Homilies on 2 Corinthians 21.1–21.4

["Now I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you; but I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I count on daring against some who count us as walking according to the flesh"] [2 Cor 10:1–2]. Having completed his discourse on almsgiving as he ought, and having shown that he loves them more than he is loved, and having recounted his endurance and his trials, he now fittingly takes up words of a sharper rebuke, attacking the false apostles, and closing the letter with the more burdensome matters, and commending himself. For he does this through the whole letter. Hence, being aware of it, he often corrects himself, saying this very thing: "Are we beginning again to commend ourselves?" [2 Cor 3:1]; and further on he says, "We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an occasion to boast" [2 Cor 5:12]; and after this, "I have become a fool in boasting; you compelled me" [2 Cor 12:11]. And he uses many such corrections. And one would not be wrong to call this letter an encomium of Paul; so abundantly does he set out the gifts of grace and his own endurance. For since there were some among them who thought highly of themselves and set themselves above the apostle, slandering him as a boaster and as a nobody who taught nothing sound (for this was above all the proof of their corruption), see how he begins his rebuke against them: "Now I, Paul, myself." Do you see how great the weight is, how great the dignity? For what he means to say is this: I beg you, do not compel me, do not let me use my power against those who make nothing of us and think us carnal men. This is heavier than what he said threatening them in the first letter: "Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?" [1 Cor 4:21]; and, "Some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come and will find out, not the talk of those who are puffed up, but their power" [1 Cor 4:18–19]. For here he shows both, both his power and his philosophy and forbearance, if indeed he entreats so and with such earnestness, so as not to be compelled to come to a display of his own punishing power, and to strike them and chastise them and exact the utmost penalty. For this is what he hinted at in saying, "But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I count on daring against some who count us as walking according to the flesh."

But for the present let us bring the discourse back to the beginning. "Now I, Paul, myself." Great is the emphasis, great the weight; as he says elsewhere, "Look: I, Paul, say to you" [Gal 5:2]; and again, "as Paul the aged" [Phlm 9]; and again elsewhere, "she has been a helper of many, and of me myself" [Rom 16:2]. So here too [he puts forward the meekness] and gentleness [of Christ], making his supplication greater by this; as if he said: Reverence the very gentleness of Christ, by which I entreat you. And he said this at the same time to show that even if they bring countless compulsions, he himself inclines more to this because he is meek; and not because of weakness does he not proceed against them, since Christ too did so. "I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you." What is this? Either he speaks in irony, repeating their words. For they said this: when he is present he is worth nothing, but is mean and contemptible; but when he is absent he is puffed up and boasts and rises up against us and threatens. This, at any rate, he hints at in what follows, saying, "For his letters," he says, "are weighty, but his bodily presence [is weak]" [2 Cor 10:10]. ... he speaks in irony, showing great weight and saying: "I, the lowly one; I, the mean one when present, as they say, and lofty when absent." Or he means that even if he speaks great things, it is not from arrogance, but from confidence in them. "But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I count on daring against some who count us as walking according to the flesh." Do you see how great the indignation is, and how plain the refutation of what had been said? For I beg you, he says, do not compel me to show that even when present I am strong and have power. For since they said that "when absent he is very bold toward you and exalts himself," he uses their very words: I beg, then, that they may not compel me to use my power. For this is "with the confidence." And he did not say, "with which I have prepared myself," but "with which I count." For I have not yet decided this, but they give me the cause; yet not even so do I wish it. And yet he did this not to avenge himself, but the gospel. But if, where he ought to have avenged the preaching, he is not severe, but draws back and delays, and entreats that no such necessity arise, much more would he never have done anything of the kind for himself.

Grant me this, then, he says: do not compel me to show that even when present I can be bold against those I must, that is, chastise them and punish them. Do you see how he was not ambitious, nor did anything for display, since even when there was need he calls the thing "daring"? "For I beg you," he says, "that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I count on daring against some." For this above all belongs to a teacher: not to avenge himself quickly, but to correct, and always to delay and be slow in punishments. And who are these whom he threatens? "Those who count us as walking according to the flesh." For they slandered him as a hypocrite, as wicked, as a boaster.

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh" [2 Cor 10:3]. Here at last he also frightens them by the figure of speech: we are clothed with flesh, he says, I admit, but we do not live by the flesh. Or rather, he did not even say this, but reserves it for the present; for that is praise of his life. But he is speaking about the preaching, showing that it is not human, nor in need of help from below. That is why he did not say, "We do not live according to the flesh," but, "We do not wage war according to the flesh"; that is, we have undertaken a war and a battle, but we do not fight with fleshly weapons, nor with any human alliance. "For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly" [2 Cor 10:4]. For what are fleshly weapons? Wealth, glory, power, eloquence, cleverness, wiles, flatteries, hypocrisies, and the other things like these. But ours are not such; but what? "Powerful to God." And he did not say, "We are not fleshly," but, "our weapons." For as I said, for the present he is speaking about the preaching, and ascribes all the power to God. And he does not say "spiritual," though this was the word opposed to "fleshly," but "powerful," hinting by this at that too, and showing that theirs are weak and powerless. And consider his freedom from pride. For he did not say, "We are powerful," but, "Our weapons are powerful to God." We did not make them such, but God himself. For since they were scourged, driven out, and suffered countless incurable things, which were marks of weakness, showing the strength of God he says, "But they are powerful to God." For this above all shows his strength, that he prevails through these things. So even if we wear them, it is he who fights and works through them.

Then he goes through a long praise of them, saying, "for the casting down of strongholds." And so that you may not, on hearing "strongholds," think of something sensible, he says, "casting down reasonings" [2 Cor 10:5]; by the metaphor showing the vividness, and by what follows indicating the spiritual nature of the war. For these strongholds besiege souls, not bodies. So they are stronger than those others; that is why they need greater weapons. And by strongholds he means the pride of the Greeks, and the strength of their sophisms and syllogisms. But nevertheless, he says, these weapons refuted all things that stood against them. "For we cast down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." He persisted in the metaphor, to make the vividness greater. For even if there are strongholds, he says, even if towers, even if anything else, it yields and gives way to these weapons. "And bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." And yet the name of captivity has an ill sound; for it is the destruction of freedom. Why then does he use it? In another sense. For the word captivity signifies two things: both the loss of freedom, and being taken by force so as not to rise again. And it is in this second sense that he took it. As when he says, "I robbed other churches" [2 Cor 11:8], he does not mean robbery, but stripping and taking everything; so here too in saying "bringing into captivity." For the battle is not on equal terms, but with great ease. He did not say "one or two," but "every" thought; and he did not say only "we conquer and prevail," but "we take captive"; just as above he did not say, "We bring engines against the strongholds," but "we cast them down"; for great is the abundance of the weapons. For we do not fight with words, he says, but with deeds against words, not in fleshly wisdom, but in a spirit of meekness and of power. How then would I have been ambitious, he says, and boasted with words, and threatened with letters, as they slandered me, saying, "His letters are weighty," when our strength did not lie in these things at all?

And having said, "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," since the name of captivity is heavy, he quickly dissolved the figure, saying, "to the obedience of Christ": from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from destruction to salvation. For we did not come simply to strike down, but to bring over to the truth those who oppose it. "And being ready to punish all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled" [2 Cor 10:6]. Here he frightened these people too, not those others only. For we wait for you, he says, so that when we have corrected you by exhortation and threat, and cleansed you and separated you from their fellowship, then, when they alone are left, incurably sick, we may bring the punishment on them, when we see that you have genuinely stood apart. For you obey even now, but not perfectly. "And yet if you had done it now," someone says, "you would have made a greater gain." Not at all; for if I had done it now, I would have involved you too in the punishment. "But you ought to have punished them and spared us." But if I had spared you, I would have seemed to do it as a favor; but now I do not wish this, but first to set you right, and then to proceed against them. What could be gentler than that heart? Seeing his own people mingled with strangers, he wishes to bring the blow, but he spares, and holds back his indignation until they have withdrawn, so that he may strike those alone; or rather, not even those. For this is why he threatens, and says he wishes to single out those others alone [for punishment], so that they too, corrected by fear, may change, and he may not let loose his wrath on anyone. For like an excellent physician, a common father, protector and guardian, so he did everything, so he cared for all, running round the obstacles. For he did not accomplish things as one fighting, but setting up trophies as one coming to a ready and easy victory, demolishing, [overturning], casting down the strongholds of the devil and the engines of the demons, and carrying off all the spoil into the camp of Christ; and he did not take breath even for a little, leaping from these to those, and again from those to others, like an excellent general setting up trophies every day, or rather every hour. For entering the battle line in a tunic only, he took the cities of the enemy, men and all; and the tongue of Paul was bows and spears and arrows and everything. For he only spoke, and his words fell on the enemy more fiercely than any fire; and he drove out the demons, and brought back to himself the men possessed by them. When, at any rate, he cast out that wicked demon, fifty thousand sorcerers came together, burned their books of magic, and went over to the truth [Acts 19:11–19]. And as in war, when a tower falls or a tyrant is brought down, all who were with him throw down their arms and run to the general, so it happened then. For when the demon was cast out, all of them, being [besieged], and throwing down their books, or rather destroying them, ran to Paul's feet. And he, arrayed against the world as against one camp, stood still nowhere, but as if he had wings did everything: now he set a lame man right [Acts 14:8–10], now raised a dead man [Acts 20:9–12], now blinded another, I mean the sorcerer [Acts 13:6–11]; and not even when shut up in prison did he rest, but even there he brought the jailer over to himself [Acts 16:25–34], working this good captivity ...

Let us too, then, imitate him as far as we can. And why do I say, "as far as we can"? For it is possible for one who wishes even to come near him, and to behold his valor and imitate his courage. For he still does this, "casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." And yet many heretics have tried to cut him in pieces; but nevertheless, even limb by limb, he shows great strength. For Marcion and Mani use him, but cutting him up; yet even so they are refuted by the limbs. For even a hand of this champion alone, being among them, drives them utterly out; and a foot alone among others pursues and casts them down, so that you may learn the abundance of his power, and that even when cut up he is enough to take all his opponents. "And yet," someone says, "this is a mark of perversity, that all who fight one another use him." Of perversity indeed, but God forbid that it be Paul's; rather of those who use him. For he was not a complicated man, but simple and clear; but these have twisted his words to their own notions. "And why was it said in such a way as to give a handle to those who wish?" He did not give it, but their madness; for they did not use these words as they ought. For this whole world too is wonderful and great, and a proof of the wisdom of God; and "the heavens declare the glory of God, and day to day pours forth speech, and night to night shows knowledge" [Ps 19:1–2]; but nevertheless many have stumbled at it, and in opposite directions from one another. Some admired it beyond its worth, so as to think it God; others were so ignorant of its beauty as to think it unworthy of being God's workmanship, and to ascribe the greater part of it to some evil matter. And yet God secured himself against both, making it beautiful and great, so that it might not be thought foreign to his wisdom, but needy and not self-sufficient, so that it might not be suspected to be God. But nevertheless those who were blinded by their own reasonings fell into opposite notions, refuting one another, becoming one another's accusers, and defending the wisdom of God against the very reasonings by which they had gone astray. And why do I speak of the sun and the heaven? The Jews saw so many wonders happening before their eyes, and at once worshipped a calf [Exod 32:1–6]. Again, they saw Christ driving out demons, and called him possessed [John 8:48]. But this is no charge against the one who drove them out, but an accusation of the minds of those who were blinded. Do not, then, condemn Paul because of the mind of those who use him badly; but learn his treasure well and unfold his wealth, and you will stand nobly against all, fortified with his weapons; so you will be able to stop the mouths both of Greeks and of Jews. "And how," someone says, "when they do not believe him?" From what was done through him, from the reformation throughout the world. For it was not in human power to be able to do so much; but the strength of the Crucified, breathing into him, made him such, and showed him more powerful than orators and philosophers and tyrants and kings and all. This man is able not only to arm himself and strike the enemy, but to make others such as well. So that we may be useful both to ourselves and to others, then, let us handle him continually, delighting in his writings instead of a meadow and a garden. For so we shall be able both to be freed from vice and to choose virtue, and to obtain the promised good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.