ACC ~ Revelation 22 v15

THOSE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: Those who are outside the congregation of the saints will be manifestly thrown out of the ark of blessedness. He moreover declares by whose authority these things have been shown or said to saint John when he continues, “I, Jesus …” TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 22.15.

VIRTUE IS ACCORDING TO NATURE. OECUMENIUS: “Outside are the dogs,” it says. It is customary in the holy Scriptures to call homosexuals “dogs” because they are shameless and impure. In Deuteronomy the law of the holy teacher Moses says, “You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow,”since indeed such persons are similar to dogs because of their shamelessness. Even a wise man outside [the church] gives witness to the same view, saying, “Flee every murder and adulterous couch of a woman, and also the oaths of the rich and shameless beds of boys.” Therefore, such dogs are outside the holy city and apart from the life with the righteous. For what do they have in common with the righteous of God? “And everyone who loves and practices falsehood” will be outside, it says. Everything against nature is false. Virtue is according to nature, since from the beginning the Creator has implanted in our makeup the seed of virtue, and so vice is against nature. For just as health is natural to our bodies and sickness is unnatural, and just as seeing and hearing are natural while blindness and deafness are unnatural, so also virtue in our souls is natural and evil is unnatural. Health is, then, analogous to virtue, and vice analogous to sickness. In a corresponding way, falsehood is evil, for it often falsely presents itself as virtue. Temerity masquerades as courage, dishonorable conduct as prudence, sloth as wisdom, and false modesty as righteousness. All of these things are evils, cloaking themselves with a mask of virtue, to those who fall in with them, and therefore he casts outside the divine walls those who pursue such lying deceit. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 22.15-19.

THOSE WHO SIN AFTER BAPTISM. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: The dogs are not only the shameless and the unfaithful and those evildoers in the circumcision, for whom the apostle wept, but also those who, after their baptism, “returned to their own vomit.”Therefore, with the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters, they are foreigners to the heavenly city. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 22.15.

ALL KINDS OF MADNESS. BEDE: Every kind of madness that characterizes the impious now tempts the church from without. But when the Father of the household enters in and the saints enter in with him to the wedding banquet, he shall close the door, and then [the impious] will stand outside and begin to knock upon the door. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 22.15.