ACC ~ Hebrews 13 v17

IT IS BETTER TO BE LED BY NO ONE THAN BY ONE WHO IS EVIL. CHRYSOSTOM: Anarchy is an evil and the occasion of many calamities and the source of disorder and confusion. For as, if you take away the leader from a chorus, the chorus will not be in tune and in order. If from a phalanx of an army you remove the commander, the evolutions will no longer be made in time and order. If from a ship you take away the helmsman, you will sink the vessel. So too, if from a flock you remove the shepherd, you have overthrown and destroyed all.

Anarchy, then, is an evil and a cause of ruin. But no less an evil is disobedience of rulers, for it comes again to the same. For a people not obeying a ruler is like one which has none, and perhaps even worse. For, in the former case, they have at least an excuse for disorder but no longer in the latter, but are punished.

But perhaps someone will say that there is also a third evil, when the ruler is bad. I myself know it, and no small evil it is, but even a far worse evil than anarchy. It is better to be led by no one than to be led by one who is evil, for the former indeed are sometimes saved and sometimes in peril, but the latter will be altogether in peril, being led into the pit of destruction. . . .

What then, you say, when he is wicked—should we obey? Wicked? In what sense? If in regard to faith, flee and avoid him, whether he is a man or an angel come down from heaven. But if in regard to life, be not overcurious. And this instance I do not allege from my own mind but from the divine Scripture, for hear Christ saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” Having previously spoken many fearful things concerning them, he then says, “So practice and observe whatever they tell you but not what they do.” They have, he means, the dignity of office but are of unclean life. Attend not to their life but to their words. For as regards their characters, no one thus would be harmed. How is this? Both because their characters are manifest to all, and also because, though a ruler were ten thousand times as wicked, he would not be teaching wickedness. But in matters of faith if the wicked ruler is teaching evil, the evil is harder to recognize. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 34.1.

RESPECT THOSE RULES THAT BELONG TO CHRIST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN: Leave behind the rules which belong to the law, and respect those which belong to Christ. “They will give account” and a reply to God if they fail to guide you. Therefore, obey them, so that they may give account “with joy” and not with afflictions and tears. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 13.

TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF YOU. AUGUSTINE: In all my sermons I am presenting you with a mirror. These are not my sermons, anyway; I only speak at the Lord’s command. It is only dread of him that stops me from keeping quiet. I mean to say, who would not much rather keep quiet and not have to give an account of you? But it is quite a time since I accepted this burden, and now I neither can nor should shrug it off my shoulders. You heard, my brothers and sisters, when the letter to the Hebrews was being read. SERMON 82.15.

Heb