{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6574","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":12,"chapter_to":12,"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>: Many careful precepts have been given us, such as those concerning mutual forgiveness and the encouraging of that peace which is the very condition of our seeing God. One has only to recall the fearsome command given to the servant to pay the debt of ten thousand talents, from which he had been released, because he had not released his fellow servant from the debt that he owed of one hundred pence. When the Lord had proposed this parable, he added the words, \"So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.\"<br/><i>— City of God 15.6</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt—that God shall be seen by the inward person which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, \"God is love.\" This inward person alone is able to see \"peace and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord.\" For no fleshly eye now sees love, peace and holiness, and such things. Yet all of them are seen, so far as they can be seen, by the eye of the mind, and the purer [the mind] is, the more clearly it sees. Therefore we may, without hesitation, believe that we shall see God.<br/><i>— LETTER 148.18</i></p><p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: I am much distressed that the canons of the Fathers have fallen through and that the exact discipline of the church has been banished from among you. I am apprehensive lest, as this indifference grows, the affairs of the church should, little by little, fall into confusion. According to the ancient custom observed in the churches of God, ministers in the church were received after careful examination. The whole of their life was investigated; an enquiry was made as to their being neither partiers nor drunkards, not quick to quarrel, keeping their youth in subjection, so as to be able to maintain \"the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.\" This examination was made by presbyters and deacons living with them. Then they brought them to the chorepiscopi; and the chorepiscopi, after receiving the suffrages of the witnesses as to the truth and giving information to the bishop, so admitted the minister to the sacerdotal order. Now, however, you have quite passed me over; you have not even had the grace to refer to me and have transferred the whole authority to yourselves. Furthermore, with complete indifference, you have allowed presbyters and deacons to introduce unworthy persons into the church, just any one they choose, without any previous examination of life and character, by mere favoritism, on the score of relationship or some other tie. The consequence is that in every village there are many who are considered ministers but not one single person worthy of the service of the altars. Of this you yourselves supply proof from your difficulty in finding suitable candidates for election.<br/><i>— LETTER 54</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Gracefully, therefore, the apostle says in the Epistle to Titus, \"that the eider women should be of godly behaviour, should not be slanderers, not enslaved to much wine; that they should counsel the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, discreet, chaste, housekeepers, good, subject to their own husbands; that the word of God be not blasphemed.\" But rather, he says, \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently, lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel surrendered his birth-right; and lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.\" And then, as putting the finishing stroke to the question about marriage, he adds: \"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 4</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: It is written, \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.\" For in quarrels the very light of the soul, the light of good intent, is blocked. This is why the psalmist says, \"My eye is troubled because of anger.\" And what good works remain in us if we lose peace from the heart without which we cannot see the Lord? Therefore, act in such a way that you garner your reward even from those who through strife might have caused it to perish. May almighty God guard your love with heavenly grace and grant you to bear much fruit from those who are committed to you so that your measure may overflow with eternal joys.<br/><i>— LETTER 46</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: The disciple of Christ must do more for the attainment of spiritual glory than the philosopher of the world, than the venal slave of flying rumors and the people's whims. It is not enough for you to despise wealth unless you follow Christ as well. And only the one who follows Christ forsakes his sins and walks hand in hand with virtue. We know that Christ is wisdom. He is the treasure which in the Scriptures a man finds in his field. He is the peerless gem which is bought by selling many pearls. But if you love a captive woman, that is, worldly wisdom, and if no beauty but hers attracts you, make her bald and cut off her alluring hair, that is to say, her adornments and pare away her dead nails. Wash her with the soap of which the prophet speaks, and then take your ease with her and say, \"Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand embraces me.\" Then shall the captive bring to you many children; from a Moabitess she shall become an Israelite woman. Christ is that sanctification without which no one shall see the face of God. Christ is our redemption, for he is at once our redeemer and our ransom. Christ is everything, so that the one who has left everything for Christ may find one in place of everything and may be able to proclaim freely, \"the Lord is my portion.\"<br/><i>— LETTER 66.8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.\" What he also said above, \"Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together\" (c. x. 25), he hints at in this place also. For nothing so especially makes persons easily vanquished and subdued in temptations, as isolation. For, tell me, scatter a phalanx in war, and the enemy will need no trouble, but will take them prisoners, coming on them separately, and thereby the more helpless. \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness\" (he says). Therefore with the evil-doers as well? \"If it be possible,\" he says, \"as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.\" (Rom. xii. 18.) For thy part (he means) \"live peaceably,\" doing no harm to religion: but in whatever thou art ill-treated, bear it nobly. For the bearing with evil is a great weapon in trials. Thus Christ also made His disciples strong by saying, \"Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,\" (Matt. x. 16.) What dost Thou say? Are we \"among wolves,\" and dost Thou bid us to be \"as sheep,\" and \"as doves\"? Yea, He says. For nothing so shames him that is doing us evil, as bearing nobly the things which are brought upon us: and not avenging ourselves either by word or by deed. This both makes us more philosophical ourselves and procures a greater reward, and also benefits them. But has such an one been insolent? Do thou bless him. See how much thou wilt gain from this: thou hast quenched the evil, thou hast procured to thyself a reward, thou hast made him ashamed, and thou hast suffered nothing serious.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 30</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness.\" What does he mean by \"holiness\"? Chaste, and orderly living in marriage. If any person is unmarried (he says) let him remain pure, let him marry: or if he be married, let him not commit fornication, but let him live with his own wife: for this also is \"holiness.\" How? Marriage is not \"holiness,\" but marriage preserves the holiness which proceeds from Faith, not permitting union with a harlot. For \"marriage is honorable\" (c. xiii. 4), not holy. Marriage is pure: it does not however also give holiness, except by forbidding the defilement of that holiness which has been given by our Faith.</p><p>\"Without which\" (he says) \"no man shall see the Lord.\" Which he also says in the Epistle to the Corinthians. \"Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous persons, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.\" (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.) For how shall he who has become the body of a harlot, how shall he be able to be the body of Christ?<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 30</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: There are many things characteristic of Christianity: but more than all, and better than all, Love towards one another, and Peace. Therefore Christ also saith, \"My peace I give unto you.\" And again, \"By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another.\" Therefore Paul too says, \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness,\" that is, purity, \"without which no man shall see the Lord.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 31</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"Pursue peace with all.\" And among you mutually and among the slanderers. For there is great range when it is said, with all. Indeed, \"With those,\" he says, \"who hated peace, I was peaceful.\" (Ps. 120:7) For if indeed he injures, and you do not take revenge, peace will quickly be achieved.<br/>\"and the holiness.\" Holiness refers to purity, that is, virginity or chastity. For even one who is chaste in marriage fulfills holiness, although not properly. For marriage is not called holy, but honorable, even so, it accomplishes holiness.<br/>\"without which no one will see the Lord.\" For if neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor those like them will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9), how will they see the Lord who are not chaste, as it is necessary to see, without holiness?<br/>\"See to it that no one fails to obtain.\" Just as those walking a long road in company, considering, he says, this is diligently looking ahead and analyzing, so that nobody fails to obtain the grace of God. For it is necessary to take care both for yourselves and for your brothers, that no one lacks these things. Moreover, he calls the grace of God the future goods, whether faith or a suitable way of life. For all these things are the grace of God.<br/>\"that no root of bitterness springs up.\" The root of bitterness refers to sin. Therefore, he says: If there is anyone among you who is not rightly affected, let such a one be cut off, lest sin be brought forth into action (for this is what he means by \"springs up\"), lest it also become an occasion of sin for the others.<br/>He says: \"and by it many become defiled.\" Indeed, when someone sees a neighbor sinning, he will come to imitation, so that he himself may sin. He rightly called the root of bitterness, sin. For the bitter root can produce sweet fruits, but the root of bitterness is bitter to itself and to those to whom it is a root: for the root of bitterness is substance and, as it were, essence.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: By \"holiness\" he referred to self-control. It is possible even for those in wedlock to achieve it.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 12</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"1f3ca0098eda7443ee00fcbb99fc464f9ec037ab1881edd421a27f2d4088a4b1","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6574,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"22bc862a7390cfc2a04148095f632ed34a96e6cb39140deafdafb3fb8a5e3a90","translator":null,"work":null}