提摩太後書講道集 第 2 章

Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner;

but suffer hardship together with the Gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but has now been made manifest through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Nothing is worse than when a man judges and measures divine matters by human reasonings;

for in this way he will fall far short of that Rock in his measure, and will be deprived of the light.

For if he who wishes to grasp the rays of the sun with human eyes not only will not grasp them nor hold to what is set before him, but will even fall away and suffer countless harm;

much more will he who desires to gaze intently upon that Light through his own reasonings suffer this, and does insult to the gift of God.

Consider then Marcion and Manes and Valentinus, and all those who have brought in the other heresies and their destructive doctrines into the Church of God, how, having measured the things of God by human reasonings, they were put to shame concerning the divine economy.

And yet these things would be worthy not of shame, but of great boasting—I mean the cross of Christ.

For nothing is so great a proof of His love toward man—not the heaven, not the sea, not the earth, not the bringing of all things from non-being into being, not all the other things—as the cross.

Wherefore Paul also boasts in it, saying:

But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But those who are natural-minded and assign nothing more to God than to men, fall down and are put to shame.

For this reason from the outset he exhorted the disciple, saying, and through him to all:

Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

That is, be not ashamed that you preach the Crucified, but rather glory in it.

For in themselves, indeed, death and prisons and bonds are worthy of shame and reproach;

but if one adds the cause and rightly beholds the mystery, he will find both of these to be matters of great boasting and great dignity.

For that death saved the world that was perishing; that death joined heaven to earth; that death overthrew the tyranny of the devil, made men into angels and sons of God;

that death raised up our nature to the royal throne;

these bonds have turned many to conversion.

Be not therefore ashamed, he says, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but suffer hardship together with the Gospel.

That is, even if you yourself suffer these things, be not ashamed.

For that he hinted at this is plain also from what was said above, in his saying, God gave us a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline;

and again from what comes after these words.

But suffer hardship together, he says;

that is, be not merely not ashamed, but be not ashamed even in the actual experience.

And he did not say, Be not afraid nor terrified, but rather encouraging him

he says, Be not ashamed, as if there were henceforth no danger, if one could get the better of shame.

For this alone shame has that is burdensome, to be worsted by it.

Be not therefore ashamed, if I who raise the dead, who work countless signs, who have run through the whole world, am now bound;

for I am not a prisoner as an evildoer, but for the sake of Him who was crucified.

If my Master was not ashamed of the cross, neither am I ashamed of the bonds.

And rightly, in exhorting him not to be ashamed, he first reminded him of the cross.

If you are not ashamed of the cross, he says, neither be ashamed of the bonds;

if our Master and Teacher endured the cross, much more should we endure the bonds.

For he who is ashamed of the things which the Lord Himself endured is thereby ashamed of the Crucified.

For it is not for my own sake, he says, that I bear these bonds.

Suffer therefore nothing that befits mere man, but share in the same things. But suffer hardship together, he says, with the Gospel—not as though the Gospel were suffering, but rousing the disciple to suffer on behalf of the Gospel.

According to the power of God, he says, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.

In another way too, since it was burdensome to say, Suffer hardship, he again comforts him, saying:

that is, do not reckon on your own strength for bearing these things, but on that of God;

for it is yours to choose and to be willing, but God's to lighten and to bring to rest.

Then he also shows the proofs of His power;

Consider how you were saved, how you were called;

just as he says elsewhere, According to the working of His power which works in us.

Thus this was a power greater than making the heaven—to persuade the whole world.

How then was he called, he says, With a holy calling? That is, He made them holy who were sinners and enemies;

and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.

If then He is both able in that He calls, and good in that He does this by grace and not of debt, we ought not to be afraid.

For He who, when we needed to be saved and were even enemies, saved us by grace, when He also sees us working, will He not much more co-operate with us? Not according to our works, he says, but according to His own purpose.

That is, with none compelling, none advising, but of His own purpose, moved from within by His own goodness, He saved us;

for this is the meaning of, According to His own purpose.

And grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.

That is, from all eternity these things were foreordained to come to pass in Christ Jesus.

This too is no small thing, that it was willed from above;

How then is the Son not eternal? For He also willed these things from the beginning.

But has now been made manifest through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the Gospel.

Did you see the power? Did you see the gift, which came not through works, but through the Gospel? For these things belong to hope;

for in His own body both of these have come to pass, but in ours they shall be.

Unto which I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

Why ever does he say this continually, calling himself a teacher of the Gentiles? Because, as I said, he wishes to persuade them that one ought to draw near even to the Gentiles.

Do not therefore fall down at my sufferings;

the sinews of death have been broken down.

It is not as an evildoer that I endure these things, but for the sake of the teaching of the Gentiles.

At the same time he also makes his word worthy of belief.

For which cause, he says, I also suffer these things;

for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit unto that day.

But I am not ashamed, he says.

For tell me, are chains a matter of shame? Are sufferings a matter of shame? Do not, then, be ashamed of them.

Do you see how by his very deeds he demonstrates his teaching? 'These things I suffer,' he says, 'I have been cast into prison, I am driven about.'

'I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that Day.'

What is that which he committed? The faith, the preaching.

'This very thing,' he says, 'He to whom it was committed will keep undiminished.'

'I suffer all things, that the treasure may not be plundered.'

'I am not ashamed of these sufferings, so long as it is kept whole and unimpaired.'

Either he means by 'that which was committed' the faithful whom God entrusted to him, or that which he himself entrusted to God.

'For even now,' he says, 'behold, I commit you to the Lord.'

That is to say, these things will not prove profitless to me.

And Timothy shows me the fruit of that which was committed.

Do you see how, through his hope in his disciples, he does not even feel his own afflictions? Such must the teacher be: thus to care for his disciples, to reckon them as everything.

'Now we live,' he says, 'if you stand fast in the Lord.'

And again: 'For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Lord Jesus Christ?' Do you see him caring for these things, for the affairs of his disciples no less than for his own? For spiritual fathers must surpass the fathers according to nature; they must be more ardent.

But it also befits the children to be affectionately disposed toward them.

'For obey,' he says, 'those who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, knowing that they watch for your souls, as those who must give account.'

For tell me, he himself is liable to so great a peril;

and will you not even be willing to obey him, and that for your own benefit? For even if he orders his own affairs well, so long as your affairs are not well ordered, he is in agony, and renders a twofold account.

Consider how great a thing it is to be examined and to be in anguish over each one of those under his charge.

How great an honor would you set as its price? How great a service to counterbalance these perils? Yet you will name nothing equal to it;

for you have not yet given up your soul, while he lays down his soul for you.

And if he does not lay it down here, when the occasion calls, he loses it yonder;

yet you are not willing to submit even so far as a word.

This is the cause of all evils: that the authority of rulers has been done away with;

there is no reverence, no fear.

'Obey,' he says, 'those who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves;'

but now all things are overthrown and thrown into confusion.

It is not for the sake of the rulers that I say these things;

for what will they gain from the honor we pay them, save this, that they will find you more obedient? Rather, it is for your own benefit.

For these men, even if they be honored, gain nothing for the world to come, but rather their condemnation is the greater;

and if they be insulted, they are not injured as to the world to come, but rather their defense is the greater.

But I desire that all these things be done for your own sakes.

For when rulers are honored by those under them, this too is charged against them, as it was said to Eli: 'I took you out of your father's house;'

but when they are insulted, as in the case of Samuel: 'They have not rejected you,' He says, 'but Me.'

So that insult is gain to them, but honor is a burden.

It is not, therefore, for their sakes that I say these things, but for your own.

He who honors the priest will honor God also;

but he who has learned to despise the priest will, advancing on that road, at some time come to insult God also.

'He who receives you,' He says, 'receives Me;'

and, 'Hold His priests,' He says, 'in honor.'

From this the Jews learned to despise God, because they despised Moses, because they stoned him.

For when a man is reverently disposed toward the priest, much more is he so toward God.

And even if the priest be worthless, God, seeing that on account of the honor due to Himself you pay service even to one unworthy of honor, will Himself render you the recompense.

For if he who receives a prophet, He says, in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward,

so too shall he who honors, and yields, and obeys—namely, the priest.

For if, where there is but a question of hospitality, where you do not know the one you take in, you receive so great a reward;

then when you submit to him whom He also commands you to obey, much more will you receive.

'The scribes and the Pharisees,' He says, 'sit in Moses' seat;'

'all things therefore whatsoever they bid you do, do;'

'but do not according to their works.'

The priest? He is a messenger of the Lord.

For does he speak his own words? If you despise him, it is not him you despise, but God who ordained him.

And whence is it plain, one may ask, that God ordained him? Well then, if you do not hold this conviction, your hope is made void.

For if God works nothing through him, then you have no baptism, nor do you partake of the mysteries, nor enjoy the blessings;

Does God then ordain all, even the unworthy? God does not ordain all, but He Himself works through all, even though they be unworthy, for the salvation of the people.

For if for the people's sake He spoke through an ass, and through Balaam, through a defiled man, much more will He speak through the priest.

For what does God not do for the sake of our salvation? For what does He not utter? Through whom does He not work? If He wrought through Judas, and through those who prophesied, to whom He says, 'I know you not, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity,' and others cast out demons;

much more will He work through the priests.

For if we were to scrutinize the lives of our rulers, we ourselves would become the ordainers of our teachers, and everything would be turned upside down—the feet uppermost and the head below.

'But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day;'

and again, 'Why do you judge your brother?' If we ought not to judge a brother, much less the teacher.

For if God has commanded this, you do well, and you sin in not doing it;

but if the contrary, do not be so bold, nor attempt what lies beyond the appointed bounds.

Against Aaron, after the making of the calf, rose up the company of Korah and Dathan and Abiram;

what then? Did they not perish? Let each one care for his own affairs.

For if he holds a perverted doctrine, then even if he be an angel, do not obey;

but if he teaches what is right, attend not to his life, but to his words.

You have Paul, ordering you both by deeds and by words to what is fitting.

'But he does not give to the poor,' one says, 'nor does he administer well.'

Whence is this plain to you? Before you know, do not blame; fear the reckoning.

Many things are judged on the basis of mere suspicion.

Imitate your Master.

'I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it.'

But if you have learned and examined and seen, wait for the Judge.

Do not seize beforehand upon the office that belongs to Christ.

It is His to examine these matters, not yours.

You are the lowest of servants, not a master.

Do not, then, meddle with the shepherd, lest for the very things of which you accuse him you yourself be called to account.

'And how,' he says, 'does he speak to me, while he himself does not practice it?' It is not he who speaks to you.

If you obey him, you have no reward.

It is Christ who exhorts you to these things.

And what am I saying? One need not obey even Paul, if he says anything of his own, anything merely human; but only the apostle who has Christ speaking within him.

Let us not judge one another's affairs, but let each judge his own.

'But he ought to be better than I,' says he.

And in what does he not have more than you? Is it not in his labors? Is it not in his dangers? Is it not in his struggle? Is it not in his hardship? Having these things, then, how is he not better than you? But if he is not better, ought you, tell me, to destroy yourself on that account? These are words of madness.

For whence do you know that he is not better than you? 'Suppose,' he says, 'that he steals and commits sacrilege.'

Whence do you know it, O man? Why do you cast yourself down the precipices? For if someone should say that so-and-so wears the purple, even though you know it, you stop your ears; and even though you were able to prove it, you spring away at once and pretend not to know, unwilling to take on a needless danger.

But here, you not only do not spring away, but you even take upon yourself a needless danger.

Such words are not free of accountability.

For hear Christ saying: 'But I say to you, that for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment.'

And in general, do you think yourself better than someone, and yet do not groan, nor beat your breast,

nor bow your head down, nor imitate the publican? Then you have destroyed yourself, even if you were better.

Are you better? Be silent, that you may remain better.

But if you speak it out, you have emptied the whole.

If you do not think it, you have added much.

For if the one who was a sinner, because he confessed, went down justified, shall not the one who is not exceedingly a sinner, and is so persuaded of himself, gain much? Examine your own life.

Do you not steal? But you plunder, you use violence, you do countless other such things.

I do not say this in praise of theft—far from it—but rather weeping bitterly, if indeed anyone is such a man.

For how great an evil sacrilege is, one cannot even express.

For I do not wish our own virtue to be emptied out by accusing others.

What is worse than the publican, tell me? It was true that he was a publican, and liable to countless evils.

And merely because the Pharisee said, 'I am not as this publican,' he lost everything.

Do you say concerning the priest, 'I am not as this sacrilegious man,' and not empty out everything? I am compelled to say these things and to pursue this argument, not because I care so much about those men, but because I fear for you, lest you empty out your own virtue through this boasting, through this condemnation.

For hear Paul exhorting and saying:

'But let each one prove his own work, and then he shall have his boast in himself alone, and not in another.'

Tell me, if you came into a physician's surgery with a wound, would you—instead of allowing him to apply a remedy and heal the sore—busy yourself with the physician, whether he himself has a sore or not? And even if he has one, do you concern yourself with it? Or, because he has one, do you leave your own untreated, and say, 'He ought to be healthy, being a physician'?

'Because he is not healthy, though he is a physician, do I too leave my own sore incurable?' For if the priest is wicked, will that be any comfort to the one under him? By no means; rather, he indeed shall pay the appointed penalty,

but you too shall pay what is owed and fitting.

For the teacher, after all, only fulfills an appointed order.

'For they shall all be taught of God,' it says, 'and they shall not say, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.'

'For what reason, then,' he says, 'does he preside?

for what reason has he been set over us?' Let us not, I entreat, speak ill of our teachers, nor scrutinize these matters too closely, lest we bring ourselves into an evil state.

Let us examine our own affairs, and we shall speak ill of no one.

Let us reverence that day on which He enlightened us.

If one has a father, even though he has countless faults, he covers them all over.

'For do not glory,' it says, 'in the dishonor of your father;

for a father's dishonor is no glory to you.'

And if his understanding fails, have forbearance.

But if this is to be said of bodily fathers, much more is it to be said of spiritual fathers.

Reverence him, because every day he ministers to you:

he causes the Scriptures to be read, for your sake he adorns the house, for your sake he keeps vigil, for your sake he prays, for you he stands beseeching God, for your sake he offers supplications; for you is all his ministry.

Reverence these things, ponder these things, and draw near with all godly fear.

Tell me, is he wicked? And what of it? For does the one who is not wicked himself bestow upon you the great good things? By no means.

The whole is worked according to your faith.

Neither will the righteous man profit you anything, if you are not believing, nor will the wicked man harm you anything, if you are believing.

God worked through oxen at the ark, when He willed to save the people.

For does the priest's life, does his virtue, contribute so much? The things which God bestows are not such as to be accomplished by priestly virtue.

It is his part only to open his mouth, but God works the whole.

He fulfills only a symbol.

Consider how great is the distance between John and Jesus.

For hear John saying: 'I have need to be baptized by You,' and, 'I am not worthy to loose the strap of His sandal.'

Yet nevertheless, though the distance was so great, the Spirit also came down—which John did not possess.

'For of His fullness,' it says, 'we all received.'

Yet nevertheless, before He was baptized, it did not come down;

nor indeed did John cause it to come down.

Why then does this happen? That you may learn that the priest fulfills a symbol.

No man is so far distant from another man as John was from Jesus;

yet nevertheless upon Him the Spirit descended, that you may learn that God works the whole, that God does the whole.

I wish to say something paradoxical, but do not marvel or be disturbed.

What then is this? The offering is the same, whether an ordinary man offers it, or Paul, or Peter.

It is the very same offering which Christ gave to His disciples, and which the priests now perform;

this is in no way inferior to that, for this too is not sanctified by men, but by the same One who sanctified that also.

For just as the words which God uttered are the very same as those which the priest also speaks now,

so likewise the offering is the same, and the baptism which He gave.

Thus the whole matter is of Faith.

The Spirit fell at once upon Cornelius, since, having first shown forth what was of his own part, he brought his faith to bear.

This, then, is a body, and so is that;

but he who supposes this to be less than that does not know that Christ is present even now, and even now works among us.

Knowing these things, therefore (for we have not spoken all this without purpose, but that we might set right your understanding and make you more secure for what lies ahead), give great heed to keeping what has been said.

But if we are always hearing yet never doing, the things spoken will be of no benefit to us.

Let us then attend carefully, let us attend to what has been said with diligence, let us write it upon our understanding, let us keep it ever engraved on our conscience, and let us unceasingly send up glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.