Homilies on 2 Thessalonians 3.1–3.4

“[They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from] the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified in his saints and to be marvelled at among all who have believed.” There are many men who have their good hopes not in abstaining from sins, but in thinking that Gehenna is not as severe as is said, but milder than what has been threatened, and temporary, not eternal; and they philosophise much about this. I for my part could show from many places, and infer from the very words about Gehenna, not only that it is not milder than what has been threatened, but that it is much more severe. But I raise no argument about these things now; for the fear from the bare words is enough, even if we do not unfold their meaning. But that it is not temporary, hear Paul now saying of those who do not know God nor believe in the gospel that they will pay the penalty, eternal destruction. How then is the eternal temporary? “From the presence,” he says, “of the Lord.” What is this? What ease does he wish to express here? For since they were then much puffed up, being rich, there is no need, he says, of much labour, but it is enough that God only comes and is seen, and all are in punishment and penalty. His coming will be light to some, but punishment to others. “And from the glory of his might,” he says, “when he comes to be glorified in his saints and to be marvelled at among all who have believed.” What do you say? Is God glorified? Yes, “in all his saints,” he says. How? For when those who are much puffed up see those who were scourged by them, despised, laughed at, near him, it becomes his glory; or rather this is the glory both of them and of him: of him, because he did not forsake them but made them illustrious; of them, because they were counted worthy of such honour. For just as it is his wealth that there are believers, so too it is his glory that there are those who are to enjoy his good things. It is the glory of the good to have those to whom he may impart his kindness. “And to be marvelled at,” he says, “among all who have believed”; that is, through those who have believed. See, “in” again stands for “through.” For through them he is shown to be marvellous. For when he brings the pitiable and wretched, who have suffered ten thousand terrible things and have believed, to such splendour, his strength is shown then: that even if here they seem to have been forsaken, yet there they enjoy great glory; then above all the whole glory and strength of God is shown. And how, hear; for he adds, “because our testimony to you was believed, on that day. To this end we also always pray for you.” That is, when those who have suffered ten thousand terrible things to make them stand away from the faith, and have not given way but remained faithful, are brought into the open, God is glorified; then the glory of these too is shown. Since then many feign the faith, “call no one blessed before his end”; for on that day those who have believed are shown. “To this end we also always pray for you,” he says, “that our God may count you worthy of the calling, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith with power.” “That he may count you worthy,” he says, “of the calling,” showing that many were also cast out. Therefore he added, “and may fulfil every good resolve.” For the one clothed in filthy garments too was called, but did not remain in the calling; therefore he was all the more cast out from the calling to the bridal chamber. For the five virgins too were called: “Arise,” it says, “the bridegroom is coming”; and they prepared themselves, but did not go in. Showing then what calling he means, he added, “and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith with power.” This is the calling we seek, he says. See how gently he humbles them. For so that they may not, through the excess of praise, [be puffed up] as having accomplished great things, and become careless, he shows that something is still lacking to them, as long as [they are in this life]; which he also [says] writing to the Hebrews: “You have not yet resisted to the point of blood, striving against sin.” “Every good resolve,” he says; that is, pleasing, persuasion, full assurance; as if he said, so that God’s persuasion may be fulfilled, so that nothing may be lacking to you, so that you may be as he wishes. “And work of faith,” he says, “with power.” What is this? The endurance of persecutions, so that we may not grow faint, he says. “So that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [Displaced in the scan from the comment on 2:2:] … about which he writes and says, “Not to be troubled, either by spirit or by word.” What he says is this: even if someone having a spirit of prophecy says this, do not believe it. For when I was with you, I told you these things; so you must not be persuaded away from what you were taught. Or “by spirit”: so he calls the false prophets, speaking by an unclean spirit what they spoke. For these men, wishing to be believed the more, tried to deceive not only by persuasive speech (for he shows this by saying, “or by word”) …

See: he spoke of glory there, and he spoke of it here too; he said that they themselves are glorified, so as even to boast; he said, what was much more, that they also glorify God; he said that they will receive that glory; but here too he says it; for when the master is glorified, the servants too are glorified. For those who glorify the master are themselves glorified much more, both by this very thing and apart from it. For affliction for Christ’s sake is glory, and everywhere he calls the thing glory; and the more we suffer something dishonourable, the more illustrious we become. Then again, showing that this too is God’s, he says, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”; that is, God himself gave us this grace, that he may be glorified in us, and may glorify us in himself. How is he glorified in us? Because we prefer nothing to him. How are we glorified in him? Because we have received power from him, so as not to give way to the terrible things brought on us. For at the same time, [when] temptation comes, both God is glorified and we too: they glorify him, because he so nerved us; and they admire us, because we made ourselves worthy. And all these things come from the grace of God. “[Now we ask you, brothers,] concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your mind.” When the resurrection will be he has not said; but that it will not be now, he has said. “And our gathering together,” he says, “to him.” This too is no small thing. Do you see how the exhortation again comes with praise and encouragement, in that the Lord and all the saints will certainly appear with us? Here he speaks about the coming of Christ and about our gathering together; for these will happen at the same time. He lifts up their minds: “that you not be shaken quickly,” he says, “nor be troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us, as though the day of the Lord has come.” Here he seems to me to hint that some were going about who had forged a letter, supposedly from Paul, and, showing it, said that the day of the Lord was at hand, so as to lead many astray by this. So that they may not be deceived, then, Paul secures them. … [For they] also showed a forged letter as from Paul, making plain this same thing. Therefore, indicating this too, he added, “or by letter as if from us.” Having then secured them on every side, he so sets out his own view, and says: “Let no one deceive you in any way; for [that day will not come] unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God as God, proclaiming himself to be God.” Here he speaks about the Antichrist, and reveals great mysteries. What is “the apostasy”? He calls the Antichrist himself apostasy, as one who will destroy many and make them fall away; “so as to lead astray,” it says, “if possible, even the elect.” And he calls him “the man of sin”; for he will do ten thousand terrible things, and will make others do them. And he calls him “the son of perdition” because he too will be destroyed. And who is he? Satan, then? By no means; but some man who receives his whole working. “And the man is revealed,” he says, “who exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship.” For he will not lead to idolatry, but will be a kind of anti-god, and will abolish all the gods, and will command that he be worshipped instead of God, and will take his seat in the temple of God, not only the one in Jerusalem, but also in the churches everywhere. “Proclaiming himself,” he says, “to be God.” He did not say “saying,” but “trying to show”; for he will do great works and display marvellous signs. “Do you not remember that when I was still with you [I told you these things]?” Do you see that it is necessary to say the same things continually and to go over the same words? For see, they heard him say these things when present, and again needed reminding. For just as, having heard about afflictions (“For when we were with you,” he says, “we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction”), they nevertheless forgot, and he again strengthens them through the letter, so too, having heard about the coming of Christ, they again needed a letter to set them in order. He reminds them, then, and shows that he says nothing strange, but what he always said. For just as with farmers the seeds are cast down once, yet do not remain permanently, but need much tending, and unless they break up the earth with levers and cover them, [they sow for the birds]; so we too, unless we cover over what has been cast down with continual remembrance, have thrown everything into the air. For the devil snatches it away, and our carelessness destroys it, and the sun dries it, [and the rain washes it away, and the thorns choke it]. So it is not enough to cast it down once and go away, but much care and attention is needed by the one who is to gather the fruits: driving off the birds, cutting out the thorns, filling the stony places with much earth, [fencing off] everything [harmful]. But with the earth everything is the farmer’s work; for it lies beneath him lifeless, ready only to be acted on; but with this spiritual earth it is not so at all: not everything is the teachers’, but, if not the greater part, at least half belongs to the disciples too. Ours is to cast down the seed; yours to do what is said, to show the fruits through your works by remembrance, to pull the thorns up by the roots. For wealth is truly a thorn: it has no fruit, it is ugly to see and unpleasant to use, it pains those who touch it, not only itself having no fruit, but [choking] what is sprouting. Such is wealth: not only does it itself bear no eternal fruit, but it hinders those who wish to by holding them back. Thorns are the food of irrational camels; they are the food and fuel of fire, useful for nothing. Such too is wealth: useful for nothing but to heat a furnace, to kindle that day that burns like an oven, to nourish the irrational passions, remembrance of wrongs and anger. For such is the camel that eats thorns too. For it is said by those who know such things that there is nothing among beasts so given to lasting wrath and sullenness and remembrance of wrongs as the camel. Such is wealth: it nourishes the irrational passions of the soul, and pricks and wounds the rational ones, as with thorns. This plant is something hard and rough; it grows of itself. And let us see where it grows, so that we may cut it out: in the precipitous places, in the stony ones, in the dry ones, where there is no moisture. When then someone is rough and precipitous, that is, unmerciful, the thorn grows in him. But when the sons of farmers wish to cut them out, they do not do it with iron, but how? Applying fire, they so draw out all the badness of the earth. For since it is not enough to cut the top away while the root remains below, nor even to take out the root (for some of the badness remains in the earth, and, just as when a plague has fallen on a body, its remnants still remain), the fire, drawing up from above all that moisture of the thorns like a poison, draws it out by its heat from the flanks of the earth. For just as the cupping glass draws all the badness to itself, so too the fire draws up all the badness from the thorns and makes the earth clean. Why have I said these things? Because one must purge away from every side our attachment to wealth. With us too there is a fire that draws this badness from the soul, I mean that of the Spirit; if we apply it, we shall be able to dry up not only the thorns but also the moisture from them; since if they remain fixed, everything becomes vain. For see: has a rich man come in here, or a rich woman? She does not care how she will hear the oracles of God, but how she will display herself, how she will sit with pomp, how with great glory, how she will surpass all the others with the costliness of her garments, and make herself more stately by posture and look and gait; and all her care and anxiety is: Did so-and-so see me? Did she admire me? Am I well adorned? And not about this only does she take thought, but also that the garments may not rot, may not be torn; and all her care is about this. Likewise the rich man comes in to display himself to the poor man, and to put him in fear by the robes he wears, by having many slaves; and they stand by driving people off. And he, from great pride, does not deign to do even this himself, but knows the work to be so unworthy of a free man that, though very puffed up, he does not bear to do it, but entrusts it to the slaves who follow him; for to do this is truly slavish and of bold character. Then, as he sits, the cares of the household come in at once, dragging him about everywhere; the pride that holds his soul swells over; he thinks he is doing a favour to us, and to the people, and perhaps to God too, because he came into the house of God. And one so inflamed, how will he ever be healed?

Tell me, if someone came to a surgery and did not ask the physician for a favour, but thought he was doing him one, and, instead of asking for a medicine for his wound, busied himself with garments, would such a man go away having received any good? I think not. And the cause of all these things, if you wish, I will tell. They think they come in to us, when they come in here; they think they hear from us what they hear; they do not attend, they do not consider that they come in to God, that he himself speaks to them. For when the reader stands up and says, “Thus says the Lord,” and the deacon stands and silences everyone, he says this not to honour the reader, but the one who speaks to all through him. If they knew that it was God who said these things through the prophet, they would have thrown off all their pride. For if, when rulers speak to them, they do not bear to attend to anything else, much more when God does. We are servants, beloved; we do not speak our own things, but God’s; letters that have come from heaven are read every day. Tell me, I beg you, if just now, with all of us present, someone came in wearing a golden belt, and, drawing himself up and driving people off, said he had been sent by the king on earth, and was bringing a letter to the whole city about some necessary matters, would you not all have turned round? Would you not have kept great silence even without the deacon’s bidding? I think so; for I have heard royal letters read here. Then, if someone comes from the king, you all attend; but it comes from God, and the prophet speaks from the heavens, and no one attends? Or do you not believe that these words are from God? These are letters sent from God. Let us come into the churches, then, with fitting honour, and [listen] with [fear] to what is said here. “But what am I to gain,” someone says, “if I do not hear someone preaching?” This has ruined and corrupted everything. For what need is there of a preacher? This need has come from our carelessness. For why is a homily needed? Everything in the divine Scriptures is clear and straight; all that is necessary is plain. But since you are hearers for pleasure, therefore you seek these things too. For tell me, with what pomp of speech did Paul speak? Yet he converted the world. With what did Peter, the unlettered? “But I do not know,” someone says, “what is in the divine Scriptures.” Why do you not know? Is it spoken in Hebrew? In Latin? In some foreign tongue? Is it not spoken in Greek? “But obscurely,” he says. What is obscure, tell me? Are there not histories? For you know the clear things, so as to ask about the obscure ones. There are ten thousand histories in the Scriptures: tell me one of them. But you will not. These are pretexts and words. “[Every] day,” he says, “one hears the same things.” And what, tell me? In the theatres do you not hear the same things? At the horse races do you not see the same things? Are not all things the same? Does not the same sun always rise? Do we not use the same foods? I wanted to ask you, since you say you hear the same things every day: tell me, from which prophet is the passage that was read, and from which apostle, or which letter? But you could not say, but you seem to be hearing strange things. When then you wish to be careless, you say they are the same; but when you are asked, you behave as one who has never heard. If they are the same, you ought to know them; but you do not know. The present state of things deserves laments, laments and wailings, because “in vain the silversmith refines.” You ought to attend most of all for this reason, that they are the same, that we give you no labour, nor say anything strange and altered. What then? Since you say those things are the same, but ours are not the same, but we always say new things, do you attend to these? Not at all; but if we say, “Why do you not retain even these?” “We hear them once,” you say, “and how is it possible to retain them?” If we say, “Why do you not attend?” you say, “The same things are always said”; and on every side the words are of carelessness and pretext. But these things will not go on for ever; there will be a time when we shall lament idly and in vain; which may it not happen; but may we, having repented here, and attending to what is said with understanding and reverence, hasten to the accomplishment of good works, and direct our life with all exactness, so that we may be able to obtain the good things promised to those who love him, by the grace and loving-kindness, and so on.