{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-954","native_reference":{"book_number":90,"chapter_from":12,"chapter_to":12,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"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>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: But he himself further adds, saying: 'The Lord, who made Moses and Aaron, and who brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, He Himself is witness.'</p><p>In this passage it should be noted that the holy man did not speak of the good things he had done, but rather set forth the evil things he had not done; so that by keeping silent he might preserve his good deeds for eternal rewards, and by speaking he might not lose the fragrance of his good reputation. Paul indeed speaks, saying: \"We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place\" (II Cor. 2:15). He also, rebuking certain people, says: \"The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you\" (Rom. 2:24). Likewise he admonishes his disciple, saying: \"A bishop must also have a good testimony from those who are outside\" (I Tim. 3:7). Therefore, when he so carefully affirmed that he had avoided evil, and kept silent about the great good deeds he had performed, the blessed man openly showed on what a summit of virtues he stood, since by condemning evil he preserved the fragrance of good reputation as an example for the elect, and by concealing his works of virtue, he safeguarded the rewards of eternal recompense. But it should be noted that when he called the Lord as witness of his innocence, he said that the Lord himself had made Moses and Aaron. What else does this mean, except that he both displayed the height of his virtue, yet did not wish to appear alone at so great a height? As if saying with hidden meaning: \"I am not to be admired for such great virtue of soul, because I am not alone in it. I possess contempt for worldly things as a gift of virtue, but I do not hold this with any intention of vain praise; in this regard I perceive others far better and more exalted than myself.\" And because he affirmed that the Lord himself had made Moses and Aaron, it is as if he were saying: \"That I was able to guard so strongly against evil ought to be ascribed to the grace of him who made Moses and Aaron what they were.\"<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 2</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a662ee9b603a70d20933a9075915c02067d1e1987b4d215bb1e89b999c11b18f","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":954,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"efefa4b118405aa84b7b2e14886357b2cb3b53726d7afaf3f2f9b3f82eadf179","translator":null,"work":null}