{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-109","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":11,"chapter_to":11,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":19,"verse_to":19},"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>Ambrosiaster</b>: Paul did not want heresies or choose them, but he foresaw the future and knew that they would come.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: People become heretics, even though they would still have held wrong opinions if they had remained within the church. Now that they are outside, they do us more good, not by teaching the truth, for they do not know it, but by provoking carnal Christians to seek the truth and spiritual Christians to expound it. In the church there are innumerable people who are approved by God, but they do not become manifest among us as long as we are content with the darkness of our ignorance and prefer to sleep rather than to behold the light of truth.<br/><i>— ON TRUE RELIGION 7.15</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Further, it is said that it is on account of \"those that are approved that heresies exist.\" The apostle calls \"approved,\" either those who in reaching faith apply to the teaching of the Lord with some discrimination (as those are called skilful money-changers, who distinguish the spurious coin from the genuine by the false stamp), or those who have already become approved both in life and knowledge.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 7</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Hence heresies not only have frequently been originated, but continue to be so; while the perverted mind has no peace-while a discordant faithlessness does not maintain unity. But the Lord permits and suffers these things to be, while the choice of one's own liberty remains, so that while the discrimination of truth is testing our hearts and our minds, the sound faith of those that are approved may shine forth with manifest light. The Holy Spirit forewarns and says by the apostle, \"It is needful also that there should be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.\" Thus the faithful are approved, thus the perfidious are detected; thus even here, before the day of judgment, the souls of the righteous and of the unrighteous are already divided, and the chaff is separated from the wheat.<br/><i>— Treatise I On the Unity of the Church</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That it was foretold that heresies would arise. In the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: \"Heresies must needs be, in order that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews.</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: A lengthened conflict, then, having been maintained concerning all heresies by us who, at all events, have not left any unrefuted, the greatest struggle now remains behind, viz., to furnish an account and refutation of those heresies that have sprung up in our own day, by which certain ignorant and presumptuous men have attempted to scatter abroad the Church, and have introduced the greatest confusion among all the faithful throughout the entire world. For it seems expedient that we, making an onslaught upon the opinion which constitutes the prime source of (contemporaneous) evils, should prove what are the originating principles of this (opinion), in order that its offshoots, becoming a matter of general notoriety, may be made the object of universal scorn.<br/><i>— Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book IX</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For there must be also factions among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.\"</p><p>By \"factions,\" here he means those which concern not the doctrines, but these present divisions. But even if he had spoken of the doctrinal heresies, not even thus did he give them any handle. For Christ Himself said, \"it must needs be that occasions of stumbling come,\" not destroying the liberty of the will nor appointing any necessity and compulsion over man's life, but foretelling what would certainly ensue from the evil mind of men; which would take place, not because of his prediction, but because the incurably disposed are so minded. For not because he foretold them did these things happen: but because they were certainly about to happen, therefore he foretold them. Since, if the occasions of stumbling were of necessity and not of the mind of them that bring them in, it was superfluous His saying, \"Woe to that man by whom the occasion cometh.\" But these things we discussed more at length when we were upon the passage itself; now we must proceed to what is before us.</p><p>Now that he said these things of these factions relating to the tables, and that contention and division, he made manifest also from what follows. For having said, \"I hear that there are divisions among you,\" he stopped not here, but signifying what divisions he means he goes on to say, \"each one taketh before other his own supper;\" and again, \"What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the Church of God?\" However, that of these he was speaking is evident. And if he call them divisions, marvel not. For, as I said, he wishes to touch them by the expression: whereas had they been divisions of doctrine, he would not have discoursed with them thus mildly. Hear him, for instance, when he speaks of any such thing, how vehement he is both in assertion and in reproof: in assertion, as when he says, \"If even an angel preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed;\" but in reproof, as when he says, \"Whosoever of you would be justified by the law, ye are fallen away from grace.\" And at one time he calls the corrupters \"dogs,\" saying, \"Beware of dogs:\" at another, \"having their consciences seared with a hot iron.\" And again, \"angels of Satan:\" but here he said no such thing, but spoke in a gentle and subdued tone.</p><p>But what is, \"that they which are approved may be made manifest among you?\" That they may shine the more. And what he intends to say is this, that those who are unchangeable and firm are so far from being at all injured hereby, but even shows them the more, and that it makes them more glorious. For the word, \"that,\" is not everywhere indicative of cause, but frequently also of the event of things. Thus Christ Himself uses it, when He saith, \"For judgement I am come into this world; that they which see not may see, and that they which see may be made blind.\" So likewise Paul in another place, when discoursing of the law, he writes, \"And the Law came in beside, that the trespass might abound.\" But neither was the law given to this end that the trespasses of the Jews might be increased: (though this did ensue:) nor did Christ come for this end that they which see might be made blind, but for the contrary; but the result was such. Thus then also here must one understand the expression, \"that they which are approved may be made manifest.\" For not at all with this view came heresies into being, that \"they which are approved may be made manifest,\" but on these heresies taking place such was the result. Now these things he said to console the poor, those of them who nobly bore that sort of contempt. Wherefore he said not, \"that they may become approved,\" but, \"that they which are approved may be made manifest;\" showing that before this also they were such, but they were mixed up with the multitude, and while enjoying such relief as was afforded them by the rich, they were not very conspicuous: but now this strife and contentiousness made them manifest, even as the storm shows the pilot. And he said not, \"that ye may appear approved,\" but, \"that they which are approved may be made manifest, those among you who are such.\" For neither when he is accusing doth he lay them open, that he may not render them more reckless; nor when praising, that he may not make them more boastful; but he leaves both this expression and that in suspense, allowing each man's own conscience to make the application of what he saith.</p><p>Nor doth he here seem to me to be comforting the poor only, but those also who were not violating the custom. For it was likely that there were among them also those that observed it.</p><p>And this is why he said, \"I partly believe it.\" Justly then doth he call these \"approved,\" who not only with the rest observed the custom, but even without them kept this good law undisturbed. And he doth this, studying by such praises to render both others and these persons themselves more forward.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 27</i></p><p><b>Justin Martyr</b>: And Trypho said, \"I believe, however, that many of those who say that they confess Jesus, and are called Christians, eat meats offered to idols, and declare that they are by no means injured in consequence.\" And I replied, \"The fact that there are such men confessing themselves to be Christians, and admitting the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, yet not teaching His doctrines, but those of the spirits of error, causes us who are disciples of the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, to be more faithful and stedfast in the hope announced by Him. For what things He predicted would take place in His name, these we do see being actually accomplished in our sight. For he said, 'Many shall come in My name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.'\" And, 'There shall be schisms and heresies.' And, 'Beware of false prophets, who shall come to you clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.' And, 'Many false Christs and false apostles shall arise, and shall deceive many of the faithful.' There are, therefore, and there were many, my friends, who, coming forward in the name of Jesus, taught both to speak and act impious and blasphemous things; and these are called by us after the name of the men from whom each doctrine and opinion had its origin.<br/><i>— Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter XXXV</i></p><p><b>Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius</b>: Before all things, it is befitting that we should know both that He Himself and His ambassadors foretold that there must be numerous sects and heresies, which would break the unity of the sacred body; and that they admonished us to be on our guard with the greatest prudence, lest we should at any time fall into the snares and deceits of that adversary of ours, with whom God has willed that we should contend.<br/><i>— The Divine Institutes Book 4</i></p><p><b>Severian of Gabala</b>: Paul is not talking here about doctrinal error but about moral failures.<br/><i>— PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: The character of the times in which we live is such as to call forth from us even this admonition, that we ought not to be astonished at the heresies (which abound) neither ought their existence to surprise us, for it was foretold that they should come to pass; nor the fact that they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being \"approved.\" Groundless, therefore, and inconsiderate is the offence of the many who are scandalized by the very fact that heresies prevail to such a degree.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And therefore \"heresies must needs be in order that they which are approved might be made manifest, both those who remained stedfast under persecution, and those who did not wander out of their way into heresy.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now, that which he subjoins to evil things, he of course confesses to be itself an evil; and all the greater, indeed, because he tells us that his belief of their schisms and dissensions was grounded on his knowledge that \"there must be heresies also.\" For he shows us that it was owing to the prospect of the greater evil that he readily believed the existence of the lighter ones; and so far indeed was he from believing, in respect of evils (of such a kind), that heresies were good, that his object was to forewarn us that we ought not to be surprised at temptations of even a worse stamp, since (he said) they tended \"to make manifest all such as were approved; \" in other words, those whom they were unable to pervert.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It was indeed necessary that there should be heresies; and yet it does not follow from that necessity, that heresies are a good thing.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Nor do I risk contradiction in saying that the very Scriptures were even arranged by the will of God in such a manner as to furnish materials for heretics, inasmuch as I read that \"there must be heresies, which there cannot be without the Scriptures.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now if there are no heresies at all but what those who refute them are supposed to have fabricated, then the apostle who predicted them must have been guilty of falsehood.<br/><i>— Against the Valentinians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now it is no matter of surprise if arguments are captiously taken from the writings of (the apostle) himself, inasmuch as there \"must needs be heresies; \" but these could not be, if the Scriptures were not capable of a false interpretation.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now, since it was \"needful that there should be heresies, in order that they which are approved might be made manifest; \" since, however, these heresies would be unable to put on a bold front without some countenance from the Scriptures, it therefore is plain enough that the ancient Holy Writ has furnished them with sundry materials for their evil doctrine, which very materials indeed (so distorted) are refutable from the same Scriptures.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Vincent of Lérins</b>: It is as if the apostle meant that the authors of heresies are not instantly rooted out by God, in order to make manifest those who are approved, that is, in order to make evident to what degree each one is a steadfast, faithful and firm lover of the orthodox faith.<br/><i>— COMMONITORIES 20</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"1218865ebcf462f170afa228b24644a44ac7c6220d20390abc3796d220f3e7b8","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":109,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"d80d561028dd1615466da5eb21e1a39dd74a76839897fb8affc573685c7925b9","translator":null,"work":null}