For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Read Chapter 20
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Why then, this only is to be a teacher, to declare, to preach, to instruct, shrink from nothing, to exhort night and day: but if, while one is doing all this, nothing comes of it, you know what remains. Then you have another justification: I am pure from the blood of all men. Think not that these words are spoken to us only: for indeed this speech is addressed to you also, that you should attend to the things spoken, that you should not start away from the hearing. What can I do? Lo! each day I rend myself with crying out, Depart from the theatres: and many laugh at us: Desist from swearing, from covetousness: numberless are our exhortations, and there is none to hear us. But I do not discourse during night? Fain would I do this also in the night time, and at your tables, if it were possible that one could be divided into ten thousand pieces, so as to be present with you and discourse. But if once in the week we call to you, and you shrink back, and some of you do not even come here, a...
Why then, he who does not speak, has blood to answer for: that is, murder! Nothing could be more terrifying than this. He shows that they also, if they do it not, have blood to answer for. So, whereas he seems to be justifying himself, in fact he is terrifying them. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers (or, bishops) to feed the Church of God (see note 3), which He has purchased with His own blood.
