ACC ~ Hebrews 6 v9 - 12

HOPE RECOVERS US. CHRYSOSTOM: This is the admirable part of Paul’s wisdom. … For when he says, “We desire each one of you,” it is as if one should say, “I wish you always to be in earnest and, such as you were before, to be also now and for the time to come.” For this made his reproof more gentle and easy to be received. And he did not say, “I will,” which would have been expressive of the authority of a teacher, but what is expressive of the affection of a father and what is more than “willing,” “we desire.” He is all but saying, “Pardon us, even if we say what is distasteful.”

“We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end.” Hope, he means, carries us through. It recovers us again. So do not despair, lest your hope be in vain. For one that works for good hopes also for good and never despairs of himself. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 10.5.

IMITATING CHRIST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: “We,” according to the good apostle, “wait for the hope of righteousness, for in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” “We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope,” and so on to, “having become a high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” Wisdom, full of every virtue, uses similar words to Paul’s: “Anyone who listens to me will live safely, trusting in hope.”The establishment of hope and hope itself are spoken of interchangeably. That is why he has done admirably to add the word trusting to “will live safely.” He is showing that the sort of person who has hold of the hope he hoped for is at peace. This is why he adds, “And he will be tranquil, without fear, free from all evil.” The apostle speaks openly in the first letter to the Corinthians when he says expressly, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” to bring this about. If you imitate me and I imitate Christ, then you are imitating Christ as he is representing God. So he establishes a target for faith in “the likeness to God so far as possible in justice and holiness combined with practical wisdom,” and the goal in the actualization of the promise on the basis of faith. STROMATEIS 2.22.136.

VISIT IN PRISON SAINT AND SINNER. CHRYSOSTOM: Hearing these things, let us, I beseech you, “minister to the saints.” For every believer is a saint in that he is a believer. Though he remains a person living in the world, he is a saint. “For,” he says, “the unbelieving husband is sanctified through the wife, and the unbelieving wife through the husband.” See how the faith makes the saint. If then we see even a secular person in misfortune, let us stretch out a hand to him. Let us not be zealous only for those [ascetics] who dwell in the mountains; they are indeed saints both in manner of life and in faith; these others, however, are saints by their faith, and many of them also in manner of life. Let us not refuse to visit one in prison if he is unholy but go visit him if he is a saint. Whether he is a saint or brother, visit him. Suppose then you ask, but if he is unclean and polluted? Listen to Christ saying, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Act for God’s sake. What am I saying? Even if we see a heathen in misfortune, we ought to show kindness to him, and to every one without exception who is in misfortunes, and all the more to a believer who is in the world. Listen to Paul saying, “Do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” But I know not where this notion has come from or how this habit has prevailed. For if one actively seeks after the solitaries and is willing to do good to them alone, but with regard to others, on the contrary, is overcurious in his inquiries and says, “unless he be worthy, unless he be righteous, unless he work miracles, I will not stretch out my hand”—such a one has taken away the greater part of charity. In time he will in turn destroy the charity itself. If it is truly charity, it is shown toward sinners, toward the guilty. For this is charity, not to pity those who have done well, but those who have done wrong. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 10.7.

A JUST CLAIM ON YOUR AID. CHRYSOSTOM: So then also, if you see anyone in affliction, do not be curious to inquire further. His being in affliction involves a just claim on your aid. For if, when you see an ass choking, you raise him up without curiously inquiring whose he is, much more about a man one ought not to be overcurious in inquiring whose he is. He is God’s, whether heathen or Jew. Even if he is an unbeliever, still he needs help. If the office is committed to you to judge or inquire, then you might well have inquired. But, as it is, his misfortune as such does not permit you to search out these things. Even about people in good health it is not right to be overcurious, nor to be a busybody in other people’s matters; even less about those that are in affliction. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 10.8.

SHOW LOVE FOR GOD’S SAKE. CHRYSOSTOM: The poor perform needful services for you. What are these? Don’t they serve you well? Suppose then I show an especially poor man who performs needful services for you far greater than they do. He will stand by you in the day of judgment. Will he deliver you from the fire? Will all your servants deliver you likewise? When Tabitha died, who raised her up? The servants who stood around or the poor? But you—you are not even willing to put the freeman on an equality with your servants. The frost is hard, and the poor man is cast out in rags, well-nigh dead, with his teeth chattering. Both by his looks and his air you should be moved. And yet, you pass by, warm and full of drink. How do you expect that God should deliver you when in misfortune? And often you will say to yourself, “If I had found one that had done many wrong things, I would have forgiven him, so won’t God forgive me?” Do not say this. You neglect the one who has done you no wrong, yet you would be able to help. How shall he forgive you when you are sinning against him? Is not this deserving of hell? … Oftentimes you adorn with innumerable vestments of varied colors and gold decorations a dead body, insensible, that can no longer even perceive the honor. Meanwhile one who is in pain and lamenting and tormented and racked by hunger and frost, you neglect and give more to vainglory than to the fear of God.

And it does not even stop here. Immediately accusations are brought against the applicant. For why does he not work, you say? And why is he to be maintained in idleness? But, tell me, is it by working that you have what you have? Did you not receive it as an inheritance from your fathers? And even if you work, is this a reason why you should reproach another? Do you not hear what Paul says? For after saying, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat,” he says, “Do not be weary in well doing.” But what do they say? He is an impostor. What do you say, O man? Do you call him an impostor for the sake of a single loaf or of a garment? But, you say, he will sell it immediately. And do you manage all your affairs well? But what? Are all poor through idleness? Is no one so from shipwreck? None from lawsuits? None from being robbed? None from dangers? None from illness? None from any other difficulties? If, however, we hear any one bewailing such evils and crying out aloud and looking up naked toward heaven, with long hair and clad in rags, at once we call him, “The impostor! The deceiver! The swindler!” Are you not ashamed? Whom do you call impostor? Do not accuse the man or give him a hard time. But, you say, he has means and pretends. This is a charge against yourself, not against him. He knows that he has to deal with the cruel, with wild beasts rather than with rational persons. He knows that even if he tells his pitiable story, no one pays any attention. And on this account he is forced to assume even a more miserable guise, that he may melt your soul. If we see a person coming to beg in a respectable dress, “This is an impostor,” you say, “and he comes in this way that he may be supposed to be of good birth.” If we see one in the contrary guise, we reproach him too. What then are they to do? Oh, the cruelty, Oh, the inhumanity!

And why, you say, do they expose their maimed limbs? Because of you. If we were compassionate, they would have no need of these artifices. If they persuaded us at the first application, they would not have contrived these devices. Who is there so wretched as to be willing to cry out so much, as to be willing to behave in an unseemly way, as to be willing to make public lamentations, with his wife destitute of clothing, with his children, to sprinkle ashes on himself? How much worse than poverty are these things? Yet, on account of them, not only are they not pitied, but they are even made subject to our accusations. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 11.7-8.

IT IS THE SEASON OF KINDNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: “Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.” Stretch out your hand; let it not be closed up. We have not been constituted examiners into others’ lives, for then we should have compassion on no one. When you call upon God, why do you say, “Remember not my sins”? So, even if that person is a great sinner, make this allowance in his case also, and do not remember his sins. It is the season of kindness, not of strict inquiry; of mercy, not of account. He wishes to be maintained; if you are willing, give; but if not willing, send him away without raising doubts. Why are you wretched and miserable? Why do you not pity him yourself, but even turn away those who would as well? For when such a one hears from you, “This person is a cheat; that a hypocrite; and the other lends out money,” he neither gives to the one nor to the other, for he suspects all to be such. For you know that we easily suspect evil, but good, not so easily. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 11.9.