{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-2372","native_reference":{"book_number":620,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":14,"verse_to":14},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: A good teacher chooses a good life in such a way that he does not also neglect good repute but provides \"what may be good not only before God but also before men\" insofar as he is able by fearing God and caring for men. In his speech itself he should prefer to please more with the meanings expressed than with the words used to speak them. Nor should he think that anything may be said better than that which is said truthfully. Nor should the teacher serve the words but the words the teacher.<br/><i>— ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 4.28.61</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: This the Scripture has expressed with the greatest possible brevity, when it said, \"Be not occupied much about words.\" For expression is like the dress on the body. The matter is the flesh and sinews. We must not therefore care more for the dress than the safety of the body. For not only a simple mode of life, but also a style of speech devoid of superfluity and nicety, must be cultivated by him who has adopted the true life, if we are to abandon luxury as treacherous and profligate, as the ancient Lacedaemonians adjured ointment and purple, deeming and calling them rightly treacherous garments and treacherous unguents; since neither is that mode of preparing food right where there is more of seasoning than of nutriment; nor is that style of speech elegant which can please rather than benefit the hearers. Pythagoras exhorts us to consider the Muses more pleasant than the Sirens, teaching us to cultivate wisdom apart from pleasure, and exposing the other mode of attracting the soul as deceptive. For sailing past the Sirens one man has sufficient strength, and for answering the Sphinx another one, or, if you please, not even one. We ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory, to make broad the phylacteries. It suffices the gnostic if only one hearer is found for him. You may hear therefore Pindar the Boeotian, who writes, \"Divulge not before all the ancient speech. The way of silence is sometimes the surest. And the mightiest word is a spur to the fight.\" Accordingly, the blessed apostle very appropriately and urgently exhorts us \"not to strive about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, but to shun profane and vain babblings, for they increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.\" It is an overawing thing to call God to witness what we say, for if no one would dare to set at nought the testimony of man when appealed to, much less when the appeal is to God. If any one, for instance, entering into a contract, or making his will, chooses to call witnesses worthy of credit, would any transfer the things to those who are not included? Surely not. And even if he wishes it, yet fearing the credibility of the witnesses, he avoids it. What is \"charging them before the Lord\"? he calls God to witness both what was said, and what was done. \"That they strive not about words to no profit;\" and not merely so, but \"to the subverting of the hearers.\" Not only is there no gain from it, but much harm. \"Of these things then put them in remembrance,\" and if they despise thee, God will judge them. But why does he admonish them not to strive about words? He knows that it is a dainty thing, and that the human soul is ever prone to contend and to dispute about words. To guard against this, he has not only charged them \"not to strive about words,\" but to render his discourse more alarming, he adds, \"to the subverting of the hearers.\"<br/><i>— Homily on 2 Timothy 5</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: These things he reminds you of, sincerely charging you before the Lord not to quarrel about words to no profit, which leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.</p><p>These things he reminds you of. So that no one might think these things are unnecessary; concerning these words to Timothy, Paul says, \"These things he reminds you of,\" testifying before the Lord, and it is a fearful thing to speak before God as a witness.</p><p>not to quarrel. Since the matter has a certain taste, and the human soul always wishes to dispute and argue, you, Paul says, protesting to them before God, do not engage in argument; instead, he says, command, taking God as a witness, so that they may know that if they despise you, God will judge them.</p><p>about words to no profit. For not only does it have no benefit to engage in disputes, arguments, and battles, but it also causes harm to the weaker among those who listen.</p><p>present yourself approved. As an example, blameless.</p><p>a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Much has been said about this shame. For it is likely that some who are perishing feel shame about the preaching, as the apostles suffer badly, and as Christ is preached with the cross, or at least because the preachers are humble, namely, Paul, a weaver of tents, and Peter, along with several others, were fishermen. The fact that he is not ashamed is because he has done nothing corrupt.</p><p>rightly dividing the word of truth. Cut away like a knife the excess and false doctrines, which those perishing have added to the preaching, and lead straight through the Spirit.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Pelagius</b>: Do not manipulate Scripture testimonies. This kind of argument does not edify but does damage to one's hearers, who come to think that a certain sharpness and subtlety of mind is everything. Or: Don't try to win with words but with deeds.<br/><i>— PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Just as they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge), even so do I hold it.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"329ecb410c70d293978e2fb88d7876812c2f33066b1addc73ba8717b41f33b94","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":2372,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"3824a969cd8326bcd32e93813514dd440d54f5f4a56e446f1f8aeed3287bbe1f","translator":null,"work":null}