ACC ~ 2 Timothy 2 v14 - 26

OVERVIEW:

Paul exhorts Timothy to hold the faith in its essentials, especially faith in the coming resurrection and final judgment, that he may cling not only to right belief but also to right practice, so that by his own choice he may be a vessel fit for salvation (CHRYSOSTOM). What Timothy must remember is that when the teaching about the resurrection of the dead is correctly understood, it points to a future and spiritual life, which true believers know and practice in the present and which distinguishes them from false brethren (THEODORE). Timothy is urged to interpret Scripture rightly in both teaching and practice, that his hearers may be taught an understanding of the incarnation that cuts through all of the obscurities of the heretics and that will lead believers to salvation (THEODORET). Paul makes it clear that the church itself is a mixed body, made up of persons at various stages of belief and practice. What matters is that official teachers stress the centrality of the resurrection yet to come and the life of freely chosen and virtuous faithfulness that looks toward the resurrection (AMBROSIASTER).

The world itself is made up of all sorts and conditions of persons holding a great diversity of beliefs. The church, however, is pure, holding to right belief and practice and always exhorting its members to the faithful living of what they profess (PELAGIUS). Nothing is better said than that which is said truthfully (AUGUSTINE). One wins not with words but deeds (PELAGIUS). An audience of one is sufficient (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA). Cut off what is spurious in Scripture interpretation (CHRYSOSTOM). Those who wish to change the gospel pour venom into our hearts (CYPRIAN), spreading like gangrene (ATHANASIUS, PELAGIUS). They creep in low to the ground, take hold softly, squeeze gently and kill undetected (LEO). We pray that such deceptions may become circumscribed by a definite limit and boundary (BASIL). The resurrection is heretically misunderstood by some as merely the natural procreation of children (AMBROSIASTER, THEODORE, THEODORET), as having happened already to Israel in Ezekiel’s time (PELAGIUS) or reduced merely to the faith of the disciples (AUGUSTINE). If the resurrection is past, then the wicked have unjustly remained unpunished (CHRYSOSTOM). The faith of the elect that works through charity either does not ever fail, or, if it fails in some, the loss is repaired before death (AUGUSTINE). The Lord knows those who are his because he has been made one with them and has given them a share of his own life (ORIGEN).

Meanwhile, cheap faith is blown away by every wind of temptation (TERTULLIAN). The abundance of bad people in the world is the big heap of dregs needed for refining the good, as in an olive press (AUGUSTINE, BEDE). God does not recognize those who are not because they have not recognized him who is (AMBROSE). If anyone is living an ungodly life, he or she is not of the elect, the foundation (ATHANASIUS, CHRYSOSTOM, AUGUSTINE, FULGENTIUS). Correction must be made with gentleness (BASIL, CHRYSOSTOM). Repentance is enabled by grace (AUGUSTINE). Neither consent to evil so as to approve of it nor be negligent so as not to reprove it, nor proud so as to reprove in a tone of insult (AUGUSTINE).

We are not to withdraw from the church just because it has tares in it but to become wheat ourselves (CYPRIAN). Various Fathers view the house either as the world (THEODORET, PELAGIUS), or the church (AMBROSIASTER, THEODORE, BASIL, AUGUSTINE). There are all kinds in the church as there were in the ark (JEROME).

2:14 | Avoid Disputing About Words

DON’T PLAY TO THE STANDS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: You must not “make your phylacteries broad” in eagerness for empty repute. The Christian Knower is satisfied with finding an audience of one. STROMATA 1.10.49.

KEEP IT BASIC. PELAGIUS: Do not manipulate Scripture testimonies. This kind of argument does not edify but does damage to one’s hearers, who come to think that a certain sharpness and subtlety of mind is everything. Or: Don’t try to win with words but with deeds. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

SUBSTANCE RATHER THAN VERBIAGE. AUGUSTINE: A good teacher chooses a good life in such a way that he does not also neglect good repute but provides “what may be good not only before God but also before men” insofar as he is able by fearing God and caring for men. In his speech itself he should prefer to please more with the meanings expressed than with the words used to speak them. Nor should he think that anything may be said better than that which is said truthfully. Nor should the teacher serve the words but the words the teacher. ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 4.28.61.

2:15a | Present Yourself as a Workman Approved

GOD’S WORK AND OURS. ORIGEN: But it is God’s work to dwell invisibly by his spirit and by the Spirit of Christ in those whom he judges it right to dwell. Whereas it is our task, since we try to confirm faith by arguments and treatises, to do all in our power that we may be called “workmen who need not to be ashamed, handling rightly the word of truth.” AGAINST CELSUS 5.1.

2:15b | Rightly Handling the Word of Truth

NO ADDITIONS. CHRYSOSTOM: This he has well said. For many distort the text of Scripture and pervert it in every way, and many additions are made to it. He has not said “directing” but “rightly dividing,” that is, cutting away what is spurious, with much vehemence assailing it and extirpating it. With the sword of the Spirit cut off from your preaching, as from a thong, whatever is superfluous and foreign to it. HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 5.

TEACHING CORRECTLY. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul’s intent here is to urge Timothy to teach with a correct purpose, so that the word is not undermined. COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY.

PLOW STRAIGHT FURROWS. THEODORET OF CYR: Good teachers are like farmers who plow straight furrows, thus presenting the rule of Scripture in a correct manner. INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

TEACH THOSE WHO WISH TO HEAR. AMBROSIASTER: To teach the word of truth rightly is to speak it to men who wish to hear it and are peaceful in their hearing. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

CONFIRMING THE WORD. PELAGIUS: It is correct living that confirms the word and that interprets it rightly. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

2:17 | Their Talk Will Eat Its Way Like Gangrene

FALSE BISHOPS. CYPRIAN: From such men come those who, without divine appointment, set themselves over their rash associates, make themselves prelates without any lawful ordination and call themselves bishops though no one gives them a bishopric. The Holy Spirit portrays them in the Psalms “sitting in the seat of pestilence,” plagues and blights to faith, snake-mouthed traitors, scheming to pervert truth, spewing deadly poisons from their pestiferous tongues. Their words “spread like a canker.” Their teaching pours fatal venom into men’s hearts and breasts. ON THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 10.

ARIAN HERETICS. ATHANASIUS: And what they now write proceeds not from any regard for the truth, as I said before, but rather they do it as in mockery and by a subterfuge, for the purpose of deceiving others. They hope that by sending about their letters they may engage the ears of the people to listen to these notions and so put off the time when they will be brought to trial. By concealing their impiety from observation, they try to make room to extend their heresy, which, “like a gangrene,” eats its way everywhere. TO THE BISHOPS OF EGYPT 1.5.

BOUNDARIES MUST BE SET. BASIL THE GREAT: “Let the wickedness of sinners be brought to nought.” He who says this prayer is obviously a disciple of the evangelical precepts. He prays for those who treat him maliciously, asking that the wickedness of the sinners be circumscribed by a definite limit and boundary. Just as if someone, when praying for those who are suffering in body, would say, “Let the disease of those who are suffering come to an end.” In order that the sin slowly creeping farther may not spread like cancer, since he loves his enemy and wishes to do good to those who hate him, and for this reason prays for those who treat him maliciously, he begs of God that the further outpouring of sin may cease and have definite bounds. HOMILIES 11.6.

A PHYSICAL ANALOGY. PELAGIUS: That kind of wound is called a suppurating sore, which begins in the female breasts and then grows quickly into the abdominal region. When it finally becomes a poison that permeates the heart, there is no remedy. In just such a way the discussions of heretics are to be avoided, lest through the ears they reach the mind with an irremediable wound. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

LIKE A CRAB. LEO THE GREAT: To deceive the first human beings, the devil claimed the serpent as his tool. So to seduce the hearts of orthodox, he armed the tongues of these with the poison of his falsehood. With pastoral care, however, we oppose these snares, dearly beloved, to the extent that the Lord helps us. To prevent any of the holy flock from perishing, we advise you with fatherly admonitions to turn away from “wicked lips and treacherous tongue,” from which the prophet asks that his soul “be kept free,” since “their talk crawls like a crab,” as the blessed apostle said. They creep in low to the ground, take hold softly, squeeze gently and kill undetected. SERMONS 16.3.

2:18 | Holding That the Resurrection Is Past

THE IMMATERIALITY OF GNOSTIC RESURRECTION TEACHING. TERTULLIAN: Similarly Paul touches those who said that the resurrection had already happened. The Valentinians affirm this of themselves. PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST HERETICS 33.

REDUCING RESURRECTION TO PROCREATION. AMBROSIASTER: These heretics deny that Christians shall rise in a future life and insist that the resurrection happens in the natural birth of children. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

THEN NO GLORY AND NO JUDGMENT. CHRYSOSTOM: If the resurrection is already past, not only do we suffer loss in being deprived of that great glory, but because judgment is taken away and retribution also. For if the resurrection is past, retribution also is past. The good therefore have reaped persecutions and afflictions, and the wicked have not been punished. On the contrary, they live in great pleasure. It would be better to say that there is no resurrection than that it is already past. HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 5.

CORRECT ESCHATOLOGY. ATHANASIUS: Hymenaeus and Alexander and their fellows were confused about time—ahead of time—when they said that the resurrection had already occurred. The Galatians misunderstood the dispensations by making so much of circumcision now. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.54.

RESURRECTION MISUNDERSTOOD AS PROCREATION. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The heretical teaching about the resurrection is that it happens in the process of natural procreation, by which our children succeed us. COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY.

NATURAL SUCCESSIONS. THEODORET OF CYR: The successions that happen through the procreation of children they unhappily call the resurrection. INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

EZEKIEL’S REVIVIFIED BONES. PELAGIUS: The resurrection has happened, according to them, either in children or in Ezekiel’s reference to the revivified bones of the people of Israel in captivity. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

WHETHER THE RESURRECTION TOOK PLACE IN FAITH. AUGUSTINE: Therefore, all who have established a sect of some religion, even a false one, wishing that they be believed, have not been able to deny this resurrection of human souls. All have agreed on that, but many have denied the resurrection of the flesh and have said that resurrection has already taken place in faith. … They said that resurrection had already taken place but in such a way that another was not to be hoped for; and they reproached those who hoped for the resurrection of the flesh, as though the resurrection which had been promised was already fulfilled in the human soul by believing. TRACTATES ON JOHN 19.14.

2:19a | God’s Firm Foundation Stands

THE ELECT. AUGUSTINE: It is the elect who are meant in the letter to Timothy, where, after mention of the attempts of Hymenaeus and Philetus to undermine the faith, the text goes on, “But the sure foundation of God stands firm, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows who are his.’” The faith of these latter, which works through charity, either does not ever fail, or, if it fail in some, the loss is repaired before death, the sin that intervened is blotted out and perseverance to the end is granted. On the other hand, those who are not to persevere to the end, those who are to fall from Christian faith and conduct, in such a way that the end of this life will find them thus fallen—these men are certainly not to be counted in the number of the elect, not even at the time during which they are living in goodness and piety. ADMONITION AND GRACE 7.16.

2:19b | The Lord Knows Those Who Are His

ONLY GOD KNOWS. TERTULLIAN: You are human, and so you know other people only from the outside. You think as you see, and you see only what your eyes let you see. But “the eyes of the Lord are lofty.” “Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.” So “the Lord knows those who are his.” He roots up the plant which he has not planted in his garden. He shows the last to be first. He carries a fan in his hand to purge his floor. Let the chaff of cheap faith fly away as it pleases before every wind of temptation. So much the purer is the heap of wheat which the Lord will gather into his barn. PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST HERETICS 3.

THE “KNOWING” AND “NOT KNOWING” OF GOD. ORIGEN: God ignores those who are alienated from him. … We say these things, however, not thinking anything blasphemous about God … not ascribing ignorance to him, but thus we understand that these whose activity is considered unworthy of God are also considered to be unworthy of knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who has turned away from him and does not know him. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6.

NOT TO BE SNATCHED AWAY. ORIGEN: Those who have been made one with and united with something know that with which they have been made one and have been united. Yet before such unity and participation, even if they objectively grasp something of the explanations given about a thing, they still do not know it. … For, in our view, the Lord has known those who are his because he has been made one with them and has given them a share of his own divinity and has taken them up, as the language of the Gospel says, into his own hand, since those who have believed in the Savior are in the Father’s hand. For this reason also, unless they fall from his hand—thereby removing themselves from the hand of God, they will not be snatched away, for no one snatches anyone from the Father’s hand. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 19.22, 25.

GOD DRAWS HIS SAINTS TO HIMSELF. AMBROSE: The Lord considered and knew who were his, and he drew his saints to himself. And those whom he did not choose he did not draw to himself. LETTERS 59.

THOSE WHO ARE NOT. AMBROSE: And if there is some disturbance here, lift up the footstep of your spirit to the things which are to be, and you will discover that the wicked whom you believed to be here will not be there. For one who is nothing is not. Indeed, “the Lord knows those who are his.” He does not recognize those who are not, because they have not recognized him who is. THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 3.7.22.

GOD WILL SEPARATE GOLD FROM STRAW. AUGUSTINE:The abundance of bad people in the world is the big heap of stuff needed for refining the good. Although the good can’t be seen, mixed up in the vast multitude of the bad, the Lord knows who are his own. Under the hand of such a great craftsman, the speck of gold cannot get lost in the huge pile of straw. How much straw is there, how little gold! But have no fear: the craftsman is so great that he can refine it and cannot lose it. SERMONS 15.5.

THE OLIVE PRESS. AUGUSTINE: Something is always going on in this olive press. The world is the press; there is no end to its pressures. Be oil, not dregs. Let each of you be converted to God and change your manner of life. The oil goes by hidden channels to its own secluded vats. Others sin, mock, blaspheme, make loud accusations in the streets—the dregs are oozing out. Yet the Lord of the press does not cease from operating it through his workmen, the holy angels. He knows his oil; he knows how much it can take, the exact pressure needed to squeeze it out. “The Lord knows,” you see, “who are his own.” Avoid the dregs. They are murky, out in the open for all to see. SERMONS 19.6.

MYSTICAL CHOOSING. THE VENERABLE BEDE: This statement of the Lord … can also be understood mystically with regard to the choosing of the spiritual Israel, that is, the Christian people, since the Lord mercifully deigned to see them when they did not yet see him, when they had not yet been called by his apostles to the grace of faith, but they were still concealed under the covering of oppressing sin. … And sometimes in the Scriptures, to be sure, the fig tree suggests the sweetness of divine love. … Those placed under it can be his elect even when they do not yet recognize the grace of their election—just as the Lord saw Nathanael when he was situated under the fig tree though Nathanael did not see him. For the Lord knows who are his, and the very name Nathanael is most suitably appropriate to their salvation. For Nathanael is interpreted “gift of God.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.17.

2:19c | Departing from Iniquity

FAITH AND GODLINESS INTERTWINED. ATHANASIUS: Faith and godliness, you see, are so closely allied that they can be considered sisters. Anyone who believes in the Lord is godly, and the person who is godly believes all the more. On the other hand, one who is in a state of wrong relationships will certainly wander from the faith, and one who falls from godliness falls from the true faith. Paul, recognizing this, advised his disciples: “Avoid profane conversations, for they lead people further into ungodliness.” That is why the Ariomaniacs, being enemies of Christ, have left the church. They have dug a pit of unbelief into which they themselves have fallen. … The apostle Paul’s words against Philetus and Hymenaeus stand as a warning against ungodliness such as that of the Arians: “God’s foundation is firm, bearing this seed: ‘The Lord knows his own people’ and ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’” FESTAL LETTERS 9.

THE STONE AND THE SOUL. CHRYSOSTOM: These are the distinguishing marks of the foundation. A foundation is firm. The letters are inscribed upon the stone so that the letters may be seen. But these letters are shown by works, “Having,” he says, “this seal fixed thereon, let every one that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Thus if any one is unrighteous, he is not of the foundation. So it belongs to the seal not to do wrong. HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 5.

PERSEVERE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. AUGUSTINE: And we know that the apostle said of the vessels placed in the great house, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and ready for the Master’s use, and prepared for every good work.” But in what manner each man ought to purge himself from these he shows a little above, saying, “Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” This is so that he may not in the last day be blown away with the chaff from the threshing floor. Nor may he be separated at the last by hearing the command, “Depart from me, you that work iniquity.” ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS. 4.14.21.

REPENT NOW. FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE: He therefore will attain life who keeps the commandments. But who keeps the divine commandments except the one who, converted to God before the end of this present life, has departed from his earlier sins? So the blessed Peter warns us, “Let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord avoid evil.” He said this, knowing that penance is done fruitfully in this present world in which forgiveness is given to penitents. But in the future world the penitence of the wicked will bear no fruit because there will be no conversion of the wicked. They will be sent into the exterior darkness where there will be wailing and the gnashing of teeth. ON THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 2.7.

2:20a | Vessels of Gold and Silver, Wood and Earthenware

GOD’S ARRANGEMENT. ORIGEN: God who from the beginning felt it just to arrange his creation according to merit gathered the diversities of minds into the harmony of a single world, so as to furnish, as it were, out of these diverse vessels or souls or minds one house. In this house there must be “not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some unto honor and some unto dishonor.” ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.6.

DIFFERING LEVELS OF MATURITY. AMBROSIASTER: Paul indicates that the church has diverse members, who are at differing levels of maturity. The heretic Novatian believes that this passage applies to the world, since he defends the general truth and holiness of his church. But this is wrong. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

CHRYSOSTOM: As in a great house it is likely there should be a great difference of vessels, so here also, in the whole world. He speaks here not of the church only but of the world at large. For do not think, I pray, that he means it of the church. For there he would not have any vessels of wood or of earth but all of gold or silver, which is the body of Christ, which is that “pure virgin, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 6.

GOLD, SILVER AND WOOD DISTINGUISHED. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul applies the image of the great house to the world, where the golden vessels are persons of faith and virtue, the silver those who embrace civil life virtuously and righteously and the wooden those who live irreverent and disgraceful lives. INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

WHETHER THE CHURCH IS PURE. PELAGIUS: The house described by Paul cannot be the church, which is pure, but must be the world with its mixture of wheat and tares. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

BECOME WHEAT. CYPRIAN: For although there seem to be tares in the church, yet neither our faith nor our love ought to be hindered, so that, because we see that there are tares in the church, we ourselves should withdraw from the church. We must labor only that we may become wheat, so that when the wheat has begun to be gathered into the barns of the Lord, we may receive the reward for our work and labor. LETTERS 54.3.

JUDGMENT BELONGS TO GOD. CYPRIAN: Then, finally, what a great swelling of avarice it is, what a great forgetfulness of humility and meekness, what a great boasting of his own arrogance that anyone should either dare or think he is able to do what the Lord did not allow to the apostles, that he should think that he can discern the tares from the grain, or, as if it were granted to him to bear the spade and to purge the threshing floor, he should attempt to separate the chaff from the wheat and, although the apostle says, “But in a great house there are vessels not only of gold and silver but of wood and clay,” he should seem to chose the gold and silver vessels and to despise, indeed, to cast away, to condemn those of wood and clay. It is only in the day of the Lord that wooden vessels are to be burned by the fire of divine flame, and those of clay are to be broken by him to whom is given the rod of iron. LETTERS 55.25.

NOT ALL EQUAL. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Here the house is the church, where different persons are not at all equal, yet each serves his or her use. COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY.

VARIOUS VESSELS IN THE CHURCH. BASIL THE GREAT: Every one of us, indeed, who is instructed in the holy Scripture is the administrator of some one of those gifts which, according to the gospel, have been apportioned to us. In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of pursuits. HOMILY ON THE WORDS: “GIVE HEED TO THYSELF.”

A MIXED BODY. AUGUSTINE: Cyprian argued against those who, under the pretext of avoiding the society of wicked men, had severed themselves from the unity of the church. By the great house of which the apostle spoke—in which there were not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth—Paul understood nothing else but the church. In the church there should be good and bad, till at the last day it should be cleansed as a threshing floor by the winnowing fan. ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS 4.12.18.

THE COCKLE SCATTERED IN THE FIELD. AUGUSTINE: That law of charity was pronounced by the lips of the Lord Christ, for those parables are his about the cockle scattered through the world in the unity of the field until the time of the harvest and about the bad fishes which are to be left in the same net until the time for landing on the shore. LETTERS 108.3.11.

ALL KINDS IN THE ARK. JEROME: Noah’s ark was a type of the church. … As in the ark there were all kinds of animals, so also in the church there are men of all races and characters. As in the one there was the leopard with the kids, the wolf with the lambs, so in the other there are found the righteous and sinners, that is, vessels of gold and silver with those of wood and earth. DIALOGUE AGAINST THE LUCIFERIANS 22.

2:20b | Noble and Ignoble Use

NUMBER AND BEYOND NUMBER. AUGUSTINE: But in the Christian community, as far as sharing and communion in the sacraments goes, they have been multiplied beyond number. So number is one thing; beyond number is something else. Number is those of whom the apostle says, The Lord knows who are his. There are some beyond number, though, because in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also ones of wood and earthenware; some for noble, others for ignoble use. Number, then, applies to vessels for noble use; beyond number are vessels for ignoble use. SERMONS 15.2.

FOR NOBLE USE. ABBA POEMEN: A brother asked Abba Poemen saying, “Why do the demons persuade my soul to look up to him who is superior to me and make me despise him who is my inferior?” The old man replied, “About that, the apostle has this to say: ‘In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware; and if anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.’” SAYINGS OF THE FATHERS 100.

2:21 | Purifying Oneself

PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE. ORIGEN: Whoever purges himself when placed in this life will be prepared for every good work in the future. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.8.

FREEDOM FOR FIT USE. BASIL THE GREAT: The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought with death, freeing us from suffering by his own suffering! … He himself has bound the strong man and plundered his goods—that is, us, who had been abased in every manner of evil—and made us vessels fit for the Master’s use, the use of our free will being made ready for any good work. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18.

CLEANSING ONESELF. JOHN OF DAMASCUS: It is clear that this cleansing is done freely, for he says, “if any man shall cleanse himself,” the converse of which rejoins that, if he does not cleanse himself, he will be a vessel unto dishonor, of no use to the Lord and only fit to be broken. THE ORTHODOX FAITH 4.19.

2:24 | Not Quarrelsome

BE TEACHABLE. CYPRIAN: But it happens by the practice of presumption and of insolence that each one defends more his own depraved and false views than he consents to the rights and truths of another. Foreseeing this matter, the blessed apostle Paul writes to Timothy and warns that the bishop ought not to be quarrelsome or contentious but gentle and teachable. One who is meek and mild in the patience of learning is teachable. For bishops ought not only to teach but also to learn because he who grows daily and profits by learning better things teaches better. LETTERS 74.10.

PEACEMAKERS. AUGUSTINE: Since there are so many deceptions and errors of wicked and perverse men clamoring against wisdom, how great is the need of a clean and single eye in order to find the path to wisdom! To escape all of these is the same as to reach the utmost security of peace and the unchangeable abode of wisdom. The noise of wranglers is of little account unless a man becomes a hindrance even to himself. But this can be seen only by a few, and there is great danger that no one may see it in the midst of contention and strife. … Therefore, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.25.86.

2:25a | Correcting with Gentleness

ANGER NO EXCUSE. CHRYSOSTOM: Therefore, let us not be provoked with these men, let us not use anger as an excuse, but let us talk with them gently and with kindness. Nothing is more forceful and effective than treatment which is gentle and kind. This is why Paul told us to hold fast to such conduct with all the earnestness of our hearts when he said, “The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome but must be kindly toward all.” He did not say “only to your brothers” but “toward all.” And again, when he said, “Let your gentleness be known,” he did not say “to your brothers” but “to all men.” What good does it do you, he means, if you love those who love you. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 1.7.

AVOID THE TONE OF INSULT. AUGUSTINE: But then in the correction and repression of other men’s sins, one must take heed that in rebuking another he does not lift up himself. The sentence of the apostle must be remembered: “Let one who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” Let the voice of chiding sound outwardly in tones of terror, let the spirit of love and gentleness be maintained within. … So then you must neither consent to evil, so as to approve of it, nor be negligent, so as not to reprove it, nor be proud, so as to reprove it in a tone of insult. SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 38.20.

WISE ADMONISHMENT. BASIL THE GREAT: The superior should not administer a rebuke to wrongdoers when his own passions are aroused. By admonishing a brother with anger and indignation, he does not free him from his faults but involves himself in the error. … Nor should he become vehemently angry even when he himself is treated with contempt. When he sees such treatment inflicted upon another, he should again show himself indulgent toward the sinner; but more than that, he ought, in the latter case, to manifest displeasure at the wrong done. THE LONG RULES, Q.50.R.

2:25b | God May Grant That They Will Repent

THE HEROIC SPIRIT OF THE PASTOR. CHRYSOSTOM: The shepherd of sheep has the flock following him wherever he leads; or if some turn aside from the direct path and leave the good pasture to graze in barren and precipitous places, it is enough for him to call more loudly, lead them back again and restore to the flock those that were separated. But if a man wanders away from the right path, the shepherd needs a lot of concentration, perseverance and patience. He cannot drag by force or constrain by fear but must by persuasion lead him back to the true beginning from which he has fallen away. He needs, therefore, a heroic spirit, not to grow despondent or neglect the salvation of wanderers but to keep on thinking and saying, “God perhaps may give them the knowledge of the truth and they may be freed from the snare of the devil.” ON THE PRIESTHOOD 2.4.

MERCY PRECEDES REPENTANCE. AUGUSTINE: Now, penance itself is often omitted because of weakness, even when in church custom there is an adequate reason why it should be performed. For shame is the fear of displeasing men, when one loves good opinion more than he regards judgment, which would make him humble in penitence. Thus not only for one to repent but also in order that he may be enabled to do so, the mercy of God is prerequisite. Otherwise, the apostle would not say of some, “In case God gives them repentance.” ENCHIRIDION 82.22.

GOD GRANTS REPENTANCE. AUGUSTINE: Let Pelagius confess that pardon is granted to the repentant according to the grace and mercy of God, not according to his merits. It is that very repentance which the apostle called the gift of God when he said of certain ones, “Lest God perhaps may grant them repentance.” LETTERS 186.9.33.