All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 16:24 Go To 1 Corinthians 16
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Thus to hinder them from thinking that in flattery to them he so ended, he says, In Christ Jesus. It having nothing in it human or carnal, but being of a sort of spiritual nature. Wherefore it is thoroughly genuine. For indeed the expression was that of one who loves deeply. As thus; because he was separated from them as regards place, as it were by the stretching out of a right hand he incloses them with the arms of his love, saying, My love be with you all; just as if he said, With all of you I am. Whereby he intimates that the things written came not of wrath or anger, but of provident care, seeing that after so heavy an accusation he does not turn himself away, but rather loves them, and embraces them when they are afar off, by these epistles and writings throwing himself into their arms.
5. For so ought he that corrects to do: since he at least, who acts merely from anger is but satisfying his own feeling; but he who after correcting the sinner renders also the offices of love, shows that those words also, whatsoever he spoke in reproof, were words of fond affection. Just so let us too chasten one another; and let neither the corrector be angry, (for this belongs not to correction, but to passion,) nor let him that is corrected take it ill. For what is done is healing, not despite. Now if physicians use cautery and are not found fault with, and that too, frequently, though they quite miss their object; but even in their pain the subjects of the cautery and amputation esteem as benefactors those who excite this pain; much more ought he who receives reproof to be so disposed, and as to a physician so to give heed to the corrector, and not as to an enemy. And let us also who rebuke approach with great gentleness, with great prudence. And if you see a brother committing sin, as Christ commanded, make not your rebuke public, but between you and him alone: Matthew 18:15 not reproaching nor insulting over him when down, but in pain and with a melting heart. And show yourself ready also to receive reproof, if you commit error in any thing.
Now that what I say may be plainer, let us put an imaginary case and so try our rule. For God forbid that in very deed we should be provided with such an illustration of it. Suppose any brother dwelling in the same house with a virgin, in honor and chastity, and yet not even so quite escaping evil report. If then you should hear talk of this their dwelling together, be not contemptuous, nor say, Why, has he no understanding? Does he not himself know what is for his good? Get love for nothing, but do not for nothing get hatred. Why, what have I to do with taking up a gratuitous enmity? These are the doting words of wild beasts, or rather of demons: for it is not so that he is hated for nothing who does this for his brother's correction, rather it is for great blessings and crowns unutterable.
But if you say, What? Has he no understanding? you shall hear from me that he has not: drunken as he is with his passion. For if in the heathen courts of justice, those who are injured must not speak for themselves while glowing with wrath; (although there be no fault in that kind of sympathy;) how much more those whom evil habit holds in subjection. Wherefore I say that manifold as his wisdom may be, he has not his mind awake. For what can be wiser than David, the man who said, The dark and the hidden things of Your wisdom You have made known unto me? 267 li. 6. ap, Septuagint. l. 6 But when he looked on the wife of the soldier with unjust eyes, then according to what he himself said Psalm 107:27 of those who sail on the raging sea, all his wisdom was swallowed up; and he stood in need of others to correct him, and did not even perceive amidst what evils he was. Wherefore also, bewailing his offenses, he said, As a heavy burden they weighed grievously upon me: my wounds stank and were corrupt because of my folly. Psalm 38:5 He therefore that commits sin has no understanding. For he is drunken and is in darkness. Do not then say these things, neither add that other remark, I care not at all about it. 'For each man shall bear his own burden.' Galatians 6:5 Nay, against yourself also it grows up into a grievous accusation, that seeing one in error thou dost not restore him. For if it was not right according to the law of the Jews Exodus 23:4-5 to slight the beast of one's enemy; he who despises not the beast of burden nor yet the soul of an enemy perishing, but that of a friend, what pardon shall he obtain?
Yea, neither is it enough for our excuse that he has understanding: since we too after our many and manifold exhortations have not been sufficient, nor proved useful, unto ourselves. Bear this in mind then in regard to him also that is in error; that it is natural he should receive the best counsel rather from you than from himself.
And say not, But what care I about these things? Fear thou him who first spoke this word; for the saying, Am I my brother's keeper? Genesis 4:9 tends to the same point as this. This is the mother of all our evils that we esteem the concerns of our own body as foreign to us. What do you say? You care not for your brother? Who then is to care for him? The unbeliever who rejoices over and reproaches and insults him? Or the devil who urges him on and supplants him?
And whence comes this? How do I know that I shall accomplish anything, says he, though I speak and advise what is right. But how is it clear that you will do no good? Why, this again is extreme folly, while the end remains in obscurity to incur the manifold blame of confessed indifference. And yet God who foresees the future often speaks and does no good; yet does He not even so give up; and that, knowing that He shall not even persuade men. Now if He who knows beforehand that He shall win no advantage, ceases not from the work of correction, what excuse will you have, who art completely ignorant of the future and yet faintest and art benumbed? Yea, and many have succeeded by frequent attempts: and when they most of all despaired, then did they most gain their point. And though you should gain no advantage, you have done your own part.
Be not then inhuman, nor unmerciful, nor careless: for that these words come of cruelty and indifference is plain from what follows: viz. What is the reason that when one of the members of your body is in pain, you say not, What care I? Yet whence is it plain, that if it be taken due care of, it is restored? And yet you leave nothing undone, that even although thou profit not, you may not have to blame yourself for the omission of any thing which ought to have been done. Hereupon I ask, are we to take such care for the members of our body and to neglect those of Christ? Nay, how can such things deserve pardon? For if I make no impression upon you by saying, Have a care of your own member; in order that you may become better were it only through fear, I put you in mind of the body of Christ. But how can it be other than a matter of horror to see His flesh putrefying, and neglect it? And if you had a slave or an ass afflicted with a mortifying sore, you could not have the heart to neglect it: but do you see the Body of Christ full of scurvy , and hurriest by? And thinkest not that such things deserve innumerable thunder-bolts? For this cause all things are turned upside down, because of this our inhumanity, because of our indifference. Wherefore now, I beseech you, let this cruelty be cast out from among us.
6. Draw near to him whom I speak of, as dwelling with a virgin, and speak some small praise of your brother, making it up from the other excellencies which he has. And foment him with your commendations as it were with warm water, and so mitigate the tumor of his wound. Speak of yourself also as wretched; accuse the common race of mankind; point out that we are all in sins; ask for pardon, saying, that you are undertaking things too great for you, but love persuades you to dare all things. Then in giving your advice, do it not imperiously, but in a brotherly way. And when by all these means you have reduced the swelling and soothed the pain arising from the cutting reproof which is in store for him, and when you have again and again deprecated and besought him not to be angry: when you have bound him down with these things, then use the knife; neither pressing the matter too close, nor yet undoing it; that he may neither fly off on the one hand, nor on the other think little of it. For if you strike not to the quick you have done no good, and if your blow be violent, you make him start away.
Wherefore, even after all this, being on the very point of the reproof, mix up again commendation with your censures. And seeing that this proceeding considered in itself cannot be matter of praise, (for it is not commendable to keep house with a damsel that is a virgin;) let the purpose of him who does so be your topic for effecting this; and say, I know indeed that you do it for God's sake, and that the desolation and unprotected state of that poor woman met your eye, and caused you to stretch out your hand to her. And although he may not be doing it with this intention, do thou speak so; and after this add what follows also; again excusing yourself and saying, These things I speak not to direct but to remind you. You do it for God's sake; I too know that. But let us see whether another evil be not produced thereby. And if there be none, keep her in your house, and cling to this excellent purpose. There is no one to hinder you. But if any mischief arise from hence exceeding the advantage, let us take care, I beseech you, lest while we are earnest to comfort one soul, we put a stumbling-block in the way of ten thousand. And do not add immediately the punishments due to those who give offense, but take his own testimony also, saying, You have no need to learn these things from me: you yourself know, 'if any one offend one of these little ones,' how great a penalty is threatened. And thus, having sweetened your speech and smoothed down his wrath, apply the medicine of your correction. And should he again urge her forlorn condition, do not thou even so expose his pretence, but say to him, Let nothing of this sort make you afraid: you will have an ample plea, the offense given to others: since not for indifference, but in care towards them, did you cease from this your purpose.
And let the matter of your advice be brief, for there is no need of much teaching; but let the expressions of forbearance on the other hand be many and close upon one another. And continually have thou recourse to the topic of love; throwing into shade the painfulness of what you say, and giving him his full power, and saying, This is what I for my part advise and recommend; but about taking the advice you are only judge: for I do not compel and force you, but submit the whole thing to your own discretion.
If we so manage our reproof, we shall easily be able in correct those in error: even as what we now do is surely more like the conduct of wild beasts or irrational creatures than of men. For if any persons now perceive any one committing errors of this kind, with the person himself they do not at all confer, but themselves, like silly old women who have drunk too much, whisper with another. And the saying, Get love for nothing, but do not get hatred for nothing, has not here any place in their opinion. But, when they have a fancy to speak evil, they mind not being hated for nothing, rather I should say, being punished; since it is not hatred alone that is hereby produced, but also punishment. But when there is need of correction, they allege both this, and innumerable other pretexts. Whereas then would be the time to think of these things, when you speak evil, when you calumniate. I mean the saying, Be not hated for nothing, and I can do nothing, and it is no care of mine. But as things are, in the former case, you are vehemently and idly curious, and carest not for hatred and ills innumerable; but when you should be taking thought for the salvation of your brother, then it is your pleasure to be a sort of unofficious, inoffensive person. And yet from evil speaking arises hatred both on God's part and on men's; and this is no great care to you: but by giving advice privately, and reproofs of that kind, both he and God will be made your friends. And even should he hate you, God goes on loving you the rather on this account. Nay, in fact, not even so will he hate you, as when his hatred came from your evil speaking: but in that case he will avoid you as a foe and an enemy, whereas now he will consider you more venerable than any father. And if he apparently take it ill, inwardly and privately he will feel much obliged to you.
7. Bearing in mind these things therefore let us have a care of our own members, and not sharpen the tongue against one another, nor speak words which may do hurt, undermining the fame of our neighbor, and as in war and battle, giving and receiving blows. For what after all is the good of fasting or watching, when the tongue is drunken, and feasts itself at a table more unclean than of dog's flesh; when it is grown ravening after blood, and pours out filth, and makes the mouth a channel of a sewer, nay rather something more abominable than that? For that which proceeds from thence pollutes the body: but what comes from the tongue often suffocates the soul.
These things I say, not in anxiety about those who have an ill report falsely: for they are worthy even of crowns, when they bear what is said nobly; but in anxiety for you that so speak. For him that is evil reported of falsely, the Scriptures pronounce blessed; but the evil-speaker they expel from the holy Mysteries, nay even from the very precincts. For it is said, Psalm 101:5 Him that privily speaks against his neighbor, this man did I chase out. And he says too that such a one is unworthy to read the sacred books. For, Why, says He, Psalm 50:16 do you declare My righteous laws, and takest My covenant in your mouth? Then, annexing the cause He says Psalm 49:20 Thou sat and spoke against your brother. And here indeed he does not distinctly add whether they be things true or false which he speaks. But elsewhere this too makes part of His prohibition: He implying, that even though thou speak truths, yet such things are not to be uttered by you. For, Judge not, says He, that you be not judged: Matthew 7:1 since he too who spoke evil of the publican was condemned, although it was true which he laid to his neighbor's charge.
What then, you will say, if any one be daring and polluted, must we not correct him? Must we not expose him? We must both expose and correct: but in the way which I mentioned before. But if you do it upbraiding him, take heed lest your imitation of that Pharisee cause you to fall into his state. For no advantage accrues from hence; none to you who speakest, none to him who hears you, none to the person accused. But the latter, for his part, becomes more reckless: since as long as he is unobserved, he is sensible of shame; but as soon as he becomes manifest and notorious, he casts off the curb also which that feeling imposed on him.
And the hearer will in his turn be yet more injured. For whether he be conscious to himself of good deeds, he becomes puffed and swoln up with the accusation brought against another; or of faults, he then becomes more eager for iniquity.
Thirdly, the speaker too himself will both incur the bad opinion of the hearer, and will provoke God to more anger against himself.
Wherefore, I beseech you, let us cast from us every word that is unsavory. If there be any thing good unto edification, this let us speak.
But have you a fancy to avenge yourself on the other person? Why then punish yourself instead of him? Nay, do thou, who art so earnestly seeking redress from those who have annoyed you, avenge yourself as Paul recommended to take vengeance. If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. Romans 12:20 But if you do not so, but only plot against him, you point the sword against yourself.
Wherefore if that other speak evil, answer him with praises and commendations. For so will you be able both to take vengeance on him, and wilt deliver yourself from evil surmising. Since he that feels pain at hearing ill of himself, is thought to be so affected because of some consciousness of evil: but he that laughs to scorn what is said, exhibits a most unquestionable token of his not being conscious to himself of any evil thing.
Seeing then that you profit neither your hearer, nor yourself, nor him that is accused, and dost but point your sword at your own self, even from such considerations do thou learn more soberness. For one ought indeed to be moved by the thought of the kingdom of heaven, and of what pleases God: but since you are of grosser disposition and bitest like a wild beast, hereby even be thou instructed; that these arguments having corrected you, you may be able to order yourself simply from consideration of what pleases God; and having come to be above every passion, may obtain the heavenly blessings:— which may God grant us all to obtain, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His mercy towards mankind; with Whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and henceforth, and unto everlasting ages. Amen.
