Homilies on 2 Timothy 2.1–2.4

“So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal times, but has now been made manifest through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Nothing is worse than when someone judges and measures divine matters by human reasonings; for so he will fall from that rock, far below the measure, and will be deprived of the light. For if one who wishes to grasp the rays of the sun with human eyes not only will not grasp them, nor keep hold of what is before him, but will even fall back and suffer endless harm, much more will one who wishes to gaze intently at that light through his own reasonings suffer this; and he insults the gift of God. Look, at any rate, at Marcion and Mani and Valentinus, and all who brought the other heresies and destructive doctrines into the church of God: how, measuring the things of God by human reasonings, they were ashamed of the dispensation. And yet these things would be worthy not of shame but of great boasting—I mean the cross of Christ. For nothing is so great a proof of his love for humankind—not heaven, not sea, not earth, not his bringing all things from non-being into being, not all the rest—as the cross. That is why Paul too boasts in it, saying, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But the unspiritual, who attribute nothing more to God than to human beings, fall away and are ashamed. That is why from the start he exhorts the disciple, and through him everyone, saying, “So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” That is, do not be ashamed that you preach the Crucified, but even take pride in it. For in themselves death and prisons and bonds are worthy of shame and reproach; but if one adds the cause and sees the mystery rightly, he will find both full of great boasting and great dignity. For that death saved the perishing world; that death joined heaven to earth; that death destroyed the tyranny of the devil, and made human beings angels and sons of God; that death led our nature up to the royal throne; these bonds turned many to God. “So do not be ashamed,” he says, “of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”: even if you suffer these things yourself, do not be ashamed. That he hinted at this is clear both from what was said above, when he said, “God gave us a spirit of power and love and self-discipline,” and again from what follows. “But share in suffering,” he says; that is, not simply do not be ashamed, but do not be ashamed when you meet it in experience. And he did not say, “Do not fear, do not be afraid,” but rather, to encourage him, he says, “Do not be ashamed,” as though there were no longer any danger if one rose above the shame. For shame has only this burdensome thing in it: being overcome by it. Do not, then, be ashamed if I, who raise the dead, who work countless signs, who have run round the world, am now in bonds; for I am not a prisoner as an evildoer, but for the sake of the Crucified. If my Master was not ashamed of a cross, neither am I of bonds. And besides, in urging him not to be ashamed, he first reminded him of the cross. If you are not ashamed of the cross, he says, do not be ashamed of bonds either; if our Master and teacher endured a cross, much more should we endure bonds. For whoever is ashamed of what Christ himself endured is ashamed of the Crucified too. For it is not on my own account, he says, that I bear these bonds. Do not, then, feel anything merely human, but share in the same things. “But share in suffering,” he says, “for the gospel”: not as though the gospel were suffering, but rousing the disciple to suffer for the gospel. “According to the power of God,” he says, “who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal times.” Besides, since it was burdensome to say, “Suffer,” he again consoles him, saying, “not according to our works”; that is, do not count on your own power to bear these things, but on God's; for yours it is to choose and to be eager, but God's to lighten them and bring them to an end. Then he shows also the proofs of his power: consider how you were saved, how you were called; as he says elsewhere, “according to his working, which works in us.” So this was a greater power than making heaven: persuading the world. How then was he called, he says, “with a holy calling”? That is, he made those who were sinners and enemies holy; and this is not from us, it is the gift of God. If, then, he is both powerful, in that he called, and good, in that he did this by grace and not as a debt, we need not be afraid. For he who, when we needed to be saved, saved us by grace even when we were enemies, will he not much more work with us when he sees us also at work? “Not according to our works,” he says, “but according to his own purpose.” That is, with no one compelling him, no one advising him, but of his own purpose, moved from within, from his own goodness, he saved us; for this is what “according to his own purpose” means. “And the grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal [times]” … that these things should come about in Christ Jesus. This too is no small thing, that he willed it from of old; it was not, then, from a change of mind. How then is the Son not eternal? For he too willed these things from the beginning. “But has now been made manifest through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.”

Have you seen power? Have you seen a gift that came about not through works but through the gospel? For these things belong to hope: in his own body both of them have come about, but in ours they will be. How? Through the gospel. “For which I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.” Why does he say this so continually, calling himself teacher of the Gentiles? Because he wishes to persuade them, as I said, that they must associate with the Gentiles too. Do not, then, lose heart at my sufferings: the sinews of death have been cut. I do not endure these things as an evildoer, but because of my teaching of the Gentiles. At the same time he also makes his word trustworthy. “For this reason,” he says, “I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able [to guard] my deposit until that day.” “But I am not ashamed,” he says. Are bonds, tell me, a matter of shame? Are sufferings a matter of shame? Do not, then, be ashamed. Do you see how he displays his teaching through his deeds? I suffer these things, he says: I have been thrown into prison, I am driven about. “For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard my deposit until that day.” What is the deposit? The faith, the preaching. He who entrusted it, he says, will himself keep it intact. I suffer everything so that the treasure may not be plundered; I am not ashamed of these things, so long as it is kept intact. Or he calls the believers the deposit, which God entrusted to him, or which he entrusted to God. “And now,” he says, “behold, I commend you to the Lord.” That is, these things will not be without profit to me; and Timothy shows me the fruit of the deposit. Do you see that he does not even feel his evils because of his hope for the disciples? Such must the teacher be; so must he care for his disciples, and count them everything. “For now we live,” he says, “if you stand firm in the Lord”; and again, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Is it not you also, before our Lord Jesus Christ?” Do you see him anxious over these things, the disciples' affairs no less than his own? For teachers must surpass natural fathers; they must be warmer. But it is fitting for the children too to be affectionately disposed toward them. “Obey your leaders,” he says, “and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give account.” Tell me, he is answerable to so great a danger, and you will not even obey him, and that for your own good? For even if he manages his own affairs well, so long as yours are not in good order he is in anguish, and he gives a double account. Consider what it is to be examined over each one of those under one's rule, and to be anxious. What honour will you set, what service, to balance these dangers? You will say that nothing is equal; for you have never yet given your soul, but he lays down his soul for you. And even if he does not lay it down here, when the occasion calls, he loses it there; and you will not submit even so far as a word. This is the cause of all evils, that the authority of those who rule has vanished: there is no reverence, no fear. “Obey your leaders,” he says, “and submit”; but now everything has been overturned and thrown into confusion. I do not say these things for the leaders' sake: for what will they gain from our honour, except so far as they will have obedient people? But I say them for your good. For they, even if they are honoured, gain nothing for the future, but their condemnation is greater; and if they are insulted, they are not harmed for the future, but their defence is even greater. But it is for your own sake that I want all this to happen. (For when leaders are honoured by those under them, this too is brought up against them, as was said to Eli, “I took you from your father's house”; but when they are insulted, as in the case of Samuel, “It is not you,” he says, “that they have despised, but me.” So insult is gain to them, but honour a burden. So I say these things not for their sake but for your own. He who honours the priest will honour God too; but he who has learned to despise the priest will go on step by step and one day insult God too. “He who receives you,” he says, “receives me”; and, “Hold his priests in honour,” it says. From this the Jews learned to despise God: they despised Moses, they wanted to stone him. For when someone is reverently disposed toward the priest, he is much more so toward God. Even if the priest is bad, God, seeing that out of honour for him you serve even one unworthy of honour, will himself give you the reward. For if “he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward,” so too, clearly, will he who honours and yields to and obeys the priest. For if, where it is a matter of hospitality, where you do not know the man you lodge, you receive so great a reward, much more if you submit to the one to whom he even commands you to submit.) “On the seat of Moses,” he says, “the scribes and the Pharisees have sat; so do whatever they tell you to do; but do not act according to their works.” Do you not know what the priest is? He is an angel of the Lord. Does he speak his own words? If you despise him, you despise not him but God, who ordained him. “And how is it clear,” someone says, “that God ordained him?” Well, if you do not hold this conviction, your hope is empty. For if God works nothing through him, you have no bath of baptism, you do not share in the mysteries, you do not enjoy the blessings; you do not …

“What then?” someone says. “Does God ordain everyone, even the unworthy?” God does not ordain everyone, but he works through everyone, even if they themselves are unworthy, so that the people may be saved. For if he spoke through a donkey, and through Balaam, a defiled man, for the people's sake, much more through the priest. For what does God not do for the sake of our salvation? What does he not utter? Through whom does he not work? If he worked through Judas, and through those who prophesied, to whom he says, “I do not know you; depart from me, you who work lawlessness,” and others cast out demons, much more will he work through the priests. For if we were to examine the lives of those who rule, we ourselves would become the ones who ordain our teachers, and everything is turned upside down: the feet above and the head below. Hear Paul saying, “But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human day”; and again, “Why do you judge your brother?” If one must not judge a brother, much less the teacher. If God had commanded this, you would do well, and you would sin by not doing it; but if he commanded the opposite, do not dare, and do not venture beyond the lines marked out. Korah and Dathan and Abiram rose up against Aaron after the making of the calf. What then? Did they not perish? Let each care for his own affairs. If he holds a perverted doctrine, even if he is an angel, do not obey; but if he teaches what is right, pay no attention to his life, but to his words. You have Paul to shape you to what you ought to do, by deeds as well as by words. “But he does not give to the poor,” someone says, “nor does he manage well.” How do you know this? Before you have learned, do not find fault; fear the account you must give. Many things are judged from suspicion. Imitate your Master; hear him saying, “I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against them; and if not, that I may know.” But if you have found out and examined and seen, wait for the judge; do not usurp Christ's office: it is his to examine these things, not yours; you are the lowest servant, not a master; you are a sheep. Do not, then, busy yourself about the shepherd, lest you have to give account even for the things you accuse him of. “And how can he tell me,” someone says, “when he does not do it himself?” It is not he who tells you; if you obey him, you have no reward; it is Christ who urges these things on you. And why do I say this? One must not obey even Paul if he says anything of his own, anything human, but only the apostle who has Christ speaking in himself. Let us not judge one another's affairs, but each his own; examine your own life. “But he ought to be better than I am,” someone says. Why? “Because he is a priest.” And what does he have more than you? Not the labours? Not the dangers? Not the anguish? Not the hardship? Since he has these, then, how is he not better than you? But if he is not better, ought you, tell me, to destroy yourself? These words come from madness. For how do you know that he is not better than you? “If he steals,” he says, “and robs what is holy.” How do you know, man? Why do you throw yourself over a precipice? If someone tells you that so-and-so has taken the purple, even if you know it, you stop your ears; even if you could prove it, you leap away at once and pretend not to know, not wanting to take on a needless danger; but here you not only do not leap away, you even take on the needless danger. These words are not free of accountability; hear Christ saying, “I tell you that for every idle word people speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment.” And in general, do you think you are better than someone, and do you not groan, nor beat your breast, nor bow down, nor imitate the tax collector? Then you have destroyed yourself, even if you are better. Are you better? Be silent, so that you may remain better; but if you say it, you have emptied it all. If you think so, …; if you do not think so, you have added much. For if he who was a sinner went down justified because he confessed it, what will he not gain who is not much of a sinner and is so persuaded? Examine your own life. You do not steal? But you seize, you use force, you do countless other such things. I do not say this in praise of theft—far from it—but weeping bitterly, if indeed anyone is such; for I do not believe it. How great an evil sacrilege is cannot even be told; but I spare you, for I do not want our virtue to be emptied by accusing others. What was worse than the tax collector, tell me? It was true that he was a tax collector and liable for countless evils; and merely because the Pharisee said, “I am not like this tax collector,” he lost everything. And do you say about the priest, “I am not like this sacrilegious man,” and not empty everything? I am compelled to say these things and to pursue this subject … Let us not speak ill of our teachers, I beg you, nor scrutinize them closely, lest we put ourselves in a bad state; let us examine our own affairs, and we shall speak ill of no one. Let us reverence that day on which he enlightened us. If someone has a father, even if the father has countless faults, he covers them all: “Do not glorify yourself,” it says, “in your father's dishonour, for it is no glory to you, but a reproach; and even if his understanding fails, be forbearing.” And if this is to be said of fathers in the body, much more of spiritual fathers. Respect him because day by day he ministers to you: he has the Scriptures read, for you he adorns the house, for you he keeps vigil, for you he prays, on your behalf he stands entreating God, for you he makes supplications; for you is his whole service of worship. Respect these things, consider these things, with all reverence. Is he bad, tell me? And what of that? Does the one who is not bad give you the great good things himself? By no means: everything is effected according to your faith. Neither will the righteous man help you at all if you are not faithful, nor will the bad one harm you at all if you are faithful. God worked through oxen in the case of the ark, when he wished to save the people. Does the priest's life, does his virtue, contribute so much? The things God bestows are not such as to be accomplished by priestly virtue: the whole is of grace; his part is only to open his mouth, and God works the whole; he only fulfils the sign. Consider how great the distance is between John and Jesus; hear John saying, “I need to be baptized by you,” and, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” But nevertheless, though the distance was so great, the Spirit came down, which John did not have; for “from his fullness,” it says, “we have all received.” Yet it did not come down before he was baptized; nor did John cause it to come down. Why, then, does this happen? So that you may learn that the priest fulfils the sign. No human being stands so far from another as John from Jesus; but nevertheless the Spirit came down in his case, so that you may learn that God works everything, that God does everything. [It is not that] I care so much about them, but because I fear for you, lest you empty your virtue through this boasting, through this condemnation. For hear Paul exhorting and saying, “But let each test his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in his neighbour.”

Tell me, if you go to a doctor's surgery with a wound, do you, instead of letting him put on a remedy and treat the sore, busy yourself about the doctor, whether he has a sore or not? And if he does have one, do you worry about it? Or, because he has one, do you not treat your own, and say, “Being a doctor, he ought to [be healthy]; since, though a doctor, he is not healthy, I too will leave my own sore uncured”? For if the priest is bad, will that be any comfort to the one under him? By no means: he will pay the appointed penalty, and you will pay the one that is due and fitting. For in any case the teacher only fills a place. “For they shall all be taught by God,” it says, “and they shall not say, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” Why, then, someone says, does he preside? Why, then, is he set over us? … [I wish to say something surprising, but do not wonder] or be disturbed. What is this? The offering is the same, whether an ordinary man offers it, or Paul, or Peter; it is the same which Christ gave to the disciples and which the priests now perform; this one is in no way less than that, because it is not human beings who sanctify this one either, but he who sanctified that one too. For as the words which God spoke are the same as those the priest says now, so the offering too is the same, and so is the baptism which he gave. Thus the whole is a matter of faith. At once the Spirit leapt upon Cornelius, since he had first shown what came from himself and had brought his faith. So this is the body, and that was too; and whoever thinks that this is less than that does not know that Christ is present now too, and is at work now too. Knowing these things, then (for all this has not been said to us idly, but so that we might correct your judgment and make you more secure for the future), let us keep careful guard over what has been said … for if we are always listening but never acting, what is said will be of no benefit to us. Let us, then, pay close attention; let us attend carefully to what has been said; let us write it on our minds; let us keep it always engraved on our conscience; and let us continually send up glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.