ACC ~ Hebrews 12 v4

YOU HAVE SUFFERED NO GREAT THING. CHRYSOSTOM: There are two kinds of consolation, apparently opposed to one another but yet contributing great strength each to the other, both of which the apostle has here put forward. The one is when we say that persons have suffered much. For the soul is refreshed when it has many witnesses of its own sufferings, and this he introduced above, saying, “Recall the former days, when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.”

The other is when we say, “You have suffered no great thing.” The former, when the soul has been exhausted, refreshes it and makes it recover breath; the latter, when it has become indolent and supine, turns it again and pulls down pride. Thus, so that no pride may spring up in them from that testimony, see what he does. “In your struggle against sin,” he says, “you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” … This he says also in writing to the Corinthians, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man,” that is, small. For this is enough to arouse and set right the soul, when it considers that it has not risen to the whole trial and encourages itself from what has already befallen it. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 29.1.

ILLUSTRIOUS AND HONORED CITIZENS. AUGUSTINE: For short periods and at prescribed times, power has been given to the demons to incite people whom they control to exercise a tyrannical hostility to the City of God. Thus, they are able not only to receive sacrifice from those who offer it and to seek it from those who are well disposed but also to extort it violently from the unwilling by means of persecutions. However, this power is not a menace to the church but rather an advantage, since it helps to fill up the number of its martyrs. And these the City of God esteems as its most illustrious and honored citizens, just because they have resisted the impious so valiantly, even “to the shedding of blood, striving against sin.” CITY OF GOD 10.21.

RESIST SIN EVEN TO DEATH. EVAGRIUS PONTICUS: Do not think you have attained to virtue until first you have fought to the shedding of blood. One must resist sin even to death—manfully and irreproachably, as the divine apostle tells us. CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 136.

Heb