For no other foundation can a man lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 3:11 Go To 1 Corinthians 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
I say, no man can lay it so long as he is a master-builder; but if he lay it, (τιθῃ conj. for τεθῃ . Dounæus ap. Savil. viii. not. p. 261.) he ceases to be a master-builder.
See how even from men's common notions he proves the whole of his proposition. His meaning is this: I have preached Christ, I have delivered unto you the foundation. Take heed how you build thereon, lest haply it be in vainglory, lest haply so as to draw away the disciples unto men. Let us not then give heed unto the heresies. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. Upon this then let us build, and as a foundation let us cleave to it, as a branch to a vine; and let there be no interval between us and Christ. For if there be any interval, immediately we perish. For the branch by its adherence draws in the fatness, and the building stands because it is cemented together. Since, if it stand apart it perishes, having nothing whereon to support itself. Let us not then merely keep hold of Christ, but let us be cemented to Him, for if we stand apart, we perish. For they who withdraw themselves far from You, shall perish; Psalm 72:27. Septuagint so it is said. Let us cleave then unto Him, and let us cleave by our works. For he that keeps my commandments, the same abides in Me John 14:21. in substance And accordingly, there are many images whereby He brings us into union. Thus, if you mark it, He is the Head, we are the body: can there be any empty interval between the head and body? He is a Foundation, we a building: He a Vine, we branches: He the Bridegroom, we the bride: He the Shepherd, we the sheep; He is the Way, we they who walk therein. Again, we are a temple, He the Indweller: He the First-Begotten, we the brethren: He the Heir, we the heirs together with Him: He the Life, we the living: He the Resurrection, we those who rise again: He the Light, we the enlightened. All these things indicate unity; and they allow no void interval, not even the smallest. For he that removes but to a little distance will go on till he has become very far distant. For so the body, receiving though it be but a small cut by a sword, perishes: and the building, though there be but a small chink, falls to decay: and the branch, though it be but a little while cut off from the root, becomes useless. So that this trifle is no trifle, but is even almost the whole. Whenever then we commit some little fault or even negligence, let us not overlook that little; since this, being disregarded, quickly becomes great. So also when a garment has begun to be torn and is neglected, it is apt to prolong its rent all throughout; and a roof, when a few tiles have fallen, being disregarded, brings down the whole house.
8. These things then let us bear in mind, and never slight the small things, lest we fall into those which are great. But if so be that we have slighted them and have come into the abyss of evils, not even when we have come there let us despond, lest we fall into recklessness (καρηβαρίαν). For to emerge from thence is hard ever after, for one who is not extremely watchful; not because of the distance alone, but of the very position, too, wherein we find ourselves. For sin also is a deep, and is wont to bear down and crush. And just as those who have fallen into a well cannot with ease get out, but will want others to draw them up; so also is he that has come into any depth of sins. To such then we must lower ropes and draw them up. Nay rather, we need not others only, but ourselves also, that we for our part may fasten on ourselves and ascend, I say not so much as we have descended, but much further, if we be willing: for why? God also helps: for He wills not the death of a sinner so much as his conversion. Let no one then despair; let no one have the feeling of the ungodly; for to them properly belongs this kind of sin: an ungodly man having come into any depth of evils, makes light of it. So that it is not the multitude of men's sins which causes their despair, but their ungodly mind.
Shouldest thou then have gone all lengths in wickedness, yet say unto yourself, God is loving unto men and he desires our salvation: for though your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten you as snow, Isaiah 1:10. Septuagint says He; and unto the contrary habit I will change you. Let us not therefore give up in despair; for to fall is not so grievous, as to lie where we have fallen; nor to be wounded so dreadful, as after wounds to refuse healing. For who shall boast that he has his heart chaste? Or who shall say confidently that he is pure from sin? Proverbs 20:9. Septuagint These things I say not to make you more negligent, but to prevent your despairing.
Would you know how good our Master is? The Publican went up full of ten thousand wickednesses, and saying only, Be merciful unto me, went down justified. St. 48 13, 14 Yea, God says by the prophet, Because of sin for some little season I grieved him, Isaiah 57:17-18. Septuagint and I saw that (εἶδον δτι not in Sept.) he was grieved and went sorrowful, and I healed his ways (ἰασάμην αὐτὸν, Sept.) What is there equal to this loving-kindness? On condition ἲνα στυγνάση . See John 8:56. ἲνα ἴδη τὴν ἡμέραν of his being but sorrowful, so he speaks, I forgave him his sins. But we do not even this: wherefore we especially provoke God to wrath. (For he, who by little things even is made propitious, when He meets not with so much as these, is of course indignant and exacts of us the last penalty; for this comes of exceeding contempt.) Who is there, for instance, that has ever become melancholy for his sins? Who has bemoaned himself? Who has beaten his breast? Who has taken anxious thought? Not one, to my thinking. But days without number do men weep for dead servants; for the loss of money: while as to the soul which we are ruining day by day, we give it not a thought. How then will you be able to render God propitious, when you know not even that you have sinned?
Yea, says some one, I have sinned. Yea, is your word to me with the tongue: say it to me with your mind, and with the word mourn heavily, that you may have continual cheerfulness. Since, if we did grieve for our sins, if we mourned heavily over our offenses, nothing else could give us sorrow, this one pang would expel all kinds of dejection. Here then is another thing also which we should gain by our thorough confession; namely, the not being overwhelmed (βαπτίζεσθαι) with the pains of the present life, nor puffed up with its splendors. And in this way, again, we should more entirely propitiate God; just as by our present conduct we provoke Him to anger. For tell me, if you have a servant, and he, after suffering much evil at the hands of his fellow-servants, takes no account of any one of the rest, but is only anxious not to provoke his master; is he not able by this alone to do away your anger? But what, if his offenses against you are no manner of care to him, while on those against his fellow-servants he is full of thought; will you not lay on him the heavier punishment? So also God does: when we neglect His wrath, He brings it upon us more heavily; but when we regard it, more gently. Yea, rather, He lays it on us no more at all. He wills that we should exact vengeance of ourselves for our offenses, and thenceforth He does not exact it Himself. For this is why He at all threatens punishment; that by fear He may destroy contempt; and when the threat alone is sufficient to cause fear in us, He does not suffer us to undergo the actual trial. See, for instance, what He says unto Jeremiah, Jeremiah 7:17-18. Septuagint, transposing the first and second clauses Do you see not what they do? Their fathers light a fire, their children gather sticks together, their women knead dough. It is to be feared lest the same kind of thing be said also concerning us. Do you see not what they do? No one seeks the things of Christ, but all their own. Their children run into uncleanness, their fathers into covetousness and rapine, their wives so far from keeping back their husbands from the pomps and vanities of life, do rather sharpen their appetites for them. Just take your stand in the market place; question the comers and goers, and not one will you see hastening upon a spiritual errand, but all running after carnal things. How long ere we awake from our surfeiting? How long are we to keep sinking down into deep slumber? Have we not had our fill of evils?
9. And yet one might think that even without words experience itself is sufficient to teach you the nothingness of things present, and their utter meanness. At all events, there have been men, who, exercising mere heathen wisdom and knowing nothing of the future, because they had proved the great worthlessness of present things, have left them on this account alone. What pardon then can you expect to obtain, grovelling on the ground and not despising the little things and transient for the sake of the great and everlasting: who also hear God Himself declaring and revealing these things unto you, and hast such promises from Him? For that things here have no sufficient power to detain a man, those have shown who even without any promise of things greater have kept away from them. For what wealth did they expect that they came to poverty? There was none. But it was from their knowing full well that such poverty is better than wealth. What sort of life did they hope for that they forsook luxury, and gave themselves up unto severe discipline? Not any. But they had become aware of the very nature of things; and perceived that this of the two is more suitable, both for the strict training of the soul, and for the health of the body.
These things then duly estimating, and revolving with ourselves continually the future blessings, let us withdraw from this present world that we may obtain that other which is to come; through the favor and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost etc., etc.
