And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn over many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have committed.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 12:21 Go To 2 Corinthians 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And the word again, too, is as smiting them. For he means, 'What happened before is enough;' as he said also in the beginning [of the Epistle], to spare you, I came not as yet to Corinth. Chap. 1:18, 23 Do you see how he shows both indignation and tender affection? But what means, will humble me? And yet this is glorious rather, to accuse, to take vengeance, to call to account, to be seated in the place of judge; howbeit he calls it a humbling. So far was he from being ashamed of that [cause of] humbling, because, his bodily presence was weak, and his speech of no account, that he wished to be even for ever in that case, and deprecated the contrary. And he says this more clearly as he proceeds; and he counts this to be especially humbling, to be involved in such a necessity as the present, of punishing and taking vengeance. And wherefore did he not say, 'lest when I come I shall be humbled,' but, lest when I come my God will humble me. 'Because had it not been for His sake, I should have paid no attention nor been anxious. For it is not as possessing authority and for my own pleasure, that I demand satisfaction, but because of His commandment.' Now above, indeed, he expressed himself thus, I shall be found; here, however, he relaxes and adopts milder and gentler language, saying,
I shall mourn for many of them who have sinned. Not simply, who have sinned, but,
Who have not repented. And he said not, 'all,' but many; nor made it clear who these were either, thereby making the return unto repentance easy to them; and to make it plain that a repentance is able to right transgressions, he bewails those that repent not, those who are incurably diseased, those who continue in their wounds. Observe then Apostolic virtue, in that, conscious of no evil in himself, he laments over the evils of others and is humbled for other men's transgressions. For this is the special mark of a teacher, so to sympathize with the calamities of his disciples, and to mourn over the wounds of those who are under him. Then he mentions also the specific sin.
Of the lasciviousness and uncleanness which they committed. Now in these words he alludes indeed to fornication; but if one carefully examine the subject, every kind of sin can be called by this name. For although the fornicator and adulterer is preeminently styled unclean, yet still the other sins also produce uncleanness in the soul. And therefore it is that Christ also calls the Jews unclean, not charging them with fornication only, but with wickedness of other kinds as well. Wherefore also He says that they made the outside clean, and that not the things which enter in defile the man, but those which come out from him; Matthew 15:11 and it is said in another place, Every one that is proud in heart is unclean before the Lord. Proverbs 16:5. Septuagint
3. For nothing is purer than virtue, nothing uncleaner than vice; for the one is brighter than the sun, the other more stinking than mire. And to this they will themselves bear witness, who are wallowing in that mire and living in that darkness; at any rate, when one prepares them a little to see clearly. For as long as they are by themselves, and inebriate with the passion, just as if living in darkness they lie in unseemly wise to their much infamy, conscious even then where they are, although not fully; but after they have seen any of those who live in virtue reproving them or even showing himself, then they understand their own wretchedness more clearly; and as if a sunbeam had darted upon them, they cover up their own unseemliness and blush before those who know of their doings, yea, though the one be a slave and the other free, though the one be a king and the other a subject. Thus when Ahab saw Elijah, he was ashamed, even when he had as yet said nothing; standing convicted by the mere sight of him; and when his accuser was silent, he pronounced a judgment condemnatory of himself; uttering the language of such as are caught, and saying, You have found me, O mine enemy! 1 Kings 21:20 Thus Elijah himself conversed with that tyrant then with great boldness. Thus Herod, unable to bear the shame of those reproofs, (which [shame] the sound of the prophet's tongue with mighty and transparent clearness exposed more evidently,) cast John into the prison: like one who was naked and attempting to put out the light, that he might be in the dark again; or rather he himself dared not put it out, but, as it were, placed it in the house under a bushel; and that wretched and miserable woman compelled it to be done. But not even so could they cover the reproof, nay, they lit it up the more. For both they that asked, Wherefore does John dwell in prison? Learned the reason, and all they that since have dwelt on land or sea, who then lived, or now live, and who shall be hereafter, both have known and shall know clearly these wicked tragedies, both that of their lewdness and that of their bloodguiltiness, and no time shall be able to wipe out the remembrance of them.
So great a thing is virtue: so immortal is its memory, so completely even by words only does it strike down its adversaries. For wherefore did he cast him into the prison? Wherefore did he not despise him? Was he going to drag him before the judgment-seat? Did he demand vengeance upon him for his adultery? Was not what he said then simply a reproof? Why then does he fear and tremble? Was it not words and talk merely? But they stung him more than deeds. He led him not to any judgment-seat, but he dragged him before that other tribunal of conscience; and he sets as judges upon him all who freely gave their verdicts in their thought. Therefore the tyrant trembled, unable to endure the lustre of virtue. Do you see how great a thing is philosophy? It made a prisoner more lustrous than a king, and the latter is afraid and trembles before him. He indeed only put him in bonds; but that polluted woman rushed on to his slaughter also, although the rebuke was leveled rather against him, [than herself.] For he did not then meet her and say, Why do you cohabit with the king? Not that she was guiltless, (how should she be so?) but he wished by that other means to put all to rights. Wherefore he blamed the king, and yet not him with violence of manner. For he did not say, O polluted and all-polluted and lawless and profane one, you have trodden under foot the law of God, you have despised the commandments, you have made your might law. None of these things; but even in his rebukings great was the gentleness of the man, great his meekness. For, It is not lawful for you, he says, to have your brother Philip's wife. The words are those of one who teaches rather than reproves, instructs rather than chastens, who composes to order rather than exposes, who amends rather than tramples on him. But, as I said, the light is hateful to the thief, and the mere sight of the just man is odious to sinners; for he is grievous unto us even to behold. Wisdom 2:15 For they cannot bear his radiance, even as diseased eyes cannot bear the sun's. But to many of the wicked he is grievous not to behold only, but even to hear of. And therefore that polluted and all-polluted woman, the procuress of her girl, yea rather her murderess, although she had never seen him nor heard his voice, rushed on to his slaughter; and prepares her whom she brought up in lasciviousnss to proceed also to murder, so extravagantly did she fear him.
4. And what says she? Give me here in a charger the head of John the Baptist. Matthew 14:8 Whither do you rush over precipices, wretched and miserable one? What? Is the accuser before you? Is he in sight and troubles you? Others said, He is grievous unto us even to behold; but to her, as I said, he was grievous to even hear of. Wherefore she says, Give me here in a charger the head of John. And yet because of you he inhabits a prison, and is laden with chains, and you are free to wanton over your love and to say, 'So completely have I subdued the king, that though publicly reproached he yielded not, nor desisted from his passion, nor tore asunder his adulterous connection with me, but even put him that reproached him in bonds.' Why are you mad and rabid, when even after that reproof of his sin you retain your paramour? Why do you seek a table of furies, and preparest a banquet of avenging demons? Do you see how nothing-worth, how cowardly, how unmanly, is vice; how when it shall most succeed, it then becomes more feeble? For this woman was not so much disturbed before she had cast John into prison, as she is troubled after he is bound, and she is urgent, saying, Give me here in a charger the head of John. And wherefore so? 'I fear,' she says, 'lest there be any hushing up of his murder, lest any should rescue him from his peril.' And wherefore do you not require the whole corpse, but the head? 'The tongue,' she says, 'that pained me, that I long to see silent.' But the contrary will happen, as indeed it also has done, thou wretched and miserable one! It will cry louder afterwards, when it is cut out. For then indeed it cried in Judæa only, but now it will reach to the ends of the world; and wheresoever you enter into a church, whether it be among the Moors, or among the Persians, or even unto the British isles themselves, you hear John crying, It is not lawful for you to have your brother Phillip's wife. But she, unknowing to reason in any such way, urges and presses, and thrusts on the senseless tyrant to the murder, fearing lest he change his mind. But from this too learn thou again the power of virtue. Not even when he was shut up and bound and silent, does she bear the righteous man. Do you see how weak a thing vice is? How unclean? For in the place of meats it brings in a human head upon a charger. What is more polluted, what more accursed, what more immodest, than that damsel? What a voice she uttered in that theatre of the devil, in that banquet of demons! Do you see this tongue and that; the one bringing healthful medicines, the other one with poison on it, and made the purveyor to a devilish banquet. But wherefore did she not command him to be murdered within there, at the feast, when her pleasure would have been greater? She feared lest if he should come there and be seen, he should change them all by his look, by his boldness. Therefore surely it is that she demands his head, wishing to set up a bright trophy of fornication; and give it to her mother. Do you see the wages of dancing, do you see the spoils of that devilish plot? I mean not the head of John, but her paramour himself. For if one examine it carefully, against the king that trophy was set up, and the victress was vanquished, and the beheaded was crowned, and proclaimed victor, even after his death shaking more vehemently the hearts of the offenders. And that what I have said is no [mere] boast, ask of Herod himself; who, when he heard of the miracles of Christ, said, This is John, he is risen from the dead: and therefore do these powers work in him. Matthew 14:2 So lively was the fear, so abiding the agony he retained; and none had power to cast down the terror of his conscience, but that incorruptible Judge continued to take him by the throat, and day by day to demand of him satisfaction for the murder. Knowing, then, these things, let us not fear to suffer evil, but to do evil; for that indeed is victory, but this defeat.
Wherefore also Paul said, Why not rather take wrong, why not rather be defrauded. Nay, you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. For by the suffering evil [come] those crowns, those prizes, that proclamation [of victory]. And this may be seen in all the saints. Since then they all were thus crowned, thus proclaimed, let us too travel this road, and let us pray indeed that we enter not into temptation; but if it should come, let us make stand with much manliness and display the proper readiness of mind, that we may obtain the good things to come, through the grace and love towards men of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, honor, now and for ever, and world without end. Amen.
