The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.15–2.19

“Therefore,” he says, “I say to you, do not be anxious for your soul, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on”; lest perhaps, although superfluous things are no longer sought, the heart be doubled on account of necessary things themselves, and our intention be twisted toward obtaining them when we do something as if out of mercy; that is, lest, when we wish to seem to be looking after someone, we pay attention there rather to our own gain than to his benefit, and think we do not sin because it is not superfluous but necessary things which we wish to obtain. But the Lord admonishes us to remember that God has given us much more, in making and composing us of soul and body, than food and clothing, through care for which he does not wish us to double our heart. “Is not the soul,” he says, “more than food?” So that you may understand that he who gave the soul will much more easily give food. “And the body than clothing,” that is, is more, so that you may likewise understand that he who gave the body will much more easily give clothing.

In this place it is usually asked whether this food pertains to the soul, since the soul is incorporeal, but this food is bodily. But let us know that “soul” is put in this place for this life, whose support is this bodily nourishment. In this meaning that too is said: “He who loves his soul will lose it.” Unless we take this of this life, which one must lose for the kingdom of God, as it has been shown that the martyrs could, this precept will be contrary to that saying in which it is said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul?”

“Look,” he says, “at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”, that is, you are worth more. For certainly a rational animal, such as man is, has been ranked higher in the nature of things than irrational ones, such as birds are. “And which of you,” he says, “by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? And why are you anxious about clothing?” That is: by the providence of him by whose power and dominion it came about that your body was brought to this stature, it can also be clothed; but that it was not by your care that your body came to this stature can be understood from this, that if you were anxious and wished to add one cubit to this stature, you could not; leave, then, the care of covering the body too to him by whose care you see it came about that you have a body of such stature.

And an illustration had to be given for clothing too, as one was given for food. And so he follows and says: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith?” But these illustrations are not to be examined as allegories, so that we ask what the birds of the air or the lilies of the field signify; for they have been set down so that greater things might be urged from lesser ones: as is the case with that judge who neither feared God nor respected man, and yet yielded to the widow who often appealed to him, so as to consider her case, not out of piety or humanity, but so as not to suffer annoyance. For that unjust judge in no way represents the person of God allegorically; but yet the Lord wished it to be inferred from this how much God, who is good and just, cares for those who pray to him, since not even an unjust man can despise those who pound him with constant prayers, if only to avoid annoyance.

“Do not, therefore,” he says, “be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things. For your Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first, therefore, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Here he shows most manifestly that these things are not to be sought as our goods in such a way that we ought to do good for their sake, if we do anything, but yet that they are necessary. For what difference there is between the good that is to be sought and the necessary thing that is to be taken, he declared by this saying when he said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The kingdom and righteousness of God, then, is our good, and this is to be sought, and there the goal is to be set for whose sake we do all that we do. But because we serve as soldiers in this life, so that we may be able to come to that kingdom, and this life cannot be carried on without these necessary things, “these things will be added to you,” he says, “but you, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” For when he said “first,” he signified that this is to be sought later, not in time but in dignity: that as our good, this as our necessity; but a necessity for the sake of that good.

For we ought not, for example, to preach the Gospel in order to eat, but to eat in order to preach the Gospel: for if we preach the Gospel in order to eat, we hold the Gospel cheaper than food; and then our good will be in eating, and our necessity in preaching. This too the Apostle forbids, when he says that it was indeed lawful for him, and permitted by the Lord, that those who proclaim the Gospel should live by the Gospel, that is, have from the Gospel the things necessary for this life; but yet that he had not abused this power. For there were many who desired to have an occasion of acquiring and selling the Gospel; and wishing to cut off this occasion from them, the Apostle supported himself with his own hands. For of these he says in another place, “That I may cut off the occasion from those who seek an occasion.” Although even if, like the other good apostles, he lived by the Gospel with the Lord’s permission, he would not on that account set the goal of preaching in that livelihood, but would rather place the goal of his livelihood itself in the Gospel; that is, as I said above, he would not preach in order to arrive at food and whatever other necessities there are, but would take these in order to fulfil that, so as to preach not unwillingly, from necessity. For this is what he condemns when he says: “Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat what is from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share with the altar? So too the Lord ordained for those who proclaim the Gospel to live by the Gospel; but I have used none of these things.” Here he shows that it was permitted, not commanded; otherwise he will be held to have acted against the Lord’s precept. Then he goes on and says: “But I have not written these things that it may be done so in my case. For it is better for me to die than that anyone should make my glorying empty.” He said this because he had already resolved, on account of some who were seeking an occasion, to get his livelihood with his own hands. “For if I preach the Gospel,” he says, “I have no glory”: that is, if I preach the Gospel so that these things may be done in my case, that is, if I preach the Gospel in order to arrive at those things and place the goal of the Gospel in food and drink and clothing. But why has he no glory? “For necessity,” he says, “lies upon me”; that is, so that I preach the Gospel because I have nothing to live on, or in order to acquire temporal profit from the preaching of eternal things: for thus there will be necessity in the Gospel, not will. “For woe to me,” he says, “if I do not preach the Gospel.” But how ought he to preach? Surely so as to place his reward in the Gospel itself and in the kingdom of God: for thus he can preach not compelled but willingly. “For if I do this willingly,” he says, “I have a reward; but if unwillingly, a stewardship has been entrusted to me”: that is, if, compelled by want of the things necessary for temporal life, I preach the Gospel, others will have the reward of the Gospel through me, who love the Gospel itself when I preach it; but I will not have it, because I do not love the Gospel itself, but its price, set in those temporal things. And it is wrong for this to happen, that anyone should minister the Gospel not as a son but as a slave to whom a stewardship has been entrusted, so that he pays out, as it were, what belongs to another, receiving nothing from it himself except rations, which are given from outside, not from a share in the kingdom, but for the support of a wretched servitude. Although in another place he calls himself a steward too. For a slave too, adopted into the number of sons, can faithfully dispense to his fellow sharers that thing in which he has earned the portion of a co-heir. But here, where he says, “But if unwillingly, a stewardship has been entrusted to me,” he wished to be understood such a steward as dispenses what belongs to another, from which he himself receives nothing.

Whatever thing, then, is sought for the sake of something else is without doubt inferior to that for whose sake it is sought; and therefore that is first for whose sake you seek this thing, not this thing which you seek for its sake. Wherefore, if we seek the Gospel and the kingdom of God for the sake of food, we make food first and the kingdom of God later; so that if food were not lacking, we would not seek the kingdom of God: this is to seek food first and then the kingdom of God, that is, to put this in the first place, that in the later. But if we seek food in order to have the kingdom of God, we do what was said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

For those who seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God, that is, who put this before other things so that they seek the other things for its sake, there ought to be no anxiety lest the things be lacking which are necessary to this life for the sake of the kingdom of God. For he said above, “Your Father knows that you need all these things.” And therefore when he had said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” he did not say, “Then seek these things,” although they are necessary; but he said, “all these things will be added to you,” that is, will follow, if you seek those, without any hindrance on your part: lest, while you seek these, you be turned away from that; or lest you set up two goals, so that you seek both the kingdom of God for its own sake and these necessary things; but rather seek these for the sake of that: thus they will not be lacking to you. For you cannot serve two masters. And he tries to serve two masters who seeks both the kingdom of God as a great good and these temporal things. But he will not be able to have a single eye and serve one master, the Lord God, unless he takes whatever other things there are, if they are necessary, for the sake of this one thing, that is, for the sake of the kingdom of God. Just as all who serve as soldiers receive rations and pay, so all who preach the Gospel receive food and clothing. But not all serve as soldiers for the welfare of the state, but for the sake of what they receive; so too not all minister to God for the welfare of the church, but for the sake of these temporal things, which they obtain as rations and pay; or both for this and for that. But it has already been said above, “You cannot serve two masters.” So with a single heart we ought to do good to all solely for the sake of the kingdom of God, and in this work not think of the reward of temporal things, either alone or together with the kingdom of God; all of which temporal things he denoted by the name of tomorrow, saying, “Do not think about tomorrow.” For a day is not called tomorrow except in time, where the future succeeds the past. So when we do some good, let us think not of temporal but of eternal things: then that will be a good and perfect work. “For tomorrow,” he says, “will be anxious for itself”: that is, so that you take food or drink or clothing when you need to, that is, when necessity itself begins to press. For these things will be at hand, because our Father knows that we need all these things. “For sufficient,” he says, “for the day is its own evil”: that is, it is enough that necessity itself will press us to take these things. And I think it was named evil for this reason, that it is penal for us: for it belongs to this frailty and mortality which we earned by sinning. To this punishment of temporal necessity, then, do not add something heavier, so that you not only suffer the want of these things, but also serve God as a soldier in order to satisfy it.

But in this place we must beware vehemently lest, when we see some servant of God providing that these necessary things are not lacking either to himself or to those whose care has been committed to him, we judge that he is acting against the Lord’s precept and is anxious about tomorrow. For the Lord himself too, to whom angels ministered, nevertheless, for the sake of example, so that no one might afterward take offence on noticing one of his servants procuring these necessary things, deigned to have a purse with money, from which whatever was needed might be supplied for necessary uses; of which purse the keeper and the thief, as is written, was Judas, who betrayed him. So too the apostle Paul can seem to have thought about tomorrow when he said: “Now concerning the collections for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also do: on the first day of the week let each of you put by at home, storing up what pleases him, so that collections may not be made when I come. And when I arrive, whomever you approve by letters, I will send to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting that I go too, they will go with me. And I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia; for I am passing through Macedonia; and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on wherever I go. For I do not wish to see you now in passing; for I hope to remain some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will remain at Ephesus until Pentecost.” Again, in the Acts of the Apostles it is written that the things necessary for food were procured for the future because of an impending famine. For thus we read: “In those days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and there was great rejoicing. And when we were gathered together, one of them named Agabus stood up and signified by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over the whole world, which also happened under Claudius Caesar. And the disciples, each according as he had abundance, determined each of them to send for relief to the presbyters, the brothers living in Judea; which they also sent by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.” And in that provisions which were offered to him were put on board for the same apostle Paul when he was sailing, food seems to have been procured not for one day only. And as for what the same Apostle writes, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labour, working with his hands what is good, so that he may have something to give to one in need,” to those who understand badly he does not seem to keep the Lord’s precept which says, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,” and, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,” since he commands these people to labour, working with their hands, so that they may have something they can give to others too. And as for his often saying of himself that he worked with his own hands so as not to burden anyone, and its being written of him that he joined himself to Aquila because of their likeness of trade, so that they might work together for their living, he does not seem to have imitated the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. From these and similar places of the Scriptures it appears clearly enough that our Lord does not condemn it if anyone procures these things in the human way, but only if anyone serves God as a soldier for the sake of these things, so that in his works he looks not to the kingdom of God but to the acquiring of these things.

To this rule, then, this whole precept is reduced: that even in providing these things we think of the kingdom of God, but in the service of the kingdom of God we do not think of these things. For thus, even if they are sometimes lacking, which God often allows for our exercise, not only do they not weaken our purpose, but they even strengthen it once it has been examined and proved. “For we glory,” he says, “in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience proof, and proof hope; and hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And in recounting his tribulations and labours the same Apostle recalls that he laboured not only in prisons and shipwrecks and many troubles of that kind, but also in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness. When we read this, let us not think that the Lord’s promises wavered, so that the Apostle suffered hunger and thirst and nakedness while seeking the kingdom and righteousness of God, although it was said to us, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”: since that physician to whom we have once committed ourselves wholly, and from whom we have the promise of the present and the future life, knows, as with aids, when to add these things and when to withdraw them, as he judges expedient for us; and he governs and directs us, to be comforted and exercised in this life, and after this life to be established and made firm in everlasting rest. For a man too, when he often withdraws feed from his beast, does not desert it from his care, but rather does this by caring for it.

And since, when these things are either procured for the future or, if there is no reason for spending them, are kept, it is uncertain with what mind it is done, since it can be done with a single heart and can be done with a double one, he fittingly added in this place: “Do not judge, that you may not be judged; for with the judgment with which you judge you will be judged, and with the measure with which you measure it will be measured back to you.” In this place I think nothing else is commanded us than that we interpret in the better sense those deeds about which it is doubtful with what mind they are done. For what is written, “By their fruits you will know them,” was said of manifest things, which cannot be done with a good mind: such as acts of sexual immorality, or blasphemies, or thefts, or drunkenness, and whatever such things there are, about which we are permitted to judge, as the Apostle says, “For what have I to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?” But concerning kinds of food, since any human foods can be taken indifferently with a good mind and a single heart without the fault of concupiscence, the same Apostle forbids those who ate meat and drank wine to be judged by those who abstained from foods of this kind: “Let not him who eats,” he says, “despise him who does not eat; and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats.” There he also says: “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” For about such things, which can be done with a good and single and great mind, although they can also be done with a mind not good, those people, though they were men, wished to pronounce sentence on the hidden things of the heart, of which God alone judges.

To this pertains also what he says in another place: “Do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then each will have praise from God.” There are, then, certain middle deeds, of which we do not know with what mind they are done, because they can be done with both a good and a bad mind, about which it is rash to judge, especially so as to condemn. But the time will come for these to be judged, when the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart. Again, in another place the same Apostle says: “The sins of some men are manifest, going before them to judgment; but some also follow after.” He calls those manifest of which it is clear with what mind they are done: these go before to judgment; that is, if judgment follows them, it is not rash. But those follow after which are hidden; for not even they will lie hidden in their time. So too is it to be understood of good deeds. For he adds thus: “Likewise also good deeds are manifest; and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.” Let us judge, then, of manifest things; but of hidden things let us leave the judgment to God: for these too cannot be hidden, whether evil or good, when the time has come for them to be made manifest.

Now there are two cases in which we ought to beware of rash judgment: when it is uncertain with what mind anything has been done, or when it is uncertain what someone will become who now appears either good or bad. If, then, for example, someone complaining of his stomach has been unwilling to fast, and you, not believing him, attribute this to the fault of gluttony, you will judge rashly. Again, if you have come to know manifest gluttony and drunkenness, and rebuke it as if the man could never be corrected and changed, you will nonetheless judge rashly. Let us not, then, rebuke those things of which we do not know with what mind they are done; nor so rebuke those which are manifest as to despair of healing; and we shall avoid the judgment of which it is now said, “Do not judge, that you may not be judged.”

But it can be disturbing that he says, “For with the judgment with which you judge you will be judged, and with the measure with which you measure it will be measured back to you.” For if we judge with rash judgment, will God also judge us rashly? Or if we measure with an unjust measure, is there also with God an unjust measure from which it will be measured back to us? For I think that by the name of measure the judgment itself is signified. In no way does God either judge rashly or repay anyone with an unjust measure; but this has been said because the rashness with which you punish another must itself punish you. Unless perhaps it is to be thought that iniquity does some harm to him against whom it proceeds, but none to him from whom it proceeds: on the contrary, it often does no harm to him who suffers the injury, but must harm him who does it. For what harm did the iniquity of the persecutors do to the martyrs? But to the persecutors themselves very much. For even if some of them were corrected, yet at the time when they were persecuting, their malice was blinding them. So too rash judgment for the most part does no harm to the one about whom one judges rashly; but to him who judges rashly the rashness itself must do harm. By this rule I think that saying too was said: “Everyone who strikes with the sword will die by the sword.” For how many strike with the sword and yet do not die by the sword, as not even Peter himself did? But lest anyone think that he escaped such a penalty through the pardon of sins (although nothing is more absurd than to think that the penalty of the sword, which did not befall Peter, could have been greater than that of the cross, which did befall him), what will he say about the robbers who were crucified with the Lord, since he who earned pardon earned it after he had been crucified, while the other did not earn it at all? Or had they perhaps crucified all whom they had killed, and therefore deserved to suffer this too themselves? It is ridiculous to think this. What else, then, has been said, “For everyone who strikes with the sword will die by the sword,” but that the soul dies by the very sin, whatever it has committed?

And since in this place the Lord warns us about rash and unjust judgment (for he wishes us to do whatever we do with a single heart intent on the one God; and there are many things of which it is uncertain with what heart they are done, about which it is rash to judge; and those especially judge rashly about uncertain things and readily find fault who love to blame and condemn rather than to amend and correct, which is the vice either of pride or of envy), he goes on to add and say, “But why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not see the beam in your own eye?” As if, for example, he has sinned by anger, and you rebuke him with hatred: and as much as there is between a speck and a beam, so much, as it were, is the difference between anger and hatred. For hatred is inveterate anger, which by age itself has acquired such strength that it is rightly called a beam. Now it can happen that if you are angry with a man, you wish him to be corrected; but if you hate a man, you cannot wish to correct him. “For how do you say to your brother, Let me cast the speck out of your eye, and behold, there is a beam in your own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see to cast the speck out of your brother’s eye”: that is, first drive hatred out of yourself, and then you will be able to amend him whom you love. And he says well, “Hypocrite.” For to accuse vices is the duty of good and well-disposed men; when bad men do it, they play another’s part, like hypocrites, who hide under a mask what they are and display in the mask what they are not. By the name of hypocrites, then, you should understand pretenders. And truly a much-to-be-shunned and troublesome kind of pretenders are those who, while they take up accusations of all vices out of hatred and spite, wish also to seem counsellors. And therefore we must watch piously and carefully, so that when necessity compels us to rebuke or reprove someone, we first consider whether it is such a vice as we have never had, or of which we are now free; and if we have never had it, let us consider that we are men and could have had it; but if we have had it and do not have it now, let common weakness touch our memory, so that not hatred but mercy may go before that rebuke or reproof: so that whether it serves for the correction of him for whose sake we do it or for his perversion (for the outcome is uncertain), we may yet be secure about the singleness of our eye. But if on reflection we find ourselves to be in the same vice as he whom we were preparing to rebuke, let us not rebuke or reprove, but rather groan together; and let us invite him not to obey us, but to strive together with us.

For that too which the Apostle says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those under the Law as under the Law, though I myself am not under the Law, that I might win those who were under the Law; to those without the Law as without the Law, though I am not without the law of God but in the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without the Law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I became all things to all, that I might win all,” he certainly did not do by pretence, as some wish it to be understood, so that their detestable pretence may be fortified by the authority of so great an example; but he did this by love, by which he thought of the weakness of the one whom he wished to help as his own. For he also laid the groundwork for this by saying, “For though I am free from all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might win the more.” And so that you may understand that this is done not by pretence but by love, by which we have compassion on weak men as if we were they, he admonishes thus in another place, saying, “You were called to freedom, brothers; only do not give freedom as an occasion for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” This cannot be done unless each holds the other’s weakness as his own, so as to bear it with an even mind until he whose salvation he cares for is freed from it.

Rarely, then, and in great necessity are reproofs to be used, yet in such a way that even in these we press on so that not we but God may be served. For he is the goal: so that we do nothing with a double heart, removing from our eye the beam of envy or malice or pretence, so that we may see to cast the speck out of a brother’s eye. For we shall see it with the eyes of a dove, such as are praised in the bride of Christ, the glorious church which God has chosen for himself, not having spot or wrinkle, that is, pure and single.