ACC ~ 1 Timothy 4 v4 - 5

CLEAN HEARTS. CHRYSOSTOM: By speaking thus of things eatable, he by anticipation impugns the heresy of those who introduce an uncreated matter and assert that these things proceed from it. … He lays down two positions. The first is that no creature of God is unclean. The second is that if it were to become so, you have a remedy: seal it, give thanks and glorify God, and all the uncleanness passes away. … So a thing is not unclean by nature but becomes so through your willful disobedience. What then, is not swine’s flesh unclean? By no means, when it is received with thanksgiving and with the seal. Nor is anything else. It is your unthankful disposition to God that is unclean. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 12.

ABSTINENCE NOT NECESSARY. BASIL THE GREAT: This, assuredly, appeared to me to be ridiculous—to vow to abstain from pork. Therefore, teach them to refrain from foolish prayers and promises; nevertheless, allow the use to be a matter of indifference. No creature of God which is received with thanksgiving is to be rejected. Therefore, the vow is ridiculous; the abstinence is not necessary. LETTERS 199.28.

CREATION AN INWARD HARMONY. GREGORY OF NYSSA: The whole of creation is in inward harmony, since the bond of concord is nowhere broken by the natural opposition. In the same way the divine wisdom also provides a blending and admixture of the sensible with the intelligible nature, so that all things equally participate in the good and no existing thing is deprived of a share in the higher nature. Now the sphere corresponding to the intelligible nature is a subtle and mobile essence, which by virtue of its special nature and its transcending the world has a great affinity with the intelligible. Yet, for the reason given, a superior wisdom provides a mingling of the intelligible with the sensible creation. In that way, as the apostle says, “no part of creation is to be rejected,” and no part fails to share in the divine fellowship. On this account the divine nature produces in man a blending of the intelligible and the sensible, just as the account of creation teaches. ADDRESS ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 6.

EVIL IS LIKE RUSTED STEEL. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Let it be observed that there is no such thing in the world as evil irrespective of a will. Evil is not discoverable in a substance apart from willing. Every creature of God is good, and nothing of his “to be rejected.” All that God made was “very good.” But the habit of sinning entered as we have described, and with fatal quickness, into the life of man. From that small beginning spread into this infinitude of evil. Then that godly beauty of the soul which was an imitation of the Archetypal Beauty, like fine steel blackened with vicious rust, preserved no longer the glory of its familiar essence but was disfigured with the ugliness of sin. ON VIRGINITY 12.

EVIL RESIDES IN VOLITION, NOT CREATION. AUGUSTINE: Because sin or iniquity is not a seeking of things evil by nature but an abandonment of the better things, this is found written in Scripture. “Every creature is good.” Every tree that God planted in paradise was good. Man, therefore, did not desire anything evil by nature when he touched the forbidden tree. But by departing from what was better he himself committed an act that was evil. THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 34.

UNCLEANNESS IN THE APPETITE. AUGUSTINE: It is not the uncleanness of meat that I fear, but the uncleanness of an incontinent appetite. CONFESSIONS 10.31.46.

CREATION GOOD BUT NOT DIVINE. AUGUSTINE: As there is an unconscious worship of idols and devils in the fanciful legends of the Manichaeans, so they knowingly serve the creature in their worship of the sun and the moon. And in what they call their service of the Creator they really serve their own fancy, and not the Creator at all. For they deny that God created those things which the apostle plainly declares to the creatures of God, when he says of food, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving.” This is sound doctrine. … The apostle praises the creature of God but forbids the worship of it. And in the same way Moses gives due praise to the sun and moon, while at the same time he states the fact of their having been made by God. They have been placed by him in their courses—the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night. REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 14.11.

SELF-RESTRAINT THE GOAL. LEO THE GREAT: The first cause of sin crept in from the enjoyment of food. What more salutary gift of God does our redeemed liberty use than that the will, which once did not know how to restrain itself from forbidden things, now knows how to restrain itself from lawful things? “Every creature of God is good, and nothing ought to be rejected, which is received with the giving of thanks.” We were not created to seek out all the riches of the world with a foul and shameless greed. We can restrain voluntarily from what is lawful. SERMONS 81.1.