{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1748","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":3,"verse_to":3},"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 always speaks in this way, indicating the personhood of the Father and the Son, even though they are of one substance. Now he is giving much relief to people who had been grieved by his rebuke, for when they hear that God is not just the Father of creation but the Father of mercies as well, they will have hope and be assured that they have been rebuked so that they may find the mercy of God, once they have mended their ways. Through repentance they were being born again and made anew, which was not just a pardon but a restoration of their previous state of existence. He puts \"mercies\" in the plural because of their many sins, his aim being to console those who have been grieved on account of their faults.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: O Thou the great Being, O Lord God Almighty, who alone art unbegotten, and ruled over by none; who always art, and wast before the world; who standest in need of nothing, and art above all cause and beginning; who only art true, who only art wise; who alone art the most high; who art by nature invisible; whose knowledge is without beginning; who only art good, and beyond compare; who knowest all things before they are; who art acquainted with the most secret things; who art inaccessible, and without a superior; the God and Father of Thy only begotten Son, of our God and Saviour; the Creator of the whole world by Him; whose providence provides for and takes the care of all; the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation; who dwellest in the highest heavens, and yet lookest down on things below...<br/><i>— Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 8</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Jerusalem</b>: \"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" For in the thought of God, let the thought of Father be included, so that the glory which we ascribe to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit may be perfectly free from difference. For the Father has not one glory and the Son another, but their glory is one and the same, since the Son is the Father's sole-begotten. When the Father is glorified, the Son shares in enjoyment of his glory, because the Son draws his glory from the honoring of the Father. Again, whenever the Son is glorified, the Father of so excellent a Son is greatly honored.<br/><i>— Catechetical Lecture 6.1</i></p><p><b>Didymus the Blind</b>: God alone is holy and good, sanctifying others and making them good. He alone is blessed, because he gives blessing and does not receive it from someone else. Likewise, he is the Father of mercies by nature, because he is the source of all mercy and not because he has acquired this from anyone else.<br/><i>— PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.\" Do you ask, how is this aptly to the purpose in hand? I reply, Very much so; for observe, they were greatly vexed and troubled that the Apostle had not come to them, and that, though he had promised, but had spent the whole time in Macedonia; preferring as it seemed others to themselves. Setting himself then to meet this feeling against him, he declares the cause of his absence; not however directly stating it, as thus; \"I know, indeed, I promised to come, but since I was hindered by afflictions forgive me, nor judge me guilty of any sort of contempt or neglect towards you:\" but after another manner he invests the subject at once with more dignity and trustworthiness, and gives it greatness by the nature of the consolation, so that thereafter they might not so much as ask the reason of his delay. Just as if one, having promised to come to one he longed for, at length arriving after dangers innumerable, should say, \"Glory to Thee, O God, for letting me see the sight so longed for of his dear countenance! Blessed be Thou, O God, from what perils hast Thou delivered me!\" for such a doxology is an answer to him who was preparing to find fault, and will not let him so much as complain of the delay; for one that is thanking God for deliverance from such great calamities he cannot for shame drag to the bar, and bid clear himself of loitering.</p><p>Whence Paul thus begins, \"Blessed be the God of mercies,\" implying by the very words that he had been both brought into and delivered from mighty perils. For as David also doth not address God every where in one way or with the same titles; but when he is upon battle and victory, \"I will love Thee, he saith, O Lord my strength; the Lord is my buckler:\" when again upon delivery from affliction and the darkness which overwhelmed him, \"The Lord is my light and my salvation;\" and as the immediate occasion suggests, he names Him now from His loving-kindness, now from His justice, now from His righteous judgment:-in like way Paul also here at the beginning describeth Him by His loving-kindness, calling Him \"the God of mercies,\" that is, \"Who hath showed me so great mercies as to bring me up from the very gates of death.\"</p><p>And thus to have mercy is the peculiar and excellent attribute of God, and the most inherent in His nature; whence he calleth Him the \"God of mercies.\"</p><p>And observe, I pray you, herein also the lowly-mindedness of Paul. For though he were in peril because of the Gospel he preached; yet saith he not, he was saved for his merit, but for the mercies of God.<br/><i>— Homily 1 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: If, owing to the fault of human error, the word God has become a common name (since in the world there are said and believed to be \"gods many\" ), yet \"the blessed God,\" (who is \"the Father) of our Lord Jesus Christ,\" will be understood to be no other God than the Creator, who both blessed all things (that He had made), as you find in Genesis, and is Himself \"blessed by all things,\" as Daniel tells us.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now, if the title of Father may be claimed for (Marcion's) sterile god, how much more for the Creator? To none other than Him is it suitable, who is also \"the Father of mercies,\" and (in the prophets) has been described as \"full of compassion, and gracious, and plenteous in mercy.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Theodore of Mopsuestia</b>: Paul does not begin with suffering but with comfort, giving thanks for that before going on to explain that it came about through suffering.<br/><i>— PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Christ himself teaches us that God is his Father..<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 289</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"ac97753d6ef991162fb5323050fc4fde32c24fa6123071f622c4d6034900ca12","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1748,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"6a6cd71e3a9eed6328ce093c6d989e4f23ebd07540bd090383b194676f38a0c2","translator":null,"work":null}