哥林多後書講道集 第 25 章

But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am bold also.

See again how he draws back, and employs excuse, and a prior correction;

and yet he has already said many such things;

'Would that you might bear with me a little in my foolishness';

and again, 'Let no one think me foolish';

'but if otherwise, yet even as foolish receive me';

'What I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as it were in foolishness';

'Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast';

and here again, 'But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am bold also.'

He calls it boldness and foolishness to say anything great about oneself, and that too when there is necessity, teaching us superabundantly to flee such a thing.

For if, after doing all things, we must call ourselves unprofitable;

when no cause presses, what pardon would he deserve who exalts himself and vaunts? For this reason too the Pharisee suffered what he suffered, and endured shipwreck in harbor, because he was dashed upon this rock.

For this reason Paul too, though he saw a countless necessity, nevertheless draws back, and continually reminds us that such a thing belongs to foolishness.

And then at last he ventures boldly, putting forward the defense that arises from necessity, and says, 'Are they Hebrews? So am I.'

For it was not the case that all the Hebrews were Israelites;

since the Ammonites and Moabites were this too.

Wherefore he added, purifying his nobility of birth, and says, 'Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.'

'Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as beside myself—I am more.'

He was not content with the former excuse, but from this point again he has employed it;

'I speak as beside myself—I am more.'

'I am superior to them and better.'

And yet he had clear proofs of his superiority;

but nevertheless even so he calls the matter madness.

And indeed, if they were false apostles, he ought not to have introduced his superiority by way of comparison, but to have done away with their being ministers at all.

He did indeed do away with it, saying, 'False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ';

but now he does not do so here;

for the discourse was about to advance to an examination.

And no one, when there is no examination, makes a bare declaration, but having first, by way of comparison, laid down the refutation that comes through the facts, he displays it as being also very solid.

And otherwise, he sets down the opinion of those very men, not his own verdict, saying, 'They are ministers of Christ.'

And having said, 'I am more,' he advances the comparison, and shows how, not by pronouncing a verdict, but by bringing forward the demonstration that comes through the facts, he maintains the character of his apostleship.

And leaving aside all the signs, he begins from the trials, speaking thus:

'In labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure.'

This is greater than that: to be both struck and scourged.

And here again there is an intensification.

'For daily,' he says, 'I die.'

for often I was delivered over into dangers that held death.

'Five times I received from the Jews forty stripes save one.'

Why 'save one'? There was an ancient law that the man who received more than forty stripes should be dishonored in their eyes.

In order therefore that the sweep and rush of the one striking might not, by bringing on more than the number, dishonor the man, they ordained that he be struck one short of it;

that even if the one striking should exceed, he might not fall beyond the forty, but remaining within the appointed number, might not dishonor the one being struck.

'Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck.'

And what has this to do with the Gospel? That he was sent forth on long journeys, and those across the sea.

'A night and a day I have spent in the deep.'

Some say he was in the midst of the open sea, others that he was swimming;

which indeed is the truer thing to say.

But that at least was neither worthy of wonder, nor would he have set it down as something greater than the shipwrecks.

For he was compelled also to ferry across rivers.

'In perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness.'

Everywhere the contests were set before me—in places, in regions, in cities, in wildernesses.

'In perils from the Gentiles, in perils among false brethren.'

For not only did his enemies assail him, but also those who

feigned brotherhood struck at him;

and this required great vigor and great sagacity.

Perils succeeded toils, and toils perils, one upon another and unremitting, and did not allow him even a little while to draw breath.

'In journeyings often, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, besides the things that are without.'

The things passed over in silence were more than those enumerated;

or rather, not even those very things which he enumerated can be told, how great they were.

For he did not set them down in detail, but of those whose number was easy to grasp and small, he made mention, saying 'thrice' and 'thrice' and 'once';

but of the rest he no longer did so, because he had endured them many times over.

And he does not speak of the good works accomplished through them—as, for instance, how many he converted—but only of what he suffered for the sake of the preaching;

at once showing moderation, and at once showing that even if nothing comes of it, there is still something more for him who toils;

for thus is the reward made full.

'That which presseth upon me daily.'

The tumults, the disturbances, the sieges of the populace, and the onsets of the cities.

For against this above all things did the Jews wage war, since it above all confounded them and was the greatest refutation of their madness—that he should have suddenly gone over to the other side.

And great was the war that breathed against him, from his own people, from strangers, from those who played the hypocrite;

and everywhere waves and precipices, in the inhabited world, in the desolate places, on land, on sea, from without, from within.

And he had not even the necessary food in abundance, nor a bare covering, but the champion of the inhabited world contended naked, and did his boxing while famished;

so far was he from acquiring wealth.

And he was not displeased, but gave thanks for these things to the Steward of the contest.

'The care of all the churches.'

This is the sum of all: that his very soul was torn apart, and his mind was cut in pieces.

For even if nothing had assailed him from without, the war within was sufficient—the successive waves, the snowstorms of anxieties, the war of thoughts.

For if one who provides for a single household, having servants and stewards and managers, often cannot even breathe for anxiety, though there be nothing to trouble him;

then this man, who had the care not of one household, but of cities and populaces and nations and of the whole inhabited world, and that over matters so great, and with so many who assailed him, and being alone, and suffering so much, and caring as not even a father does for his children—consider what he endured.

For lest you should say, 'What of it, if he was anxious, but anxious only in a general way?'—he added also the intensity of his concern, saying, 'Who is weak, and I am not weak?' He did not say, 'I do not share in the despondency';

but rather, 'as though I myself were in the very suffering, as though I myself were in the very sickness, so am I troubled and disturbed.'

'Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?' See again the excess of his grief, how it is present in the very naming of the burning.

'I am set on fire, I am consumed,' he says.

For those other things, even if they were severe, yet they pass swiftly by, and had a pleasure that did not wither;

but this was what afflicted and straitened him, and pierced through his mind—to suffer such things over each one of the weak, whoever he might be.

For he did not grieve over the greater ones while despising the lesser, but even the outcast he reckoned among things of necessity.

Wherefore also he said, 'Who is weak?'—showing that whoever he might be;

and as if he himself were the Church throughout the inhabited world, so he grieved over each single member.

'If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things that concern my weakness.'

Do you see that nowhere does he glory in signs, but in his persecutions and trials? 'For this,' he says, 'is a matter of weakness.'

And he shows the war to be many-sided.

For the Jews warred against him, and the Gentiles set themselves against him, and the false brethren did their boxing against him, and the brethren grieved him by being weak and being made to stumble;

from every side there was tumult and disturbance to him, from his own people, from strangers.

This is the apostolic character;

through these things the Gospel is woven.

'The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knoweth that I lie not.'

'The governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, desiring to apprehend me.'

Why does he give assurance of this, when he did so of none of the former things? Because perhaps this was more ancient and more obscure;

but those things were well known even to them—the care of the churches, and all the rest.

Consider then how great the war was, if indeed on his account he guarded the city.

And when I speak of the war, I mean the zeal of Paul;

for had he not breathed vehemently, he would not have kindled the governor to so great a madness.

These are the marks of an apostolic soul: to suffer so much and nowhere to be overturned, but to bear nobly the things that befall, and neither to rush headlong into dangers nor to leap upon them.

See then here how he consented to escape the siege, being let down through a window in a basket.

For even though he longed for his departure hence, yet nevertheless he also loved the salvation of men.

Wherefore he often contrived even such things as these, preserving himself for the preaching;

and he did not refuse even to make use of human devices, when the occasion demanded;

so watchful and wakeful was he.

For where the evils were inescapable, there was need of grace alone;

but where the trial was measured, he devised many things even of his own;

and here again reckoning the whole to God.

And just as some spark of unquenchable fire, falling into the sea, though many waves come over it is submerged, yet rises up again bright;

even so also the blessed Paul: now he was overwhelmed as he stood in danger, now, slipping through them, he came up more radiant, prevailing by suffering ill.

For this is the splendid victory, this the trophy of the Church—thus is the devil struck down, when we suffer ill.

For when we suffer, he is taken captive and suffers ill, at the very time when he wishes to make us suffer.

Which very thing also came to pass in the case of Paul.

And the greater the dangers he brought upon him, the more thoroughly he was himself defeated.

For it was not one kind of temptation that he devised against him, but manifold and various.

For some brought toil, some despondency, some fear, some anguish, some anxiety, some shame, and some all of these together;

yet nevertheless in all of them he prevailed.

And just as though a single soldier, having the whole world at war against him, should move about in the very midst of the enemy's battalions and yet suffer no harm,

so also Paul, appearing alone among barbarians, among Greeks, everywhere on land, everywhere on sea, remained unconquered.

And just as a spark, falling upon stubble and grass, transforms whatever it burns into its own nature,

so this man too, coming upon all men, transferred them all to the truth, sweeping over everything like a winter torrent and overturning every obstacle.

And just as some athlete, himself wrestling, running, and boxing, or a soldier fighting at the walls, on foot, and at sea,

so he engaged in every kind of combat, and breathed fire, and was unapproachable by all;

with one body taking possession of the whole world, with one tongue turning all men about.

Not so did the many trumpets fall upon the stones of the city of the Jerichoites and cast them down, as this man's resounding voice threw to the ground the strongholds of the devil and drew his adversaries over to himself.

And when he had gathered a multitude of captives, he armed these very ones and made them once more his own army, and through them prevailed marvelously.

David brought down Goliath with but a single stone;

but if you examine Paul's achievements, that deed will seem the work of a child, and by as much as a shepherd differs from a general, by so much will you see the difference to be.

For this man did not bring down Goliath by hurling a stone, but by merely speaking dissolved the whole phalanx of the devil;

and like a roaring lion, sending forth flame from his tongue, so was he unbearable to all, and everywhere he leaped about continually: he ran upon these, he came upon those, he passed over to these, he darted away to others, advancing swifter than the wind; and as though steering one house, or one ship — the whole world — he drew up those who were sinking, he steadied those who reeled with dizziness, he gave orders to the sailors, sitting at the necks, surveying the prow, tightening the ropes, handling the oar, hoisting the mast, looking toward heaven, being all things himself — sailor and helmsman and prow-officer and sail and ship — and suffering all things, that he might loose the evils of others.

He submitted to shipwreck, that he might put an end to the shipwreck of the world;

he spent a night and a day in the deep, that he might draw men up out of the deep of error;

he was in toil, that he might give rest to those who toiled;

he endured blows, that he might heal those stricken by the devil;

he spent time in prisons, that he might lead into the light those sitting in prison and in darkness;

he was in deaths oftentimes, that he might deliver men from grievous deaths;

five times he received forty stripes save one, that he might set free from the devil's scourge those very men who inflicted these things;

he was beaten with rods, that he might bring men under the rod and staff of Christ;

he was stoned, that he might deliver men from senseless stones;

he was in the wilderness, that he might rescue men from the wilderness;

he was on journeys, that he might halt the wandering and open the road that leads to heaven;

he was in perils in cities, that he might point men to the city above;

he was in hunger and thirst, that he might take away the more grievous hunger;

he was in nakedness, that he might clothe those in disgrace with the robe of Christ;

he was in the pressing of a crowd, that he might lead men away from the encirclement of demons;

he was set on fire, that he might quench the fiery darts of the devil;

through a window he was let down from a wall, that he might send up from below to above those who had been cast to the ground.

Shall we then still murmur, when we do not even know what Paul suffered? Shall we still speak of riches? Shall we still speak of wife and city and freedom, when we have seen him despising life itself ten thousand times over? The martyr dies but once;

but that blessed man, with one body and one soul, endured so many dangers as would have been enough to shake even a soul of adamant;

and whatever all the saints suffered in so many bodies, all these things he alone bore in one;

and as though he had entered the world as an arena, and had stripped for the contest against all, so he stood nobly.

For indeed he knew that it was demons who were boxing against him.

Wherefore also from the very outset he at once appeared illustrious;

from the very starting-line and all the way to the end he remained the same;

nay rather, he even intensified the pursuit as he drew near to the prize.

And what is truly wonderful is that, though suffering and doing so much, he knew how to be exceedingly modest.

For indeed, when he fell into the necessity of recounting his own achievements, he quickly passed over them all;

and yet he would have filled countless books, had he been willing to unfold each of the things mentioned in detail — had he told of the churches for which he was anxious, of the prisons and the deeds accomplished in them, of the daily circumstances and assaults of the rest.

Knowing these things, then, let us also learn to be modest, and never to boast in wealth, nor in the other things of this life, but in the reproaches endured for Christ's sake — and in these too only when necessity arises;

so that, if there be no pressing need, we should not even make mention of these things, lest we be lifted up, but only of our sins.

For thus we shall easily be rid of them, and shall have God gracious to us, and shall attain to the life to come;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.