{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5538","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"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>Desert Fathers</b>: A brother said to Poemen, 'If I give my brother something, for instance a piece of bread, the demons made the gift worthless by making me think that it was done to please men.' The hermit said to him, 'Even if it is done to please men, we still ought to give our brothers what they need.' He told him this parable: 'In a town there were two farmers. One of them sowed seed, and gathered a poor harvest; the other was idle and did not sow, and had no harvest to gather. If famine came, which of them would survive?' The brother answered, 'The one who sowed seed, even if the harvest was poor.' He said, 'It is the same for us. We sow a few seeds, and they are poor, but in the time of famine we shall not die.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: A hermit said, 'We do not make progress because we do not realize how much we can do. We lose interest in the work we have begun, and we want to be good without even trying.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: It is not enough that we do good; for our goodness will not be recognized straight away by God if we do good, but only if we \"do not grow weary in doing good.\" Many begin, many in a way persevere, yet later they give up, either tired or led astray. He justly warns them that they should not grow weary in any way, lest by their weariness they leave off what they began when they began to do well.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.6.9</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 9) But let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. He encourages those who expect the reward of good works in this life, not knowing that just as there is a different time for sowing and for harvesting in a seed, so in the present life, there is sowing of works (which are either in the spirit or in the flesh) but the harvest is the future judgment. And depending on the quality or diversity of the sowing, it will make different measures for us, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold, which no one can harvest lacking. For whoever perseveres until the end, will be saved (Matt. X, 22). As it is also commanded in another place: Do not fall away (Isai. V). But what is it, that while sinners increase daily in evil deeds, we grow weary in doing good?<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. So then as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, especially toward them that are of the household of faith.\"</p><p>Lest any one should suppose that their Teachers were to be cared for and supported, but that others might be neglected, he makes his discourse general, and opens the door of this charitable zeal to all; nay, he carries it to such a height, as to command us to show mercy both to Jews and Greeks, in the proper gradation indeed, but still to show mercy. And what is this gradation? it consists in bestowing greater care upon the faithful. His endeavor here is the same as in his other Epistles; he discourses not merely of showing mercy, but of doing it with zeal and perseverance, for the expressions of \"sowing\" and of \"not fainting\" imply this. Then, having exacted a great work, he places its reward close at hand, and makes mention of a new and wondrous harvest. Among husbandmen, not only the sower but also the reaper endures much labor, having to struggle with drought and dust and grievous toil, but in this case none of these exist, as he shows by the words, \"for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.\" By this means he stimulates and draws them on; and he also urges and presses them forward by another motive, saying, \"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good.\" As it is not always in our power to sow, so neither is it to show mercy; for when we have been carried hence, though we may desire it a thousand times, we shall be able to effect nothing more. To this argument of ours the Ten Virgins (Mat. xxv: 1 ff) bear witness, who although they wished it a thousand times, yet were shut out from the bridegroom, because they brought with them no bountiful charity. And so does the rich man who neglected Lazarus (Luke xvi: 19.) for he, being destitute of this succor, although he wept and made many entreaties, won no compassion from the Patriarch, or any one else, but continued destitute of all forgiveness, and tormented with perpetual fire. Therefore he says, \"as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men,\" hereby especially also setting them free from the narrow-mindedness of the Jews. For the whole of their benevolence was confined to their own race, but the rule of life which Grace gives invites both land and sea to the board of charity, only it shows a greater care for its own household.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 6</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"Let us not become weary,\" nor grow tired, because rewards are in the future. For there will surely come a time when we will receive the good things and reap the generous things now sown for us. Then, since he mentioned a harvest and that it requires toil and labor, he added, \"do not give up,\" as if to say: The one who reaps then does not grow tired nor become exhausted, as in this present world. Therefore do not, having heard of the harvest, again prepare yourselves to labor. For even in regard to perceptible things [αἰσθητῶν] the seed had labor, and the sickle likewise. For ploughing undoes many things, both the ploughing itself and the heat of the season. But that reaping is not such; the sickle is free from labor. For it is free from pain and sweat. For he said, \"do not give up.\"</p><p>— [PHOTIUS] Or \"do not give up.\" That is, not becoming unpracticed, nor withdrawing from generous action. For the crown belongs to those who are led on to the end. [end of the Photius excerpt] —<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It is then the God of recompense and judgment who threatens this. \"Let us not be weary in well-doing; \" and \"as we have opportunity, let us do good.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death and of life. But \"in due time we shall reap; \" because in Ecclesiastes it is said, \"For everything there will be a time.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Even as he says to the Galatians: \"Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap.\" Similarly, concerning Onesiphorus, does he also write to Timothy: \"The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy in that day; \" unto which day and time he charges Timothy himself \"to keep what had been committed to his care, without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ: which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,\" speaking of (Him as) God It is to these same times that Peter in the Acts refers, when he says: \"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"aba22b35e79c688e3327df1c5f697e76fcc2962e83e15158bbcbcf882cb50394","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5538,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"de65406ff21157b66578fe8bfc54e7dc7c15a1695f3d4303f4520949d9045bb2","translator":null,"work":null}