Homilies on First Corinthians 17

'All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable;'

'all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.'

Here he is hinting at the gluttons.

For since he is about to turn again to the fornicator, and since fornication springs from luxury and excess, he vehemently chastises the passion.

For he does not say this concerning things forbidden;

but concerning things that seem to be indifferent.

It is lawful, he says, to eat and to drink, but it is not profitable when done with profligacy.

And that marvelous and paradoxical device of his, which he is wont to employ in many places, turning the argument round to the contrary, this too he here contrives; and he shows that to act 'in the exercise of liberty' is not only unprofitable, but is not even a mark of liberty at all, but of bondage.

And first he dissuades them from it by its unprofitableness, saying:

and secondly from the contrary side also, saying that 'I will not be brought under the power of any.'

You are master of eating, he says;

therefore remain master, and take heed lest you become a slave of this passion.

For he who uses it as he ought is himself its master;

but he who goes forth into excess is no longer master, but becomes its slave, since gluttony tyrannizes within him.

Do you see how he showed the man who thought he possessed liberty to be himself under an authority? For this is Paul's custom, as I said before, to turn objections round to their contrary, which he has done here also.

he himself says that 'You do not do this as one having authority over it, but as one who is himself subject to this authority.'

For neither do you have authority over the belly, so long as you are dissolute, but rather it holds authority over you.

This may be said also concerning money and concerning the rest.

By 'belly' here he means not the stomach, but gluttony;

'Whose god is their belly,' speaking not about the bodily member, but about gluttony.

For that this is so, hear what follows:

'And the belly for foods;'

'but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.'

And yet the belly too is body.

But he set down two pairs: the foods and gluttony—which he called 'the belly'—and Christ and the body.

And what does 'the foods for the belly' mean? The foods, he says, have an affinity toward gluttony, and

It cannot therefore lead us toward Christ, but drags us toward these things.

For it is a grievous and brutish passion, and it makes men slaves, and disposes them to serve it.

Why then, O man, are you all aflutter and agape after food? For this is the end of that service, and it will display nothing beyond;

but, like one waiting on some mistress, it abides keeping up this bondage, and advances no further, and has no other work, but this very vain thing.

And the two are intertwined with each other and are dissolved together—the belly with the foods, and the foods with the belly—unwinding a kind of endless round;

as if worms were bred from a decaying body, and again the body were consumed by the worms;

or as when a wave, rising to a crest and then breaking apart, accomplishes nothing further.

But he says these things not about food and the body, but he impugns the passion of gluttony and the immoderation of dainty dishes.

'But God will bring to nought both it and them;'

meaning not the belly, but the immoderate desire; nor the food, but the luxury.

For against those things he is not displeased, but even legislates concerning them, saying thus:

'Having food and covering, with these we shall be content;'

but by this he impugns the excess of the practice, and, after his counsel, commits its correction to prayer.

But some say that what is spoken is a prophecy, indicating the state in the age to come, and that there there is neither eating nor drinking.

But if even the moderate use shall have an end, much more must one abstain from excess.

Then, lest anyone suppose that the accusation is against the body, or suspect that from the part he was disparaging the whole, or say that the nature of the body was the cause of the fornication, hear what follows.

For I do not blame the nature of the body, he says, but the immoderate profligacy of the soul;

'But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.'

For it was not framed for this, that it should live dissolutely and commit fornication—even as neither was the belly, that it should play the glutton—but that it might follow Christ as its head, and that the Lord might preside over the body.

Let us be ashamed, let us shudder, that, having been counted worthy of so great an honor as to become members of Him who sits on high, we shame ourselves with so many evils.

Having then sufficiently accused the gluttons, he also draws them away from this vice by the hope of the things to come, saying:

'And God both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up through His power.'

Do you see again the apostolic wisdom? For he ever establishes the trustworthiness of the resurrection from Christ, and especially now.

For if our body is a member of Christ, and Christ has risen, then the body also will altogether follow the head.

For since he had spoken of a matter that is disbelieved and cannot be grasped by reasonings, he referred the things of Christ's resurrection to the incomprehensibility of His power, thereby furnishing this too as no small proof against them.

And in the case of Christ's resurrection he did not add it;

for he did not say, 'And God will raise up the Lord;'

but how? 'And God raised up the Lord;'

and this needed no demonstration.

But concerning our resurrection, since it has not yet come to pass, he did not speak thus, but how? 'And He will raise us up through His power;'

silencing the gainsayers by the trustworthiness of the strength of Him who works it.

But if he reckons the resurrection of Christ to the Father, let this in no way trouble you.

For it was not as though Christ were powerless that he set this down;

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;'

and again, 'I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again;'

and Luke also in the Acts says:

To whom also He presented Himself alive.

Why then does Paul speak in this way? Because the things of the Son are reckoned to the Father, and the things of the Father to the Son.

For whatsoever things He does, He says, these the Son likewise also does.

And very seasonably did he here call to mind the resurrection, restraining by those hopes the tyranny of gluttony, all but saying:

You have drunk to riotous excess; and what is the end? Nothing, but corruption alone.

You have been joined together with Christ; and what is the end? The resurrection to come is great and marvelous, that glorious one which surpasses all speech.

Let no one, therefore, disbelieve the resurrection;

but if anyone disbelieves, let him consider how many things He made out of things that were not, and let him receive proof concerning that also.

For the things that have already come to pass are far more paradoxical, and possess a wonder beyond all contriving.

He took earth and kneaded it, and made man—earth that had not existed before this.

How then did the earth become man? And how was this very earth, which did not exist, brought into being? And how did all the things from it—the countless kinds of irrational creatures, of seeds, of plants—come forth, when no birth-pangs went before them, no rains descended upon them, no husbandry appeared, no oxen, no plough, nor anything else contributing to their generation? For this reason, from earth that was without soul and without sense, He in the beginning brought up so many kinds of plants and of irrational animals, that He might instruct you from on high in the doctrine of the resurrection.

For this is more perplexing than the resurrection.

For it is not the same thing to rekindle a lamp that has been quenched, and to bring forth fire that appears nowhere at all;

it is not the same thing to raise up a house that has fallen down, and to produce one that has no existence at all.

For here, even if nothing else, at least the material was already at hand;

but there not even the substance was in evidence.

For this reason He did first that which seems to be more difficult, that from this you might accept the easier.

But I called it more difficult, not for God, but according to the sequence of our reasonings;

for just as a painter who makes one image will easily make ten thousand, so also for God it is easy to make ten thousand worlds and boundless ones;

or rather, just as it is easy for you to conceive of a city and of boundless worlds, so it is easy for God to make them—nay, rather, far easier even than this.

For you at least spend a brief time in the conception;

but God does not even this; rather, by as much as stones are heavier than any of the lightest things, indeed heavier than our mind, by so much does our mind fall short of the swiftness of God in creating.

Have you marveled at His power upon the earth? Consider again how the heaven came into being when it was not, how the boundless stars, how the sun, how the moon;

Again, tell me, how after coming into being does it stand, and upon what? What foundation has it, and what does the earth have? And what is beneath the earth? And beneath that which is beneath the earth again, what? Do you see into what a dizzy whirl the eye of your understanding falls, unless you quickly run to faith and to the incomprehensible power of the Maker? But if you are willing to make conjecture even from human things, you will be able little by little to give wings to your understanding.

Do you not see the potters, how they mould afresh into a vessel that which has been broken and become shapeless? Those who smelt the metal-bearing earth, how they make the earth appear as gold, and as iron and bronze? Again, others who work glass, how they refashion the sand into one continuous and transparent body? Shall I speak of the tanners, of those who dye the purple garments, how they cause that which receives the dye to appear other than it was? Shall I speak of our own generation? Is not a small seed, at first shapeless and unformed, injected into the womb that receives it? Whence then comes so great a fashioning of the living creature? And what of the wheat? Is not a bare grain cast into the earth? Does it not, after being cast down, decay? Whence then the ear, and the beards, and the stalk, and all the rest? Has not a tiny grain of a fig, often falling into the earth, brought forth root and branches and fruit? Then do you receive each of these and do not pry into them, yet of God alone do you demand an account when He refashions our body? And where is this deserving of pardon? (Section 3)

These things and such as these let us say to the Greeks;

for toward those who are persuaded by the Scriptures I have no need even of argument.

For if you are going to pry into all His works, in what will God have more than men? And yet many men also we do not pry into.

But if in the case of men we do this, and do not

pry into them, then much more ought we not to be inquisitive about the wisdom of God, nor to demand reasonings;

first, because trustworthy is He who declares it; and second, because these matters do not admit the searching of reasonings.

For God is not so poor as to work only such things as can be comprehended by the weakness of your reasonings.

For if you do not comprehend the work of a carpenter, much more that of God the supreme Artificer.

Do not, therefore, disbelieve the resurrection;

since you will be far removed from the hope that is to come.

But what is the wisdom of those who gainsay—or rather their exceeding folly? 'And how,' says he, 'when the body has been mixed with the earth and has become earth, and this again has been transformed in another manner, shall it rise again?' This seems to you perplexing, but not to the sleepless Eye;

and you do not see the distinction within the confusion, but He knows all things;

since even the things in the heart of your neighbor you are ignorant of, but He knows all things exactly.

If therefore, because you are ignorant how God raises men, you disbelieve that He raises them, will you also disbelieve that He knows the things in the mind? For neither do these appear to sight.

And yet in the case of the body there is visible matter, even though it be dissolved;

but those thoughts are invisible.

Shall He then who knows the invisible things with all exactness not see the visible, and easily separate the body? To everyone, surely, it is plain.

Do not, therefore, disbelieve the resurrection;

and the devil is zealous for this, not only that the resurrection may be disbelieved, but also that the works of virtue may be dissolved and perish.

For a man who does not expect to rise again and to give account of his deeds will not quickly lay hold of virtue;

and not laying hold of virtue, he will again disbelieve the resurrection;

for both are wrought by one another—wickedness by unbelief, and unbelief by wickedness.

For a conscience filled with many wickednesses, fearing and trembling at the recompense to come, since it is unwilling to procure comfort from the change toward what is noblest, wishes to find repose in unbelief.

For when you say there is no resurrection nor judgment, that one too will say:

'Then neither shall I give account of the things I have dared to do.'

But what does Christ say? 'You do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.'

For God would not have wrought so many things, if indeed He were not going to raise us up, but to dissolve us and bring us to nothing;

He would not have stretched out this heaven, would not have spread out the earth beneath, would not have made all the rest for the sake of this brief life alone.

But if for the sake of the present life He did these things, what will He not do for the sake of the life to come? And if there is to be no life to come, then in this respect we are much more dishonored than the things which came into being for our sake.

For heaven and earth and sea and rivers are more enduring than we, and some also of the irrational creatures;

for the crow, too, and the race of elephants and many others enjoy the present life for a longer time.

But for us life is both brief and toilsome, whereas for them it is not so, but rather long, and more free from despondency and cares.

What then, tell me? Has He made the servants better than the masters? Do not, I beseech you, do not reason thus, nor impoverish your understanding, O man, nor be ignorant of the riches of God, since you have such a Master.

For God from the beginning wished to make you immortal, but you yourself were not willing.

For those things were tokens of immortality: converse with God, the freedom of life from hardship, the being released from grief and cares and toils, and from the other things that pertain to the present season.

For Adam needed neither garment, nor roof, nor any other such contrivance, but resembled rather the angels, and foreknew many of the things to come, and was filled with much wisdom.

And that which God did secretly, this that man knew—the thing concerning the woman:

'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.'

But toil came afterward, afterward sweat, afterward shame and cowardice and the loss of boldness;

but then there was no grief, no pain, no groaning.

But he did not abide in that dignity.

'What then,' says he, 'shall I suffer? Am I lost because of him?' By no means because of him;

for neither have you remained without sin.

You have not remained sinless, but even if not the same sin, you have at any rate sinned another.

And in another way, you were not even harmed by the punishment, but even gained.

For if you were destined to remain mortal forever, perhaps what is said might have some reason to it;

but as it is, you are even immortal, and if you will, you shall be able to shine brighter than the sun itself.

'But had I not received a mortal body,' he says, 'I would not have sinned.'

What then, tell me? Did that one, who had an immortal body, sin? By no means;

for had it truly been mortal, he would not afterward have undergone death by way of punishment.

And that a mortal body is no hindrance to virtue, but even chastens us and contributes to the greatest ends, is clear from this.

For if the mere expectation of immortality so lifted up Adam, had he actually become immortal, to what pitch of madness would he not have gone? And now, having sinned, you are able to loose your sins, since the body is lowly and prone to fall and to be dissolved;

for these very reflections are sufficient to bring one to soberness;

but had you transgressed in an immortal body, perhaps your sins would have been more permanent.

Mortality, then, is not the cause of sin—do not accuse it—but the wicked will is the root of evils.

For why did the body in no way wrong Abel? Why did their bodilessness in no way profit the demons? Would you learn that the body's becoming mortal not only did not harm but even benefited us? Hear how much you gain from this, if you are watchful.

It draws you back and diverts you from wickedness by means of pains and griefs and toils and other such things.

'But it also leads to fornication,' he says. Not the body, but licentiousness;

for those things which I mentioned belong altogether to the body.

Wherefore it is not possible for a man who has come into this life not to fall sick, and to suffer pain, and to be despondent;

so that if the deeds of wickedness also belonged to the nature of the body, they would be universal;

for what is natural is of this kind, but to commit fornication is not of this kind;

but to feel pain comes from this source, while to commit fornication comes from the will.

Therefore do not accuse the body, nor let the devil rob you of the honor which God has given you.

For if we will, the body is an excellent bridle, holding down the leapings of the soul, dragging down madness, hindering arrogance, and ministering to us in the greatest achievements.

For do not cite to me those who are mad;

since we see many even of the horses carried over precipices, having thrown off the charioteer together with the bridle;

yet we do not blame the bridle;

for it was not that bridle, torn apart, which wrought this, but the charioteer who did not hold fast, and so lost everything.

So indeed reckon here also;

if you see a youth living in orphanhood and working countless evils, do not accuse the body, but the charioteer who is being dragged along—I mean the reasoning faculty.

For just as the reins give no trouble to the charioteer, but the charioteer is the cause of all, not holding them well;

wherefore they also exact a penalty from him, entangling him and often dragging him along and compelling him to share in his own misfortune;

'For I,' it says, 'was lashing the horse's mouth so long as you held fast;

but since you have thrown me off, I exact from you the penalty for your contempt, and I entangle you and drag you along, so that you may no longer suffer the same thing.'

Let no one, then, accuse the reins, but himself and his corrupted mind.

For in our case too the charioteer is the reasoning faculty;

and the reins are the body, drawing the horses together toward the charioteer.

If, then, these are well disposed, you will suffer nothing dreadful;

but if you let them go, you have obliterated and destroyed everything.

Let us, then, be sober, and not accuse the body, but the wicked understanding.

For this too is the work of the devil, to make the foolish accuse anything rather than their corrupted will—both the body, and God, and their neighbor—

so that, not finding the true cause, they may not be delivered from the root of evils.

But do you, being conscious of the plot, turn your anger against him, and, setting the charioteer over the team, stretch the eye of your mind toward God.

For in other contests the one who has appointed the struggle contributes nothing, but awaits the outcome;

but here the presiding judge of the games is wholly God.

Let us, then, keep Him gracious to us, and we shall by all means attain unto the

good things to come, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.