{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1871","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":16,"verse_to":16},"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>: To unbelievers the preaching of the cross is the smell of death. On hearing the Word of God they receive it as if it were a plague from which death knocks on the door. But to others it is the fragrance of life. To believers the Word of God is a messenger of eternal life. It affects them in accordance with their faith.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Through an evil man divine providence can both punish and comfort. For the impiety of the Jews was the Jews' downfall and yet provided salvation for the Gentiles. Again, divine providence through a good man can both condemn and help, as the apostle says: \"To some we are the scent of life to life, but to others we are the scent of death to death.\" But every tribulation is either a punishment of the impious or a testing of the just.… Further, peace and quiet from disruptive times can both profit the good and corrupt the evil.<br/><i>— QUESTIONS 27</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Seest thou to what a height he hath advanced the trials, terming them a triumph and a sweet savor and a sacrifice offered unto God. Then, whereas he said, \"we are a sweet savor, even in them that perish,\" lest thou shouldest think that these too are acceptable, he added, \"To the one a savor from death unto death, to the other a savor from life unto life.\"</p><p>For this sweet savor some so receive that they are saved, others so that they perish. So that should any one be lost, the fault is from himself: for both ointment is said to suffocate swine, and light (as I before observed,) to blind the weak. And such is the nature of good things; they not only correct what is akin to them, but also destroy the opposite: and in this way is their power most displayed. For so both fire, not only when it giveth light and when it purifieth gold, but even when it consumeth thorns, doth very greatly display its proper power, and so show itself to be fire: and Christ too herein also doth discover His own majesty when He \"shall consume\" Antichrist \"with the breath of His mouth, and bring him to nought with the manifestation of His coming.\"<br/><i>— Homily 5 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"And who is sufficient for these things?\"</p><p>Seeing he had uttered great things, that 'we are a sacrifice of Christ and a sweet savor, and are every where made to triumph,' he again useth moderation, referring all to God. Whence also he saith, \"and who is sufficient for these things?\" 'for all,' saith he, 'is Christ's, nothing our own.' Seest thou how opposite his language to the false Apostles'? For they indeed glory, as contributing somewhat from themselves unto the message: he, on the contrary, saith, he therefore glorieth, because he saith that nothing is his own. \"For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world.\" And that which they considered it a glory to acquire, I mean the wisdom from without, he makes it his to take away. Whence also he here saith, \"And who is sufficient for these things?\" But if none are sufficient, that which is done is of grace.<br/><i>— Homily 5 on 2 Corinthians</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"7efcab3d670c793b6ef25d28af43f7234f068a87c9a4cc11214e123cbcb0c541","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1871,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"c4fbd6141a1e7f95c047ab14ccb28a264f4055ffdc0d2ef70275e6f8d444c2c7","translator":null,"work":null}