408 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY I, happen from a secular life to be advanced to that office, they might be such as knew how to preside over their household and children, and all others committed to them. For if a man were both secular and deficient in these points, how should he be 1 intrusted with the care of the Church? 3. But why, you will say, does he address an Epistle to a disciple already appointed to the office of a Teacher? Ought he not to have been made perfect for his office, before he was sent ? Yes ; but the instruction which he needed was not that which was suited to a disciple, but that which was proper for a Teacher. You will perceive him therefore through the whole Epis tle adapting his instructions to a Teacher. Thus at the very beginning he does not say, " Do not attend to those who teach otherwise," but, " Charge them that they teach no other doc trine." (i Tim. i. 3.) HOMILY I. i TIMOTHY i. i, 2. " Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; unto Timothy, nay own son in the faith : Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord." [The R. V. omits Kvpiov and translates : Christ Jesus our hope, rrjs eAirjSos rifj.uv. ] i . GREAT and admirable is the dignity of an Apostle, and we find Paul constantly setting forth the causes of it, not as if he took the honor to himself, but as intrusted with it, and being under the necessity of so doing. For when he speaks of himself as " called," and that " by the will of God," and again elsewhere, " a necessity is laid upon me" (i Cor. ix. 16), and when he says, " for this I was separated," by these ex pressions all idea of arrogance and ambition is removed. For as he deserves the severest blame, who intrudes into an office which is not given him of God, so he who refuses, and shrinks from it when offered to him, incurs blame of another kind, that of rebellion and disobedience. There fore Paul, in the beginning of this Epistle, thus expresses himself, " Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God." He does not say here, " Paul called," but " by command ment." He begins in this manner, that Timothy may not feel any human infirmity from suppos ing that Paul addresses him on the same terms as his disciples. But where is this command ment given? We read in the Acts of the Apos tles : " The Spirit said, Separate me Paul and Barnabas." (Acts xiii. 2.) And everywhere in his writings Paul adds the name of Apostle, to instruct his hearers not to consider the doc trines he delivered as proceeding from man. For an Apostle 2 can say nothing of his own, and by calling himself an Apostle, he at once refers his hearers to Him that sent him. In all his 1 So. Sav. Ben. have been. 2 He refers to the sense of the term in Greek, which is, " One who is sent." See Heb. iii. i ; John viii. 28; xiv. 10. Epistles therefore he begins by assuming this title, thus giving authority to his words, as here he says, " Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God our Saviour." Now it does not appear that the Father anywhere commanded him. It is every where Christ who addresses him. Thus, " He said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts xxii. 21) ; and again, " Thou must be brought before Caesar." (Acts xxvii. 24.) But whatever the Son com mands, this he considers to be the command ment of the Father, as those of the Spirit are the commandments of the Son. For he was sent by the Spirit, he was separated by the Spirit, and this he says was the commandment of God. What then? does it derogate from the power of the Son, that His Apostle was sent forth by the commandment of the Father? By no means. For observe, how he represents the power as common to both. For having said, " according to the commandment of God our Saviour " ; he adds, "and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope." And observe, with what propriety he applies the titles.3 And indeed, the Psalmist applies this to the Father, saying, " The hope of all the ends of the earth." (Ps. Ixiv. 5.) And again, the blessed Paul in another place writes, " For therefore we both labor, and suffer reproach, because we have hope in the living God." The teacher must suffer dangers even more than the disciple. " For I will smite the shepherd, (he says,) " and the sheep shall be scattered abroad." (Zech. xiii. 7.) Therefore the devil rages with greater violence against teachers, because by their destruction the flock also is scattered. For by slaying the sheep, he has lessened the flock, but when he has made away with the shepherd, he has ruined the whole flock, so that he the a, viz. " Saviour" and " Hope."