帖撒羅尼迦後書講道集 第 1 章

Having said in the former epistle, 'We pray night and day to see you,' and, 'We could not endure it, but were left alone at Athens,' and, 'I sent Timothy,' by all these he makes plain the longing that he had, so as to come to them.

Since, then, he was perhaps not able to go and to supply what was lacking in their faith, for this reason he adds the second epistle, supplying by letters what was wanting from his presence.

That he did not go, one may conjecture from this:

'Now we beseech you concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

For also in the former epistle he said:

that, 'Concerning the times and the seasons you have no need that anything be written to you.'

So that, if he had been present, he would have had no need to write;

but since the question was being deferred, for this reason he adds this epistle, just as also in the epistle to Timothy he says that, 'Some overturn the faith of certain ones, saying that the resurrection has already taken place.'

This they did, in order that the faithful, no longer hoping for anything great or splendid, might give up in the face of their toils.

For since hope was sustaining them and did not allow them to yield to present circumstances, the devil, wishing to cut off, as it were, an anchor, since he could not persuade them that the things to come were false, came by another way; and setting up certain pestilent men, he undertook to deceive those who believed, as though those great and splendid things had already reached their end.

At that time, then, those men said that the resurrection had already taken place;

but now they said that the judgment was at hand, and the coming of Christ, so as both to subject Christ himself to a lie, and, having persuaded them that there is no longer any recompense, nor tribunal and punishment and vengeance for those who have done evil, to make those men bolder and these more downcast;

and what was indeed most grievous of all, some undertook simply to report words, as though these were spoken by Paul, while others even to forge letters as though written by him.

Therefore, walling off against them every avenue of approach, he says:

'Be not troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as though from us.'

'Neither by spirit,' he says, hinting at the false prophets.

'Whence then shall we know?' he says. 'By the addition;'

for on this account he added:

'The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is the token in every epistle;'

'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.'

He does not mean this, that this greeting is the token;

for it is likely that others too would imitate this, but rather that, 'I write the salutation with my own hand;'

just as also now it is among us;

for from the signature the letters of those who send them become recognizable.

He greatly encourages them, worn out as they were by their evils, commending them both from present things and from things to come;

and urging them on from the punishment and from the recompense of the good things prepared for them, he treats the subject more plainly, not revealing the time itself, but making known the sign of the time, the Antichrist.

For a weak soul is then given full assurance, not if it simply hears, but if it learns something more.

And Christ too takes much thought about this, when, seated on the mountain, he discoursed to the disciples with all exactness concerning the consummation.

Why? That those who bring in the antichrists and false Christs might have no room.

And he himself also sets down many signs, one indeed and greatest, saying, when the Gospel shall have been proclaimed in all the nations;

and another, so that they might not be led astray concerning his coming:

'As lightning,' he says, 'it shall come,' not hidden in some corner, but shining everywhere;

it needs no one to announce it, so bright is it, even as neither does the lightning need one to announce it.

And he spoke somewhere also concerning the Antichrist, when he said:

'I have come in the name of my Father, and you received me not;'

'if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.'

And the successive and unspeakable calamities he said were a token of this;

The Thessalonians, then, were at that time perplexed about these things, but to us their perplexity has become useful;

for these things are useful not to them only, but also to us, that we may be delivered from childish fables and old wives' nonsense.

Or have you not, when you were children, often heard certain people saying much both about the name of the Antichrist and about the bending of the knees? For while our minds are still tender, the devil sows these things into them, that the doctrine may grow up together with us, that he may be able to deceive.

Paul, then, discoursing about the Antichrist, would not have passed over these things, if indeed they had been useful.

For he will not come thus, bending the knees, but 'Exalting himself above everything that is called god or an object of worship, so that he sits in the temple of God as god, showing himself forth that he is god.'

For just as the devil fell through mad presumption, so also he who is energized by him is anointed unto the same mad presumption.

Wherefore, I beseech you, let us all be earnest to keep far from this passion, that we may not fall into his same judgment, that we may not become liable to the same punishment, that we may not have fellowship in his same retribution.

'Not a novice,' he says, 'lest, being puffed up, he fall into the judgment of the devil.'

Therefore he that is puffed up incurs the same penalty as the devil.

'For the beginning of pride,' he says, 'is not to know the Lord;'

the beginning of sin is pride, the first impulse and movement toward evil;

and perhaps, then, also its root and foundation.

For 'the beginning' signifies either the first impulse toward evil, or the constitution and framework;

as one might say, the beginning of chastity is to abstain from unseemly sights, that is, the first impulse;

but if we say, the beginning of chastity is fasting, that is, the foundation and system.

So too, presumption is the beginning of sin;

for from it every sin begins, and by it it is held together.

For that wickedness does not allow whatever good things we do to remain and not to fall away, but is, as it were, a root which does not permit them to stand unshaken, is plain from this:

behold how much the Pharisee wrought, yet nothing profited him;

for he did not cut out the root, but it ruined all.

From presumption arise contempt of the poor, greed for money, lust for rule, longing for glory;

such a one is vindictive toward any insult.

For he that is presumptuous does not endure to be insulted even by his superiors, still less by his inferiors;

and he that does not endure to be insulted, neither endures to suffer any ill.

See how pride is the beginning of sin.

But how is not knowing the Lord the beginning of pride? Reasonably so;

for he that knows God as one ought to know, he that knows that the Son of God so greatly humbled himself, is not lifted up;

but he that knows not these things is lifted up;

for pride anoints a man toward presumption.

For tell me, whence do these who war against the Church claim to know God? Is it not from presumption? Behold into what a precipice not knowing the Lord casts a man.

For if God loves a contrite spirit, then on the contrary he sets himself against the proud, and gives grace to the humble.

Nothing, then, is equal to pride as an evil;

it turns a man into a demon: insolent, blasphemous, a perjurer; it makes him crave deaths and murders.

The proud man forever dwells with sorrows, forever chafes, forever is distraught;

there is nothing that can satisfy his passion;

even should he see the emperor bowing down and doing him homage, he is not satisfied, but rather is the more inflamed.

For just as the lovers of money, however much they receive, need still more,

so also those who are out of their senses, however much honour they enjoy, desire the more,

for their passion grows (for it is a passion), and passion knows no limit, but ceases only then, when it slays the one who possesses it.

Do you not see the drunkards, that they are ever thirsty? For it is a passion, not a desire of nature, but a kind of distorted sickness.

Do you not see those whom they call afflicted with bulimia, that they are ever hungry? For it is a passion, as the sons of physicians say, having already passed beyond the bounds of nature.

So also the busybodies and the meddlesome: however much they learn, they do not stop;

for it is a passion, and it has no limit.

Again, those who delight in fornication, neither do they themselves stop ('For to a fornicating man,' it says, 'all bread is sweet;

he will not cease until he is consumed').

But these are passions, yet not incurable, but such as admit of healing, and much more so than the bodily ones;

for if we are willing, we are able to quench them.

How then is it possible to quench arrogance? By coming to know God.

For if it arises from not knowing God, then if we come to know Him, all arrogance is driven away.

Consider hell, consider those who are far better than yourself, consider how great a reckoning you owe to God;

if you consider these things, quickly will you have curbed your mind, quickly bent it low.

But can you not do these things? Are you too weak? Then consider the things present, human nature itself, how man is nothing.

When you see a corpse borne through the marketplace, orphaned children following, a widowed woman beating her breast, household servants lamenting, friends downcast, reckon the nothingness of things present, and that they differ nothing from a shadow and dreams.

But will you not do this? Then consider those who are exceedingly rich, those who perish in wars for no cause at all;

look round upon the houses of the great and illustrious, now brought down to the ground;

consider how great was their power, and now not even the memory of them is left.

For each day, if you wish, you find examples of these things:

successions of rulers, confiscations of the wealthy.

Many tyrants have sat upon the ground, while the man least expected has worn the diadem.

Do not these things happen every day? Do not our affairs resemble some wheel? Read, if you wish, both our own histories and those of the outsiders (for those too are full of these examples), if out of laziness you despise our own;

if you admire the writings of the philosophers, then go to these as well;

they will teach you, recounting the calamities of old, poets too, and orators, and sophists, and all the chroniclers.

From every side you find the examples, if you wish.

But if you desire none of these things, then reckon up our very nature itself, whence it is composed, and where it ends;

consider, when you sleep, of what worth you are;

shall not even a tiny beast be able to destroy you? For often to many a small living creature, falling from the roof, has either put out an eye or become the cause of some other danger.

What then? Are you not inferior to all the beasts? But what do you say? That you prevail by reason? But behold, you have no reason; for pride is a proof of unreason.

On what, tell me, do you pride yourself? On bodily vigour perhaps? But among the irrational animals belong the prizes of victory.

This belongs also to robbers and murderers and grave-plunderers.

But on understanding? But it is not the mark of understanding to be high-minded;

by this indeed you first deprive yourself of becoming intelligent.

Let us curb our high thoughts, let us become moderate and lowly;

for such persons above all did Christ also pronounce blessed, saying:

'Blessed are the poor in spirit;'

and again He cried out, saying, 'Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'

For this reason He washed the feet of the disciples, giving us an example of humility.

From all these things let us be eager to gain profit, that we may be able to attain the good things promised to those who love Him, by His grace and lovingkindness.