ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 4 v4

TO KEEP THEM FROM SEEING. AMBROSIASTER: Paul is saying that God dims the sight of worldly people because they are hostile to the faith of Christ. He is giving them what they want, since it is because they are hostile and tell lies that they move further toward not being able to believe what they do not want to believe. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

BEING ENLIGHTENED. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Every unbeliever is of this world. No one who has overcome it and been deemed worthy of the world to come is blinded in his understanding, for his eyes have been enlightened. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE GOD OF THIS WORLD. PELAGIUS: The god of this world may be understood to be the devil, on the ground that he has claimed to rule over unbelievers. Or, on account of the attacks of the heretics it may be understood to mean that God has blinded the minds of unbelievers precisely because of their unbelief. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 4.

THE MINDS OF UNBELIEVERS BLINDED. CHRYSOSTOM: The “god of this world” may refer neither to the devil nor to another creator, as the Manichaeans say, but to the God of the universe, who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world. In the world to come there are no unbelievers, only in this one. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 8.2.

THE TRUTH WILL BE PLAIN. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is saying that unbelief is limited to this world, because in the next life the truth will be plain to everyone. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 308.

THE CALL TO RESEMBLE CHRIST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Our Educator, O children, resembles his Father, God, whose Son he is. He is without sin, without blame. … God immaculate in human form, accomplishing his Father’s will. He is God the Word, who is in the bosom of the Father and also at the right hand of the Father, with even the nature of God. He it is who is the spotless image.We must try, then, to resemble Him in spirit as far as we are able. … Yet we must strive to the best of our ability to be as sinless as we can. There is nothing more important for us than first to be rid of sin and weakness and then to uproot any habitual sinful inclination. The highest perfection, of course, is never to sin in any least way, but this can be said of God alone. The next highest is never deliberately to commit wrong; this is the state proper to the man who possesses wisdom. In the third place comes not sinning except on rare occasions; this marks a man who is well educated. Finally, in the lowest degree we must place delaying in sin for a brief moment, but even this, for those who are called to recover their loss and repent, is a step on the path to salvation. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 2.4.

A LIVING IMAGE. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: And the Image, as of one substance with him, and because he is of the Father, and not the Father of him. For this is of the nature of an image, to be the reproduction of its archetype and of that whose name it bears; only that there is more here. For in ordinary language an image is a motionless representation of that which has motion, but in this case it is the living reproduction of the living one and is more exactly like than was Seth to Adam or any son to his father. THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4.20.

THE IMAGE AND LIGHT OF THE FATHER. JEROME: What is the face of God like? As his image, certainly, for as the apostle says, the image of the Father is the Son. With his image, therefore, may he shine upon us, that is, may he shine his image, the Son, upon us in order that he himself may shine upon us, for the light of the Father is the light of the Son. He who sees the Father sees also the Son, and he who sees the Son sees also the Father. Where there is no diversity between glory and glory, there glory is one and the same. HOMILY 6 ON PSALM 66 (67).

BREAK FREE FROM THIS EVIL AGE. ORIGEN: For the Son of God is Word and Righteousness. But every sinner is under the tyranny of the prince of this age, since every sinner is made a friend of the present evil age. For he does not hand himself over to the One who gave “himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age” and to deliver us “according to the will of our God and Father,” according to the verse in the letter to the Galatians.And the one who by voluntary sin is under the tyranny of the prince of this age is also ruled by sin. That is why we are commanded by Paul no longer to be subjected to sin that wishes to rule over us. We are so ordered through the following words, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.” ON PRAYER 25.1.

TRACES OF THE IMAGE OF GOD. ORIGEN: But if anyone dares to attribute corruption of substance to what was made according to the image and likeness of God, in my opinion he extends the charge of impiety also to the Son of God himself, since he is also called in Scripture “the image of God.” At least the one who holds the opinion will certainly find fault with the authority of Scripture, which says that humanity was made after the image of God. And the traces of the divine image are clearly recognized not through the likeness of the body, which undergoes corruption, but through the intelligence of the soul, its righteousness, temperance, courage, wisdom, discipline, and through the entire chorus of virtues that are present in God by substance and can be in humankind through effort and the imitation of God. The Lord points this out in the Gospel when He says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”and “Be perfect, as your Father is perfect.” Consequently, it is quite clear that in God all these virtues can never enter or leave, but they are acquired by us little by little and one by one. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.10.

2 Cor