Homilies on Second Corinthians 16

'Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort;

and beyond this we rejoiced yet more exceedingly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.'

See again how he heightens their praises, and shows forth their love.

For having said that 'I was gladdened that the letter accomplished so much,' and that 'You gained so much;'

'For I rejoice,' he says, 'not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved unto repentance;'

and having shown his love;

for he says, 'Even though I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him who did the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered the wrong, but for the sake of making manifest our earnest care for you in the sight of you;'

he mentions again another sign of their goodwill, which brings them much praise and shows the genuineness of their love;

'For over your comfort,' he says, 'we rejoiced yet more exceedingly over the joy of Titus.'

And yet this is not the mark of one who loves ardently—to rejoice more over him than over them.

For it was not so much on his account as on yours that I was gladdened.

For this reason he adds the cause also, saying, 'Because his inward affections have been refreshed by you all.'

He did not say, 'He himself,' but, 'His inward affections;'

that is, his love which is towards you.

And how has it been refreshed? 'By all.'

For indeed this too is a very great praise.

'Because if I have boasted anything to him on your behalf.'

Great is the praise, when the teacher boasts;

for he says, 'I was not put to shame.'

'For this reason I rejoiced, that you appeared better, and through your deeds you proved my words true.'

So that the credit is double to me: both that you gave increase, and that I was not found falling away from the truth.

'But as we always spoke to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus has proved to be truth.'

Here he hints at yet another thing;

namely, that just as among you we uttered all things with truth;

for it is likely that he had also spoken to them many praises concerning this;

so also the things spoken by us to Titus concerning you have proved true.

'And his inward affections are more abundantly toward you.'

This, for the rest, is the mark of one commending that man, as being exceedingly enkindled and bound together with them.

And he did not say, 'His love,' but, 'His inward affections.'

Then, lest he should seem to flatter, everywhere he sets down the causes of the affection, so that, as I said, he may both escape flattery and rather spur those men on, turning the praise round upon them, and showing that it was they who furnished him with the beginning and the ground of so great a love.

For having said, 'His inward affections are more abundantly toward you,' he added;

'While he calls to mind the obedience of you all.'

And this shows Titus too to be grateful toward his benefactors, seeing that, having taken them into his soul, he returned bearing them all with him, and continually remembers them, and has them upon his lips and in his mind.

And again he adorns the Corinthians the more, in that, having so won him over, they sent him forth.

Then he speaks also of their obedience, intensifying their earnestness;

wherefore he adds these words, 'How with fear and trembling you received him.'

Not with love alone, but also with heightened honour.

Do you see how he bears witness to a double virtue in them, both that they loved him as a father and feared him as a ruler, neither dimming their love because of fear, nor relaxing their fear because of love? This too he said earlier: 'For your being grieved after a godly sort, how much earnestness it wrought in you, nay, what fear, what longing!' 'I rejoice therefore, that in everything I am of good courage concerning you.'

Do you see that he rejoices rather on their account? 'Because nowhere did you put your teacher to shame,' he says, 'nor do you appear unworthy of my testimony.'

So that it was not so much on Titus's account that he rejoiced, because he enjoyed so great honour, as on their account, because they displayed such gratitude.

For lest he should be thought to rejoice rather on that man's account, see how here too he sets down the cause.

As therefore above he said, 'Because if I have boasted anything to him on your behalf, I was not put to shame;'

so also here, 'Because in everything I am of good courage concerning you.'

'Even if I should have to rebuke, I do not fear that you will break away; even if to boast, I do not

fear being convicted; even if to praise you as compliant, or as loving, or as having zeal, I am of good courage concerning you.'

'I said cut off, and you cut off;

I said receive, and you received;

I said that you are great and admirable men in the matter of Titus, and men who know how to reverence teachers;

and you proved these things true through your deeds.'

And he did not so much learn these things from me as from you.

At any rate he returned having become an ardent lover of you, since you displayed things beyond my words.

'Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the Churches of Macedonia.'

Having lifted them up with his praises, he again lets down an exhortation.

For it was for this reason that he mingled the praises with the rebuke, so that, descending from rebuke to exhortation, he might not make his discourse hard to receive, but, having smoothed their hearing, might thus prepare the way for the exhortation.

For he wishes to discourse concerning almsgiving;

wherefore also, taking it up beforehand, he said, 'I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you.'

By what they had already accomplished he also makes them more eager for this present task.

And he did not say at once, 'Give alms, then';

but observe his prudence—how from afar off and from on high he first prepares the way for his discourse.

'For we make known to you, brethren,' he says, 'the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia.'

For lest they be lifted up, he calls the matter a grace; and while recounting the deeds of others, by the praises given to others he makes these men more zealous.

And he composes two praises for the Macedonians, or rather even three:

both that they bear trials nobly, and that they know how to show mercy, and that, being poor, they displayed liberality in almsgiving;

for their possessions had even been plundered.

And making this plain he said, when he wrote to them:

'For you, brethren,' he says, 'became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea, because you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews.'

Hear what afterward he said in writing to the Hebrews:

'For you accepted with joy the plundering of your possessions.'

And he calls the matter a grace, not only to restrain them, but also to draw them on, and to render his word free from all envy.

Wherefore he also added the name of 'brethren,' so as to cut off all ill-will;

for he is about to praise them beyond measure.

For having said, 'We make known to you the grace of God,' he did not say, 'which was given in this or that city,' but he praises the whole nation, saying, 'in the churches of Macedonia.'

Then he also describes that very grace.

'That in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy...'

Do you see his prudence? For he first states that other point, not what he intends, but something else before it, so that he might not seem to do this on purpose, but to come to it by a chain of reasoning from another matter;

which also, when writing to the Macedonians themselves, he said: 'You became imitators of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit';

and again, 'From you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone abroad.'

But what is the meaning of, 'In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy'? Both things, he says, happened to them beyond measure—both the affliction and the joy.

Wherefore also it was a great marvel, that so great an abundance of gladness sprang up for them out of affliction.

For indeed the affliction not only did not beget sorrow, but even became for them an occasion of joy, and that though it was great.

And this he said in order to anoint them to be noble and unshaken in their trials.

For they were not simply afflicted, but so afflicted as even to become approved through their endurance;

or rather he does not say 'through endurance,' but that which was more than endurance—joy.

And he does not say merely 'joy,' but 'abundance of joy';

for it sprang up in them great and unspeakable.

'And their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.'

Again both these things beyond measure.

For just as their great affliction begot great joy, and an abundance of joy,

so their great want begot a great wealth of almsgiving.

when he said, 'It abounded unto the riches of their liberality.'

For it is not by the measure of what is given, but by the mind of those who bestow, that munificence is judged.

Wherefore nowhere does he speak of the riches of what was given, but 'the riches of their liberality.'

And what he means is this:

Not only did poverty not hinder them from bounty, but it even became an occasion for their abounding, just as the affliction became an occasion for their rejoicing.

For the poorer they were, the more they showed themselves munificent, and gave with greater readiness.

Wherefore also he greatly marvels at them, that out of such great poverty they displayed such great munificence.

For their deep poverty—that is, their great and unspeakable poverty—showed forth their liberality.

But he did not say 'showed,' but 'abounded';

and he did not say 'liberality,' but 'riches of liberality'—that is, a counterweight to the greatness of their poverty;

or rather, they displayed a far greater mass of bounty.

Then he also interprets this more plainly, saying:

'That according to their power I bear witness (a trustworthy witness), and beyond their power';

that is, 'It abounded unto the riches of their liberality.'

But indeed not by this alone, but also by all that follows, he makes it plain;

Behold a third and a fourth point.

Both being in affliction, and in poverty.

And a seventh, that they gave even beyond measure.

Then, since this is what he especially wishes to establish among the Corinthians—that they give of their own free choice—upon this above all he dwells, saying, 'With much entreaty,' and, 'Beseeching us.'

It was not we who besought them, but they who besought us.

Beseeching us for what? For the grace, and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

Do you see how again he exalts the matter, calling it by honorable names? For since they were zealous for spiritual gifts, he names it a 'grace,' that they might hasten to it;

and again 'fellowship,' that they might learn that they receive, and do not merely give.

'This, then, was what they besought of us,' he says, 'namely, that we should undertake such a ministry.'

This he says both with respect to the amount, and with respect to their afflictions.

'For we should never have hoped,' he says, 'that, being in so great affliction and poverty, they would even have pressed us so urgently, and made so many entreaties.'

And he made plain their carefulness in the rest of their life as well, saying:

'But they first gave themselves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.'

For in all things they obeyed more than we expected;

nor, because they showed mercy, did they neglect the other virtues, but they first gave themselves to the Lord.

What is the meaning of, 'They gave themselves to the Lord'? They dedicated themselves; they were shown to be approved in the faith; they displayed great courage in their trials, orderliness, forbearance, love, and readiness and zeal in all other good things.

What is the meaning of, 'And to us'? They became obedient to us; they loved us, they obeyed—both fulfilling the laws of God, and being bound together with us through love.

Observe how here also he shows the intensity, saying:

They did not obey God in some things, and the world in others, but in all things obeyed Him, and gave their whole selves to God.

For neither, because they showed mercy, were they puffed up;

but having displayed great humility, great obedience, great honor, great heavenly-mindedness, thus also they wrought their almsgiving.

And what is the meaning of, 'By the will of God'? Since he had said, 'They gave themselves to us,' lest even this seem to be in a merely human way, they did this too according to the mind of God.

So that we exhorted Titus, that as he had begun before, so also he would complete in you this grace as well.

And what kind of sequence is this? A close and very apt one, connected with what went before.

For since we saw them, he says, vehement and fervent in all things—in trials, in almsgiving, in their love toward us, and in the remaining purity of their life—

that you also might be made equal to them, we sent Titus.

But he did not say it in this way; yet this is what he made plain.

For being urged and entreated by those Macedonians, he says, we were anxious about your affairs, lest somehow with respect to them you should fall short.

Wherefore we also sent Titus, that from this too, being stirred up and reminded, you might emulate the Macedonians.

For Titus happened to be there when this epistle was being written.

And he shows that Titus had even taken the lead in this matter before Paul's exhortation:

'That as he had begun before,' he says.

Wherefore he also speaks great praises of him—at the outset indeed, saying, 'Because I found not Titus my brother, I had no rest in my spirit';

and from this point all those things which he has said, and this very thing too.

For this too is no small praise, that he had even begun beforehand;

for this belongs to a fervent and boiling soul.

Wherefore he also sent him, thereby instilling in them the strongest incitement to give—namely, the presence of Titus.

For this reason he also exalts him with praises, wishing to endear the man more vehemently to the Corinthians.

For this too is a great help toward persuading—that he who gives counsel should be intimately disposed toward them.

And well does he, having mentioned the almsgiving once and twice and thrice, call the matter 'grace': now saying, 'Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the Churches of Macedonia';

and now, 'Of their own accord, with much entreaty beseeching us for the grace and the fellowship';

and again, 'That as he had begun before, so also he would complete toward you this grace as well.'

For this is a great good and a gift of God, and when rightly practiced it makes us, so far as we are able, like to God Himself;

for this most of all is what makes a man.

At any rate, one declaring the proof of a man set this down:

'For a great thing,' he says, 'is a man, and precious is a merciful person.'

This grace is greater than to raise the dead.

For than raising those who have died in the name of Jesus, far greater is it to feed Christ when He hungers;

for here you confer a benefit on Christ, but there He confers it on you.

And the reward lies in doing good, not in receiving good.

For here—I mean in the case of the signs—you yourself are debtor to God;

but in the case of almsgiving, you have God as your debtor.

And it is almsgiving when it is done with readiness, when with bountifulness, when you do not consider yourself to be giving but rather receiving, when you act as one being benefited, as one gaining and not losing;

for one ought to rejoice, not to be vexed, at showing mercy to another.

For how is it not absurd, if, while loosing another's despondency, you yourself should become despondent? For then you no longer allow it to remain almsgiving.

For if you are despondent because you have delivered another from despondency, you display a token of the utmost cruelty and inhumanity;

for it is better not to deliver at all than to deliver in this way.

But why are you altogether despondent, O man? Lest your gold should become less to you? Altogether, if you have such a disposition, do not even give;

if you are not confident that it is multiplied for you in the heavens, do not give.

But here you seek the recompense.

Why so? Let almsgiving be almsgiving and not a business transaction.

Now many indeed have received back even here, yet they did not so receive as thereby to have more than those who did not receive here; but some of these, as being weaker, received it because they were not strongly drawn to the things there.

And just as the greedy and vulgar and slaves of the belly, when invited to a royal table, not awaiting the fitting moment, like little children spoil their own enjoyment by anticipating it and filling themselves with inferior foods;

so indeed do these men too, who here seek after and receive their reward, diminish the reward that is there.

Then, when you lend, you desire to receive back your capital after a longer time—or perhaps not even to receive it back, so that by the delay you may make the interest greater;

but here you demand it back at once, and that too when you are not going to be here but there perpetually, when you are not to be judged here but to render your accounts there? And if someone were building houses for you where you were not going to remain, you would have counted the thing a loss;

yet now you wish to grow rich here, whence you must often depart even before evening? Do you not know that we sojourn in a foreign land, like strangers and pilgrims? Do you not know that it belongs to sojourners to be cast out when they do not expect it nor hope for it? Which is exactly what we too suffer.

For this very reason, whatever we may build up—

for the Master does not permit us to take these things and depart, whether we build houses, or buy fields, or slaves, or vessels, or anything else of this kind.

And not only does He not allow us to take from here and depart, but neither does He reckon the reward to you;

for He told you beforehand that you should not build nor spend on what belongs to others, but on what is your own. Why then, forsaking your own, do you labor and spend on what belongs to others, so as to lose both your toil and your reward, and to endure the utmost punishment? Do not so, I beseech you;

but since by nature we are sojourners, let us become such also by our choice, that we may not become there sojourners and dishonored and cast out.

For if we wish to become citizens here, we shall be neither here nor there;

but if we remain as sojourners, and so pass our life as it befits sojourners to live, we shall receive the boldness of citizens both here and there.

For the righteous man, even having nothing, will here abide among all men's goods as among his own, and having departed to heaven will behold his eternal tabernacles;

and here he will suffer none of the unpleasant things;

for no one will be able to make him a stranger, seeing that he has the whole earth for his city;

and having received back his own homeland, he will obtain the true riches.

In order, then, that we may gain both—the things here and the things there—let us use what we have for what is needful.

For thus shall we be citizens of the heavens, and shall enjoy much boldness;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness [of our Lord Jesus Christ], and so forth.