ACC ~ 2 Timothy 2 v4a

TWO MASTERS IMPOSSIBLE. AMBROSIASTER: No one can serve two masters. Since business affairs often involve the exercise of greed, the faithful churchman must be separate from these. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

NO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. JEROME: How can the clergy be managers and stewards of other men’s households and estates when they are bidden to disregard even their own interests? LETTERS 52.16.

THE SOLDIER OF VIRTUE. CHRYSOSTOM: You are a spiritual soldier. This kind of soldier does not sleep on an ivory bed but on the ground. He is not anointed with perfumed oils. These are the concern of those corrupt men who dally with courtesans, of those who act on the stage, of those who live carelessly. You must not smell of perfumes but of virtue. ON LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN 1.

NO THOUGHT OF TOMORROW. AUGUSTINE: We are not anxious about the necessities of life, because, when we can perform these labors, he feeds and clothes us as men in general are fed and clothed. When, however, we are not able to work, then he feeds and clothes us just as the birds are fed and the lilies clothed, since we are of more value than they. Therefore, in this warfare of ours, we give no thought to the morrow, because it is not by temporal concerns pertaining to the morrow but by eternal matters, the concern of the everlasting today, that we have proved ourselves to him whom we cannot please if we are entangled in worldly affairs. THE WORK OF MONKS 27.35.

SOCIALLY UNENCUMBERED. LEO THE GREAT: He who is enrolled in God’s army must not be bound to others, lest any obligatory ties call him away from the Lord’s camp, where his name is inscribed. LETTERS 4.

2 Tim