Homilies on Colossians 8.1–8.4

[Homily 8] “Put to death your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry; because of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience; in which you too once walked, when you lived in them.” I know that many were offended at the previous discourse; but what am I to do? You heard what the Master commanded. Am I to blame? What shall I do? Do you not see how creditors, when debtors are obstinate, put collars on them? Did you hear what Paul cried out today? “Put to death,” he says, “your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.” What is worse than such greed? This is heavier than what I was speaking of, the madness and silliness about silver. “And greed,” he says, “which is idolatry”: see where the evil ends. Do not be annoyed; for I do not willingly or idly want to have enemies, but I wished you to come to such virtue that I might hear of you what I ought. So it is not a matter of authority or rank, but of pain and grief. Forgive me, forgive me: I do not want to be indecent in speaking about such things, but I am compelled. I say these things not for the sake of the pain of the poor but for your salvation; for they will perish, they will perish, who did not feed Christ. For what if you feed someone? As long as you live so wantonly and so luxuriously, everything is in vain. For what is asked is not to give much, but not less than one's own means; otherwise it is mere play. “Put to death, then, your members,” he says, “that are on the earth.” What do you say? Did you not say, “You were buried,” “You were buried with him,” “You were circumcised,” “We put off the body of the sins of the flesh”? How then do you say again, “Put to death”? Do not play with us: do you speak as though these things were still in us? There is no contradiction. If someone scoured a filthy statue, or rather recast it, and showed it bright again, and said that the rust had been eaten away and destroyed, yet exhorted again that care be taken to remove the rust, he would not contradict himself; for he exhorts them to remove not the rust which he scoured off, but the rust that forms afterwards. So he speaks not of the former putting to death, nor of those former acts of sexual immorality, but of those that come later. “But see,” say the heretics, “Paul slanders the creation; for he said before, ‘Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on earth,’ and again he says, ‘Put to death your members that are on the earth.’” But “on earth” here indicates sin, not a slander against creation. For he calls the sins themselves “things on earth,” either because they are done from an earthy way of thinking and on earth, or because they show sinners to be earthly. “Sexual immorality, uncleanness,” he says. He passed over the deeds, which it is not good even to name, and by “uncleanness” indicated them all. “Passion,” he says, “evil desire.” See, he named the whole generically; for all things are evil desire: envy, anger, grief. “And greed,” he says, “which is idolatry; for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” He led them away by many means: by the benefits already given, by the things to come, by the evils from which we were freed, by who we were and why, and all those things, such as who we were and in what, and that we were freed from them, how and in what way and on what terms. These things are enough to turn them away; but more forceful than all is this, unpleasant to say but not unprofitable, rather beneficial: “because of which,” he says, “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” He did not say “upon you,” but “upon the sons of disobedience.” “In which you too once walked, when you lived in them.” To shame them he says, “when you lived in them,” and with praise, as though they no longer live so: then it was so. “But now you too put them all away.” And he always speaks both generally and particularly; this belongs to affection. “Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of your mouth.” … “Shameful speech,” he says, “out of your mouth,” expressively, because it defiles it. “Having put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new, which is being renewed unto knowledge according to the image of him who created him.” It is worth inquiring here why he calls the corrupt life members and man and body, and the virtuous life likewise. And if the sins are the man, how does he say, “with his deeds”? For having once said “old man,” he showed that this is not man, but that is. For the will is more sovereign than the essence, and this is man rather than that. For it is not the essence that throws into Gehenna or brings into the kingdom, but the will itself; and we neither love nor hate anyone insofar as he is a man, but insofar as he is such a man. If then the essence is the body, and this is not answerable in either case, how does he call it evil?

And what does he mean by “with his deeds”? The will with its works. And he calls him old to show his ugliness and deformity and weakness; and new, meaning: Do not expect, he says, that this one too will suffer the same, but the opposite; for the further he advances, the more he hastens not to old age but to a youth greater than the former. For when he receives more knowledge, he is deemed worthy of greater things, and is more in his prime and stronger, not from his youth only, but also from the image to which he is shaped. See, the best way of life is called a creation. “According to the image of Christ”: for this is “according to the image of him who created him”; since Christ too did not die in old age, but was so beautiful that it cannot even be told. “Where there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.” See a third praise of this new man: when no difference of nation, nor of rank, nor of ancestry enters in, when he has nothing of the outward things, nor needs them; for such are all outward things: circumcision and uncircumcision, slave, free, Greek, that is, proselyte, and Jew, that is, from ancestry. If you have this one only, you will obtain the same things as the others who have those. “But Christ is all and in all,” he says; that is, Christ will be everything to you, both rank and race, and he himself in all of you. Or he means something else: that you have all become one Christ, being his body. “Put on, then, as God's elect, holy and beloved.” He shows the ease of virtue, so that they may have it continually and use it as the greatest adornment. And the exhortation comes with praise, for then it is most effective. For some became holy, but not elect; but now they are both elect and holy and beloved. “Hearts of compassion.” He did not say “mercy,” but put it more expressively through the two words. And he did not say that we must be disposed as to brothers, but as fathers to children. For do not tell me that he sinned; that is why he said “hearts.” And he did not say “compassion,” so as not to belittle them, but “hearts of compassion.” “Kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another and forgiving each other, if anyone has a complaint against anyone; just as Christ forgave you, so also you.” Again he speaks by species; for from kindness comes humility, and from this longsuffering. “Bearing with one another.” And see how he showed it to be nothing by calling it a “complaint.” Then he adds, “just as Christ forgave you.” Great is the example; this he always does, urging them on from Christ. “Complaint,” he says. There he showed it to be small; but when he brought in the example, he persuaded them that even if we have great charges to bring, we must forgive. For “just as Christ” means this; and not this only, but also that we must forgive from the whole heart; and not this only, but also that we must love. For Christ, brought into the midst, brings all these things in: that we must forgive even if the wrongs are great, even if we happen not to have done wrong first, even if we are great and they small, even if they are going to insult us afterwards too; and that we must lay down our life for them; for “just as” demands these things; and that we must not stop even at death, but, if possible, go on even after it. “And above all these, love, which is the bond of perfection.” Do you see that he says this? For since it is possible to forgive without loving, Yes, he says, love too; and he shows the way by which it is possible to forgive. For one can be kind and meek and humble and longsuffering, and not feel affection. That is why at the beginning he said “hearts of compassion,” meaning love and mercy. “And above all these, love, which is the bond of perfection.” What he wants to say is this: none of those things is of any profit; for they all dissolve unless they are done with love. Love binds them all together; whatever good you mention, if love is absent, is nothing, but flows away. Just as on a ship, even if the timbers are great, if the undergirding cables are not there, there is no profit; and in a house, if there are no tie-beams; and in a body, even if the bones are great, if the ligaments are not there, there is no profit. For whatever achievements one has, all are gone if there is no love. He did not say that it is the summit, but what is greater, the bond; this is more necessary than that. For the summit is the intensification of perfection, but the bond is the holding together of the things that make up perfection, as it were the root. “And let the peace of God be umpire in your hearts, to which you were also called in one body.” The peace of God is the peace that is fixed and firm. If you have peace for a man's sake, it is quickly dissolved; but if for God's sake, no longer. He had spoken of love in general, but again he comes to the particular. For there is also an immoderate love, as when out of great love someone finds fault rashly, quarrels, and turns away. No, he says, I do not want this; but as God made peace with you, so also do you. And how did he make it? By his own will, receiving nothing from us. What is “let the peace of God be umpire in your hearts”? If two thoughts are fighting, do not set up anger, do not set up insolence holding the prize, but peace. For example, suppose someone has been insulted unjustly; from the insult two thoughts are born, one bidding him retaliate, the other bidding him bear it, and they wrestle with one another. If the peace of God stands as umpire, it gives the prize to the one bidding him bear it, and puts the other to shame. How? By persuading him that God is peace, that he made peace with us. He shows, not without reason, that the contest is great. Let not anger, he says, be umpire, nor contentiousness, nor human peace; for human peace comes from retaliating, from suffering nothing terrible. But I do not want this, he says, but the peace which Christ himself left. He made a stadium within, in the thoughts, with a contest, an athletic struggle, and an umpire. Then again an exhortation: “to which you were called,” he says, that is, for which you were called. He reminded them of how many good things peace is the cause. For this he called you, on these terms he called you, so that you may receive the prize as one worthy of trust. For why did he make one body? Was it not so that peace might prevail? Was it not so that we might have an occasion for being at peace? Why are we all one body? And how are we one body? Through peace we are one body, and because we are one body we are at peace. And why did he not say, “Let the peace of God conquer,” but “be umpire”? He made it more worthy of trust. He did not allow the evil thought to wrestle with it, but made it stand lower. And the name of the prize roused the hearer. For if peace gives the prize to the good thought, however shameless the other is, it is of no further avail. And besides, the evil thought knew that whatever it does, it will not receive the prize; however much it blusters and tries to attack more violently, it will withdraw, having laboured at senseless things. And he rightly added, “and be thankful.” For this is to be thankful, and very shaming to us: to treat our fellow servants as God has treated us, to yield to the Master, to obey, to acknowledge thanks for all things, even if someone insults us, even if someone strikes us. For one who acknowledges thanks to God for what he has suffered will not retaliate on the one who did it; whereas one who retaliates does not acknowledge thanks. But let us not become like that man who demanded the hundred denarii, lest we hear, “Wicked servant”; for nothing is worse than this ingratitude. So those who retaliate are ungrateful. And why did he come to sexual immorality first? For having said, “Put to death your members that are on the earth,” he at once says, “sexual immorality”; and he does this almost everywhere. Because this passion prevails most; for in writing to the Thessalonians too he did this. And what marvel? Since he even says to Timothy, “Keep yourself pure”; and again elsewhere, “Pursue peace with all, and the holiness without which none of you will see the Lord.” You know what a dead thing is: hateful, abominable, decaying. If you put it to death, it does not stay dead, but at once decays, like the body. Quench, then, its heat, and nothing remains but what is dead. He shows the believer doing this, which Christ did in the bath; that is why he also calls them members, bringing him in like a champion, and leading on to a greater emphasis. And he rightly said, “that are on the earth”; for here they remain and here they decay, much more than these members of the body. So the body is not from the earth in the way that sin is earthly; for the body sometimes appears beautiful, but those never. And these members desire all things on earth. If the eye is such, it does not see the things in heaven; so too if it is the hearing, if a hand, whatever member you mention. The eye sees bodies and beauty and money; these are from the earth, and it delights in them; the hearing delights in soft song, lyre and pipe and obscene talk; these are about the earth. Since then he had set them above, beside the throne, he then says, “Put to death your members that are on the earth.” For it is not possible to stand above with these members; for there is nothing there on which they can act. And this clay is worse than that; for that clay becomes gold: “For this perishable must put on imperishability”; but this clay can no longer be recast. So these are more “on the earth” than those. That is why he did not say “from the earth,” but “on the earth”; for it is possible for these not to be from the earth. For those must necessarily be on earth, but these not necessarily. For when the hearing hears nothing of the things here, but of the things spoken in heaven, when the eye sees nothing of the things here but of the things above, it is not on earth; when the mouth utters nothing of the things here, it is not on earth; when the hand does nothing wicked, it does not belong to the things on earth but to those in heaven.

This Christ too says: “If your right eye causes you to stumble,” that is, if you look licentiously, “cut it out,” that is, the evil thought. It seems to me that “sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, desire” all say the same thing, sexual immorality: through all of them he leads us away from the thing. For it is truly a passion; and as the body suffers, either has fever or is wounded, so does this. And he did not say, “Restrain,” but “Put to death,” so that it may not rise again; and put it away. What is put to death we put away: for example, if there are calluses on the body, that part of the body is dead, and we put it away. If you cut it while alive, it causes pain; but if it has been put to death, we do not even feel it. So too with the passions: sexual immorality makes the soul unclean, makes the immortal soul subject to passion. How greed is called idolatry we have often said. For the things that most tyrannize the human race are these: greed, licentiousness, and evil desire. “Because of which,” he says, “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” He says “sons of disobedience,” depriving them of excuse, and showing that they are in these things through not being persuaded. “In which you too,” he says, “once walked,” and were persuaded. He shows them as though still in them, and praises them by speaking so. “But now you too put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech.” He directs his words not at them but at others, so as not to wound. And by blasphemies he means abuse, as by wrath he means wickedness. Elsewhere he says, to shame them, “We are members of one another.” He represents them as craftsmen of men, of whom one puts off the old man and the other receives the new. There he said “the members”; here he says “all”: the heart, anger, the mouth, blasphemy, the eyes, sexual immorality, greed, hands and feet, falsehood, the mind itself, and the old mind. The new man has one royal form, Christ's. These people seem to me to be rather from the Gentiles, to whom he also directs his words, showing that the members have one royal form, even if one is greater and another lesser. For just as earth, being sand, first loses its own form and afterwards becomes gold, and just as wool, whatever it was, receives another appearance and hides the former one, so too the believer. “Bearing with one another,” he says. He showed what is just: bear with him, and he with you; as he says in the Letter to the Galatians, “Bear one another's burdens.” “And be thankful,” he says. Above all he seeks this everywhere; for this is the sum of good things.