understood in two ways. For by this very fact, that (for example) they do not return blow for blow, or do not render insult for insult, they have given place to the wrath of him who did the injury to pass over and vanish away. For no one will be found so rabid that, having inflicted an injury, he rages again if he receives no requital; but, as though his fury were poured out and digested, he necessarily grows mild. There is therefore also great gain, where both the sinner's multitude of sins is checked, and the patience of him who suffered the injury becomes approved before God. But it is also possible to give place to wrath in this way: when, for the injuries they inflict, those who sin — according to Paul's own saying — "treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath," when God will render to each one according to his works. If, therefore, we avenge ourselves, it is no great thing that we render for the injury received — for instance, a slap for a slap, or a stone for a stone, or for the insult of a word an insult of a word none the less. But if we reserve these things for the vengeance of God, we give place, in him who has injured us, to that wrath which he beyond doubt treasures up for himself by his own evil deeds, which will exact from him in the judgment of God punishments far graver than we are able to inflict.
[§23] "But if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head." These things indeed the Lord also commands in the Gospels. And although that understanding lies open, according to what we have said above — namely, that insofar as to enemies and to those who injure us we not only do not render requital but even bestow good things upon them, so far do we heap up their punishments in the judgment of God (for it is truly a just condemnation if they are convicted before God of having inflicted evils upon those from whom they received good things) — nevertheless let us see whether perhaps this commandment may contain some worthier meaning. For Jeremiah the prophet also says to the sinful daughter of Babylon: "You have coals of fire, sit upon them, these shall be to you for a help." Perhaps, then, here too these coals of fire which are heaped upon the enemy's head are heaped up for his help. For it can come about that the enemy's savage and barbarous mind, if it perceives our kindness, if it sees our humanity, our affection, our devotion, may take on compunction of heart and bear repentance for what it has committed; and from this a certain fire may be kindled in him, which tortures and burns him for the conscience of what he has committed; and these will be the coals of fire which are heaped upon his head out of our work of mercy and devotion. But by "head" is meant the ruling part of the heart; and rightly is that called the head by whose understanding and prudence all the members are governed.
[§24] Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. He is overcome by evil who, provoked by evils, returns evil; but he overcomes evil with good who, having received evils, repays them with good things. For it is certain that this is the nature of evil, that it is increased and grows from things like itself — just as if you add fire to fire, or as if the clouding of the air is joined to the darkness of night. But if you apply good, evil is destroyed. For contraries are done away with by contraries, just as fire is extinguished by water, and darkness is put to flight by light. But perhaps someone may say that Paul, through unskillfulness of speech, has fallen away from his subject; for he had set out to speak about the gifts of graces which are given through the Holy Spirit. And indeed, as to what he says: Whether prophecy, or ministry, or teaching, or exhortation, these can pertain to spiritual gifts. Perhaps also what follows: He who gives, in simplicity; he who presides, in solicitude; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness, can be joined to the foregoing; but as for those things which he enumerates after these — that charity be without dissimulation, hating evil, cleaving to good, loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, anticipating one another in honor, and the rest of this kind — one might say that these are precepts rather than gifts. But let us consider more carefully whether perhaps, since indeed in all these matters he has undertaken to treat the moral topic, and to make the Christian not only stable and immovable in the faith of the truth but also adorned in his morals, he therefore joins moral precepts as well to the gifts of the graces, in order to show that these too are given to Christians through the grace of God. For there are also some among the Gentiles of well-ordered and honorably formed morals, who nevertheless do not refer this very thing which they have to God, nor confess that the grace was given to them by Him; but either they ascribe it to their own diligence, or they boast about their masters and instructors. To us, however, the Apostle shows that everything which is good is from God and is given through the Holy Spirit, just as the apostle James also says: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights; so that he who glories may glory in the Lord.
[§25] Let us see, then, what the Apostle now adds in what follows: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. It seems to me that in this he has very commendably named the soul, which he commands to be subject to the powers. For he would never have said, let every spirit be subject to the power, but, let every soul. Concerning this distinction we have already often said that sometimes a person is named from the soul, sometimes from the flesh, sometimes from the spirit. But when he is to be named from the better part, as one who ought to be understood as spiritual, he is called spirit; when from the lower, soul; but when he is named from the worse, he is called flesh — and we have often brought forward testimonies about these things from the Scriptures. Now, therefore, since the Apostle is laying down precepts for believers, he wishes us to preserve, so far as it lies in us, the quiet and peace of the present life. And if indeed we are such as are joined to the Lord and are one spirit with Him, we are said to be subject to the Lord. But if we are not yet such, but there is still in us the common soul which has something of this world, which is bound to it by some business, for this one the Apostle lays down precepts, and says that it should be subject to the powers of the world: because the Lord also said that those who have in themselves the superscription of Caesar should render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Peter and John had nothing which they might render to Caesar; for Peter says: Gold and silver I do not have. He who does not have this has neither anything to render to Caesar, nor anything on account of which he should be subject to the higher powers. But he who has either money, or possessions, or any business in the world, let him hear: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers.
[§26] For there is no power, he says, except from God. Perhaps someone will say: What then? Is even that power which persecutes the servants of God, attacks the faith, and overturns religion, from God? To this we shall reply briefly. There is no one who does not know that sight has been given to us by God, and hearing, and understanding. Since, therefore, we have these from God, yet it is in our own power whether we use sight for good things or for evil; and similarly hearing, and the movement of our hands, and the thought of our mind: and in this consists the just judgment of God, that we misuse for impious and iniquitous services those things which He gave for good uses. So, then, every power also has been given by God for the punishment of the evil, but for the praise of the good, as the same Apostle says in what follows. And the judgment of God will be just toward those who regulate the power they have received according to their own impieties, and not according to the divine laws.
[§27] And therefore he says: Therefore he who resists the power resists the ordinance of God; and those who resist acquire damnation for themselves. He is not here speaking of those powers which bring persecutions upon the faith; for in that case it must be said: We ought to obey God rather than men. Rather he is speaking of those ordinary powers which are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil: and whoever resists these certainly procures damnation for himself according to the quality of his deeds.
[§28] "But do you wish," he says, "not to fear the power? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it; for it is God's minister to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid: for not without cause does it bear the sword; for it is God's minister, an avenger in wrath upon him who does what is evil." Paul moves me in these words, in that he calls the worldly power and the judge of this world God's minister; and this he repeats not once, but a second and a third time. I should therefore like to inquire how the judge of the world is God's minister. We find it written in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles, coming together into one place, established decrees which we who from the Gentiles have believed in Christ ought to observe, in which these things are contained: "The apostles and elders to the brethren who are at Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, to all who have believed from among the Gentiles, greeting. Forasmuch as we have heard that certain went out from us and troubled you, to whom we gave no such commandment." And after a little it is added: "It seemed good, therefore, to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no further burden of weight, beyond those things which are necessary, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if you keep yourselves you will do well. Farewell." In these precepts, then, in which he says that no further burden is to be imposed upon those who believe from among the Gentiles, save that they abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, neither is murder forbidden, nor adultery, nor theft, nor the lying of males with males, nor the other crimes which are punished by divine and human laws. But if he says that only those things which he mentioned above are to be observed by Christians, he will seem to have granted them license as regards the rest. But consider the ordering of the Holy Spirit: since indeed the other crimes are avenged by the laws of the world, and it seemed superfluous that those things should now be forbidden by divine law which are sufficiently chastised by human law, he decrees only those things concerning which human law had said nothing and which seemed to pertain to religion. From which it appears that the judge of the world fulfills the greatest part of God's law. For all the crimes which God wills to be avenged, He willed to be avenged not through the prelates and rulers of the Churches, but through the judge of the world; and Paul, knowing this, rightly names him God's minister and an avenger upon him who does what is evil. But what he says concerning the power, "Do what is good, and you will have praise from it," seems to me to require a deeper inquiry. For it is not the custom of the powers of this world to praise those who have not been criminals. For they indeed punish those who sin, but they have no custom of praising those who do not sin. But let us see whether perhaps Paul, even when he seems to be teaching moral matters, does not fail always to insert something also about the mysteries. For indeed, knowing that all who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law — and that in the judgment that law will without doubt convict each one according to how he lived (and we have shown that the Holy Spirit in many things has given place to human law) — it is therefore certain that in the day of judgment he too will have praise with God even from these laws, who has committed nothing against the established laws, when it will be said to him by the Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things." Yet it must be known that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust and the insubordinate, for the wicked, for murderers, for the defiled, for perjurers, and for the rest who are of this sort. For these are they who fear the law. But he who does good, that is, who does what is good not from fear of the law but from love of the good, that man now lives not under the law of the letter, but under the law of the spirit.
[§29] "Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience. For on this account you also pay tributes. For they are God's ministers, attending upon this very thing." By these words Paul indeed orders the Church of God, that, doing nothing adverse to the princes and powers of this world, it may through quiet and tranquillity of life carry out the work of righteousness and piety. For if we were to suppose, for example, that those believing in Christ were not subject to the powers of this world, did not render tributes, nor pay customs, showed fear to none, honor to none, would they not by these things deservedly turn the arms of rulers and princes against themselves, and make their persecutors excusable, but themselves blameworthy? For they would then seem to be assailed not for the cause of faith, but of insolence; and there would be for them indeed a worthy cause of death, but an unworthy merit of death. Foreseeing these things, then, through his immense wisdom, Paul says: "Render to all what is due: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor. Owe no one anything, save that you love one another." I think, however, that these things too Paul does not utter apart from the customary mysteries of his discourses. For indeed we have already taught in the foregoing that every creature, and all spirits, whether good and upright, or even of a depraved and evil purpose, minister to God, and that each one furnishes that ministry for which he has shown himself fit. For the Apostle pronounced concerning all of them together when he said: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth for ministry on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation?" All spirits, therefore, minister to the life of men; each one, however, as we have said, according to his own dignity and desert: for those also are called ministers by whose ministry the things that pertain to the world are accomplished. Whence the Apostle also, who had said of himself, "the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," says this as well: "But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God." But he who is still of the world, and savors the things that are of the world, and seeks the things that are of the flesh, is necessarily subject to the ministers of the world; subject, moreover, because of wrath, which he has treasured up for himself from his sins. And on this account it seems to me that he says: "Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience"; since he who is made subject has in himself that for which he is accused by conscience. To these, therefore, we also pay certain tributes, while we still live according to the flesh and think the things that are of the flesh. For if we cultivate the Lord's vineyard, and exercise within ourselves the true vine, which is Christ, from that vineyard we shall not pay tributes to the ministers of the world, but shall render the fruits in their season to the Lord Himself: according to what the Savior Himself says in the Gospels, that He will take away the vineyard from the evil husbandmen, and will give it to other husbandmen who will render Him the fruits in their season. But this very thing also which he says: "Render to all what is due: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom" — seems to me to be distinguished from what is added in what follows, "to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor": and that tributes and customs indeed pertain to those ministers of whom we spoke above. For they exact from us the tributes of our land, and the customs of our trading. And why do I speak of ourselves? Even our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was placed in the flesh, had tribute exacted of Him: which He says that He pays for this reason, not because He is a debtor, but lest He should give them offense. But if He who had nothing of Caesar's in Himself, and in whom the prince of this world, when he came, found nothing of his own, although He was free, nevertheless paid tribute (for He came even into death, that He might be free also among the dead) — how much more is it necessary for us to pay out these tributes of the flesh, and, if indeed we trade in the pearls of the kingdom of heaven, to pay the customs of our trading to the spirits who exact them from us through diverse temptations? But fear and honor we ought rather to refer to Him who says through the prophet: "Do you not call me both Lord and Father? And if I am Lord, where is my fear? and if I am Father, where is my honor?" As for the latter things which he added, that is, "Owe no one anything," it is certain that these are to be referred to the ministers, to whom a man becomes a debtor when he has sinned. For we have shown in many places and frequently that sin is a debt. Paul wishes, therefore, that every debt of sin be paid, and that the debt of sin remain with us not at all, but that the debt of charity abide and never cease from us: for it is expedient for us both to pay this daily, and always to owe it.
[§31] Finally, he sets forth in what follows how great is the power of charity. For he who loves his neighbor, he says, has fulfilled the law. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up again in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And at the last, gathering up briefly the reason for so great a good, he says: The love of one's neighbor works no evil; therefore love is the fullness of the law. Above he had said that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law; and because it seemed difficult how anyone could fulfill the whole law in a single utterance, he renders the fullest account, saying: The love of one's neighbor works no evil, and therefore love is the fullness of the law. For set love alongside each single commandment of the law, and see how easily they are all fulfilled. Can he who loves his neighbor possibly kill him? It is certain that no one kills the person he loves. Love, then, is that by which the commandment is fulfilled which enjoins: You shall not kill. And again, does he who loves his neighbor commit adultery with his wife? Assuredly never. If, therefore, you love your neighbor, neither will you commit adultery. Likewise too, he who loves his neighbor does not steal what belongs to him; and he who loves his neighbor does not speak false witness against him. Likewise the remaining commandments of the law also, if there be love toward one's neighbor, are kept without any labor. Yet I think that in this too the Apostle wished us to learn something by a shorter road. For if you inquire more diligently who our neighbor is, you will learn in the Gospel that he is our neighbor who came, and, when we lay wounded by robbers and stripped bare by demons, set us upon the beast of his own body, and carried us to the inn of the Church, and granted to the innkeeper (whether to Paul himself, or to everyone who presides over the Church) the two denarii of the New and Old Testament for the expenses of our care and attendance. If, then, we love this neighbor, we fulfill the whole law and all the commandments in love of him. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes; nor can it come about by any means that one who loves Christ with his whole heart and with all his inward parts should do anything that does not please Christ. For he who loves him not only does not kill him, which the law forbids, but does not even grow angry with his brother. He who so delights in the one he loves not only does not commit adultery, but does not even look upon a woman to lust after her; but says rather to him: My soul covets and faints for the living God. He who loves Christ, how should he think about theft, who even leaves behind all his own possessions, whatever he has, in order to follow Christ? He who loves Christ, when does he speak false witness, since he knows that the very one whom he loves was betrayed by false witness? And necessarily he who loves Christ also loves his neighbor. For by this sign alone is one marked out as a disciple of Christ, if he has charity toward his neighbors. For it is certain that he who does not love his neighbor does not know Christ.
[§32] And this, knowing the time, that it is now the hour to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night has gone before, but the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; let us walk honorably, as in the day. When, after those discussions which the Apostle pursued concerning either the Gentiles or the Jews, he had also introduced the moral topic, by which he might more and more urge his hearers toward conversion, he now introduces as well the pressing consideration of time, which in all matters is supreme. For no one is so drowsy and sluggish that the brightness of the oncoming day does not rouse him, and whose sight the sun, poured into his eyes, does not open. There is, then, a certain sleep of the soul as well. For if it has, as we have often already said, its own proper eyes, and its own ears, and hands and feet — each of which is to be reckoned not so much as bodily members belonging to it, as powers by which it is moved and stirred toward each several thing — then without doubt sleep also befalls it in respect of its eyes. For if it does not do at the opportune time the things that are God's, but grows torpid with idleness, it will deservedly be said to sleep. For this reason, therefore, Paul, the herald of Christ, going about a world set in the sleep of idleness, announces that the light is now at hand, and that it is time to rise from sleep; and that the night — that is, that time in which ignorance held dominion over men — has gone before, and that, with the coming of the Sun of righteousness drawing near and the darkness thinning out, the day of knowledge is now imminent; and therefore he cries out that one must awake, lest through sloth anyone suffer night in the daylight; and that the works of darkness must be cast off, and the armor of light put on. The works of darkness are those acts which are alien from God; the armor of light, however, is the taking up of the virtues. And just as we have said that it is disgraceful to sleep when day is already pressing upon us, much more disgraceful is it to carry out the works of darkness in the time of day and light. But it must be known that the coming of this light and day is to be understood in a twofold manner: both as general for all, and as particular for each individual. The light and day will be present generally for all when the time of the age to come has arrived: in comparison with which the span of this present world is called darkness. That time draws near as the days daily slip away, and the spans which are increased for the past are without doubt diminished for the future; and therefore, he says, our salvation is now nearer than when we believed, and daily it becomes nearer — just as the Lord also, when he was distinguishing the signs of the consummation of the age, said: But when you see all these things, lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. But there also comes about a coming of this day for individuals. For if Christ is in our heart, he makes day for us also: if the reasoning of knowledge puts our ignorances to flight, and, turning aside from unworthy acts, we pursue whatever is devout and honorable, we are set in the light, and, as it were, we walk honorably in the day.
[§33] What the works of darkness are which must be cast off, he next enumerates, saying: Not in revelings and drunkenness; not in chamberings and impurities; not in strife and envy. These are the works of darkness, which are also called the works of the flesh, in those who have made over their flesh to wantonness and impurity, not to holiness nor to the Lord. For revelings — that is, disgraceful and luxurious banquets, whose necessary companion is the most shameful drunkenness — what else will follow upon them, save chamberings and impurities? From foul couchings they are named "chamberings," things which seem to befit not so much rational human beings as wild beasts and brutes. Not in strife and envy. Those things which he named above are vices of the flesh; these now are also of the soul — although all alike are called works of the flesh and works of darkness, because in truth strife and envy are in the souls of those who live according to the flesh and who walk in darkness. But he who is in the light, and walks honorably as in the day, does nothing through strife, nothing through vainglory. In this way, then, does one cast off (as he said above) the works of darkness.
[§34] But as for what he said, Let us put on the armor of light, he now explains how this ought to come about. But put on, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. We have frequently said that Christ is wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and truth, and all the virtues together: and whoever has taken these up is said to have put on Christ. For if Christ is all these things, then necessarily he who has these has Christ also. For he who has these makes no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. The Apostle employs his customary moderation, in that he does not deny that provision for the flesh is to be made in every respect. For it is certain that in things necessary it must be made; but in delicacies and luxury and every concupiscence it must be utterly excluded.
[§35] Now him that is weak in faith receive, not in disputes over thoughts. For one believes that he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. In the passages above too the Apostle made mention of weakness of faith, where he says of Abraham: When he was nearly a hundred years old, he was not weakened in faith. Concerning that weakness of faith we have set forth, in those places, such things as could occur to us. But now also he makes mention of one weak in faith, whom he calls weak in this respect, that he does not believe he may eat all things, but his faith is so slight that he reckons vegetables alone to be food suitable for him. This can indeed seem to have been said to those who believed from among the Gentiles, exalting themselves in the liberty of faith because they believed nothing to be common or unclean, over against those who believed from the circumcision, still observing according to the tradition of the law a distinction of foods: so that he may seem to restrain them and to warn them not to insult those in whom long custom in the observance of foods still stirred some discrimination and hesitation. He commands, therefore, that he who is thus weak in this faith should rather be received, and not cast off, nor judged as though unbelieving. For it is one thing to be unbelieving, another to be weak in faith. For he is called unbelieving who does not have faith; but weak in faith is he who doubts in some part of the faith.
[§36] The Apostle, therefore, composing the body of the Church in peace, says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you that judge another's servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls: but he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand — namely, so that through these words there should be no dissension among believers on account of foods. But Paul seems to have spoken these things with a deeper meaning. For the law had enjoined nothing about eating vegetables upon those coming from the circumcision, such that what he says would seem to fit them: But he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Whence it is evident that he is treating these matters concerning the food of the word, and calls weak in faith the one who is not so perfect in his faculties that he can take all the food of the word of God — just as the Apostle himself says elsewhere: But solid food is for the perfect, for those who, according to their capacity for taking it, have their faculties exercised for the discernment of good and evil. And again he says to others: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able. And shall we be so foolish as to suppose that the Apostle, who was sent to preach the word of God, carried milk about with him to give the Corinthians to drink? But it is manifest that he is speaking of these things with respect to the quality of the word, and therefore says: If anyone is weaker in his faculties, and is not of so perfect a faith as to grasp the word concerning the more hidden mysteries, disputes of thoughts must not be stirred up for him through those things which he cannot understand. For one, he says, believes that he may eat all things. Paul is not by these words exhorting the disciples to eat all things; nor is he a teacher of gluttony and the gullet: but he is doubtless speaking of those whose faith is perfect, and who are hindered by no distinctions in the word of God — those whom the same Apostle elsewhere calls spiritual, when he says: But the spiritual man examines all things. It is he, then, of whom he here says: But another believes that he may eat all things. Finally, to the apostles also, before they received the Holy Spirit, it was said by the Lord: I have yet many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now. But the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, will come, and he himself will teach you all things. These, then, are the "all things" which he believes he may eat who, by reason of the perfection of his faith, has through the grace of the Holy Spirit become capable of the more hidden word. Yet the weak man too has something to take from the word of God, and there is a certain kind of word which the Apostle here has called "vegetables," which does not render the hearer's faculties so robust and strong as it sustains them and keeps them from perishing. For in many places divine Scripture speaks of the inner senses of the soul as though of the outward members of the body; and as we have often taught that the inner man is said either to see, or to hear, or to walk, so now too this same inner man is said either to be able to take in every food if he is perfect, or, if he is weak, to eat vegetables. But in order that he may compose the concord in the Church of the perfect and the imperfect — as of the less honorable and the honorable members in the body — and that there may be no dissension among them, he says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats. This is what he says elsewhere too: That the eye cannot say to the hand, You are not necessary to me; nor the head to the feet, I do not need your service. But much more those members of the body which seem to be less honorable are necessary. And so to those whose faith is such that they can eat all things, and grasp every kind of the word, he gives the precept that they not be proud and despise those who are inferior; and again to those who are incapable of the more perfect teaching he gives the charge that they not judge those whose faculties are more capacious and whose understanding is more eminent. For by a perverse order the unskilled are wont to judge the skilled, and the slothful the studious. Sometimes, however, even those who have grasped some beginnings of knowledge are puffed up and exalt themselves against those who seem to be less capable. Therefore Paul, restraining by the rebuke of apostolic authority the insolence of both parties, says: Who are you that judge another's servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls. When he says stands, or falls, he speaks according to the mind of the one whom he rebukes. For the more unskilled man, if he sees someone perceiving something more profoundly and in a way he himself cannot grasp, judges that this man has fallen from the standing of faith; and again those who are puffed up by knowledge, and do not act with charity as Paul admonishes, think similarly about any who are less skilled: and therefore he took away from a brother the power of judging a brother. And he says another's servant well, because the Lord says: But you are all brothers. All — that is, the whole creation — and there is one sole Lord, Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, rich toward all. At the same time he also makes manifest the ineffable goodness of God, when he says of him who seems to have fallen, even if he has truly fallen, that God is able to make him stand. For the Lord raises up those who have been cast down.
[§37] One judges between one day and another; another judges every day. Let each one abound in his own sense. We said above, following the sequence of the apostolic letter, that these matters seem to be treated concerning abstinence from foods, or liberty in them: since indeed the calling which is in Christ places nothing common or unclean in foods, but the principle of continence persuades us to abstain even from things permitted. For, as he himself says elsewhere, because all things are lawful, it does not therefore follow that all things are expedient, or that all things edify. Yet the very principle of abstinence differs according to the vow and purpose of the one vowing. For one judges thus, and so determines in his own mind, that he should spend every day, that is, the continuous time of his life, in abstinence. But another appoints some particular time, as by a votive profession. In this matter, whether one undertakes a perpetual or a temporary continence, he grants free power to the judgment of each. Nevertheless he promises that both are made acceptable before the Lord, and therefore he adds:
[§38] He who is wise concerning the day, is wise for the Lord; and he who eats, eats for the Lord: for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord does not eat, and gives thanks to God. Thanks therefore are rendered to God by both: by the one indeed for the fruit of continence; by the other for the liberty of eating. But since, as we have shown in what preceded, a deeper sense of the Apostle is found than the account of carnal foods contains, in the spiritual exposition, according to those things which we discussed above concerning those of whom one judges every day, but another judges between one day and another, we can understand this: that in the divine Scriptures each single chapter in which a doctrine of piety and faith is contained is called a day. For truly that is a day which illuminates the mind, which puts to flight the darkness of ignorance, which has in itself Christ, who is the sun of righteousness. If therefore there be anyone who so expends labor and zeal upon the divine letters that he examines and judges every day and every sense of divine Scripture, so that not one iota or one tittle of the law escapes him, this man will be seen to judge every day. But he who is not of such great capacity will grasp alternate ones, that is, a few senses out of many, which, if they do not suffice for the fullness of knowledge, are yet certainly enough for the sum of faith. Let each therefore, according to the apostolic counsel, give thanks to God: he who is wise concerning every day, and who eats all things, that is, who recognizes and understands all things; and he also who, although he does not eat all things, and does not grasp the understanding of all matters, is nevertheless saved by a brief confession of faith. And therefore even the one who does not eat all things, nor take in the knowledge of all things, is nevertheless himself also said to give thanks to God.
[§39] For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; whether therefore we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. What it is to live in Christ, and what it is to die in Christ, has often been said by us in the exposition of this Epistle, and especially in that place where we attempted to explain the saying of the Apostle in which he says: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If therefore we remember what was said in that place, from those very things the present saying of the Apostle set before us will become plainer and clearer — how none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For each one does not give to himself, but takes from Christ the example of death — he who alone died to sin — so that he too, by imitation of him, may be able to be made a stranger to sin and dead to it. But we do not have the example of life from ourselves either; rather we receive it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Therefore the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is reckoned to the Lord, because it takes its beginning not from us but from him; and therefore: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For he calls that death by which, buried together with Christ, as we said, and baptized into his death, we have died to sin; and that life by which, made strangers to this world, and, as he himself says, living from the dead, we live not to ourselves, that is, not to the flesh, but to God, according to what he joins in what follows. For to this end, he says, Christ died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. He says that Christ died, without doubt by the dispensation of the passion; but that he lived, through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence he left us also the example first of passion and mortification, and afterward also of resurrection and newness of life. But perhaps it may trouble someone that the Apostle says he died and lived for this reason, that he might have dominion over the dead and the living; as though he had given this to be understood, that unless he had died, he would not have had dominion over the dead; and unless after death he had lived again, he would not have held dominion over the living. But to these things I think we must reply as follows. Christ's dominion over every creature is established in two ways. In one, by which, as Creator of all and wielding power over all things, he holds all things subject by the force of his majesty and the necessity of his power; and by this mode he has dominion not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over the wicked and the apostate, and over those whom divine Scripture has called malignant angels. For it is on this account that he is called all-holding, or almighty, according to what John designates in the Apocalypse, saying: These things says he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This then is one mode by which Christ has dominion over all. But there is another, by which, as one who is good and the Son of a good Father, he does not wish to bend rational spirits by violence to the obedience of his law, but waits until they come of their own accord, so that they may seek the good by will and not by necessity, and so that he may persuade by teaching rather than by commanding, by inviting rather than by extorting. From this, finally, it comes that he deigns to go even to death, that he may leave an example of obedience, and a pattern of dying, to those who are willing to die to sin and to vices. And for this reason in the present passage the Apostle writes that he died and lived for this end, that he might have dominion over both the living and the dead: over the living, assuredly those who by the example of his resurrection lead a new and heavenly life on earth; over the dead, without doubt those who carry about the mortification of Christ in their own body, and mortify their members which are upon the earth.
[§40] But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ's resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: 41. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might become better known to men, the form of judging has been taken from the things that are transacted among men — so that, namely, we might know that, just as that earthly judge ascends a certain loftier place which is called a tribunal, in order that from it he may be higher and more eminent than the rest who are to be judged, lest either the punishments of the guilty or the pleas of the innocent escape his sight; so we may understand that Christ also, the judge of all, eminent above all in nature and majesty, looks into the hearts and consciences of individuals, brings hidden things to light and reveals what is covered, so that he may both bestow praise on good deeds and that the wicked may receive the punishment they deserve. But if the future judgment of God awaits us — and such a judgment in which not only will each one receive according to his deeds, but will also render an account for every idle word, according to the Lord's sentence — evil thoughts too will be confuted, with conscience convicting them, and in all things each one of us will render an account for himself to God. Therefore, he says, let us no longer judge one another, as he also says elsewhere: And so do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then there will be praise for each one from God. For our heart will be laid bare, as I think, to every rational creature, and the hidden things will be revealed, or even made manifest. For there is a difference. For those things which are revealed seem to pertain to the wicked, of whom it is said: For it shall be revealed in fire; but those which are made manifest, to the good; and therefore it is said: For everything that is made manifest is light. And, like certain written books, or engraved tablets containing the letters of our deeds and thoughts, they will be read over by every rational creature, as we have said. And this is what I think is indicated through Daniel where he says: And the books were opened — those, namely, which are now folded up and covered over in the heart, containing indeed the records of what we do, and furrowed with certain marks of conscience, yet known to none but God alone. These books, then, of our soul, or these pages of our heart, will be opened in the sight of the flaming throne and of the wheels of burning fire, and of the fiery river running before the Ancient of days. The angels will see and even read these things, and those thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand thousands of ministering angels; and thus, of our crimes — in which now we are ashamed to endure even a single witness — we shall then endure innumerable throngs of heavenly powers as witnesses. But since Paul says that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, and since he associates himself with those who will stand before the judgment seat of God, who is there who would so deceive and delude himself as to suppose that he will not come to the judgment of Christ and to the tribunal of his examination, or suppose that he will not be made manifest in those things which he has committed, whether rightly or less rightly? But as to the fact that in the present passage he set down the judgment seat of God, while to the Corinthians the judgment seat of Christ, I for my part think there is no difference to prevent one and the same tribunal being named both the tribunal of Christ and the tribunal of God, according to what the Savior himself says in the Gospel: All things that the Father has are mine; and again: Father, all mine are yours, and yours mine. If, however, anyone thinks — since in Paul's discourses there is not even an idle syllable in his writings — that the reasons for this variation must be sought out, he will perhaps be able to say something of this sort: The name of Christ, so far as pertains to the proper meaning of the appellation itself, is an indication of the Word set in the flesh and reconciling the world to God, as the same Paul also says, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; but the intervals of this reconciliation are stretched out and made longer by the delay of our conversion and the negligence of our amendment; and until he brings to nothing all principalities and powers, and puts all enemies under his feet, and destroys the last enemy, death, he must so reign as to carry out the mystery of the dispensation undertaken in the flesh, and to make the good manifest, while the culpable receive each one according to his works; but when he shall have handed over the kingdom to God and the Father — that is, when he shall have offered to God all who are converted and amended, and shall have fulfilled entirely the mystery of the reconciliation of the world — then, he says, all stand before the judgment seat of God, so that this which follows may be fulfilled: As I live, says the Lord, that every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Now every creature will bend the knee to God in the name of Jesus, through whom it has been reconciled to him, according to what the same Apostle says, that in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things heavenly, things earthly, and things under the earth. The bending of the knee, indeed, and every tongue confessing to God, the Apostle has taken over from the words of the prophet Isaiah. This, however, is not to be understood in a fleshly way, as though we should suppose that even the heavenly beings, which he says bend the knee, are believed to do this with fleshly limbs — for instance, that the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or even the angels, and whatever things there are that are named heavenly, should be thought to adore with bodily knees bent, or even to be thought to confess God with a fleshly tongue and with such a member as we men speak with — beings of whom it is said that they are spirit and fire, according to what the Prophet says: Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire. And what knees shall be believed to exist in spirits? Or what tongue shall be looked for in the form of fire? Rather, "to bend the knee" declares that all things are made subject and obey the worship of God. Something further moves me out of those things which we took up from the Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: That each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil — namely, whether it is because in all men it is necessary that there be something of good and something of evil, and that no one is found among the good who has not had something of evil also, or again anyone among the evil who has not had something of good also, on account of the Scripture which says: For an incorruptible spirit is in men — whether for this reason he said that each one should receive both good things for his good deeds and evil things for his evil ones; or whether he calls those good to whom nothing evil is to be ascribed, and those evil to whom nothing at all of good is owed. But if we suppose this latter, we shall seem to go against evident reason. For no one, as I have said, will be found so good that there is not something of evil implanted in him, as seems very easily to be gathered from the examples of many saints; and again there is no one among the worst — even if Judas himself be set forth, who was impious beyond all impiety — who does not seem to have had something of good even he. For, to pass over those things which he did while placed among the apostles as one of them (although even there evils were already mingled with his goods, for he was greedy of money), nevertheless this very thing, that led by repentance he carried back the thirty pieces of silver to the priests and said: I have sinned in betraying righteous blood, was something of good. From all of which it seems to me that, since one and the same person cannot simultaneously receive both good things and evil (for no one can at the same time be sent both into paradise, or into the kingdoms of the heavens, and into hell), only in those in whom evils greatly preponderate is no account taken of the good; and in those in whom good things preponderate, and in whom the repentance of conversion has abolished the traces of evils, no account is taken of the evil. But that we may return to the end and conclusion of the chapter set before us: since, he says, so great is the truth of judgment with God and with his Christ, so great the searching out of the future examination — therefore, he says, let us no more judge one another. But judge this rather, that you place not an occasion of stumbling before a brother, or a scandal. "Judge this," that is, determine this, that you do not by the observance of foods generate offenses or scandals for your brothers. Concerning offense or scandal we have already said above that a scandal is when in the road along which one is walking something is found placed in the way, against which the feet of those climbing or walking strike. This, then, is what those suffer who have lately entered upon the way of faith: they are offended by the contentions, or the negligences, or the contempt and arrogance of those who came before them, and, struck back by their examples, are turned away from the faith.
[§42] I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself, except to him who reckons anything to be common — to him it is common. For if because of food your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking according to charity. Do not by your food destroy him for whom Christ died. We have said elsewhere also that in the holy Scriptures, by a kind of vernacular appellation, whatever is not holy or clean is called "common"; which appellation, however, is more frequently found in the New Testament, whereas in the Old I do not recall that it is anywhere so named — as in the Gospel the Savior says, that from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, fornications, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies: and these are the things that make a man common. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man common. Although in some Latin copies they have put "defile" instead of "make common," and although the force is the same, nevertheless the proper sense of the word is "make common." But also in the Acts of the Apostles the Lord says to Peter: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. I think, therefore, that the use of this expression was taken from this: that, for example, the vessels set apart for the ministry of the temple were without doubt called vessels of the Lord, while by distinction from these the remaining vessels were called common; so also, by distinction of foods, from those which Scripture set apart as clean and to be eaten according to the law, all the rest were called common. But the Jews, not knowing the force of the word, whence a man was called common whom they called common, held to the use of the expression without understanding of its meaning. For the foods which God created, whether taken in ignorance or in simplicity, could not make a man common and unclean; but that mind of man which is set apart for God alone is rightly called clean; whereas that which is alien from God, since it is possessed not by one unclean spirit but by many, for that reason such a man is called common, as being the slave of many vices or of many demons, according to him who, when asked, What is your name? answered, Legion: for we are many; and according to that which is said by the Savior, that when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about dry places seeking rest, and not finding it he returns; and finding the house empty and swept with brooms, he takes with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And without doubt such a man is called common, having plainly been made the slave of all those malignant spirits which dwell in him. Rightly, therefore, Paul, knowing that this is the reason of this expression, says: I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself. For nothing among the creatures of God is unclean by its own nature (for it is established that all things created by the good God are good and clean); but, he says, to him who reckons anything to be common, to him it is common; that is, to him who with the intention of his heart thinks something unclean and admits the observance of distinctions, as he also says in what follows: But he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned; because it is not of faith. For everything that is not of faith is sin. Nor yet in these words did he exclude the distinction of the law, so as to say absolutely that nothing is common or unclean among those things which the law defined as unclean. For he set down beforehand the reason why nothing is called common through itself. I know, he says, and am confident in the Lord Jesus. In the Lord Jesus, therefore, . . . this by its own nature [ . . . ] nothing is common through itself, it is said; but to him, he says, who reckons, and who thinks something to be common, to him it is common. And do not wonder that the thought of the mind makes polluted a food which by its own nature is not common or polluted, when on the contrary simplicity of mind, with no scrupulosity of thought injected, absolves from all suspicion of contamination a food that is truly polluted (for that is truly polluted which is sacrificed to idols). And again, even if the food be clean, yet if someone suffers a suspicion that it has been sacrificed to idols, it is said to be polluted on account of the scruple of conscience. For if because of food your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking according to charity. Do not by your food destroy him for whom Christ died. When he had determined by apostolic teaching that through the Lord Jesus nothing is to be thought common or unclean by its own nature, and had granted to all the faithful the most complete liberty with regard to the use of foods, he again cuts back the license of that liberty for the building up of brotherly love, and says: Even if nothing is common, and the use of all foods is freely permitted, nevertheless if, because of a food which you think may lawfully be taken, you scandalize your brother, who is not yet capable of this knowledge, you are no longer walking according to charity, nor do you show in yourself the affection of brotherly love. For what harm do you suffer if, in order not to grieve your brother, you abstain even from what is lawful? For to abstain from lawful things is no crime for you; but for him, in matters where he discerns and thinks it not lawful, the use is condemnable. For he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned. But if you do this, you assuredly destroy your brother for whom Christ died, and you procure for him the causes of destruction. And more magnificently the same Paul, writing to the Colossians, says about these matters: Let no one therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of new moons, or of a Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no one seduce you, willing it in humility of heart and religion of angels, exalting himself in what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head; and a little later: If therefore you are dead with Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living in this world, do you decree: Touch not, taste not, handle not — which things are all unto corruption by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men: which things have indeed a show of wisdom in the observance of religion, and in humility through the affliction of the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh. To discuss these things one by one is not the business of the present work; for it is those things which the Apostle writes to the Romans that we are now attempting to expound. This, however, is what is asserted by the present example also: that we should not be judged by anyone in food, or in drink, or in observances of this kind, which among the Jews is thought to be as it were a religion of angels. For they exalt themselves in the things that are seen, and are puffed up about visible things. Yet this elation is not according to the wisdom of the spirit, but according to the sense of the flesh. But it was not concerning fleshly things that the precept was given: Touch not, handle not, taste not. For all these things, that is, fleshly things, have been given for this corruptible use; and what observance of purity can there be in corruption? But whereas the law prescribes these things concerning rational realities, which, if they are unclean, are truly not to be touched nor tasted, lest they make us partakers of their sin and uncleanness, they, forsaking the precepts and doctrines of men, transferred this spiritual sense to these fleshly and bodily things, which have a show of wisdom in the observance of religion and in humility of the body — yet not so that on the occasion of such observance some honor among men and the delights of the flesh should be sought after, while in place of the abstinence of a few, many and choice foods are required. But true observance is where food is so taken, and all things are so done, that it may not be said of such persons: Whose God is their belly. For it is fitting to abstain from every food which concupiscence and lust presumes upon, which delicacies prepare, which luxury devises. For we must look not only to what kind of food we use, but also to how much, and at what time, and how sparingly. For thus all things become clean to clean minds; but to the contaminated, as the Apostle says, and to unbelievers nothing is clean. In which he shows that even those things which among the Jews are named clean in the matter of foods cannot be clean to a man if he is contaminated and unbelieving. It will follow, therefore, that if the things which are clean are made unclean to the contaminated, so also the things which are called unclean become clean to the holy and the faithful. For they are sanctified through the word of God and prayer, because every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away which is received with thanksgiving. And they are sanctified by the prayer not of just anyone, but of those who lift up pure hands without anger and disputing. But do you wish to be taught still more magnificently concerning clean and unclean things, that they are spoken of not concerning bodies but concerning souls and minds? Hear the judgment of the Lord and Savior himself in the Gospel, saying: Not the things which enter into the mouth make a man common, but the things which proceed out of the mouth; since from within, out of the heart, come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, and the rest. It is therefore the thought and the mind not rightly disposed that pollutes a man, not the quality of foods, which, of whatever sort it may be, will fulfill the use of corruption by one and the same outcome. And it is no wonder if a holy man sanctifies by the word of God and by prayer the food which he takes, when even the very garments with which he is clothed are holy. Paul's handkerchiefs, in fine, and his aprons had received so much from the purity of his sanctification that, when applied to sick bodies, they put diseases to flight and restored health. For what shall I say of Peter, whose very bodily shadow carried so much sanctification that whomever, as he passed by, not he himself but his shadow alone had touched, they were straightway relieved of every sickness? But we have digressed a little too widely in discussing clean and common foods, in order that we might consider, as far as is possible, the more exalted meaning of the Apostle. But mindful of the brevity we proposed, having here made the conclusion of the ninth volume, let us approach the beginning of the tenth, which is also the last.