{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-436","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":1,"verse_to":1},"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>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Am I not an Apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?\"</p><p>Inasmuch as he had said, \"If meat make my brother to stumble I will eat no flesh forever;\" a thing which he had not yet done, but professed he would do if need require: lest any man should say, \"Thou vauntest thyself at random, and art severe in discourse, and utterest words of promise, a thing easy to me or to any body; but if these sayings come from thy heart, shew by deeds something which thou hast slighted in order to avoid making thy brother stumble:\" for this cause, I say, in what follows he is compelled to enter on the proof of this also, and to point out how he was used to forego even things permitted that he might not give offence, although without any law to enforce his doing so.</p><p>And we are not yet come to the admirable part of the matter: though it be admirable that he abstain even from things lawful to avoid offence: but it is his habit of doing so at the cost of so much trouble and danger \"For why,\" saith he, \"speak of the idol sacrifices? Since although Christ had enjoined that those who preach the Gospel should live at the charge of their disciples, I did not so, but chose, if need were, to end my life with famine and die the most grievous of deaths, so I might avoid receiving of those whom I instruct.\"</p><p>Not because they would otherwise be made to stumble, but because his not receiving would edify them: a much greater thing for him to do. And to witness this he summons themselves, among whom he was used to live in toil and in hunger, nourished by others, and put to straits, in order not to offend them. And yet there was no ground for their taking offence, for it would but have been a law which he was fulfilling. But for all this, by a sort of supererogation he used to spare them.</p><p>\"Am I not an Apostle?\" For besides all that hath been said, this also makes no small difference that Paul himself is the person thus conducting himself. As thus: To prevent their alleging, \"You may taste of the sacrifices, sealing at the same time:\" for a while he withstands not that statement, but argues, \"Though it were lawful, your brethren's harm should keep you from doing so;\" and afterwards he proves that it is not even lawful. In this particular place, however, he establishes the former point from circumstances relating to himself. And intending presently to say that he had received nothing from them, he sets it not down at once, but his own dignity is what he first affirms: \"Am I not an Apostle? am I not free?\"</p><p>Thus, to hinder their saying, \"True; thou didst not receive, but the reason thou didst not was its not being lawful;\" he sets down therefore first the causes why he might reasonably have received, had he been willing to do so.</p><p>Further: that there might not seem to be any thing invidious in regard of Peter and such as Peter, in his saying these things, (for they did not use to decline receiving;) he first shows that they had authority to receive, and then that no one might say, \"Peter had authority to receive but thou hadst not,\" he possesses the hearer beforehand with these encomiums of himself. And perceiving that he must praise himself, (for that was the way to correct the Corinthians,) yet disliking to say any great thing of himself, see how he hath tempered both feelings as the occasion required: limiting his own panegyric, not by what he knew of himself, but by what the subject of necessity required. For he might have said, \"I most of all had a right to receive, even more than they, because 'I labored more abundantly than they.'\" But this he omits, being a point wherein he surpassed them; and those points wherein they were great and which were just grounds for their receiving, those only he sets down.</p><p>\"Am I not an Apostle? am I not free?\" i.e. \"have I not authority over myself? am I under any, to overrule me and forbid my receiving?\"</p><p>\"But they have an advantage over you, in having been with Christ.\"</p><p>\"Nay, neither is this denied me.\" With a view to which he saith, \"Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?\" For \"last of all,\" saith he, \"as unto one born out of due time, He appeared unto me also.\" Now this likewise was no small dignity: since \"many Prophets,\" saith He, \"and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them:\" and, \"Days will come when ye shall desire to see one of these days.\"</p><p>\"What then, though thou be 'an Apostle,' and 'free,' and hast 'seen Christ,' if thou hast not exhibited any work of an Apostle; how then can it be right for thee to receive?\" Wherefore after this he adds, \"Are not ye my work in the Lord?\" For this is the great thing; and those others avail nothing, apart from this. Even Judas himself was \"an Apostle,\" and \"free,\" and \"saw Christ;\" but because he had not \"the work of an Apostle,\" all those things profited him not. You see then why he adds this also, and calls themselves to be witnesses of it.</p><p>Moreover, because it was a great thing which he had uttered, see how he chastens it, adding, \"In the Lord:\" i.e., \"the work is God's, not mine.\"<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 21</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"No man hath seen God at any time.\" What God does he mean? The Word? But he has already said: \"Him we have seen and heard, and our hands have handled the Word of life.\" Well, (I must again ask, ) what God does he mean? It is of course the Father, with whom was the Word, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and has Himself declared Him. He was both heard and seen and, that He might not be supposed to be a phantom, was actually handled. Him, too, did Paul behold; but yet he saw not the Father. \"Have I not,\" he says, \"seen Jesus Christ our Lord? \" Moreover, he expressly called Christ God, saying: \"Of whom are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.\" He shows us also that the Son of God, which is the Word of God, is visible, because He who became flesh was called Christ.<br/><i>— Against Praxeas</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Nor indeed, if, among the Greeks, in accordance with the carelessness of custom, women and wives are classed under a common name-however, there is a name proper to wives-shall we therefore so interpret Paul as if he demonstrates the apostles to have had wives? For if he were disputing about marriages, as he does in the sequel, where the apostle could better have named some particular example, it would appear right for him to say, \"For have we not the power of leading about wives, like the other apostles and Cephas? \"But when he subjoins those (expressions)which show his abstinence from (insisting on) the supply of maintenance, saying, \"For have we not the power of eating and drinking? \"he does not demonstrate that \"wives\" were led about by the apostles, whom even such as have not still have the power of eating and drinking; but simply \"women,\" who used to minister to them in the stone way (as they did) when accompanying the Lord.<br/><i>— On Monogamy</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And what kind of invidiousness is the pungency of humility? \"To God I give thanks that I have baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, lest any say that I have baptized in mine own name.\" \"For neither did I judge to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.\" And, \"(I think) God hath selected us the apostles (as) hindmost, like men appointed to fight with wild beasts; since we have been made a spectacle to this world, both to angels and to men: \"And, \"We have been made the offscourings of this world, the refuse of all: \"And, \"Am I not free? am I not an apostle? have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord? \" With what kind of superciliousness, on the contrary, was he compelled to declare, \"But to me it is of small moment that I be interrogated by you, or by a human court-day; for neither am I conscious to myself (of any guilt); \"and, \"My glory none shall make empty.\"<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"4fa5b7d2bc57c2e476c389a6f99b8a457e7be838f4f52597bed0b9bbc1600c49","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":436,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"a48e99fe5675bc2660c251f83f69950441a7652e8a698b56b88e630111ba13fa","translator":null,"work":null}