{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1638","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":1,"verse_to":1},"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>: You think, however, that even what we have done to you should not have been done, because, in your opinion, no man should be compelled to that which is good. Mark, therefore, the words of the apostle: \"If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work,\" and yet, in order to make the office of a bishop be accepted by many men, they are seized against their will, subjected to importunate persuasion, shut up and detained in custody, and made to suffer so many things which they dislike, until a willingness to undertake the good work is found in them.<br/><i>— LETTERS 173.1.2</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Consider these three temperaments: the contemplative, the active, the contemplative-active. A man can live the life of faith in any of these three and get to heaven. What is not indifferent is that he love truth and do what charity demands. No man must be so committed to contemplation as, in his contemplation, to give no thought to his neighbor's needs, nor so absorbed in action as to dispense with the contemplation of God. The attraction of leisure ought not to be empty-headed inactivity but in the quest or discovery of truth, both for his own progress and for the purpose of sharing ungrudgingly with others. Nor should the man of action love worldly position or power, for all is vanity under the sun, but only what can be properly and usefully accomplished by means of such position and power … of contributing to the eternal salvation of those committed to one's care. Thus, as St. Paul wrote, \"If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires good work.\" He wanted to make clear that the office of bishop, episcopatus, implies work rather than dignity.<br/><i>— City of God 19.19</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: \"I want to be a bishop; oh, if only I were a bishop!\" Would that you were! Are you seeking the name or the real thing? If it's the real thing you're seeking, you are setting your heart on a good work. If it's the name you're seeking, you can have it even with a bad work but with a worse punishment. So what shall we say? Are there bad bishops? Perish the thought, there aren't any; yes, I have the nerve, the gall to say there are no bad bishops; because if they are bad, they aren't bishops. You are calling me back again to the name and saying, \"He is a bishop, because he is seated on the bishop's throne.\" And a straw scarecrow is guarding the vineyard.<br/><i>— SERMONS 340A.6</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: The office of a bishop is a good work, dearest brethren, as the blessed apostle says, \"Whoever wants to be a bishop aspires to a noble task.\" Now when \"task\" is heard, labor is understood. Therefore whoever desires the office of bishop with this understanding wants it without the arrogance of ambition. To express this more clearly, if a man wants not so much to be in authority over the people of God as to help them, he aspires to be a bishop in the true spirit.<br/><i>— SERMONS 230.1</i></p><p><b>Didache</b>: Appoint, therefore, for yourselves, bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proved; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers. Despise them not therefore, for they are your honoured ones, together with the prophets and teachers.<br/><i>— The Didache, Chapter 15</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say, \"if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.\" I know that; but you should add what follows: such a one \"must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-prepared, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient.\" … Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment.<br/><i>— LETTERS 14.8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: The first of all qualities that a priest or bishop ought to possess is that he must purify his soul entirely of ambition for the office.… The right course, I think, is to have so reverent an estimation of the office as to avoid its responsibility from the start.… But if anyone should cling to a position for which he is not fit, he deprives himself of all pardon and provokes God's anger the more by adding a second and more serious offense.… It is indeed a terrible temptation to covet this honor. And in saying this, I do not contradict St. Paul but entirely agree with what he says. What are his words? \"If a man seeks the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.\" What is terrible is to desire the absolute authority and power of the bishop but not the work itself.<br/><i>— ON THE PRIESTHOOD 3.10-11</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"This is a faithful saying.\"</p><p>This relates to the present subject, not to what follows, respecting the office of a Bishop. For as it was doubted, he affirms it to be a true saying, that fathers may be benefited by the virtue of their children, and mothers also, when they have brought them up well. But what if she be herself addicted to wickedness and vice? Will she then be benefited by the bringing up of children? Is it not probable that she will bring them up to be like herself? It is not therefore of any woman, but of the virtuous woman, that it is said she shall receive a great recompense for this also.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 9</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: As now proceeding to discourse of the Episcopal office, he sets out with showing what sort of a person a Bishop ought to be. And here he does not do it as in the course of his exhortation to Timothy, but addresses all, and instructs others through him. And what says he? \"If a man desire the office of a Bishop,\" I do not blame him, for it is a work of protection. If any one has this desire, so that he does not covet the dominion and authority, but wishes to protect the Church, I blame him not. \"For he desireth a good work.\" Even Moses desired the office, though not the power, and his desire exposed him to that taunt, \"Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?\" If any one, then, desire it in this way, let him desire it. For the Episcopate is so called from having the oversight of all.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 10</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: If anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task.</p><p>Writing to Timothy, Paul shows in general what kind of person a bishop must be. \"he desires a noble task.\" He says, \"I do not accuse him.\" An honest man is needed, certainly for service and leadership; provided that he desires it for helping many, and not for glory. For a bishop is said to be one who oversees all. Even Moses desired it, but not for glory, rather for the benefit of many.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: To ourselves even does the apostle allow the concupiscible quality. \"If any man,\" says he, \"desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.\" Now, by saying \"a good work,\" he shows us that the desire is a reasonable one.<br/><i>— A Treatise on the Soul</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Thence, therefore, among us the prescript is more fully and more carefully laid down, that they who are chosen into the sacerdotal order must be men of one marriage; which rule is so rigidly observed, that I remember some removed from their office for digamy.<br/><i>— On Exhortation to Chastity</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Come, now, you who think that an exceptional law of monogamy is made with reference to bishops, abandon withal your remaining disciplinary titles, which, together with monogamy, are ascribed to bishops. Refuse to be \"irreprehensible, sober, of good morals, orderly, hospitable, easy to be taught; \"nay, indeed, (be) \"given to wine, prompt with the hand to strike, combative, money-loving, not ruling your house, nor caring for your children's discipline,\"-no, nor \"courting good renown even from strangers.<br/><i>— On Monogamy</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"8f82977231bfcbcc303e0282bb97b15962e9a70a6b8a86a0d7408c084cdd13db","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1638,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e92b25dff07516083896a29b1136d0d3d32003c000d8009307c12f5212521b25","translator":null,"work":null}