Miscellanies 4.21.131

From this he would be blessed and would justly be proclaimed perfect, “so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from us,” as the apostle says. Only let us preserve our choice and our love, “afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.” For those who hasten toward perfection must, according to the same apostle, “give no offense in anything, but in everything commend themselves” not to men but to God. Let obedience to men follow as a consequence; for this too is reasonable, because of the abusive blasphemies. And the commendation is “in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love without hypocrisy, in the word of truth, in the power of God,” so that we may be temples of God, “cleansed from every defilement of flesh and spirit. And I,” he says, “will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Let us, then, perfect holiness in the fear of God.” For even if fear produces grief, “I rejoice,” he says, “not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance; for you were grieved according to God, so that you might suffer loss in nothing from us. For godly grief produces a repentance to salvation without regret, but the grief of the world produces death. For see what earnestness this very thing, being grieved according to God, has produced in you, what defense, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what vindication. In everything you have commended yourselves to be pure in the matter.”