{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1711","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":17,"verse_to":17},"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>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: For as many things as belong to peace and love, these have I taught. Round about from Jerusalem, and as far as Illyricum, I have fulfilled the word of peace. For I have taught that in honour they should prefer one another; I have taught those that are eminent and rich not to be lifted up, and hope in uncertainty of riches, but to place their hope in God; I have taught those in a middle station to be content with food and covering; I have taught the poor to rejoice in their own poverty...<br/><i>— Acts of Peter and Paul</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Praise to the rich if they remain humble. Praise the rich for being poor. The one who writes to Timothy wants them to be like that, when he says, \"Order the rich of this world not to be haughty in mind.\" I know what I am saying: give them these orders. The riches they have are whispering persuasively to them to be proud; the riches they have make it very hard for them to be humble.<br/><i>— SERMONS 14.2</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: It wasn't riches he was in dread of, but the disease of riches. The disease of riches is great pride. A grand spirit it is indeed, that in the midst of riches is not prone to this disease, a spirit greater than its riches, surpassing them not by desiring but by despising them.<br/><i>— SERMONS 36.2</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: Pride is the first worm of riches; it is a harmful gnawing worm which gnaws at everything and reduces it to ashes. \"Charge the rich of this world not to be proud, or to trust in the uncertainty of riches,\" lest perhaps one goes to sleep as a rich man and arises a poor man.<br/><i>— SERMONS 153.3</i></p><p><b>John Cassian</b>: Riches are understood in a threefold way in holy Scripture—that is, as bad, good and indifferent.… The indifferent are those which can be either good or bad, since they can tend either way depending on the desire and the character of those who use them. The blessed apostle says with regard to these, \"Charge the rich of this world not to be haughty or to hope in uncertain riches but in God, who gives us everything abundantly to enjoy, to do good, to give freely, to share, to store up for themselves a good foundation in the future, so that they may seize the true life.\" … When we abandon the visible riches of this world, then, we reject not our own but others' wealth, even though we boast either of having acquired it by our own labor or of having inherited it from our ancestors. For, as I have said, nothing is ours except this one thing, which is possessed by the heart, which clings to the soul and which can never be taken away by anyone.<br/><i>— CONFERENCES 1.9.1, 3; 10.1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Neither trust in uncertain riches;\" for nothing is so faithless as wealth; of which I have often said, and will not cease to say, that it is a runaway, thankless servant, having no fidelity; and should you throw over him ten thousand chains, he will make off dragging his chains after him. Frequently, indeed, have those who possessed him shut him up with bars and doors, placing their slaves round about for guards. But he has over-persuaded these very servants, and has fled away together with his guards; dragging his keepers after him like a chain, so little security was there in this custody. What then can be more faithless than this? what more wretched than men devoted to it?<br/><i>— HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 2.4</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: But not so the poor man; for he confides not in gold and silver, which are lifeless matter, but in \"God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy.\" So that the rich man stands in more uncertainty than the poor man, experiencing, as he does, frequent and diversified changes. What is the sense of this? \"Who giveth to us all things richly to enjoy.\" God giveth all those things with liberality, which are more necessary than riches; such, for example, as the air, the water, the fire, the sun; all things of this kind. The rich man is not able to say that he enjoys more of the sunbeams than the poor man; he is not able to say that he breathes more plenteous air: but all these are offered alike to all. And wherefore, one may say, is it the greater and more necessary blessings, and those which maintain our life, that God hath made common; but the smaller and less valuable (I speak of money) are not thus common. Why is this? In order that our life might be disciplined, and that we might have training ground for virtue.<br/><i>— HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 2.6</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded.\"</p><p>He has well said, \"rich in this world.\" For there are others rich in the future world. And this advice he gives, knowing that nothing so generally produces pride and arrogance as wealth. To abate this, therefore, he immediately adds, \"Nor trust in uncertain riches\"; since that was the source of pride; inasmuch as he who hopes in God, is not elated. Why dost thou place thy hopes upon what is instantly transferable? For such is wealth! and why hopest thou on that of which thou canst not be confident? But you say, how can they avoid being high-minded? By considering the instability and uncertainty of riches, and that hope in God is infinitely more valuable; God being the Author of wealth itself.</p><p>\"But in the living God,\" he says, \"who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.\"</p><p>This \"all things richly\" is justly spoken, in reference to the changes of the year, to air, light, water, and other gifts. For how richly and ungrudgingly are all these bestowed! If thou seekest riches, seek those that are stable and enduring, and which are the fruit of good works. He shows that this is his meaning by what follows.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 18</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: To the rich, in this present age, command not to be arrogant, nor to hope in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.</p><p>For there are also other rich men, but not in this age. The truly rich are the righteous ones, that is.</p><p>not to be arrogant, Paul says. For nothing so much inflates and exalts the mind as money and possessions.</p><p>nor to hope in uncertain riches. See how he insults them, and how foolish they are. For who hopes for something uncertain?</p><p>but in the living God. For Paul says that he who hopes in God is not disappointed.</p><p>who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. For he, to whom all things common belong, has given abundantly and freely: heaven, earth, air, life, food. But greed, having taken tyranny as a partner, has seized many of the common things and made them private.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"b7f2cdf28c2728e317c794fe4d51157300a9d17ad3c054d74f3434a465b76f14","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1711,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"ed15b2a8ddd06a76f919478ede174664433933c9d726a676100c26b9aad0f159","translator":null,"work":null}