Homilies on First Timothy 5

'This charge I commit unto you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before concerning you, that by them you might war the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust away have made shipwreck concerning the faith.'

The dignity of teaching and of the priesthood is great and wonderful, and truly stands in need of God's vote, so as to bring the worthy man into the midst.

Thus it was done of old, and thus it is done now, when we make our elections apart from human passion, when we look to nothing worldly—neither to friendship nor to enmity.

For even if we do not partake of so great a measure of the Spirit, yet a good purpose suffices to draw down God's ordination.

Since the apostles too did not partake of the Spirit when they chose Matthias, but committing the matter to prayer, enrolled him in the number of the apostles;

for they had no regard to human friendship.

and so it comes to pass now among us also.

But we, having driven ourselves to the extreme of negligence, cast aside even the manifest things to the point of scrupulousness;

and when we overlook the plain things, how shall God reveal to us the hidden ones? 'If in the little,' he says, 'you were not found faithful, who will entrust to you the great and the true?' But in those days, since nothing human was done, the priests were appointed even from prophecy.

What is 'from prophecy'? From the Holy Spirit.

For prophecy is not the telling of things to come only, but also of things present, since Saul too was pointed out by prophecy as hiding himself among the baggage;

for God reveals things to the righteous.

Prophecy also was the saying, 'Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas.'

Thus too was Timothy chosen.

And by 'prophecies' here in the plural he means, perhaps, that one by which he took him when he circumcised him, and that by which he ordained him, even as he himself also says in writing:

'Neglect not the gift that is in you.'

Rousing him up therefore, and preparing him to be sober and watchful, he reminds him of the One who chose and ordained him:

God chose you; He Himself entrusted the office to you; you were not made by a human vote.

Do not act with insolence, nor bring dishonor upon the verdict of God.

Then, since he had spoken of a charge, and this was somewhat burdensome, what does he say? 'This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy.'

It is as to a child, and a true-born one, that he gives the charge.

For it is not with authority, nor as a master, nor with imperiousness, but in a fatherly manner that he says, 'My child Timothy.'

And the word 'to commit' indicates the strictness of the safe-keeping, and that it is not our own.

For we did not ourselves acquire it,

but God freely bestowed it upon us as a gift of grace;

and not this only, but also faith and a good conscience.

The things, therefore, which He has given, let us keep these.

If He Himself had not come, neither would faith itself have been found, nor the pure manner of life which we receive through His instruction.

It is not I who give the charge, but He who chose thee;

for the phrase 'according to the prophecies which went before on thee'—this is what it means.

Hearken to those prophecies, be persuaded by them.

And what dost thou charge? Tell me. That thou mightest by them war the good warfare.

Those prophecies chose thee for that unto which they chose thee; wage the good warfare.

For there is also an evil warfare, concerning which he says:

'Even as ye presented your members as weapons unto sin and unto uncleanness.'

Those men serve as soldiers under a tyrant, but thou under a King.

But why does he call the matter a warfare? To show that a fierce war has been stirred up against all men, but most of all against the teacher; that we have need of strong weapons, of sobriety, of watchfulness, of unceasing vigilance; that we must be prepared for blood and battles, that we must be drawn up in array and have nothing slack or careless about us.

'That thou mightest by them war,' he says.

For just as in armies not all serve in one and the same capacity, but in different ranks;

so also in the Church, one is in the rank of a teacher, another of a disciple, another of a layman, but thou art in this rank.

Then, lest any suppose that this suffices, what does he say? 'Holding faith and a good conscience.'

For the teacher must first be a teacher of himself.

For just as a general, if he has not first been an excellent soldier, will never become a general;

'Lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be found unapproved.'

'Holding,' he says, 'faith and a good conscience,' so that in this way thou mayest preside over the rest.

Hearing these things, let us not disdain the exhortations of those greater than ourselves, even though we be teachers.

For if Timothy, of whom we are none of us worthy, receives charges and is taught—and that too while holding the rank of a teacher—how much more should we?

'Which some,' he says, 'having thrust away, made shipwreck concerning the faith.'

For when the manner of life is abandoned to despair, then also is a doctrine of such a kind brought forth;

and one may see many who from this cause have fallen into an abyss of evils, and have turned aside to paganism.

For in order that they may not be tormented by the fear of the things to come, they are eager to persuade their soul that all the things we hold are false.

And some turn aside from the faith—those who seek everything by reasonings;

reasoning is one thing, and faith is like a safe ship.

Those, therefore, who have turned aside from thence must needs suffer shipwreck; and he shows this by the illustration.

'Of whom,' he says, 'is Hymenaeus and Alexander.'

And from these examples he brings us to soberness.

See how from those times there were those who taught otherwise, who were meddlesome, who held aloof from the faith, who sought things by their own reasonings. The shipwrecked man is naked and destitute of all things;

so also he who has fallen away from the faith has nothing left, neither anywhere to stand, nor anything to hold fast to;

he has no manner of life by which he might gain anything from that quarter;

for when the head is corrupted, what profit is there in the rest of the body? For if faith without a good life is nothing, much more is the contrary the case.

If God for our sake despises the things that are His own, much more ought we for His sake to despise the things that are ours.

For so it is, whenever a man falls away from the faith;

he stands nowhere, but swims now this way, now that, until he is drowned once more.

'Whom I delivered,' he says, 'unto Satan, that they might be disciplined not to blaspheme.'

Dost thou see that to seek divine things by reasonings is blasphemy? And with reason;

for what could human reasoning have in common with those things? But how does Satan discipline them not to blaspheme? For if he disciplines others not to blaspheme, much more ought he to have disciplined himself;

and if to this present time he cannot discipline himself, neither can he discipline others.

He did not say, 'That he might discipline them not to blaspheme,' but, 'That they might be disciplined not to blaspheme.'

It is not he who works this, but this is the outcome that results;

just as elsewhere too he says concerning the man who had committed fornication:

'Deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh;'

not that the body might be saved, but that the spirit might be saved.

How then does this come to pass? Just as executioners, though full of countless evils, bring others to soberness, so also here in the case of the wicked demon.

And why didst thou not thyself punish them, as thou didst that Bar-Jesus, and as Cephas did Ananias, but deliveredst them unto Satan? Not that they might be punished, but that they might be disciplined.

And yet he too has power, as when he says:

'What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod?' and again:

'Not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is good;'

and again, 'Not for pulling down, but for building up.'

Why then does he call in Satan for the punishment? That along with the severity and the chastisement, the disgrace also might be the greater;

or rather, the unbelievers they themselves disciplined, but those who had turned aside they delivered unto Satan.

But why then did Peter punish Ananias? For Ananias also was still an unbeliever, tempting God.

In order, then, that the unbelievers might learn that they cannot escape notice, on this account they punished them by their own hands;

but those who had already learned this, and then turned aside, they delivered unto Satan, showing that it was not by their own power, but by the protection of the apostles that they were held together; and all who were lifted up into madness were delivered over.

Just as, therefore, in the case of kings, their enemies they slay even with their own hands, but those who are under them they hand over to the executioners, so also here.

And it is shown from this that this took place on account of the safe-keeping of the apostles;

and besides, it was no small thing to be able to give commands to the devil;

for this was the mark of one showing that the devil serves and yields, even against his will, to the apostles.

So that this too was no small thing as regards grace.

But how did he deliver him over? Listen.

'When you are gathered together,' he says, 'and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan.'

So he was cast out. At once he was cut off from the common assembly, severed from the flock; he became desolate and stripped, and was handed over to the wolf.

For just as the cloud made known the camp of the Hebrews, so the Spirit made known the Church.

If then anyone came to be outside, he was consumed with fire;

and one came to be outside by the judgment of the apostles.

In this same way the Lord also delivered Judas to Satan;

for immediately after the morsel Satan entered into him.

It is also possible to say this: that those whom they wished to reform, they did not themselves punish;

but the incorrigible they themselves chastised;

or, if not this, then that they were the more to be feared when they delivered men over to others.

Thus Job also was delivered to Satan;

but he not for sins, rather for the sake of a greater renown.

Many such things happen even now.

For since the priests do not know all the sinners, and those who partake of the mysteries unworthily, God often does this and delivers them over to Satan.

For whenever diseases, whenever plots, whenever griefs and calamities befall, whenever any other such things, it is for this reason that they come to pass.

And Paul makes this plain, speaking thus:

'For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a good number sleep.'

'And how then,' someone says, 'when we come but once a year?' For this is the terrible thing: that you determine the worthiness of your approach not by purity of mind, but by an interval of time, and you count this to be reverence, namely not to approach often, not knowing that to approach unworthily, even if it happen but once, has defiled you;

but to approach worthily, even if often, has saved you.

It is not presumption to approach often, but to approach unworthily, even if one approaches but once in his whole lifetime.

But we are so senselessly and wretchedly disposed that, though we work ten thousand evils throughout the whole year, we take no care to strip those evils off, but suppose it enough not continually to venture and leap up insolently upon the body of Christ, not considering that even those who crucified Christ crucified him but once.

Is the sin, then, any less because it was but once? Judas too betrayed him but once;

what then? Did that deliver him? Why then do we measure the matter by time? Let the time of our approach be a clean conscience.

The mystery at Pascha has nothing more than that which is now celebrated;

it is one and the same, the same grace of the Spirit;

you who are initiated know what is meant.

Both on Friday, and on the Sabbath, and on the Lord's Day, and on the day of the martyrs, the same sacrifice is accomplished.

'For as often as you eat this bread,' he says, 'or drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death.'

He did not circumscribe the sacrifice by any limit of season.

'How then,' someone says, 'is it at that time called Pascha?' Because at that time Christ suffered for us.

Let no one, then, approach that in one way and this in another;

there is one power, one dignity, one grace, one and the same body; that is not holier than this, nor is this less than that.

And this you also know, seeing nothing more novel except these worldly hangings and the splendid throng.

But those days have this something more, that from them our day of salvation took its beginning, that on it Christ was sacrificed; yet as regards the mysteries they have no precedence whatever.

And when you set about material food, you wash your hands, you rinse your mouth;

yet when you are about to approach spiritual food, do you not wash your soul, but come laden with uncleanness? 'And what of it?' someone says; 'do not the fasts of the forty days suffice to cleanse away the great heap of sins?' And what is the profit, tell me? If someone, wishing to lay up ointment, should cleanse the place, and then a little after putting it in should heap dung upon it also, does not the fragrance fly away? This very thing happens to us also;

we became worthy when we approached according to our ability;

then again we defile ourselves.

What then is the gain? This we say also concerning those who are able to wash themselves clean in the forty days.

Let us not, I beseech you, neglect our own salvation, lest our labor become in vain.

'For a man,' it says, 'who turns away from his sin, and again goes and does the same things, is like a dog returning to its own vomit.'

If we do thus and thus give heed, we shall be able to be counted worthy of those prizes;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind 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 ages.