1 Timothy 5:22–6:11

If the church partakes of the sins which were forbidden by the apostle, then it must be considered to consent to them.

The apostle writes to Timothy: "Practice self-control." It's a command; it's an order; it has to be listened to; it has to be carried out. But unless God comes to our help, we get stuck. We try, indeed, to do it by willpower, and the will makes some effort. It shouldn't, though, rely on its ability unless it is assisted in its debility.

But I hear that some infect your number, and destroy the praise of a distinguished name by their corrupt conversation; whom you yourselves, even as being lovers and guardians of your own praise, should rebuke and check and correct. For what a disgrace is suffered by your name, when one spends his days in intoxication and debauchery, another returns to that country whence he was banished, to perish when arrested, not now as being a Christian, but as being a criminal!

What does Paul say? If one who I have ordained has sinned, do I share his blame and punishment? Yes, says he. One who authorizes evil is blameworthy. It is just as in the case of any one entrusting into the hands of a raging and insane person a sharply pointed sword, with which the madman commits murder, that one who gave the sword incurs the blame. So anyone that gives the authority that arises from this office to a man living in evil, draws down on his own head all the fire of that man's sins and audacity.

"Lay hands," he says, "suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins." What is "suddenly"? Not upon a first, nor a second, nor a third trial, but after frequent and strict examination and circumspection. For it is an affair of no common peril. For thou wilt be responsible for the sins committed by him, as well his past as his future sins, because thou hast delegated to him this power. For if thou overlook the past unduly, thou art answerable for the future also, as being the cause of them, by placing him in that station, and of the past too, for not leaving him to mourn over them, and to be in compunction. For as thou art a partaker of his good actions, so art thou of his sins.

"Keep thyself pure." This he says with reference to chastity.

For the peace and order of the Lord's whole household will be shaken, if what is required in the body be not found in the head. What is it to lay on hands hastily but to confer the priestly dignity on unproved men before the proper age, before there has been time to test them?

Do not quickly lay hands on anyone, nor share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

And Paul discusses the matter of selecting for ordinations. For he wrote to a bishop. And he says, do not quickly, for example, not from the first or second thoughts, but after examining many times and thoroughly.

nor share in the sins of others. That is, appointing a bishop that is unworthy of the people.

Keep yourself pure. Paul commands Timothy concerning self-control. But if a man so exhausts himself with fasting and drinking water that he even falls ill from it, what ought we to do, or how should we observe this?

And the man who put on Christ, who is the Christ of all of us no less; for he, in writing to his dearly-beloved son Timothy, says: "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins."

Baptism is not rashly to be administered.… Similarly, this precept is rather to be looked at carefully.… "Lay not hands easily on any; share not other men's sins."

On the contrary, this precept is rather to be looked at carefully: "Give not the holy thing to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine; " and, "Lay not hands easily on any; share not other men's sins." If Philip so "easily" baptized the chamberlain, let us reflect that a manifest and conspicuous evidence that the Lord deemed him worthy had been interposed.

Again to Timotheus: "Lay hands on no one hastily, nor communicate with others' sins." Again to the Ephesians: "Be not, then, partners with them: for ye were at one time darkness.

The Apostle has come also to the most important matter, by which the church is chiefly sustained, that is, to ordination, and says: "do not lay hands hastily," that is, not after the first or third examination, but after repeated and thorough investigation, since this matter is not without danger. And in what way? – Listen.

Since you are the cause of what he will do in the future, you therefore become a participant in both his good deeds and his sinful ones. But you are also guilty of his former sins, because you disregarded them and made darkness into light, and did not allow him to bewail them and come to a state of contrition.

Here he gives him a lesson on chastity.

Then when he says, do not impose hands lightly upon any man, he treats about promotions; and this seems to be a reason for his previous advice. For just as he must not be quick to punish, so he must not be quick to promote, i.e., ordain to sacred orders speedily: let these also first be proved (1 Tim 3:10): gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom you know to be ancients and masters of the people (Num 11:16). As if to say: those whom you are certain to be worthy.

And why? Neither be partaker of other men's sins, because if you ordain indiscriminately, and as a result, they sin with themselves or among the people, you will be held responsible. Or he becomes a partaker of other men's sins who does not correct when he is able: not only that they do them, but they also who consent to them (Rom 1:32); touch no unclean thing (Isa 52:11).

Then when he says, keep yourself chaste, he shows how he must behave toward himself. And this is good advice because it sometimes happens that a person spends so much time with others that he neglects himself:

first, therefore, he exhorts himself to chastity;

second, he strives to moderate his abstinence, at do not still drink water.

He says, therefore: you who are obliged to correct others, keep yourself chaste: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor 9:27). Timothy, of course, was an extremely abstemious man who afflicted his body to avoid sins of the flesh: I have thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine that I might turn my mind to wisdom and might avoid folly (Eccl 2:3).

And is not temperance in harmony with nature and that divine law which in the beginning of all things gave the springs for drink and the fruits of trees for food? After the flood, the just man found wine a source of temptation to him. Let us, then, use the natural food of temperance, and would that we all could do so! But, because not all are strong, the apostle therefore says, "Use a little wine for your frequent infirmities." We must drink it not for our pleasure but for our infirmity, sparingly as a remedy, not excessively as a gratification.

Because of the necessary activities of this life, health is not to be despised until "this mortal shall put on immortality," and that is the true and perfect and unending health which is not refreshed by corruptible pleasure when it fails through earthly weakness but is maintained by heavenly strength and made young by eternal incorruptibility. The apostle himself says, "Make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence," because our care of the flesh must be in view of the exigencies of salvation. "For no man ever hated his own flesh."

Thus, many Christians do not eat meat, yet they do not superstitiously consider it unclean. And the same individuals who abstain when healthy take meat without qualm when sick, if it be required as a cure. Many do not drink wine. Nevertheless, they do not think it would defile them. In fact, they show great sympathy and good judgment in seeing that it is provided for those who tend to be listless and for all who cannot maintain bodily health without it.

In vain do certain ones flatter themselves with the example of Paul, who urged his disciple not to drink water but to use a little wine on account of his stomach and his frequent infirmities (1 Tim 5:23). They ought to attend first indeed that the Apostle by no means urged a thing of this kind upon himself, nor did the disciple equally demand it for himself. Then that this was intimated not to a monk, but to a bishop, whose life was absolutely necessary to the still tender and newborn Church. This was Timothy. Give me another Timothy; and I will feed him, if you wish, even with gold, and give him balsam to drink. But you dispense to yourself, having pity on yourself. Your own dispensation toward yourself is suspect to me, I confess; and I fear that you are being deceived under the cover and name of discretion by the prudence of the flesh. I want you at least to be advised of this, that if the authority of the Apostle so pleases you regarding drinking wine, do not omit the "little" which he added.

"Use a little wine," says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, "for thy stomach's sake;" most properly applying its aid as a strengthening tonic suitable to a sickly body enfeebled with watery humours; and specifying "a little," lest the remedy should, on account of its quantity, unobserved, create the necessity of other treatment.

I fancy that it is the experience of most doctors that giving any alcohol for illness (though often necessary) is about the most morally dangerous way of giving it. Instead of giving it to a healthy person who has many other forms of life, you are giving it to a desperate person, to whom it is the only form of life. The invalid can hardly be blamed if by some accident of his erratic and overwrought condition he comes to remember the thing as the very water of vitality and to use it as such.

Notice the reasons why wine is allowed: it is to cure pain in the stomach and to relieve a frequent infirmity and hardly then. And lest perchance we should indulge ourselves on the ground of illness, Paul recommends that but a little wine should be taken, advising rather as a physician than as an apostle—although indeed an apostle is a spiritual physician.

But if he, the bishop, takes care of his body that he may minister to you, if he attends to his health that he may be useful, ought he for this to be accused? Do you not know that bodily infirmity no less than infirmity of soul injures both us and the church?… For if we could practice virtue with the soul alone, we need not take care of the body. And why then were we born at all? But if this has contributed a great share, is it not the extreme of folly to neglect it?

"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy often infirmities." If one who had practiced fasting to such an extent, and used only water, so long that he had brought on "infirmities" and "frequent infirmities," is thus commanded to be chaste, and does not refuse the admonition, much less ought we to be offended when we receive an admonition from any one. But why did not Paul restore strength to his stomach? Not because he could not--for he whose garment had raised the dead was clearly able to do this too--but because he had a design of importance in withholding such aid. What then was his purpose? That even now, if we see great and virtuous men afflicted with infirmities, we may not be offended, for this was a profitable visitation. If indeed to Paul himself a "messenger of Satan" was sent that he should not be "exalted above measure" (2 Cor. xii. 11), much more might it be so with Timothy. For the miracles he wrought were enough to have rendered him arrogant. For this reason he is left to be subject to the rules of medicine, that he may be humbled, and others may not be offended, but may learn that they who performed such excellent actions were men of the same nature as themselves. In other respects also Timothy seems to have been subject to disease, which is implied by that expression, "Thy often infirmities," as well of other parts as of the stomach. He does not however allow him to indulge freely in wine, but as much as was for health and not for luxury.

No longer drink water but use a little wine for your stomach and your frequent ailments.

No longer drink water. And why did Paul not heal his stomach, who also worked physical healings, but wanted him to be healed by diet? So that it might serve as a reminder to us not to be easily offended if good men were weakened: and so that Timothy himself might be kept in office through illness, lest he become proud. Finally, so that we might know that since they were of the same nature as us, those good works were performed which they did: since Paul could have healed him with a single prayer, but it was not altogether beneficial. Chrysostom has much to say on this matter. Therefore, see the book in which he discusses Images, and you will see very beautifully what has been treated on this subject by the divine Chrysostom in that place, in the introductory verse, as I understand.

but use a little wine. That is, only as much as is necessary for health: for Paul knows that even an excess of wine can be harmful. From this, it is indicated that Timothy was ill not only in the stomach but also in other parts of the body.

Let ¦sculapius have been the first who sought and discovered cures: Esaias mentions that he ordered Hezekiah medicine when he was sick. Paul, too, knows that a little wine does the stomach good. Let Minerva have been the first who built a ship: I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing.

Whether, moreover, the apostle had any acquaintance with xerophagies-(the apostle) who had repeatedly practised greater rigours, "hunger, and thirst, and fists many," who had forbidden "drunkennesses and revellings" -we have a sufficient evidence even from the case of his disciple Timotheus; whom when he admonishes, "for the sake of his stomach and constant weaknesses," to use "a little wine," from which he was abstaining not from rule, but from devotion-else the custom would rather have been beneficial to his stomach-by this very fact he has advised abstinence from wine as "worthy of God," which, on a ground of necessity, he has dissuaded.

Do you see that, having so many ailments, Timothy was still exhausting himself by drinking water? Learn then not to be grieved when someone gives instructions concerning temperance, for even to Timothy, who for so long a time drank water, so that he often became subject to ailments, Paul gives a commandment about temperance, and did not simply say "use wine," but limited this use, adding "a little." For health, he says, not for pleasure. For youth is hot, and from wine quickly becomes stirred up. But why did Paul not heal him, who by his "handkerchiefs" raised the dead (Acts 19:12)? So that we, when even now we see holy people subject to ailments, would not be scandalized and think that the ancients were above our nature, but would believe that they too were people like us; and finally, so that Timothy himself would not become proud of his virtue. About this, more is said at length by Saint John Chrysostom, at the beginning of the so-called book of homilies "On the Statues." But it seems Timothy was by nature a sickly person, subject to ailments not of the stomach only, but of other parts as well, and therefore the apostle also added: "and your frequent ailments."

But because this practice made him extremely sick, the Apostle adds: do not still after you are sick, drink water. Why? Because whatever sacrifice you offer, you shall season it with salt, i.e., with the salt of discretion (Lev 2:13); your reasonable service (Rom 12:1). Therefore, he adds, but use a little wine, not unto drunkenness: wine drunk with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart (Sir 31:36); but for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities, namely, which are the result of your abstinence.

But note that Paul cured the sick and raised the dead; yet he cures Timothy by advising medicine. This gives us to understand that he did not use his power to work miracles for everyone, but when it was expedient for the faith.

When it is clear with what intention they are committed, he calls them manifest sins, and these sins precede judgment. This means that if judgment follows them at once, it will not be rash judgment. But concealed sins follow judgment, because not even these will remain hidden in their proper time. And this is to be understood about good works as well.… On things that are manifest, therefore, let us pass judgment, but with regard to hidden things, let us leave the judgment to God. For, whether the works themselves be bad or good, they cannot remain hidden when the time comes for them to be revealed.

Even as legislators have overlooked punishments for the guilty though they be established by law, so too our Lord Jesus Christ by punishing one or two sinners sets down like an inscription on a bronze stele their punishment and uses their experiences as a warning to all. It says that even if those who dare the same sins do not suffer a similar penalty now, they will suffer a more rigorous one in the future.

"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some they follow after."

In speaking of ordination, he had said, "Be not partaker of other men's sins." But what, he might say, if I be ignorant of them? Why, "some men's sins are open beforehand, going before them to judgment, and some they follow after." Some men's, he means, are manifest, because they go before, whilst others' are unknown, because they follow after.

"Going before to judgment." This he had said, implying that of evil actions here some are concealed, and some are not; but there neither the good nor the bad can be concealed. And what is that going before to judgment? When one commits offenses that already condemn him, or when he is incorrigible, and when one thinks to set him right and cannot succeed. What then? What is the use of mentioning this? Because if here any escape detection, they will not hereafter. There all things are laid open; and this is the greatest consolation to those who do well.

The sins of certain people are obvious, leading to judgment; and for some, they also follow. Likewise, good deeds are evident; and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.

Since he said above, "nor share in the sins of others," (1 Tim. 5:22) he resolves what was said as if in contrast. For what reason, Timothy would say, if I were to ignore the sins of the one being ordained, would I share in them? And he says: "The sins of certain people are obvious, leading to judgment." Therefore, if you diligently investigate sins, you will fully understand them.

and for some, they also follow. That is, they follow after the ordination. Therefore, you would have communicated to the former: for it would be negligence not to know what is obvious. But not so with the latter, for nothing is from you.

— [OECUMENIUS] I know that I have read an interpretation of this kind among certain saints: those whose sins go before are visible to all; therefore, let there be some for you as well, but observe those that follow with watchful eyes. If therefore you do anything besides this, you will share in sins. But Saint Basil has interpreted it in such a way as if nothing of this chapter pertains to ordination. Whoever, he says, has sinned against him alone, their sins have preceding and trailing judgment. However many, even after they have departed from the church, have left occasions for sinning to others, just as Nestorius and other heretics; these sins follow them even after they have gone: for even the sins of those who fall are attributed to them because of them.

Likewise, good deeds are evident. That is, in the same way. Whatever, he says, has been said about sins, accept also this about good deeds. For there are those who have become the occasion of salvation for others, and the righteous works of these are also attributed to those who have sown the seeds. [end of the excerpt by Oecumenius A f. 173v, B f. 209v; G f. 297v] —

On the obedience of slaves.

Since the apostle, while discussing ordination, said: "do not be a partaker in other men's sins" (1 Tim. 5:22), Timothy could justly object: but what shall I do if I do not know? In answer to this, the apostle says: some sin openly and publicly, which brings them to judgment, that is, as a result they are already condemned and contempt for them goes before them, as you yourself already know. But the sins of other people do not become evident at once, yet you can uncover them through investigation. He hints at this with the expression: "afterwards." Thus, you must also be on guard against these at ordination. Or else — even though they may escape notice here and you ordain them, having absolutely no accusation against them, yet there they will not escape notice. For deeds are not destroyed with one's life, but follow after them. Basil the Great explained this passage in a new independent chapter, unrelated to the discussion of ordination. For example, someone leads a debauched life, or steals — such a sin leads him beforehand to condemnation, drawing only him alone. But if someone teaches evil and establishes a school conducted with ruinous wisdom — such a sin continues to be committed even without him. It does not cease with his death, but heirs of the contagion remain after him, such as the pagan philosophers and all who have generally written against the teaching of the Church. They will give an answer not only for the fact that they themselves went astray, but also for the fact that they served as the cause of error for others, their followers.

Then when he says, some men's sins are manifest, he explains how he should understand the two things he has said, namely, that in condemnation he should proceed without prejudice, and that he should not impose hands lightly.

In regard to the first he says, some men's sins are manifest. As if to say: above I said, observe these things without prejudice; nevertheless, you should realize that some sins are notorious and need no examination; but some are hidden and require probing. These are the ones which you must investigate without prejudice, but not the first; because the first are going before to judgment, but the others appear after judgment, i.e., they reveal themselves after discussion and must not then be made public: as the faces of them who look therein shine in the water, so the hearts of men are laid open to the wise (Prov 27:19).

The words mean this: Certain persons sin so deliberately and flagrantly that you no sooner see them than you know them at once to be sinners. But the defects of others are so cunningly concealed that we only learn them from subsequent information. Similarly the good deeds of some people are public property, while those of others we come to know only through long intimacy with them.

"Going before to judgment." This he had said, implying that of evil actions here some are concealed, and some are not; but there neither the good nor the bad can be concealed. And what is that going before to judgment? When one commits offenses that already condemn him, or when he is incorrigible, and when one thinks to set him right and cannot succeed. What then? What is the use of mentioning this? Because if here any escape detection, they will not hereafter. There all things are laid open; and this is the greatest consolation to those who do well.

The greatest consolation for the righteous consists in the fact that good and evil deeds are known even here, but especially there, where all things are laid bare.

Second, he says, do not impose hands lightly on any man, and he explains that this applies to men who are not evidently good, because in like manner also good deeds of some are manifest: that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt 5:16); he that does truth comes to the light that his works may be made manifest (John 3:21). Those that are otherwise, i.e., that are not manifest, cannot be hid, because nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid that shall not be known (Matt 10:26), for either in the future or even now all iniquity is made manifest. Upon such you should not impose hands lightly.

But as to servants, what can we say more than that the servant should bring a good will to his master, with the fear of God, although his master be impious and wicked, but yet not yield any compliance as to his worship? And let the master love his servant, although he is his supervisor. Let him reflect on the fact that each shares equally in the other's humanity. And let one who has a believing master love him both as his master, and as of the same faith, and as a father, but still with the preservation of his authority as his master…. In like manner, let a master who has a believing servant love him as a son or as a brother, on account of their communion in the faith, but still preserving the difference of a servant.

Since the law of grace considers the origin, fall, and remedy of nature, it belongs to it to approve the threefold mode and distinction of obedience. For it approves filial obedience, Ephesians 6: Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is just. It also approves servile obedience, 1 Timothy 6: Whoever are under the yoke of servitude, let them consider their masters worthy of all honor. It also praises jurisdictional obedience, Hebrews last chapter: Obey your superiors and be subject to them: for they keep watch, etc.

Now I write these things unto you, not that I know there are any such persons among you; nay, indeed I hope that God will never permit any such report to reach my ears, He "who spared not His Son for the sake of His holy Church." But foreseeing the snares of the wicked one, I arm you beforehand by my admonitions, as my beloved and faithful children in Christ, furnishing you with the means of protection against the deadly disease of unruly men, by which do ye flee from the disease [referred to] by the good-will of Christ our Lord. Do ye therefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, become the imitators of His sufferings, and of His love, wherewith He loved us when He gave Himself a ransom for us, that He might cleanse us by His blood from our old ungodliness, and bestow life on us when we were almost on the point of perishing through the depravity that was in us. Let no one of you, therefore, cherish any grudge against his neighbour. For says our Lord, "Forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you." Give no occasion to the Gentiles, lest "by means of a few foolish men the word and doctrine [of Christ.] be blasphemed." For says the prophet, as in the person of God, "Woe to him by whom my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles."

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their masters worthy of all honor, that the Name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed."

Let them count them "worthy of all honor," he says; for do not suppose, because thou art a believer, that thou art therefore a free man: since thy freedom is to serve the more faithfully. For if the unbeliever sees slaves conducting themselves insolently on account of their faith, he will blaspheme, as if the Doctrine produced insubordination. But when he sees them obedient, he will be more inclined to believe, and will the rather attend to our words. But God, and the Gospel we preach, will be blasphemed, if they are disobedient. But what if their own master be an unbeliever? Even in that case they ought to submit, for God's Name's sake.

Then because he had said, "Do nothing by partiality," as if under the necessity of interpreting it, he adds, "As many servants as are under the yoke." But you will say, What has a Bishop to do with this? Much surely, for it is his office to exhort and to teach these too. And here he makes excellent regulations with respect to them. For we see him everywhere commanding the servants rather than their masters, showing them the ways of submission, and treating them with great regard. He exhorts them therefore to submit with great meekness. But the masters he recommends to forbear the use of terror. "Forbearing threatening" (Eph. vi. 9), he says. And why does he thus command? In the case of unbelievers, naturally, because it would have been unreasonable to address those who would pay no heed to him; but where believers were concerned, what was his reason? Because masters contribute greater benefits to their servants, than servants to their masters. For the former furnish the money to purchase for them sufficient food and clothing; and bestow much care upon them in other respects, so that the masters pay them the larger service, which is here intimated, when he says, "they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." They suffer much toil and trouble for your repose, ought they not in return to receive much honor from their servants?

Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers. Rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved. In the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians he commands the same. So it is obvious that Paul's intention is not to abolish slavery as a social institution. Rather, he attacks slavery in its worst form, the slavery to evil, which pays no respect to any external freedom.

Those who are under the yoke as slaves should regard their own masters as worthy of all honor; so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. And those who have faithful masters should not despise them because they are brothers, but rather serve them all the more, because they are faithful and beloved, sharing in the benefit. Teach and encourage these things.

Paul discusses faithful slaves who have unbelieving masters, saying, so that even these things may be.

so that the name of God may not be blasphemed. For if, Paul says, because the masters are unbelieving, the faithful slaves disobey and act arrogantly, giving their own household members a reason, they provide the masters with grounds to blaspheme Christ and the preaching, as if it were the cause of the slaves' arrogance.

should not despise them because they are brothers. Do not let the fact that you are a brother be the cause of your despising, Paul says, but considering that the masters are faithful and beloved of God, serve more, mixing fear and love. For as much as you do good to the masters who are your brothers, so much more become grateful in serving more. Or because you are benefited by the masters, through being nourished and clothed.

but rather serve them all the more; that is, the slaves. For by hyperbaton it is placed. However, it should be placed in the middle, because they are faithful and beloved, and the word masters should be understood. Simply, as it is written, one must understand sharing in the benefit, that is, the masters who take care to benefit the slaves.

Teach and encourage these things. Therefore, the teacher requires not authority, but gentleness.

According to those who are greedy for gain, and false teachers.

Teach them, he says, and exhort them, so that even though their masters are unbelievers, they should obey them, showing them every honor in both words and deeds. For do not think that you are free because you are a believer: you are free in spiritual nature, you freely approach the Lord, but you are a slave in body. Freedom itself, I say, consists in serving in the name of Christ. And an unbeliever, if he sees a prideful slave, will revile the teaching as inciting rebellion. But if he sees that a slave obeys with love, he will rather marvel at the teaching, which corrects even slavish habits that are difficult to reform.

Above, the Apostle instructed Timothy on the use of foods and on the persons to whom the Church allows subsidies; here he treats of other persons who pertain to the Church:

first, persons of low estate;

second, persons of high estate, at charge the rich of this world.

In regard to the first he does three things:

first, he informs him about servants;

second, he speaks against the contrary opinion, at if any man teach otherwise;

third, he warns him to avoid the contrary doctrine and to follow his, at but you, O man of God.

In regard to the first he does two things:

first, he shows him what doctrine he should hold;

second, he tells him to teach it, at these things teach.

In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows how servants should act toward unbelieving masters;

second, how they should act toward believing masters, at but those who have.

He says, therefore: whoever are servants under the yoke, i.e., in the servile state, which is called a yoke figuratively; because as oxen are restrained under a yoke from going wherever they like, so servants under their masters are kept from doing as they wish: be not held again under the yoke of bondage (Gal 5:1). Let them count their masters worthy of all honor, i.e., of proper respect: servants, be obedient to them who are your lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the simplicity of your heart as to Christ (Eph 6:5).

Why? Lest the name of the Lord and his doctrine be blasphemed; for if unbelieving masters were to believe their servants rebellious for knowing the faith, they would condemn Christ's name and blaspheme his doctrine: for the name of Christ through you is blasphemed among the gentiles (Rom 2:24). Therefore, those with unbelieving masters must obey them, lest the name of the Lord and his doctrine be blasphemed.

But as to servants, what can we say more than that the slave bring a good will to his master, with the fear of God, although he be impious and wicked, but yet not to yield any compliance as to his worship? And let the master love his servant, although he be his superior. Let him consider wherein they are equal, even as he is a man. And let him that has a believing master love him both as his master, and as of the same faith, and as a father, but still with the preservation of his authority as his master: "not as an eye-servant, but as a lover of his master; as knowing that God will recompense to him for his subjection." In like manner, let a master who has a believing servant love him as a son or as a brother, on account of their communion in the faith, but still preserving the difference of a servant.

Only see that you do not give these things over to unbelieving and blasphemous tongues, for that is no common danger. But impart them to pious and faithful men, who desire to live holily and righteously with fear. For it is not to no purpose that the blessed apostle exhorts Timothy, and says, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith." And again, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me in many exhortations, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." If, then, the blessed (apostle) delivered these things with a pious caution, which could be easily known by all, as he perceived in the spirit that "all men have not faith," how much greater will be our danger, if, rashly and without thought, we commit the revelations of God to profane and unworthy men?

"And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit."

As though he had said, If ye are thought worthy of so great a benefit, as to have your masters for your brethren, on this account ye ought more especially to submit. ... And why does he thus command? In the case of unbelievers, naturally, because it would have been unreasonable to address those who would pay no heed to him; but where believers were concerned, what was his reason? Because masters contribute greater benefits to their servants, than servants to their masters. For the former furnish the money to purchase for them sufficient food and clothing; and bestow much care upon them in other respects, so that the masters pay them the larger service, which is here intimated, when he says, "they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." They suffer much toil and trouble for your repose, ought they not in return to receive much honor from their servants?

"These things teach and exhort."

A Teacher has need not only of authority, but of gentleness, and not only of gentleness, but of authority. And all these the blessed Paul teaches, at one time saying, "These things command and teach"; at another, "These things teach and exhort." For if physicians entreat the sick, not for the benefit of their own health, but that they may relieve their sickness, and restore their prostrate strength, much more ought we to observe this method, of entreating those whom we teach. For the blessed Paul does not refuse to be their servant: "We preach not ourselves," he says; "but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake"; and again, "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos." And in this service he serves with alacrity, for it is not slavery, but superior to freedom. For He says, "Whoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."

It is not right that, because you have come to have your master as a brother by virtue of baptism, you should treat him carelessly; on the contrary, find in this very thing a motivation to serve and be subject to him with even greater zeal, because he too is faithful and beloved, that is, a brother instead of a master. Then remember that he is also your benefactor, who concerns himself and takes care of you, to feed you, to clothe you, and to satisfy your every other need and necessity — so that he has many claims upon you, besides the fact that he purchased you. By saying "beloved," the apostle drives out fear, which servants, having toward their masters, often fall into hatred of them — and in its place introduces love. Thus, he says, those who receive benefits, that is, the slaves, ought to serve all the more. To make a convenient transition in his discourse, he adds this, while in the expression "they are faithful and beloved" the word "masters" must be understood. Or it can simply be understood as the text says: "and they benefit [them]," that is, the masters who diligently strive to do good to their slaves.

A teacher needs not only authority, which is expressed by the word "teach," but also gentleness, which is contained in the present expression: "exhort." For he is a physician, and a physician sometimes uses gentleness, and sometimes also strict compulsion.

But what of those who have believing masters? But those who have believing masters, let them not despise them; which sometimes happens when familiarity is shown to underlings, namely, they grow proud: by three things the earth is disturbed, and the fourth it cannot bear: by a slave when he reigns (Prov 30:1).

According to the Philosopher the reason for this is that in these cases men paralogize, believing that if they are equal in one respect, they are equal in all and refuse to submit any longer; just as in civil wars, because the people are not subject, they consider themselves equal to the nobility in all things. Consequently, it can happen that slaves, seeing that they are equal to their masters in one matter, namely, in the faith, come to think that they are equal in all respects; that is why he says, let them not despise them.

And he gives three reasons: first, the gift of faith; hence he says, because they are faithful. And this is very important, because the just man lives by faith, and by faith the world is overcome. The second is the dignity of divine love; hence he says, and beloved, namely, more excellently than the other creatures, because they are adopted into God's sons: behold what manner of charity the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called and should be the sons of God (1 John 3:1). The third is the gift of grace; hence he says, who are partakers of the benefit, namely, the Lord's sacrament: the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord (1 Cor 10:16); I am partaker with them who fear you (Ps 118:63).

These things teach others who do not know, and exhort them to do: these things speak and exhort (Titus 2:15).

To these Arius and Achilles opposing themselves, and those who with them are the enemies of the truth, have been expelled from the Church, as being aliens from our holy doctrine, according to the blessed Paul, who says, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed; even though he feign himself an angel from heaven." And also, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing," and so forth. These, therefore, who have been anathematized by the brotherhood, let no one of you receive, nor admit of those things which are either said or written by them. For these seducers do always lie, nor will they ever speak the truth.

Piety is profitable for knowing truths. God gives His gifts upon every creature: but the knowledge of truth He gives only to those who act piously. How could one attain to originated things who does not attain to the origin of truth? How would one know the origin of truth who opposes the origin of truth? The Apostle says to Timothy: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to piety, he is proud and knows nothing, and is sick about questions and disputes of words." It is necessary that a man assent to the doctrine which is according to piety. If you wish to be true scholars, it is necessary that you have piety.

With reason, therefore, the noble apostle, depreciating these superfluous arts occupied about words, says, "If any man do not give heed to wholesome words, but is puffed up by a kind of teaching, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh contention, envy, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth." You see how he is moved against them, calling their art of logic-on which, those to whom this garrulous mischievous art is dear, whether Greeks or barbarians, plume themselves-a disease. Very beautifully, therefore, the tragic poet Euripides says in the Phoenissae,- "But a wrongful speech is diseased in itself, and needs skilful medicines." For the saving Word is called "wholesome," He being the truth; and what is wholesome (healthful) remains ever deathless. But separation from what is healthful and divine is impiety, and a deadly malady.

The apostle instructs us, saying, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ and His doctrine, he is lifted up with foolishness: from such withdraw thyself.". Mindful of which precept, the blessed Apostle Paul himself also warns and instructs, saying, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to His doctrine, he is proud, knowing nothing: from such withdraw thyself."

Let not those who seem worthy of credit, but teach strange doctrines, fill thee with apprehension. Stand firm, as does an anvil which is beaten. It is the part of a noble athlete to be wounded, and yet to conquer. And especially, we ought to bear all things for the sake of God, that He also may bear with us. Be ever becoming more zealous than what thou art. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes.

"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing." Presumption therefore arises not from knowledge, but from "knowing nothing." For he that knows the doctrines of godliness is also the most disposed to moderation. He who knows sound words, is not unsound. For what inflammation is in the body, that pride is in the soul. And as we do not in the first case say that the inflamed part is sound, so neither do we here consider the arrogant. It is possible then to be knowing, and yet to know nothing. For he that knows not what he ought to know, knows nothing. And that pride arises from knowing nothing is manifest from hence. Christ "made Himself of no reputation," he therefore who knows this will not be high-minded. Man hath nothing except from God, therefore he will not be high-minded. "For what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" He washed the feet of His disciples, how can he who knows this be setting himself up? Therefore He says, "When ye have done all, say we are unprofitable servants." The publican was accepted only from his humility, the Pharisee perished by his boastfulness. He who is puffed up knoweth none of these things. Again, Christ Himself says, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?"

If anyone teaches otherwise: that is, one different from what is right.

and to the teaching that accords with godliness. Paule said, "They are sound words," and he says, "And with the teaching accords with godliness," evidently concerning faith.

I might be thought to have laid down this position to remedy distrust in my case, or from a desire of entering on the contest in some other way, were there not reasons on my side, especially this, that our faith owes deference to the apostle, who forbids us to enter on "questions," or to lend our ears to new-fangled statements, or to consort with a heretic "after the first and second admonition," not, (be it observed, ) after discussion.

Do you see that complete ignorance drives a person to madness and makes him arrogant, so that whoever does not accept sound teaching is proud? And pride is to a sick soul what inflammation is to a bodily wound. So then, if he had not become proud, he would have accepted the teaching of the Lord, Who humbled Himself, washed the feet of the disciples, and said: "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly" (Matt. 11:29). He called blessed the "poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3); He sent the tax collector away justified for his humility (Luke 18:13–14). Whoever does not accept this and does not know it is undoubtedly proud.

Then when he says, if any man teach otherwise, he excludes the contrary assertion:

first, he describes the nature of false doctrine;

second, its source, at he is proud;

third, its effect, at from which arise.

If you wish to know whether a doctrine is erroneous, you can tell from three marks: first, it is against the doctrine of the Church; hence he says, if any man teach otherwise than I teach and the other apostles. This is the first mark: if any man preach to you a gospel, besides that which I have received, let him be anathema (Gal 1:9). For the doctrine of the apostles and prophets is called canonical, because it is, as it were, the rule of the intellect: you shall not add to the word that I speak to you, neither shall you take away from it (Deut 4:2); if any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book (Apoc. 22:18).

In regard to the second mark he says, and consent not to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord came to give testimony to the truth: for this was I born and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth (John 18:37). Therefore, he was sent by the Father to be a teacher and master: give ear to him always, and he shall be a father to you (1 Macc 2:65). Consequently, anyone who does not consent to his teachings is in error: it is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel: and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey (1 Kgs 15:23). And he says, sound, because in Christ's sayings there is nothing corrupt, nothing false or perverse, because they are the words of divine wisdom: all my words are just; there is nothing wicked or perverse in them: they are right to those who understand, and just to those who find knowledge (Prov 8:8).

As to the third mark: my son, keep the commandments of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother (Prov 6:20); hence he says, and to that doctrine, namely, of the Church, which is according to godliness. This godliness is shown in the worship of God: and the acknowledging of the truth which is according to godliness (Titus 1:1).

I shall address my words to those whose cleverness is in words.… "Strife of words" is the term given to all elaborate verbiage by Paul, who proclaims and confirms the "short and final account," Paul, the pupil and teacher of fishermen. These people I speak of have versatile tongues and are resourceful in attacking doctrines nobler and worthier than their own. I only wish they would display comparable energy in their actions.

True knowledge, then, consists in the understanding of Christ, which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which "the natural man receiveth not," the doctrine of the cross; of which if any man "taste," he will not accede to the disputations and quibbles of proud and puffed-up men, who go into matters of which they have no perception. For the truth is unsophisticated; and "the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart," as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience "the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings." For this is the affinity of the apostolical teaching and the most holy "faith delivered unto us," which the unlearned receive, and those of slender knowledge have taught, not "giving heed to endless genealogies," but studying rather [to observe] a straightforward course of life; lest, having been deprived of the Divine Spirit, they fail to attain to the kingdom of heaven. For truly the first thing is to deny one's self and to follow Christ; and those who do this are borne onward to perfection, having fulfilled all their Teacher's will, becoming sons of God by spiritual regeneration, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven; those who seek which first shall not be forsaken.

And that the whole range of the doctrine of the apostles proclaimed one and the same God, who removed Abraham, who made to him the promise of inheritance, who in due season gave to him the covenant of circumcision, who called his descendants out of Egypt, preserved outwardly by circumcision-for he gave it as a sign, that they might not be like the Egyptians-that He was the Maker of all things, that He was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He was the God of glory,-they who wish may learn from the very words and acts of the apostles, and may contemplate the fact that this God is one, above whom is no other. But even if there were another god above Him, we should say, upon [instituting] a comparison of the quantity [of the work done by each], that the latter is superior to the former. For by deeds the better man appears, as I have already remarked; and, inasmuch as these men have no works of their father to adduce, the latter is shown to be God alone. But if any one, "doting about questions," do imagine that what the apostles have declared about God should be allegorized, let him consider my previous statements, in which I set forth one God as the Founder and Maker of all things, and destroyed and laid bare their allegations; and he shall find them agreeable to the doctrine of the apostles, and so to maintain what they used to teach, and were persuaded of, that there is one God, the Maker of all things. And when he shall have divested his mind of such error, and of that blasphemy against God which it implies, he will of himself find reason to acknowledge that both the Mosaic law and the grace of the new covenant, as both fitted for the times [at which they were given], were bestowed by one and the same God for the benefit of the human race.

"Doting about questions." To question then is to dote. "And strifes of words"; this is justly said. For when the soul is fevered with reasonings, and stormy, then it questions, but when it is in a sound state, it does not question, but receives the faith. But from questionings and strifes of words nothing can be discovered. For when the things which faith only promises are received by an inquisitive spirit, it neither demonstrates them, nor suffers us to understand them. If one should close his eyes, he would not be able to find anything he sought: or if, again with his eyes open, he should bury himself, and exclude the sun, he would be unable to find anything, thus seeking. So without faith nothing can be discerned, but contentions must needs arise. "Whereof come railings, evil surmisings"; that is, erroneous opinions and doctrines arising from questionings. For when we begin to question, then we surmise concerning God things that we ought not.

he is inflated with conceit and understands nothing. For he who does not know what he ought to know, knows nothing. But he who does not know the sound things, obviously knows the demonic things. Moreover, arrogance is a matter welcoming and proper to demons.

an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels. For if you do not believe, but craving for controversy, there must be debate and conflicts of reasoning. Since Christianity promises future things, and these cannot be shown to the eyes, faith is necessary. But see that to crave controversy is to be ill.

blasphemies. For it is necessary that human reasoning permit what pertains to God, and that blasphemy arises from questioning.

evil suspicions. These are opinions and contaminated doctrines.

The apostle forbids us to enter into hypothetical questions, or to lend our ears to newfangled statements or to consort with a heretic "after the first and second admonitions." We do not enter into these discussions. Discussion has been inhibited in this way by designating admonition as the purpose of dealing with a heretic. The first reason, too, is because he is not a Christian. The instruction is given in order that he might not, after the manner of a Christian, seem to require correction again and again and "before two or three witnesses." The impression could be created that he ought to be corrected, for the very reason that he is not to be disputed with. The second reason is that a controversy over the Scriptures can, clearly, produce no other effect than to upset either the stomach or the brain.

So, contention is a disease: for where there is no faith, everything is sick; there only a war of words flares up and nothing more – wherein the more skilled in debate strains to overthrow the other. Faith is the eye; he who has no eyes finds nothing, but only searches.

That is, from contentions are born harmful dogmas. When we give ourselves over to contentions, we begin to blaspheme and to think about God what we ought not.

The root of this error is twofold, namely, pride and lack of understanding.

In regard to the first he says, he is proud. There are two ways in which pride is said to be the root of errors: first, because the proud desire to insert themselves into matters that are not their concern; hence it is expected that they err and fall short: we have heard of the pride of Moab; he is exceedingly proud: his pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation is more than his strength (Isa 16:6). Second, because they refuse to submit their intellect to any other, but rely on their own prudence; consequently, they rebel against Sacred Scripture. Against such a person it is said: lean not upon your own prudence (Prov 3:5), and again: where humility is, there also is understanding (Prov 11:2).

The other root is weakness of intellect. Here it should be noted that just as health in the body depends on a proper balance among the humors, so truth consists in a proper balance in the intellect, because truth is a correspondence of intellect and thing. Hence just as a sick person, when he does not have a balanced condition, is affected by the slightest contrary stimulus, so too when a man's intellect is not grounded on the truth and lacks the virtue by which to judge what is true, that man falls into error in the face of any difficult question; hence he says, sick about questions: a weak man and of a short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws (Wis 9:5).

Hence Boethius says that understanding is to reasoning as a circle is to its center. For reason roves about and considers the perfections and defects and relationships of one thing to another, and unless it finally arrives at an understanding of the truth, its roaming is in vain. Hence, when it discovers the truth of a thing, it holds it as a center. But some take intellectual journeys without ever arriving: ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:7); hence he says, sick about questions, i.e., never reaching the center.

And he says, questions and strifes of words, because in some matters doubt arises from the object itself, but in others from the words and names; hence he says, questions, in regard to the first, namely, questions about things: which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which is in faith (1 Tim 1:4); in regard to the second he says, and strifes of words: he who follows after words only shall have nothing (Prov 19:7). And he says, strifes of words, meaning those cases when strife arises from words alone. For example, the Lord says: if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36) and in Matthew: then the children are free (Matt 17:25); now if someone wished to infer from this that all Catholics, since they are sons of God, are therefore free, it would be a strife of words, because the Lord is speaking of spiritual freedom, not bodily.

Then when he says, from which arise envies, he describes the effect of error:

first, he mentions the effect;

second, he explains some things previously stated, at but godliness.

In regard to the first he does two things: first, he mentions the evils that follow false doctrine;

second, where these evils reside, at men corrupted in mind.

Among the evils he lists, some are within, in the heart; others are external.

Within are disorderly emotions in regard to good or in regard to evil. In regard to the good is sadness about someone else's good; hence he says, envies, which can be understood as referring either to the present case or to all cases; for when men labor not for the truth but only about words, they do not see with a balanced mind, if someone prevails: envy slays the little one (Job 5:2). In the present case, if servants regard themselves as free and not subject, their masters grow envious and bewail the fact that their servants are equal to them. As a result of envy a man rises up against his neighbor of whom he is envious: and this is contentions: it is an honor for a man to separate himself from quarrels (Prov 20:3); or he rises up against God: and this is blasphemies: blaspheming the things which they know not (2 Pet 2:12).

In regard to evil there is suspicion; hence he says, evil suspicions, namely, on the part of masters toward Christians, as though for gain we pretended that they were free: and suspicion of them has deceived many, and has detained their minds in vanity (Sir 3:26). As a result there issue conflicts of men against believers: there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and of Lot (Gen 13:7).

It is of all of us … that the apostle speaks. Christ is a pauper, let us blush with shame. Christ is lowly, let us be made lowly. Christ was crucified. He did not rule. He was crucified in order to rule. He conquered the world, not in pride but in humility. He destroyed the devil, not by derisive laughter but by weeping; he did not scourge but was scourged. He received a blow but did not give blows. Let us, therefore, imitate our Lord.

"Perverse disputings," that is, leisure or conversation, or he may mean intercommunication, and that as infected sheep by contact communicate disease to the sound, so do these bad men.

"Destitute of the truth, thinking that gain is godliness." Observe what evils are produced by strifes of words. The love of gain, ignorance, and pride; for pride is engendered by ignorance.

"From such withdraw thyself." He does not say, engage and contend with them, but "withdraw thyself," turn away from them; as elsewhere he says, "A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject." He shows that they do not so much err from ignorance, as they owe their ignorance to their indolence. Those who are contentious for the sake of money you will never persuade. They are only to be persuaded, so long as you give, and even so you will never satisfy their desires. For it is said, "The covetous man's eye is not satisfied with a portion." From such then, as being incorrigible, it is right to turn away. And if he who had much obligation to fight for the truth, is advised not to engage in contention with such men, much more should we avoid it, who are in the situation of disciples.

Neither need I say any thing about his pride and the haughtiness with which he assumed worldly dignities, and his wishing to be styled procurator

friction. The transmission of the disease of bad doctrines, from the contact of miserable sheep. For those who come into contact are filled with the disease, along with the healthy ones.

imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Do you know that even battles of words produce shameful profit? It is no wonder, for those who contend with words attract more students, making a profit from them, whether monetary gain. They pretend virtue in order to amass wealth through it.

Depart from such people. Paul did not say, "Join with such men and fight," but "depart," after one and then a second warning. For how will you ever be able to persuade men fighting for money? Therefore, since they are persistent, turn away from them.

In appearance Judas championed the cause of the poor and said with indignation, "This ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor." But in reality he "was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put in it." If, then, anyone in our time who has the bag of the church speaks like Judas on behalf of the poor but takes away what is put in it, let there be assigned to him the portion along with Judas who did these same things.

By "pouring from empty to empty" – diatribe – idle conversations were usually meant. Or because just as mangy sheep, when they rub against healthy ones, infect them too with their disease, so also the heterodox rub up against others with their conversations, paratribomenoi, and corrupt them.

Do you see that disputes give birth to shameful gain? And rightly so. For these quarrelers, attracting to themselves a greater number of disciples, exploit them, and contend more and more in disputes in order to attract them to themselves more and more.

He did not say: engage with them and fight, but: "withdraw," that is, "after the first and second admonition" (Titus 3:10). For those who fight over profit and money, when and with what can they be persuaded? Therefore withdraw from those people who are incorrigible.

But this is not in all hearts, but in some. And he describes their condition: the first pertains to a defect in natural light; the second to defect in knowledge; the third to the defect of disordered love.

In regard to the first he says, of men corrupted in mind, i.e., in natural reason, because they have a perverse judgment: They are corrupt and are become abominable in their ways (Ps 13:2). In regard to the second he says, who are destitute of the truth, i.e., lack knowledge of the truth: there is no truth, there is no mercy, there is no knowledge of God in the land (Hos 4:1). In regard to the third he says, supposing gain to be godliness, i.e., that the worship of God is ordained to profit and the acquisition of wealth: they have counted our life a pastime, and the business of life to be gain, and that we must be getting every way, even out of evil (Wis 15:12).

Therefore, such men as believe this, find it easy to be scornful and fall into the evils mentioned.

He, then, is happy who has everything he wants but does not want what is not proper.… But, when men have attained that welfare for themselves and for those whom they love, shall we be able to say that they are now happy? They have something which it is proper to wish for, but if they have nothing else, either greater or better or more to their advantage and personal distinction, they are still far from happiness.… Certainly it is proper for them to wish for these things, not for the sake of the things themselves but for another reason, namely, that they may do good by providing for the welfare of those who live under them, but it is not proper to covet them out of the empty pride of self-esteem or useless ostentation or hurtful vanity.

I've been wagging a finger at the rich. Poor people, you listen too. You should pay out too; you shouldn't go plundering either. You should give of your means too. You too curb your greed. Listen, you poor, to the same apostle, "There is great gain," he says, "in godliness with contentment." You have the world in common with the rich. You don't have a house in common with the rich, but you do have the sky, you do have the light in common with them. Just look for a sufficiency, look for what is enough, not for more than that. Anything more is a weighing down, not a lifting up of the spirit; a burden, not a reward.

It disturbs some that this mortality is common to us with others; and yet what is there in this world which is not common to us with others, so long as this flesh of ours still remains, according to the law of our first birth, common to us with them? So long as we are here in the world, we are associated with the human race in fleshly equality,

But I wish to urge the case for cubic content; in which (even more than in moral content) I take a personal interest. Now, moral content has been undervalued and neglected because of its separation from the other meaning. It has become a negative rather than a positive thing. In some accounts of contentment it seems to be little more than a meek despair.

But this is not the true meaning of the term; it should stand for the idea of a positive and thorough appreciation of the content of anything; for feeling the substance and not merely the surface of experience. "Content" ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased; placidly, perhaps, but still positively pleased. Being contented with bread and cheese ought not to mean not caring what you eat. It ought to mean caring for bread and cheese; handling and enjoying the cubic content of the bread and cheese and adding it to your own. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it. It ought to mean appreciating what there is to appreciate in such a position; such as the quaint and elvish slope of the ceiling or the sublime aerial view of the opposite chimney-pots. And in this sense contentment is a real and even an active virtue; it is not only affirmative, but creative. The poet in the attic does not forget the attic in poetic musings; he remembers whatever the attic has of poetry; he realises how high, how starry, how cool, how unadorned and simple--in short, how Attic is the attic.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare. The absence of this digestive talent is what makes so cold and incredible the tales of so many people who say they have been "through" things; when it is evident that they have come out on the other side quite unchanged. A man might have gone "through" a plum pudding as a bullet might go through a plum pudding; it depends on the size of the pudding--and the man. But the awful and sacred question is "Has the pudding been through him?" Has he tasted, appreciated, and absorbed the solid pudding, with its three dimensions and its three thousand tastes and smells? Can he offer himself to the eyes of men as one who has cubically conquered and contained a pudding?

Having said, "They think that godliness is a means of gain," he adds: "But godliness with contentment is great gain," not when it possesses wealth, but when it has it not. For that he may not despond on account of his poverty, he encourages and revives his spirit. They think, he says, that godliness is a means of gain, and so it is; only not in their way, but in a much higher. Then having demolished theirs he extols the other. For that worldly gain is nothing, is manifest, because it is left behind, and does not attend us, or go along with us at our departure. Whence is this plain? Because we had nothing when we came into this world, therefore we shall have nothing when we depart from it. For nature came naked into the world, and naked she will go out of it. Therefore we want no superfluities; if we brought nothing with us, and shall take nothing away with us.

But godliness with gladness is great gain.

But godliness with gladness is great gain. They indeed imagine godliness in such a way that it serves as a means for gain and profit. But true profit is godliness itself in its own nature, and having what is sufficient, not seeking those things that abound in earthly goods. Or rather, what profit is godliness itself if we do not seek more, but remain in sufficiency.

Those disputants, he says, do not consider being pious an acquisition. But there is acquisition in piety as well, only not the kind they suppose, but a far higher one. In it the acquisition is not when you have, but when you do not have, for it teaches contentment. And contentment is a great and lasting wealth. Therefore let not the pious lose heart, as though they were without possessions.

Then when he says, but godliness, he explains his previous statement: who suppose gain to be godliness:

first, he shows the relationship between godliness and gain;

second, he shows that it does not consist in acquiring external riches, at for those who will:

in regard to the first he does two things: first, he explains the first;

second, he assigns a reason, at for we brought nothing.

He says, therefore: they claim that gain is godliness, but I say that godliness is gain; and he adds, with contentment, i.e., a sufficiency of the goods that bring contentment, which depends on two things: first and principally, on godliness which orders some things to God and some to one's neighbor: and these are the virtues and gifts of grace: for she is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use, become the friends of God (Wis 7:14); second, it depends on life being sustained; hence he says, with contentment, namely, in the things necessary for life: seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be added unto you (Matt 6:33); godliness is profitable to all things (1 Tim 4:8).

But the world retains its hold on us. On all sides its charms decoy us. We like lots of money, we like splendid honors, we like power to overawe others. We like all these things, but let's listen to the apostle, "We brought nothing into this world, neither can we take anything out." Honor should be looking for you, not you for it. You, after all, should sit down in the humbler place, so he that invited you may make you go up to a more honored place. But if he doesn't wish to, eat where you are sitting, because you brought nothing into this world.

We neither take nor snatch anything away with us. What if we could take something—wouldn't we be devouring people alive? What is this monstrously avid appetite, when even huge beasts know their limits? The time they pounce on something, you see, is when they are hungry; but when they feel satisfied, they spare their prey. It is only the avarice and greed of the rich that is forever insatiable.

For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have made shipwreck from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.". For covetousness is a root of all evils, which some desiring, have made shipwreck from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.". For the root of all evils is covetousness, which some coveting, have made shipwreck from the faith, and have plunged themselves in many sorrows."

When Macarius was living in Egypt, one day he came across a man who had brought a donkey to his cell and was stealing his possessions. As though he was a passer-by who did not live there, he went up to the thief and helped him to load the beast, and sent him peaceably on his way, saying to himself, 'We brought nothing into this world (1 Tim. 6:7) but the Lord gave; as He willed, so it is done: blessed be the Lord in all things.'

For there is no one free, save only one who lives for Christ. He stands superior to all troubles. And if he does not choose to injure himself, no one else will be able to do this, for he is impregnable. He is not stung by the loss of wealth, for he has learned that we "brought nothing into this world, neither can we carry anything out." He is not caught by the longings of ambition or glory, for he has learned that our citizenship is in heaven. No one annoys him by abuse or provokes him by blows. There is only one calamity for a Christian: disobedience to God. All the other things, such as loss of property, exile, peril of life, one does not even reckon to be a grievance at all. And that which all dread, departure hence to the other world—this is to him sweeter than life itself.

"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." For that worldly gain is nothing, is manifest, because it is left behind, and does not attend us, or go along with us at our departure. Whence is this plain? Because we had nothing when we came into this world, therefore we shall have nothing when we depart from it. For nature came naked into the world, and naked she will go out of it. Therefore we want no superfluities; if we brought nothing with us, and shall take nothing away with us.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

For we brought nothing into the world. If we have brought nothing in, and we can take nothing out, what need is there to have more than what is necessary?

But if we have food and clothing. One must eat as much as is sufficient to nourish, not as much as to create luxury; and one must have as much clothing and such as to cover nakedness, not as many as to create extravagance and folly for those who bear them. For this indicates the nature of food and clothing.

Adam was thus created, and Eve was thus formed, and they were not only destitute of the riches of the world, but also of the clothing and raiment of the world, and they were like unto the child who goeth forth naked from the womb into creation, even as Job said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked will I return"; and as Paul also spake, "We brought nothing into the world, and it is evident that we are not able to take anything out from it." And as the after-birth in the womb envelopeth the child after he hath been fashioned and hath taken form to keep him alive, and when he is born from the womb it is cut off and cast away from him, because it belongeth not unto his person, nor is reckoned with the man, so also do riches, and possessions, and all other human things cling unto a man after he hath been born like the after-birth, but when he cometh to be born from this world into the next by the hand of death, his possessions are cut off and cast away from him like the after-birth which is cut off from the body.

"But the love of money is the root of all evils." Knowing, therefore, that "as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out," let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness; and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. Next, [teach] your wives [to walk] in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all [others] equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God. Teach the widows to be discreet as respects the faith of the Lord, praying continually for all, being far from all slandering, evil-speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altar of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.

The Apostle shows that the gain which those people seek has no significance whatsoever. For it remains here and does not accompany us there. Therefore, what need have we of surplus, if we shall carry nothing with us there?

Then when he says, for we brought nothing into this world, he gives the reason for his statement:

first, from man's condition;

second, from his needs, at having food.

Man's conditions he describes from man's beginnings, because we brought nothing into this world. As if to say: what is necessary is enough, and there is no need for superfluities, because we brought nothing into this world: naked came I out of my mother's womb (Job 1:21). Then he describes man's condition from the viewpoint of his end: and certainly we can carry nothing out: they have slept their sleep; and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands (Ps 75:6); the rich man, when he shall sleep, shall take away nothing with him: he shall open his eyes and find nothing (Job 27:19): as he came, so shall he return (Eccl 5:15).

I have taught those in a middle station to be content with food and covering;

"Give us today our daily bread." It can be taken quite simply that we pour out this prayer for our daily sustenance, that we may have plenty of it; and if we don't have plenty, that we may not lack it entirely. He called it "daily," "for as long as it is called 'today.' " Daily we live, daily we get up, daily we take our fill, daily we get hungry. May he give us our daily bread.

But, if a man would also have mercy upon his body as being a possession necessary to the soul and its co-operator in carrying on life on earth, he will occupy himself with its needs only so far as is required to preserve it and keep it vigorous by moderate care in the service of the soul. He will by no means allow it to become unmanageable through satiety.

Moreover, nature itself especially makes the way to this, whether instituted or fallen. For man was formed naked, and if he had remained in that state, he would have appropriated absolutely nothing to himself; but fallen man is born naked and dies naked. And therefore this is the most direct way: that, not turning aside from these extremes, one should walk poor and naked, as far as nature can endure. And this is what is said in 1 Timothy 6: We brought nothing into this world, and without doubt we can carry nothing out. And from this he concludes: Having food and covering, let us be content with these. Now this is nothing stricter or poorer than to be content with simple food and covering; which the Apostle urges from the teaching of nature as good and perfect.

To that which is objected from the Gloss on First Timothy six: Having food etc., where it is said that temporal things are not to be entirely cast away: it must be said that it understands the casting away of temporal things with respect to use, not with respect to ownership. For the use of temporal things is necessary for human life, which nevertheless can be had without ownership and property, as is evident in the poor, who have nothing of property. And that this is the meaning is evident from what follows immediately in the Gloss, where it adds that "having food and that with which we may be covered, let us be content with these things; he who reaches beyond finds evil." To be content, therefore, with the use of covering and food is the mode of perfect virtue. And thus the Gloss ought to be understood, nor does this conflict with the highest poverty. But whoever would so wish to cast away temporal things that he would neither wish to receive food nor have covering would not act perfectly, but foolishly. And this is what that Gloss intends to suggest.

For those who in appearance are rich, though they have many possessions, are yet poor in soul. The more they amass, the more they pine with longing for what they lack. But the believer, paradoxically, is rich even when poor. Knowing that we have need only of raiment and food and being content with these, he has trampled riches underfoot.

Macarius said to Zacharias, 'Tell me, what makes a monk?' He said, 'Isn't it wrong for you to be asking me?' Macarius said to him, 'I am sure I should ask you, Zacharias my son. There is something that urges me to ask you.' Zacharias said to him, 'As far as I can tell, abba, I think anyone who controls himself and makes himself content with just what he needs and no more, is indeed a monk.'

It is an English misfortune that what is called "public spirit" is so often a very private spirit; the legitimate but strictly individual ideals of this or that person who happens to have the power to carry them out. When these private principles are held by very rich people, the result is often the blackest and most repulsive kind of despotism, which is benevolent despotism. Obviously it is the public which ought to have public spirit. But in this country and at this epoch this is exactly what it has not got. We shall have a public washhouse and a public kitchen long before we have a public spirit; in fact, if we had a public spirit we might very probably do without the other things. But if England were properly and naturally governed by the English, one of the first results would probably be this: that our standard of excess or defect in property would be changed from that of the plutocrat to that of the moderately needy man. That is, that while property might be strictly respected, everything that is necessary to a clerk would be felt and considered on quite a different plane from anything which is a very great luxury to a clerk. This sane distinction of sentiment is not instinctive at present, because our standard of life is that of the governing class, which is eternally turning luxuries into necessities as fast as pork is turned into sausages; and which cannot remember the beginning of its needs and cannot get to the end of its novelties.

Take, for the sake of argument, the case of the motor. Doubtless the duke now feels it as necessary to have a motor as to have a roof, and in a little while he may feel it equally necessary to have a flying ship. But this does not prove (as the reactionary sceptics always argue) that a motor really is just as necessary as a roof. It only proves that a man can get used to an artificial life: it does not prove that there is no natural life for him to get used to. In the broad bird's-eye view of common sense there abides a huge disproportion between the need for a roof and the need for an aeroplane; and no rush of inventions can ever alter it. The only difference is that things are now judged by the abnormal needs, when they might be judged merely by the normal needs. The best aristocrat sees the situation from an aeroplane. The good citizen, in his loftiest moments, goes no further than seeing it from the roof.

It is not true that luxury is merely relative. It is not true that it is only an expensive novelty which we may afterwards come to think a necessity. Luxury has a firm philosophical meaning; and where there is a real public spirit luxury is generally allowed for, sometimes rebuked, but always recognized instantly. To the healthy soul there is something in the very nature of certain pleasures which warns us that they are exceptions, and that if they become rules they will become very tyrannical rules.

Take a harassed seamstress out of the Harrow Road and give her one lightning hour in a motorcar, and she will probably feel it as splendid, but strange, rare, and even terrible. But this is not (as the relativists say) merely because she has never been in a car before. She has never been in the middle of a Somerset cowslip meadow before; but if you put her there she does not think it terrifying or extraordinary, but merely pleasant and free and a little lonely. She does not think the motor monstrous because it is new. She thinks it monstrous because she has eyes in her head; she thinks it monstrous because it is monstrous. That is, her mothers and grandmothers, and the whole race by whose life she lives, have had, as a matter of fact, a roughly recognizable mode of living; sitting in a green field was a part of it; travelling as quick as a cannon ball was not. And we should not look down on the seamstress because she mechanically emits a short sharp scream whenever the motor begins to move. On the contrary, we ought to look up to the seamstress, and regard her cry as a kind of mystic omen or revelation of nature, as the old Goths used to consider the howls emitted by chance females when annoyed. For that ritual yell is really a mark of moral health--of swift response to the stimulations and changes of life. The seamstress is wiser than all the learned ladies, precisely because she can still feel that a motor is a different sort of thing from a meadow. By the accident of her economic imprisonment it is even possible that she may have seen more of the former than the latter. But this has not shaken her cyclopean sagacity as to which is the natural thing and which the artificial. If not for her, at least for humanity as a whole, there is little doubt about which is the more normally attainable. It is considerably cheaper to sit in a meadow and see motors go by than to sit in a motor and see meadows go by.

Let us now speak in particular about the interior man. A wheel, as you know, rests upon the ground with a very slight base. Nor does it merely rest; it rolls along; it does not stand still but barely touches the ground and passes on. Further, when it rolls onward, it always mounts higher. So the saintly man, because he has a human body, has to give some thought to earthly matters. When it comes to food and clothing and other such things, he is content with what he has, and merely touching the ground with them, hastens on to higher things.

This then is the perfect victory over covetousness. It is not to allow a gleam from the very smallest scrap of it to remain in our heart, as we know that we shall have no further power of quenching it if we cherish even the tiniest bit of a spark of it in us. And we can better preserve this virtue unimpaired if we remain in a monastery, and as the apostle says, having food and clothing, are therewith content.

For it is not by beautifying herself, or by living a life of luxury, or by demanding from her husband money, or by being extravagant and lavish that a good wife will be able to win him over. When she removes herself from all present concerns and imprints upon herself the apostolic way of life, when she displays great modesty, decorum, disdain for money and forbearance, then she will be able to capture him. When she says, "If we have food and clothing, we have all that we need," when she practices this philosophy in her actions and, laughing at physical death, calls this life nothing, when she considers along with the prophet every glory of this life to be as the flower of the field, then she will capture him.

And observe also their laws, how moderate and freed from all vainglory. Thus: "Having," says he, "food and covering, let us be content." Not like him of Sinope [Diogenes the Cynic], who clothed in rags and living in a cask to no good, astonished many but profited none. Paul did none of these things. For neither had he an eye to ostentation, but was both clothed in ordinary apparel with all decency, and lived in a house continually, and displayed all exactness in the practice of all other virtue. These things the cynic despised, living impurely and publicly disgracing himself, and dragged away by his mad passion for glory.

"And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."

Such things, and so much ought we to eat, as will suffice to nourish us, and such things should we put on, as will cover us, and clothe our nakedness, and nothing more; and a common garment will answer this purpose.

But the just and wise man, because he deems all these things as human, and his own goods as divine, neither desires anything which belongs to another, lest he should injure any one at all in violation of the law of humanity; nor does he long for any power or honour, that he may not do an injury to any one. For he knows that all are produced by the same God, and in the same condition, and are joined together by the right of brotherhood. But being contented with his own, and that a little, because he is mindful of his frailty, he does not seek for anything beyond that which may support his life; and even from that which he has he bestows a share on the destitute, because he is pious; but piety is a very great virtue.

From this cause the unjust, and those who are ignorant of God, abound with riches, and power, and honours. For all these things are the rewards of injustice, because they cannot be perpetual, and they are sought through lust and violence. But the just and wise man, because he deems all these things as human, and his own goods as divine, neither desires anything which belongs to another, lest he should injure any one at all in violation of the law of humanity.

From which we understand that we are an object of regard to God, since He is angry when we sin. For when He might have bestowed upon His people both riches and kingdoms, as He had before given them to the Jews, whose successors and posterity we are; on this account He would have them live under the power and government of others, lest, being corrupted by the happiness of prosperity, they should glide into luxury and despise the precepts of God. He foresaw how far He would afford rest to His worshippers if they should keep His commandments, and yet correct them if they did not obey His precepts. Therefore, lest they should be as much corrupted by ease as their fathers had been by indulgence, it was His will that they should be oppressed by those in whose power He placed them. But if any one shall wish to know more fully why God permits the wicked and the unjust to become powerful, happy, and rich, and, on the other hand, suffers the pious to be humble, wretched, and poor, let him take the book of Seneca which has the title, "Why many evils happen to good men, though there is a providence;" in which book he has said many things, not assuredly with the ignorance of this world, but wisely, and almost with divine inspiration. "God," he says, "regards men as His children, but He permits the corrupt and vicious to live in luxury and delicacy, because He does not think them worthy of His correction. But He often chastises the good whom He loves, and by continual labours exercises them to the practice of virtue: nor does He permit them to be corrupted and depraved by frail and perishable goods."

On the other hand, this worldly concupiscence (to which I referred) has, as its causes, glory, cupidity, ambition, want of sufficiency; through which causes it trumps up the "necessity" for marrying,-promising itself, forsooth, heavenly things in return-to lord it, (namely,) in another's family; to roost on another's wealth; to extort splendour from another's store to lavish expenditure which you do not feel! Far be all this from believers, who have no care about maintenance, unless it be that we distrust the promises of God, and (His) care and providence, who clothes with such grace the lilies of the field; who, without any labour on their part, feeds the fowls of the heaven; who prohibits care to be taken about to-morrow's food and clothing, promising that He knows what is needful for each of His servants-not indeed ponderous necklaces, not burdensome garments, not Gallic mules nor German bearers, which all add lustre to the glory of nuptials; but "sufficiency," which is suitable to moderation and modesty, Presume, I pray you, that you have need of nothing if you "attend upon the Lord; " nay, that you have all things, if you have the Lord, whose are all things.

He defines here in what one should find contentment, and says: in having only as much as is sufficient for sustenance, and not for pleasure; one should clothe oneself with what protects the body, and this can be fulfilled even by simple clothing.

He then describes man's condition from his necessities; hence he says, having food and the wherewith to be covered, with these we are content, because goods furnish us with our necessities: some are needed to prevent internal exhaustion, and these are food; others safeguard us against external forces, and for this we need coverings of clothes and houses: let your manners be without covetousness, contented with such things as you have (Heb 13:5). The chief things for man's life is water and bread, and clothing, and a house to cover shame (Sir 29:27).

He did not say: Those who are rich. He said: Those who seek to become rich.… The name of riches is, as it were, sweet-sounding to the ear. But, "many vain and harmful desires"—does that sound sweet? To be "involved in many troubles"—does that sound sweet? Do not be so misled by one false good that you will thereby cling to many real evils.

See what a fight we have with our dead sins, as that active soldier of Christ and faithful teacher of the church shows. For how is sin dead when it works many things in us while we struggle against it? What are these many things except foolish and harmful desires which plunge into death and destruction those who consent to them? And to bear them patiently and not to consent to them is a struggle, a conflict, a battle.

But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty heights, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they possess, when they are rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not lords with respect to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their money. These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he says, "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and in perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money, which, while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." But with what rewards does the Lord invite us to contempt of worldly wealth? With what compensations does He atone for the small and trifling losses of this present time? "There is no man," saith He, "that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but he shall receive seven fold even in this time, but in the world to come life everlasting." If we know these things, and have found them out from the truth of the Lord who promises, not only is not loss of this kind to be feared, but even to be desired; as the Lord Himself again announces and warns us, "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall cast you out, and shall speak of your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake! Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven."

You are afraid that your wealth may fail. You may have begun to do some good generously from it, yet you do not know, in your wretchedness, that your life itself may fail, and your salvation as well. While you are anxious lest any of your possessions be diminished, you do not take notice that you yourself, a lover of mammon rather than of your soul, are being diminished. While you are afraid lest for your own sake you lose your estate, you yourself are perishing for the sake of your estate.

There is an article called "The Instinct that Makes People Rich." It is decorated in front with a formidable portrait of Lord Rothschild. There are many definite methods, honest and dishonest, which make people rich; the only "instinct" I know of which does it is that instinct which theological Christianity crudely describes as "the sin of avarice."

Yet again and again, over the grave of every one of those sad rich men, for whom one should surely feel, first and last, a speechless pity—over the grave of Beit, over the grave of Whiteley—this sickening nonsense about modesty and simplicity has been poured out.

Do you see the skill of physicians, who besides health are supplying you also with the riches of wisdom? Sit down therefore with them, and learn from them the nature of your disease. For instance, do you love wealth and greedy gain, like the fevered love water? Listen to their admonitions. For it is just as the physician says to you, If you wish only to gratify your desire, you will perish and undergo this or that consequence. In the same way Paul wrote, "They that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare of the devil, and into foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."

"But they that will be rich"; not those that are rich, but those who wish to be. For a man may have money and make a good use of it, not overvaluing it, but bestowing it upon the poor. Such therefore he does not blame, but the covetous.

"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."

He has justly said, "they drown men," since they cannot be raised from that depth. "In destruction and perdition."

But what is the "temptation and snare," which he says, those that would be rich fall into? It causes them to err from the faith, it involves them in dangers, it renders them less intrepid. "Foolish desires," he says. And is it not a foolish desire, when men like to keep idiots and dwarfs, not from benevolent motives, but for their pleasure, when they have receptacles for fishes in their halls, when they bring up wild beasts, when they give their time to dogs, and dress up horses, and are as fond of them as of their children? All these things are foolish and superfluous, nowise necessary, nowise useful.

"Foolish and hurtful lusts!" What are hurtful lusts? When men live unlawfully, when they desire what is their neighbor's, when they do their utmost in luxury, when they long for drunkenness, when they desire the murder and destruction of others. From these desires many have aimed at tyranny, and perished. Surely to labor with such views is both foolish and hurtful.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, some of which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils; by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Paul does not speak of those who use wealth well, but of those who desire it. And the desirer would not share it with another, so that the things of desire would not be diminished for him.

who desire to be rich. For wealth flows abundantly, and having power, it leads to unreasonable desires.

some of which plunge people. To the point of no recovery anymore.

some have wandered away. For desire darkens the eye of the soul and does not allow it to walk straight.

and pierced themselves. For greed, like a thorn, causes the hands of the one who touches to bleed.

with many pains. Not only, Paul says, does the desire to be rich obstruct matters concerning God, but it also physically weakens the lovers, surrounding them with cares, sleeplessness, and fears.

The Apostle persuades with a proof taken from this world. I do not touch upon the future, he says, but look at what happens here. He did not say "those who are rich," but "those who desire to be rich." For anyone, even while possessing wealth, can manage it well, because to despise it and distribute it to the poor is not the act of those who desire to be rich. "They fall into temptation and a snare," since they sin against the faith, and are surrounded by dangers on account of their wealth, and fear everyone.

Isn't it truly senseless to feed monkeys and cats, to keep wild animals and fish locked up in one's palaces, to adorn horses with gold, to raise water to the rooftop, to admire gleaming mirror-like floors in the house? This is senseless and harmful — harmful to the soul's welfare and exhausting of sensory goods. And many have perished because they pursued unlawful power.

So ascending upward becomes impossible for them.

Of course, as has been said, both the destruction here and the one to come.

Above, the Apostle showed what sort of gain is suitable for Christians, namely, godliness with contentment; here he shows that those who seek superfluous gain in riches incur great harm:

first, he indicates the evils that issue from an indiscriminate desire for wealth;

second, he assigns the reason, at for the desire of money.

But two sorts of evils follow: some spring from the enemy without, and others from one's own concupiscence, at into many unprofitable and hurtful desires.

He says, therefore: let us be satisfied with food and clothing, because those who will to become rich not for their necessities, but for riches to abound, fall into temptation and into the snare of the Devil: there is not a more wicked thing than to love money (Sir 10:10); be not anxious for goods unjustly gotten: for they shall not profit you in the day of calamity and revenge (Sir 5:9).

And he mentions two dangers, namely, temptations and a snare; because, first of all, they tempt, inasmuch as riches are alluring and draw one into other sins: lest perhaps he that tempts should have tempted you, and our labor should be made vain (1 Thess 3:5); let no temptation take hold on you but such as is human (1 Cor 10:13). Second, because they catch you in a snare, for to those without them riches are a temptation, but to those with them they are a snare; because they do not gladly give up goods they took from others: he that gathers treasures by a lying tongue is vain and foolish (Prov 21:6).

The danger from within is threefold: first, the desire branches out into many unprofitable and hurtful desires. For a man's perfection depends on his heart's being concentrated upon one thing; because the more a person is one, the more like unto God he is, who is truly one: one thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps 26:4). But one who seeks riches acts against this, because his heart is attracted to many things: their heart is divided; now they shall perish (Hos 10:2), the reason being that where your heart is, there is your treasure also (Matt 6:21).

Furthermore, such desires are unprofitable in many ways: first, they are spiritually unprofitable, because riches do not lead one to happiness: what has pride profited us? Or what advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? (Wis 5:8); he who loves riches shall reap no fruit from them (Eccl 5:9); second, they are unprofitable temporally, because they do not give what they promise: there is also another evil which I have seen under the sun, and that frequent among men: a man to whom God has given treasure and substance and honor, and his soul lacks nothing of what he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery (Eccl 6:1).

Third, they are hurtful: riches kept to the hurt of the owner (Eccl 5:12). He shows that they are hurtful, because they drown men into destruction in the present life. Many have perished because of riches. And in the future life into perdition: keep your money to yourself to perish with you (Acts 8:20). Or both refer to spiritual harm: destruction, i.e., spiritual death: God endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction (Rom 9:22); and perdition, i.e., eternal punishment, which is called perdition because of the sufferings of the damned, who cannot return to their own home, i.e., their eternal home: because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath (Job 21:30).

Therefore, dearly beloved, the rust is that worm which alone possesses the recesses of the human heart: the worm of envy and of avarice. But the thief is the devil. Believe this. To lay his plots against good deeds, he flatters us with the pomp of the world. To keep a man from sharing in the heavenly kingdom, he puts gold in his hands, silver before his eyes, gems about his neck. In this way he nourishes pride and by the goad of covetousness enkindles the desires of the flesh.

How happy is the man who has been able to cut out the root of vices, avarice. Surely he will not dread this balance. Avarice generally dulls men's senses and corrupts their judgments, so that they think piety a gain, and money a sort of reward for sagacity. But great is the reward of piety and the gaining of sobriety. The possession of these virtues is sufficient.

Therefore the man of good counsel says, "I have learned in whatever state I am to be content." For he knew that the root of all evils is the love of money. Therefore he was content with what he had, without seeking for what was another's. Sufficient for me, he says, is what I have. Whether I have little or much, to me it is much.

For when the soul loves its own power, it slips from the common whole to its own particular part. Had it followed God as its ruler in the universal creature, it could have been most excellently governed by his laws. But in that apostatizing pride, which is called "the beginning of sin," it sought for something more than the whole; and while it struggled to govern it by its own laws, it was thrust into caring for a part, since there is nothing more than the whole. So by desiring something more, it becomes less, and for this reason covetousness is called "the root of all evils."

So love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, I can see that you love yourself, because you love God. Charity is the root of all good works. Just as greed, after all, is the root of all evil, so charity is the root of all good things.

Fear causes one to withdraw from evil and from the occasion of evil; and because the root of all evils is cupidity, therefore fear disposes to poverty of spirit, in which humility is joined together with poverty, so that the perfect man may thus be distanced from the fount of all fault, namely from pride and cupidity. And hence it is that poverty of spirit is the foundation of all evangelical perfection.

In these two commandments: "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods, nor shall you desire his wife," the illicit interior act is prohibited, and here the concupiscence of the eyes, or covetousness, is prohibited, which "is the root of all evils"; the concupiscence of the flesh is also prohibited, which is the kindling of all sins. Through this twofold concupiscence occurs the transmission of all evils and sins; and therefore the divine law prohibits it, and in this prohibits all evils and all sins.

But now love of money is found to be the stronghold of evil, which the apostle says "is the root of all evils, which, while some coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

But the best riches is poverty of desires; and the true magnanimity is not to be proud of wealth, but to despise it. Boasting about one's plate is utterly base. For it is plainly wrong to care much about what any one who likes may buy from the market. But wisdom is not bought with coin of earth, nor is it sold in the market-place, but in heaven. And it is sold for true coin, the immortal Word, the regal gold.

The modern miser has changed much from the miser of legend and anecdote; but only because he has grown yet more insane. The old miser had some touch of the human artist about him in so far that he collected gold--a substance that can really be admired for itself, like ivory or old oak. An old man who picked up yellow pieces had something of the simple ardour, something of the mystical materialism, of a child who picks out yellow flowers. Gold is but one kind of coloured clay, but coloured clay can be very beautiful. The modern idolater of riches is content with far less genuine things. The glitter of guineas is like the glitter of buttercups, the chink of pelf is like the chime of bells, compared with the dreary papers and dead calculations which make the hobby of the modern miser.

The modern millionaire loves nothing so lovable as a coin. He is content sometimes with the dead crackle of notes; but far more often with the mere repetition of noughts in a ledger, all as like each other as eggs to eggs. And as for comfort, the old miser could be comfortable, as many tramps and savages are, when he was once used to being unclean. A man could find some comfort in an unswept attic or an unwashed shirt. But the Yankee millionaire can find no comfort with five telephones at his bed-head and ten minutes for his lunch. The round coins in the miser's stocking were safe in some sense. The round noughts in the millionaire's ledger are safe in no sense; the same fluctuation which excites him with their increase depresses him with their diminution. The miser at least collects coins; his hobby is numismatics. The man who collects noughts collects nothings.

The tree, then, from which comes this fruit of mixed knowledge is among those things which are forbidden. Its fruit is combined of opposite qualities, and therefore for this reason perhaps has the serpent to commend it. For the evil is not exposed in its nakedness, thereby appearing in its own proper nature; for wickedness would surely fail of its effect were it not decked with some fair color to entice to the desire of it him whom it deceives. But now the nature of evil is in a manner mixed and thus keeps destruction like some snare concealed in its depths and displays some phantom of good in the deceitfulness of its exterior. The beauty of the substance seems good to those who love money.

In many places Paul covertly signifies this point: a corrupt life is the parent of evil doctrines. "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, which some reaching after, have been led astray from the faith." Indeed, many of those who are conscious of wickedness and would prefer not to pay its penalty are by this fear damaged also in their faith concerning the resurrection. This can happen even when they on a daily basis are virtuously desiring to behold the resurrection.

The man who possesses nothing as if he had everything disdains all. He is very outspoken with officials, and rulers, and the sovereign. For by despising possessions and advancing methodically, he will scorn even death with ease. Since he is above these things, he will speak openly with everyone and tremble with fear before no one. But the man who has devoted himself to money is a slave to it and also to his reputation, honor, the present life, in short, to all human concerns. Consequently, Paul has called it the root of all evil.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

Two things he mentions, and that which to them might seem the more weighty he places last, their "many sorrows." And to learn how true this is, the only way is to sojourn with the rich, to see how many are their sorrows, how bitter their complaints.

And well has he said, "They have erred from the faith." Covetousness attracting their eyes to herself, and gradually stealing away their minds, suffers them not to see their way. For as one walking on the straight road, with his mind intent on something else, proceeds on his way indeed, but, often without knowing it, passes by the very city to which he was hastening, his feet plying on at random and to no purpose: such like a thing is covetousness. "They have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Dost thou see what he means by that word "pierced"? What he means to express by the allusion is this. Desires are thorns, and as when one touches thorns, he gores his hand, and gets him wounds, so he that falls into these lusts will be wounded by them, and pierce his soul with griefs. And what cares and troubles attend those who are thus pierced, it is not possible to express. Therefore he says, "Flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." For meekness springs from love.

"But the love of money is the root of all evils." Knowing, therefore, that "as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out," let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness; and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. Next, [teach] your wives [to walk] in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all [others] equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God. Teach the widows to be discreet as respects the faith of the Lord, praying continually for all, being far from all slandering, evil-speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altar of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.

For to what, most dearly beloved, does the wisdom of this world urge us, but to seek things that are hurtful, and to love things that are to perish, and to neglect things that are healthful, and to esteem as of no value things that are lasting? It commends the love of money, of which it is said, The love of money is the root of all evil;

For, if a man be only in name called holy, he is not holy; but he must be holy in everything: in his body and in his spirit. And those who are virgins rejoice at all times in becoming like God and His Christ, and are imitators of them. For in those that are such there is not "the mind of the flesh." In those who are truly believers, and "in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells" [Romans 8:9] — in them "the mind of the flesh" cannot be: which is fornication, uncleanness, wantonness; idolatry, sorcery; enmity, jealousy, rivalry, wrath, disputes, dissensions, ill-will; drunkenness, revelry; buffoonery, foolish talking, boisterous laughter; backbiting, insinuations; bitterness, rage; clamour, abuse, insolence of speech; malice, inventing of evil, falsehood; talkativeness, babbling; threatenings, gnashing of teeth, readiness to accuse, jarring, disdainings, blows; perversions of the right, laxness in judgment; haughtiness, arrogance, ostentation, pompousness, boasting of family, of beauty, of position, of wealth, of an arm of flesh; quarrelsomeness, injustice, eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy, retaliation; debauchery, gluttony, "overreaching (which is idolatry)," [Colossians 3:5] "the love of money (which is the root of all evils);" [1 Timothy 6:10] love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption, pride (which is called death, and which "God fights against"). Every man with whom are these and such like things — every such man is of the flesh.

If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, "a root of all evils," wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, "have suffered shipwreck about faith.

Of that, therefore, which we have not the smallest need to seek after, because the Lord did not seek after it either, we ought to endure without heart-sickness the cutting down or taking away. "Covetousness," the Spirit of the Lord has through the apostle pronounced "a root of all evils." Let us not interpret that covetousness as consisting merely in the concupiscence of what is another's: for even what seems ours is another's; for nothing is ours, since all things are God's, whose are we also ourselves.

He spares not the living, nor does he spare the dead, but robs even them, rises up against parents and brothers, and sacrilegiously steals what belongs to God. Cast out the love of money — and there will be no wars, no enmity, no fornication; for the harlot gives herself over to lewdness for the sake of money.

Love of money, riveting all of a person's attention to itself, does not allow him to see the path of truth. For how will a lover of money believe the Gospel, which introduces poverty? This is impossible.

Already in this life they have nailed themselves. Indeed, how many griefs do they experience? How much do they weep? And it is well said: "pierced." For the cares of riches are like a thorn bush, as the Lord also said (Matt. 13:22). From whatever side one touches it, one draws blood upon one's hands, inflicting upon oneself wounds and pain.

Then when he says, for the desire of money is the root of all evils, he gives his reason from two sources, namely, from the nature of covetousness and from experience: which, some coveting, have erred from the faith.

He says, therefore: they fall into temptation and into the snares of the Devil. Why? Because the desire of money is the root of all evils. Here it should be noted that according to some, covetousness is taken in three ways: first, for avarice considered as a special sin, namely, the inordinate love of possessing riches; second, as a genus under which all sins fall, inasmuch as it implies the inordinate desire for a temporal thing – and this is involved in every sin, because sin is a turning to a perishable good. Taken this way it is not the root, but the genus, of all evils; third, it is taken to signify a disorder of soul inclining it to desire temporal goods inordinately. Taken in this sense, it is only a habit and not an act; yet it is the root of all evils.

And it is called a root the way pride is called the beginning: pride is the beginning of all sin (Sir 10:15), because pride suggests a corrupt inclination of the soul to withdraw from God. But a tree draws its nourishment from the roots; in this way sin in its aspect of being a turning to a perishable good draws its nourishment from covetousness.

But I believe that he is speaking of covetousness taken as a special sin; that is why he says, those who will to become rich, fall into temptation and into the snare of the Devil. And this is an inordinate love of money; consequently, it is the root of all sins, for all sins involve a seeking: as a result the origin of sins must be sought in the origin of desirable things. For the origin of desirable things springs from the end; consequently, the more desirable the end a sin has, the worse that sin is.

But there are two things which make the end of a sin desirable; namely, the end may be desirable for its own sake, and it is excellence, because a man wills that good as a means of excelling: and this is pride; consequently, pride is the beginning of all sins. Or the end may be desirable for the sake of some other end; and this makes a thing desirable because it is useful for obtaining everything. And this is what riches can do, for with riches men believe they can buy anything. And this is the sense in which covetousness is the root of all evils.

Then when he says, which some coveting, have erred from the faith, he proves the same thing through experience. And he says, coveting, because the more riches are possessed, the more they are desired: a covetous man shall not be satisfied with money (Eccl 5:9).

They fall, first, into spiritual harm; hence he says, they have erred from the faith. The reason for this is that sound doctrine forbids many unlawful profits which they refuse to give up; consequently, they invent their own doctrine which creates for them a new hope of salvation. This is what usurers often do. Second, they have entangled themselves in many sorrows, even in the present life, because there is anxiety in acquiring riches, fear in possessing them, and pain in losing them: when he shall be filled with riches, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him (Job 20:22).

"As for you, man of God, flee from these things." You see, he didn't just say, "Leave and forsake," but "Flee from," as from an enemy. You were trying to flee with gold; flee from gold instead. Let your heart flee from it, and your use of it need have no worries. Do without greed; don't do without concern for others. There's something you can do with gold, if you're its master, not its slave. If you're the master of gold, you can do good with it; if you're its slave, it can do evil with you.

Strive to discover stirrings that are good during the time of prayer, as the wise do. These consist in reflection on the Spirit's insights and sagacious thought, and consideration during the time of prayer of how to please the will of the Maker of all. This is the final end of all virtue and of all prayer. When in these matters you receive the power that stems from grace to be bound firmly to their continual stirrings, you will become a "man of God" and will be close to spiritual things.

"But thou, O man of God."

This is a title of great dignity. For we are all men of God, but the righteous peculiarly so, not by right of creation only, but by that of appropriation. If then thou art a "man of God," seek not superfluous things, which lead thee not to God, but

"Flee these things, and follow after righteousness." Both expressions are emphatic; he does not say turn from one, and approach the other, but "flee these things, pursue righteousness," so as not to be covetous.

"Godliness," that is, soundness in doctrines. "Faith," which is opposed to questionings. "Love," patience, meekness.

Immortality, then, is not the consequence of nature, but the reward and recompense of virtue. Lastly, man does not immediately upon his birth walk upright, but at first on all fours, because the nature of his body and of this present life is common to us with the dumb animals; afterwards, when his strength is confirmed, he raises himself, and his tongue is loosened so that he speaks plainly, and he ceases to be a dumb animal. And this argument teaches that man is born mortal; but that he afterwards becomes immortal, when he begins to live in conformity with the will of God, that is, to follow righteousness, which is comprised in the worship of God, since God raised man to a view of the heaven and of Himself. And this takes place when man, purified in the heavenly laver, lays aside his infancy together with all the pollution of his past life, and having received an increase of divine vigour, becomes a perfect and complete man.

Therefore, because God has set forth virtue before man, although the soul and the body are connected together, yet they are contrary, and oppose one another. The things which are good for the soul are evil to the body, that is, the avoiding of riches, the prohibiting of pleasures, the contempt of pain and death. In like manner, the things which are good for the body are evil to the soul, that is, desire and lust, by which riches are desired, and the enjoyments of various pleasures, by which the soul is weakened and destroyed.

But you, O man of God, flee these things; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

But you, O man of God. Great is the dignity. For all men are servants of God, especially the righteous, not only according to the reason of creation, but also according to that of adoption.

flee these things. Both with emphasis; for Paul did not say, "Avoid this one, but approach that one," but rather, "Flee and pursue."

pursue righteousness. To have no more than is sufficient for life.

godliness. In doctrines.

faith. Without controversies.

love. The offspring of faith, towards God and men. The order of the statement is good. For from faith, love is born; and from love, patience. And patience, as it walks, makes gentleness.

...as also he who hath after the example of Timothy ordered his life, obeying him who says, "Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."

He in whomsoever the Spirit of God is, is in accord with the will of the Spirit of God; and, because he is in accord with the Spirit of God, therefore does he mortify the deeds of the body and live unto God, "treading down and subjugating the body and keeping it under; so that, while preaching to others," he may be a beautiful example and pattern to believers, and may spend his life in works which are worthy of the Holy Spirit, so that he may "not be cast away," [1 Corinthians 9:27] but may be approved before God and before men. For in "the man who is of God," [1 Timothy 6:11] with him I say there is nothing of the mind of the flesh; and especially in virgins of either sex; but the fruits of all of them are "the fruits of the Spirit" [Galatians 5:22] and of life, and they are truly the city of God, and the houses and temples in which God abides and dwells, and among which He walks, as in the holy city of heaven.

Great is this dignity! True, all people are God's, but especially the righteous — not only because they are God's creatures, but also because of their closeness to God. If you are a man of God, then do not seek that which turns you away from God, but what?

Do both with intense diligence. He did not say withdraw and approach, but: "flee these things and pursue righteousness," so as not to rob anyone, as those who wish to become rich do.

He means the dogmas.

Which does not admit of investigation.

That is, in a correct way of life, for its foundation is love.

From love comes patience and meekness. For love endures all things and is long-suffering.

Then when he says, but you, O man of God, he warns him to follow sound doctrine and to flee from evil:

first, he describes the road he should follow;

second, he binds him to it with a command, at I charge you.

In regard to the first he does two things: first, he urges him to avoid the sins already mentioned;

second, he points out what he should do, at pursue justice.

Because a servant should imitate his master, for it is said: as the judge of the people is himself, so also are his ministers (Sir 10:2); he says, O man of God. As if to say: you are dedicated to the service of God: O Lord, I am your servant (Ps 115:16); he who says he abides in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked (1 John 2:6). Therefore, if you are a man of God, you ought to do as Christ did who fled when they wished to make him king (John 6:15); who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the same (Heb 12:2). Therefore, you too, fly these things: lo, I have gone far off, flying away; and I abode in the wilderness (Ps 54:8).

What then is he to do? Two things:

first, clothe himself in spiritual armor;

second, do battle with them, at fight the good fight.

But spiritual armor is useful either for doing good or enduring evil;

and the first of these involves us with our neighbor, to whom we are rightly ordered through justice and godliness, i.e., mercy: because the first without the second is severity, and the second without the first is weakness. As to the first he says, pursue justice, which is competent to prelates: love justice, who judge the earth (Wis 1:1); as to the second he says, godliness, i.e., mercy: mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is strengthened by clemency (Prov 20:28).

Doing this also involves us with God to whom we are rightly ordered, first of all, by faith which perfects the intellect: without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6); second, by charity which perfects our affectivity: he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).

For sustaining evils we need two virtues, namely, patience and mildness, because a man can be subject to two disorderly emotions in the face of evil, namely, immoderate sadness and the anger resulting therefrom. Therefore, patience is a shield against immoderate sadness: in your patience you shall possess your souls (Luke 21:19); and mildness against anger.