Homilies on Philippians 5.1–6.2

“If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affections and mercies, fulfil my joy, that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one soul, minding the one thing; doing nothing from rivalry or vainglory, but in humility counting one another better than yourselves; each of you looking not to his own things, but each also to the things of others.” Nothing is better, nothing more tender, than a spiritual teacher: he surpasses the goodwill of any natural father. See, then, what an entreaty this blessed man makes to the Philippians for what was to their advantage. For what does he say, exhorting them to concord, the cause of all good things? See how earnestly, how vehemently, with how much sympathy: “If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ,” he says. That is, if you have any encouragement in Christ; as if he were saying, If you have any regard for me, if you have any care for me, if you ever received any kindness from me, do this. We use this manner of appeal when we make a request about something we set above everything; for unless we set it above everything, we would not wish to receive it as the return for everything, and would not say that everything is shown through it. Now we remind people of fleshly claims; as if a father said to his son, If you have any respect for your father, any memory of your upbringing, any affection for me, any regard for the honour you received from me, any goodwill, do not be an enemy to your brother; that is, in return for all those things, give me this repayment. But Paul does not do so; for he reminds them of nothing fleshly, but of things wholly spiritual. What he says is this: if you wish to give me any encouragement in my trials and any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if you wish to give any fellowship in the Spirit, if you have any affections and mercies, “fulfil my joy.” “If any affections and mercies.” Paul calls the concord of his disciples a mercy to himself, showing that the danger is extreme if they are not of one mind. If it is possible, he says, to obtain encouragement from you, if it is possible to obtain some consolation from your love, if it is possible to have fellowship with you in the Spirit, if it is possible to share with you in the Lord, if it is possible to receive mercy and pity from you, show the return for all these things in love: I have obtained all these things if you love one another. “Fulfil my joy.” See: so that the exhortation may not seem to be addressed to people still lacking, he did not say, “Make me”, but, “Fulfil”; that is, you have begun to plant in me; you have already given me a share in peace, but I desire to come to the end. What do you want, tell me? That we free you from dangers? That we supply you with something? None of these things, he says; but “that you be of the same mind, having the same love” in which you began, “being of one soul, minding the one thing.” Ah, how many times he says the same thing, from great affection! “That you be of the same mind,” he says, or rather, “that you mind the one thing”. For he made this plain as he went on by saying, “minding the one thing”, which is more than “the same”. “Having the same love”: that is, not merely about faith only, but also in everything else. For it is possible to be of the same mind and not have love. “Having the same love”: that is, to love and be loved alike. Do not enjoy much love yourself and give less to others, so as to be grasping in this too. Even if some do this, do not you put up with it. “Of one soul,” he says: that is, making all bodies your own with one soul; not in substance (for that is not possible), but in will and purpose, let everything be done as from one soul. What is “of one soul”? He made it plain by saying, “minding the one thing”: let the mind be one, as of one soul. “Nothing from rivalry.” Next he also tells the way, how this may come about: “Nothing from rivalry or vainglory,” he says. As I always say, this is the cause of all evils: from this come fights and quarrels, from this envy and contentiousness, from this the cooling of love, when we are in love with the glory that comes from people, when we are slaves of the honour of the many; for it is not possible to be a slave of glory and also a genuine slave of God. How, then, shall we flee vainglory, he says? For you have not yet told the way. Hear what follows: “But in humility counting one another better than yourselves.” Ah, how he has laid down a teaching full of all philosophy and the very fabric of our salvation! If you suppose, he says, that so-and-so is greater than you, and persuade yourself of this, or rather, if you not only say it but are fully convinced of it, you also give him honour; and if you give him honour, you will not be indignant when you see him honoured by another. So do not merely think that he is greater than you, but that he is better, which means great superiority; and you will not be surprised when you see him honoured, nor will you be pained; even if he insults you, you will bear it nobly, for you have considered him greater than you; even if he reviles you, you will yield; even if he does you harm, you bear it in silence. For when once the soul is fully convinced that he is greater, it does not fall into anger at whatever harm it suffers from him, nor into envy. For no one would envy those who are greatly superior; for he considers everything part of their superiority.

Here, then, he trains this one to be so disposed. But when that other too, who enjoys such honour from you, he says, is so disposed toward you, consider how it is a double wall of gentleness. For when you for your part hold him worthy of honour, and he does the same, nothing grievous will ever happen. For if this, done by one, is enough to put an end to all quarrelling, when it comes from both, who will break through this safety? Not even the devil himself; the fortification is many times stronger. For humility is the cause of all good things. And that you may learn it, hear the prophet saying: “If you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it; in burnt offerings you will not delight. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” He does not simply require humility, but the utmost humility. For just as among bodies what is broken would never rise up against what is solid, but whatever terrible things it may suffer, it will itself perish before it attacks another, so with the soul too: it will choose rather to suffer harm always and to die than to attack and retaliate. How long shall we be puffed up with a puffing worthy of laughter? For as we laugh at children when we see them stretching themselves up and being proud, or again when we see them lifting a stone and throwing it, so human arrogance is the offspring of a childish mind and an immature understanding. For “why is earth and ashes proud?” Do you think highly of yourself, man? Why? What is the gain, tell me? And from where do you think highly of yourself over those of your own kind? Do you not share the same nature? The same soul? Have you not been equally honoured by God? But you are wise? Then you ought to give thanks, not be puffed up; … for it denies the gift of the kindness. For the one who exalts himself exalts himself as having achieved it himself; and the one who thinks he has achieved it is ungrateful to the one who gave the honour. Do you have something good? Give thanks to the one who gave it. Hear what Joseph says, and what Daniel. When the king of Egypt sent for him from the prison and inquired before his whole army about a matter in which all the Egyptians, most skilled in such things, had been passed by, he was about to surpass them in everything and appear wiser than the astrologers, the soothsayers, the sorcerers, the magi, all the philosophers of that time, from captivity and slavery, a mere youth (for then the glory is greater: it is not the same to shine when one is known and against expectation, so that the unexpectedness made him more admirable); what, then, did he say when he came before Pharaoh? “Yes, I know”? Not so; but what? With no one refuting him, out of great gratitude, what does he say? “Is not the interpretation of them through God?” See: he at once glorified the Master; that is why he too was glorified. And this is no small thing in the way of glory; for it is far greater that God revealed it than that he achieved it himself. Besides, in this way he showed that what he said was trustworthy, and this is the greatest proof of intimacy with God. For nothing is so good as being made God's own. “For if he was justified by works, he has something to boast about,” he says, “but not before God.” For if one counted worthy of grace boasts in God, that he is loved, since he was forgiven, and the one who works also has something to boast about, but not before God as that one does (for this is a proof of our great weakness), how much more admirable would one be who has received wisdom from God? He glorified God, and was glorified by him: “For those who glorify me,” it says, “I will glorify.” Again his descendant, than whom none was wiser (“For are you wiser,” it says, “than Daniel?”), this Daniel, when all the wise men in Babylon, and again the astrologers, soothsayers, magi, sorcerers, the whole of philosophy, were not only refuted but about to be put to death (for their being put to death was proof that they had deceived before too), came forward and was about to resolve the question, did not himself preen himself either, but first ascribed everything to God and said: “But to me it was revealed, not by any wisdom that is in me beyond all men, O king.” And the king worshipped him, and said that offerings … Do you see a character free from pride? Hear the apostles too, saying at one time, “Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power …?” and at another, “We too are men of like nature with you.” If they so repelled honours that were given them, men doing works greater than Christ's because of Christ's humility and through his power (“For whoever believes in me,” he says, “will do greater works than those I do”), how are we not wretched, who … , let alone demons; who cannot benefit even one person, let alone the whole world, and yet think so highly of ourselves as not even the devil himself …

Nothing is so foreign to a Christian soul as arrogance; arrogance, I say, not boldness or courage, for those belong to it. For this is one thing and that another; just as humility is one thing, and servility, flattery, and fawning another. And, if you wish, I will give you examples of all these. For the opposites seem in a way to stand alongside them, like tares beside the wheat and thorns beside the rose. Children might easily be deceived, but those who are truly men, being experienced in spiritual husbandry, know how to separate what is truly good from what is evil. Come, then, let us set before you examples of them from the Scriptures. What is flattery and servility? … and slandered his own master; or rather, Ahithophel with Absalom. But David was not such, but humble. For flatterers are the deceitful; as, for example, when the magi say, “O king, live forever.” And with Paul in the Acts we shall find many such words, when he speaks with the Jews, not flattering but humble; for he knew how to speak boldly too; as when he says, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, I was delivered a prisoner from Jerusalem.” That these words came from humility, hear how he rebukes them in what follows, saying, “The Holy Spirit spoke well: You will hear with your ears and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive.” Have you seen courage? See also the courage of John the Baptist, which he used toward Herod, saying, “It is not lawful for you to have the wife of Philip your brother.” This is boldness, this is courage; but not that of Shimei, when he said, “Get out, you man of blood”; and yet he too spoke boldly. But this is not courage but rashness, insolence, and an unbridled tongue. … “… of his lord”; but it was rashness, not boldness. Elijah too spoke reproachfully, but it was boldness and courage: “It is not I who trouble the people, but you and your father's house.” Elijah again spoke boldly to a whole people, saying, “How long will you limp on both your legs?” This is boldness and courage, to take hold of people; this the prophets also did; but that other was of rashness. Do you want to see words of humility and freedom? Hear Paul saying, “But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human day; I do not even examine myself. For I know nothing against myself; but I am not justified by this.” This belongs to a mind befitting a Christian. And again, “Does any of you, having a matter against another, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” Do you want to see the flattery of the foolish Jews? Hear them saying, “We have no king but Caesar.” Do you want to see humility? Hear Paul again saying, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.” Do you want to see both flattery and rashness? Rashness, that of Nabal; flattery, that of the Ziphites; and how the one reviled David and the others betrayed him in intention? Do you want to see David's philosophy, and not flattery? How he caught Saul and spared him? Do you want to see the flattery of those who killed Mephibosheth, whom David also put to death? To speak simply and, as in an outline, in summary: rashness is when someone grows angry and insults for no fitting reason, either avenging himself or being bold in some unjust way; but boldness and courage is when one dares dangers and deaths, and disregards friendships and enmities for the sake of what pleases God. Again, flattery and servility is when someone courts certain people for nothing that is right, but hunting after something of this life; humility is when someone does this for the sake of what pleases God, and, in order to accomplish something great and admirable, comes down from his own dignity. If we know these things, we are blessed if we do them. For knowing is not enough: “For not the hearers of the law,” he says, “but the doers of the law will be justified”; or rather, knowing even condemns, when it is without action and achievements. So that we may escape condemnation, let us pursue action, so that we may obtain the promised good things, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, urging his disciples toward great things, sets forth himself as an example, and the Father, and the prophets; as when he says, “For so they did to the prophets who were before you”; and again, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you”; and, “Learn from me, for I am gentle …”; and again, “Be merciful, as your Father in heaven.” This blessed Paul also does. For urging them to humility, he brought Christ into the midst; and not here only, but also when he discusses love for the poor he speaks somewhat like this: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for our sake he became poor though he was rich.” For nothing so rouses the great and philosophic soul to the doing of good as learning that in this it is made like God. For what is equal to this as an incentive? Nothing. Knowing this, Paul, urging them to humility, first exhorted them and made an entreaty, then also spoke so as to shame them, saying, “which is a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation”; and next he sets this down: “For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” Attend. For as a sword sharpened on both sides, wherever it falls, even among ten thousand battle lines, easily cuts through them and destroys them, because it is sharp on every side and nothing can withstand its edge, so too are the words of the Spirit. For by these words he has struck down the followers of Arius of Alexandria, of Paul of Samosata, of Marcellus the Galatian, of Sabellius the Libyan, of Marcion of Pontus, of Valentinus, of Photinus and Sophronius, and in short all the heresies. Since, then, you are about to see such a spectacle, so many battle lines falling at one blow, be roused, so that the delight of the spectacle may not pass you by. For if in the races of chariots, in the contests of horses, nothing is so delightful as when one man alone drives past whole chariots with their charioteers standing in them, toward the turning post and the finish of the race, and great applause rises from every side and the shouting goes up to heaven, while he, as though winged by that joy and the applause, runs through the whole stadium with his horses, how much greater will the pleasure be here, when we cast down whole companies of heresies and devilish workshops, with their charioteers, by the grace of God, all at once and together? And, if you please, let us first set up the heresies themselves in order. Do you wish it to be the order of impiety, or that of time? Let us take that of time; for that of impiety [is hard to judge; let Sabellius the Libyan] be brought forward first. What, then, does this man say? That “Father” and “Son” and “Holy Spirit” are bare names applied to one person. Marcion of Pontus says that the God who made all things is not good, nor the Father of the good Christ, but another, a just one; and that the Son did not take flesh for us. Marcellus, Photinus, and Sophronius say that the Word is an energy, and that this energy dwelt in the one who was of the seed of David, not a subsistent substance. Arius confesses a Son, but in word only; for he says he is a creature, and much less than the Father. Others say that he did not have a soul. Have you seen the chariots standing? Watch, then, their falls too, how he strikes them all down together, with one blow and at once. How, then, does he strike them down? “For let this mind be in you,” he says, “which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God.” Here Paul of Samosata fell, and Marcellus and Sabellius. For “being in the form of God,” he says. If in the form, how do you say, wretched man, that he began from Mary and did not exist before this? And how again that he was an energy? For “in the form of God,” he says, he “took the form of a servant.” For tell me, is the form of the servant the energy of a servant, or the nature of a servant? Surely you will say, the nature of a servant. Then the form of God too is the nature of God; not, then, an energy. See, Marcellus the Galatian too and …

See, Sabellius too. “He did not count it robbery,” he says, “to be equal with God.” But “equal” is not said of one person; for what is equal is equal to something. Do you see the subsistence of two persons, not bare names spoken without realities? Have you heard of the existence of the Only-begotten before the ages? These things, then, against those men. What shall we say next to Arius, who says that the Son is of another substance? Tell me, what is “he took the form of a servant”? He became man, he says. Then also “being in the form of God”, he was God; for “form” is used in both places. If the one is true, so is the other. The form of the servant is man by nature; then the form of God is also God by nature. And not this only, but he also bears witness to his equality, as John does too, and that he is in no way less than the Father: “He did not count it robbery,” he says, “to be equal with God.” But what is their clever argument? Surely, he says, it shows the opposite; for he said that “being in the form of God, he did not seize being equal with God”; and indeed, if he was God, how could he seize it? And how is this not unintelligible? For who would say that so-and-so, being a man, did not seize being a man? For how could one seize what he is? No, he says; but that being a lesser God, he did not seize being equal to the great and greater God. Is there such a thing as a small and a great God? And are you bringing Greek notions into the teachings of the Church? For with them there is a great and a small god; whether with you too, I do not know. For in the Scriptures you will find this nowhere, but “great” everywhere and “small” nowhere. For if he is small, how is he also God? If there is not a small man and a great one, but one nature, and whatever does not belong to this one nature is not a man, how could there be a small God and a great one, when the small one would not be of that nature? The one who is small is not God; for everywhere in Scripture he is called great: “Great is the Lord,” says David, “and greatly to be praised.” See, this is said of the Son too, for he everywhere calls him Lord. And again, “You are great, and do wonders; you alone are God”; and again, “Great is our Lord, and great is his strength, and of his greatness there is no end.” “But these things are said of the Father,” he says, “but the Son is small.” But you say this; Scripture says the opposite; as about the Father, so it speaks about the Son. For hear Paul saying, “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God.” But surely he did not speak of the appearing of the Father? And to refute you the more, he added, “according to the appearing of the great God.” Is it, then, said of the Father? Not at all: the continuation does not allow it, saying, “and the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” See, the Son too is great. How, then, do you call him small, and the other great? Hear the prophet too, calling him “Angel of great counsel.” Is the Angel of great counsel not great? Is “the mighty God” not great but small? What, then, do these shameless and bold men say, that being a small God …? I repeat what they say many times, so that you may flee them the more: “Being a small God,” he says, “he did not seize being as the great one.” For what, tell me (but do not think the words are ours), if he was small according to them, and fell far short of the Father's power, how could he have been able to seize being equal with God? For one lesser by nature could not seize being in the greater nature; for example, a man could not seize being equal by nature to an angel; a horse could not seize, even if it wished, being equal by nature to a man. Besides this, I will say this too: what does Paul want to establish by this example? To lead the Philippians to humility, you will surely say. Why, then, tell me, would he have brought this forward? For no one who wishes to urge humility says this: “Be humble, and think less of yourself than your equals; for so-and-so, a slave, did not rise up against his master; imitate him.” But surely, someone might say, this is not humility but arrogance. Learn what humility is, you who have a devilish pride. What, then, is humility? To think lowly things; and the one who thinks lowly things is not the one who is lowly by necessity, but the one who humbles himself. For example (but attend): when someone who could think lofty things thinks humbly, he is humble; but when he thinks humbly because he cannot do otherwise, he is no longer humble. For example, if the emperor submits to the prefect, he is humble, because he came down from his height; but if the prefect does this, he is not being humble; how could he be? For he did not humble himself from a height. It is not possible to be humble otherwise than when one is in a position of power. For if one must be humbled by necessity, even against his will, the achievement no longer belongs to his mind or his will, but to necessity; and humility is so called because it is a lowering of one's mind.