約翰福音註釋 第 1 章 第 75/94 段

For the physicians, by the applications of their art, hold in check the ill disposition of the diseases that will at times arise in bodies;

but He blocks the forward advance of evils, walling up beforehand the soul of each man, as it were, with certain preventive commandments.

Since, then, the disciples were destined to preside not over one nation perhaps, nor even over one single country, but rather to have charge of the whole world under the sun, and to proclaim to those throughout all the inhabited earth the divine word of the Gospel, and to turn their hearers toward that which is pleasing to God alone, and to transfer them from sin to the willing of what is fitting for them, and to make the Law—I mean the Gospel Law—the rule of their own life: He of necessity commands them to count as nothing being hated by the world, that is, by those who are minded toward the things in the world and who have chosen to live in pleasure-loving and ungodly fashion.

And what, again, might be the reason of this? For, tell me, someone might perhaps say: did Christ judge it right to command such things to His own disciples, showing that being hated is some profitable thing, indiscriminately and for no one of the things necessary for benefit? Away with such ignorance!

For His word would never have slipped down into such a thing.

But that the Saviour's commandment will bring no small benefit to those who introduce the noblest things, anyone might see quite easily, if he would look into the nature of the matters.

For it is somehow always dear, or rather generally a matter of eager zeal, to the lovers of the basest things and to those who have come to the extreme of worldly foulness, to thrust aside the word that would make them sober-minded, as being burdensome and strange, but to attack those who are zealous to introduce the best of teachings and the things by which they might become better than they were before—having entrusted the mastery to their own pleasures alone.

But indeed something of the necessary points nearly slipped past me and got away, though it is exceedingly fitting and owed to the contemplation of the things before us.

Having settled their own mind for a while against correction, they made no account whatever of the instruction of the Gospel, and thought that they ought to regard the ambassadors as more burdensome than their bitterest enemies;

while others, pursuing the other error and attributing the ineffable glory of God to the creation—I mean those of the Gentiles—did not very gladly receive the word that knew how to make them radiant.

For, having become as it were melted into their ancient evils, they cherished their ignorance most dearly, and were in the highest degree most reluctant to depart from a disease that had grown up with them.

Since, then, the nature of things being thus, who would any longer doubt that the disciples of the Saviour were bound to become hateful to the Jews and spat upon by those sick with the error of the Greeks;

and least of all pleasing—or rather most burdensome—to those who had chosen to be pleasure-lovers and who honoured a dissolute life amid luxuries? But if the disciples of the Saviour were, on the one hand, to count as burdensome being hated by any of those already enumerated, and were rather pressed to be zealous and to hunt out of place even the love that comes from those sick with such things—how is it not most manifest to all that they would not have become renowned, if they set before no one at all the word that has power to profit, but rather gave over their minds to elegant flatteries, and drew in the reproof that comes from boldness according to God, while speaking and introducing to each rather what is pleasant to him? Necessary, therefore, is the exhortation not to seek to be exceedingly loved, but to count as nothing even the going through hatred with certain people, so long as the profit that comes from admonition may be theirs.

This very thing we shall see that Paul both did and plainly said: 'For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.' And again, having rebuked one of those in Corinth, and having learned that this man was intolerably and exceedingly grieved beyond endurance, he says: 'For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad, but the same who is made sorry by me? For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of.' It will therefore in no way be disputable that the word which aims at what is pleasant to the hearers will flatter the world rather than benefit it, and does not set forth the counsel of what is expedient;

but he who is persuaded by the words of the Saviour will not champion this;

how could he? For he will rather choose to please Him, and will count as spiritual wealth even being hated henceforth by those who have chosen to regard virtue as their bitterest enemy.

'Whenever, then,' He says, 'being hated by the world is seen at times to be stirred up so as to work against your good reputation,'

let it be conquered, and let this hindrance be cast off, by not being too pleased with the honours of those who love him, unless they will endure the word that is by nature able to profit;

and let being hated in no way be seen as burdensome, since I have first suffered this myself.

And I am plainly Lord and Teacher.

But that it is to the ruin of their own head that those who have chosen to be minded toward the things in the world, and who have despised the heavenly goods, have hated even Christ Himself, I think it is no task to show.

For He Himself said in the Gospels to certain persons: 'The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil.' Setting therefore before the holy apostles His own case, in this again, He bids them track out the way that follows upon these things, when also He said expressly elsewhere: 'Blessed are ye when they persecute you, and reproach you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake;

rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in the heavens;

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.' 'If ye were of the world, the world would love its own;

but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.'

By His art He makes light even of that which is most burdensome of all, and turns into unexpected gladness that at which it was likely one would be not moderately vexed.

For being hated by certain people is indeed truly, on account of the harm and unlooked-for plots that at times peep out from it, a thing to grieve at; yet this too is sweet for God's sake, and whenever it comes about for the sake of godliness, it brings the clearest proof that the one on account of whom it is done by any persons is not worldly.

For just as of bodies, so also, I think, we shall find of dispositions there are kinships, and the sameness of habits and the likeness in each and every respect is able to run under and approach a blood-relationship;

for 'Every living creature loveth its like,' according to what is written, 'and a man shall cleave unto his like'; and, since likeness of character plainly renews the law of love toward one another, the holy man will dwell together with the holy, and will most gladly be in the same place and consort kindly together;

but such a one is again at war with the man who is profane in his manner of life.

This is why the Law also, given through Moses, made a distinction between—I mean—the holy and the profane, keeping such things somehow unmingled and unconfused with one another, at least according to the principle that is in love;

for 'evil communications corrupt good manners,' and things that have chosen to be of different character are somehow at war with one another, and things that are divided by wills that look in the opposite direction all but even accuse one another, since each admires his own pursuit.

It is necessary, then, that the lover of virtue be hated, since by those very things for which he is admired he convicts baseness and, by the contrast of his own manners, bleaches out the shame that is in the wicked;

for when the good is displayed side by side, there is somehow great necessity that the base should appear unseemly.

For this cause, I think, those who have not been zealous for the same manner of life as they are raging against the lovers of virtue.

He therefore does not permit the disciples to be grieved, even if they see themselves hated by the world on account of their love of virtue and their godliness toward Him, but rather counsels them that they ought to rejoice from the opposite considerations, receiving as proof that they will be radiant in God's sight and worthy of every account, the very fact of being hated by the world.

For see how He showed to be perilous that which it was likely one would perhaps choose—namely, not enduring to suffer hardship.

For being hated by certain people was surely, altogether, not entirely without loss;

yet it does not have its excuse free from blame before God, and there is a very great gain in rather willing to suffer it.

For if he who is hated by those who are minded toward the things in the world is reckoned as being outside the world, then it is necessary henceforth to understand that the one who is not hated is bound together with the evils of the world.

What, then, did Christ dispense through these things? That they should make their word with boldness, and, not out of shame toward certain of those who have sinned—or rather who have chosen to disobey the divine proclamation—hinder the word that persuades to sobriety, and leave their hearers without benefit; but that, riding past even the harms that will often result from being hated, they should employ counsel keenly and unreservedly, in no way suspecting anything at all, or rather reckoning nothing more important than the necessity of pleasing God.

And this indeed Paul also, achieving it excellently, writes thus: 'For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.' For it is not—it is not—possible to please the wicked and God;

for how could both go together in the same direction, when the willing in each is divided into great unlikeness? For the one looks toward virtue, the other toward baseness.

It is therefore necessary that the one who wills to serve God single-mindedly, and who counts nothing better than godliness toward Him, should give offence to those who love the world, whenever he persuades them to be minded to cast out the things of the world's foulness.

For to the pleasure-lovers, the counsels that call to something else are most hard to bear, just as also to those whose bodies have been corrupted by these passions the beneficial and biting remedies are hard to bear.

'Remember the word that I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord;

if they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;

if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.'

Having very well demonstrated beforehand that being hated is a good thing, if indeed there be a fitting occasion for this too,

He usefully removes in addition that which He knows, as God, would persuade them to shrink from being greatly intent on willing that the heavenly word must be preached.

For, since dishonour and danger follow to a great extent upon those who have been put forward for teaching, whenever the words found among them are not pleasant to those being admonished—and, in addition to this, persecution also coming about when the word is at times not received—He commands them to be well-prepared and quite ready for these things too, and to face them eagerly and manfully.

And He announces beforehand, as it were, that these things will certainly and in every way come to pass, on account of the wickedness of those who are to be brought under discipline.

And this too He indicated elsewhere, saying: 'Woe unto the world because of the offences;

for it must needs be that the offences come.' And He everywhere dispenses this, setting forth His own case herein, so that they may not, aiming at greater things, be caught behaving unseemly in another manner, but that, as it were of necessity walking behind the glory of the Lord, they may be zealous not to become above Him;

so, then, He intimates that they will assuredly be dishonoured, saying: 'The servant is not above his lord.'

'For Me,' He says, 'they applauded with unbridled tongue, the wretches, not letting go any unpractised manner of reviling; they called Me one possessed by a demon, and a drunkard, and the fruit of fornication;

yet I did not straightway seek out the penalties, nor, stung by the revilings that came from them, did I turn back the saving word for My hearers.'

Therefore let not the greater thing be sought by you unseasonably, nor put on airs beyond the measures of the Lord, since He brought Himself down for our sake to so great a lowliness, on account of what is profitable for all.

He therefore renders them better than the harshness in words and than the unholiness of those accustomed to fault-finding, just as indeed also the blessed prophet Jeremiah, being trained for this very thing, said: 'My strength failed among them that cursed me.' But yet more, the inspired Paul, shining in this and struggling much against the unholiness of those who insult, says: 'Being reviled, we bless; being defamed, we entreat.' For to love to bluster against such persons would be the work of a mind poor in spirit, according to what is written, and adorned with a very moderate resolve.

For there somehow grows up, and as it were rises from a good root, in this very thing especially, longsuffering and forbearance of evil.

But to be intolerant toward the words of those who provoke, unto any and every kind of dishonour from certain people, would be a clear indication of a boastful reasoning and of a mind not very far removed from worldly vainglory.

And He devises beforehand, as it were, a necessary safeguard for the need of willing to be seen in these things, and He lays down, as against ill-usage that thrusts one down into this, the reasoning which we spoke of from the beginning—namely, to walk behind the Lord's honour, and most gladly to accept whatever may come in due season, so long as good repute for God's sake is theirs, not being laid on their backs by dishonours as though by an unprofitable sluggishness, nor, whenever perhaps they have been bitterly reviled by someone, reining back the boldness in teaching and slighting the divine commandments; but rather holding fast to love toward the brethren, and in every way pressing on to profit those who go astray.

Having therefore persuaded them to trample worldly and transient glory beneath their feet, He goes on to press home yet another point, one both profitable and necessary.

For 'if they persecuted me,' He says, 'they will persecute you also.'

And this saying too has a meaning akin to what went before.

It persuades them nonetheless to endure hardship patiently, and it forestalls in advance the weakness of those reasonings that were expected to arise within us.

In being persecuted they will fall into dreadful straits.

But surely it was altogether reasonable to suppose that those who plead the cause of Christ's glory would in every way share abundantly in the world's forbearance, so that nothing whatever should be seen to hinder their so admirable zeal; that they would be seen superior to every tumult and danger, enduring nothing at all of the things that naturally cause grief, but rather revelling in the honours paid them by all, inasmuch as they were the ambassadors bringing to men the word of salvation.

And it was not far from what befits reason to expect such things, and to seek to be found in them, on the part of those who are indeed eager to call men to eternal life, and were found to be procurers of gifts from God for those who heard them.

But since each man directs the inclination of his own free choice toward whatever he wills, and turns it to that which is pleasant and agreeable to himself, it needs must rather be made manifest that even those who in truth held the contrary opinion, being conquered by the pleasures that tend to evil, resolved that they must fight against those who were calling them away from the sweetest of things.

For teachings that look to this end are not welcome to those who love pleasure.

It remained, therefore, as it were of necessity, to expect that it would be made manifest that those who had taken their place in the ranks of enemies would both persecute and maltreat and devise every kind of trial.

Manfully, then, does Christ charge them to be disposed toward this also, not denying that it will come to pass;

but rather by charging them that they must be seen to be youthfully valiant, He proclaims beforehand that these things will be present.

For 'if they persecuted me,' He says, 'they will persecute you also.'

It is as if He said: I, the Maker of all things, who hold all things beneath my hand, both those in heaven and those upon earth, did not put a bridle upon men's passions, nor did I, as with tortures, shut up the movement of each of those who heard;

but rather I left to each man's free choice the power to choose what seemed good to him, and to do whatever he might will;

and indeed, when persecuted I bore it patiently, though I had the authority to prevent it.

Whenever, then, you yourselves are persecuted, enduring steadfastly the aversion of those who hate you, and not being over-grieved at the ingratitude of those you have benefited, following behind my own dispensation, you proceed by the same will, that you may also share in the like glory.

For those who suffer together shall also reign together.

And adding a third saying — 'If they kept my word, they will keep yours also' — He does not permit them to be disheartened when their teaching is sometimes not received.

And this He does exceedingly well.

For he who has been appointed to this task thinks that he has suffered the loss of his labours if some are unwilling to be persuaded by the words that come from him;

but let no one think this — how could he? For once the counsellor has spoken and set forth the knowledge of what is profitable, this which lay within his power he has indeed accomplished;

the rest henceforth lies in the judgements of those who hear.

For it is easy for them to turn to whatever each one wills, whether toward ready obedience or the contrary.

Those, then, who introduce the noblest counsels ought not to shrink from sowing, by the divine power, even among the despairing the word that is able to profit, and from assigning with faith to that power the accomplishment of what is beyond our reach — which very thing, when it comes to pass, or rather when it is nobly ordered, we shall find also in the distributions of the talents.

For one is found to have received ten, another five, another two, and besides these yet the one, who indeed, refusing to trade, buried his talent in the ground;

and for this cause he heard: 'You wicked and slothful servant, you ought to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest.' For just as those trained in the works of husbandry, having also this aim, cleave the earth with their ploughs, then bury the seed in the clod, and no longer assign the rest to their own skill, but rather commit it to the divine power and grace — I mean the taking root of what has been cast down and its being nurtured to perfect fruit —

so, I think, ought he who introduces the best counsels to distribute the word alone, but to commit the rest to God.

The Saviour brings to his own disciples a saying that looses their difficulty, and the exhortation founded upon it.

For 'do not,' He says, 'ever be reluctant to go on teaching still, even if some of those once admonished make no account of the teaching given them;

and finding my own words too sometimes unacceptable to many, do not overstrain yourselves beyond my own glory, but in this again remaining behind, put away all despondency.'

And most necessary was the learning of these things for the holy apostles, since they were about to proclaim to men everywhere the divine and saving word.

And indeed the divinely inspired Paul, inasmuch as he had been appointed through Christ to apostleship, appeared to us as being such a man, and is often seen advancing through his manliness in these matters;

for that he thought he must despise love of glory, and reck exceedingly little even of persecutions, and made much also of not being over-faint-hearted, and, if anywhere any did not at all receive the word once sown in them — this it is easy to show.

For he writes to certain persons: 'You are wise in Christ, but we are fools for Christ's sake;

we are weak, but you are strong; we are dishonoured, but you are held in honour;

even to the present hour we both hunger and thirst,' and yet again in addition to these things: 'We are become,' he says, 'as the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all things until now.' Do you see how he was superior to worldly renown, for the sake of the Saviour's commandment? And displaying his nobility in persecutions he said: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' And he writes to others that 'to say the same things to me is not irksome, but for you it is safe'; and again to the Galatians: 'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.' You hear how most unwearyingly he brings round the same word, when the first, delivered even at the beginning, had not been received; and again he says that he suffers certain birth-pangs, until the forming of Christ shine forth in them.

And the word is altogether the fashioner of this, refashioning the hearers unto love of God and unto the image of Christ through faith.

'But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.'

He affirms that there will be no other pretext for those who have chosen to act impiously against the holy apostles than his own name alone.

For this is an accusation brought against those who reverence God, and a pretext for being warred upon by those who do not know him.

But since it is plain to all that no one would suffer anything for God's sake without reward —

for a splendid crown will be set before them for these things —

He again urges them toward good courage, and works in them a spirit of endurance, repelling by the hope of recompense the wretchedness that comes from the things expected to befall.

He therefore showed even the terrible thing itself to be gain and the fulfilment of prayer; and that which was perhaps expected to benumb some merely by its coming, this He frees from all fear, and persuades the disciples to welcome it, and that most gladly.

And indeed, when they had once been summoned before the unholy council of the Jews, and their bodies had been maltreated with stripes for Christ's sake, they went forth from the presence of the council rejoicing, according to that which is written, that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name of the Lord. And moreover they charge us ourselves also earnestly to endure hardship for this, and by no means to be downcast, even if anything painful whatever should come upon us for Christ's sake: 'For let none of you,' he says, 'suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer;

but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name.' Most sweet, then, is it to suffer for Christ, and sweet the peril, when it has as the occasion of its assault love toward God.

And observe how here again, showing himself to be one with his own Father, He says that the Jews — that is, those who were about to persecute those who should be ambassadors of the name of Christ — know neither the Father nor the Son.

For confessedly he is a hater of the Father who thinks that the Son must be dishonoured, offending, plainly, not against another nature, but against the very dignity of the Godhead that is his by nature, and playing the drunken reveller against it.

He would not insult the Son, if he had stood in awe of the nature of the Father;

but if he has known at all what the Father is according to His operation, how has he been ignorant that He has begotten of Himself? Then who will not insult the plant, by disparaging the fruit begotten of it? Therefore the sin against the Son is an unambiguous proof of ignorance concerning the Father and God.

But since He did not say here 'because they know not my Father,' but 'him that sent me,' I think He wishes to hint at some such thing;

His aim, as it seems, is to entangle plainly those who make a practice of persecuting them that are dedicated to him, making them thereby suspend a double transgression, as it were, over their own heads.

For 'they will,' He says, 'all but be convicted of being ignorant of him from whom I am, nor will they justly bear away only the verdict of atheism, but they will also be found henceforth arraigning the very wisdom of God and the Father.'

For if He sent His own Son to raise up what had slipped, to renew what was crushed, and to set aright life for those in the world, while those men on the contrary go out to war and impiously oppose those who wish to proclaim the restorer of this, how shall they not most manifestly be convicted of ignorance and of fighting even against the very One who sent me? For by saying 'to be sent' He introduces to us the whole declaration of the dispensation in the flesh;

and he who has been ignorant of the One who sent, has at the same time also been ignorant of God, and dishonours the mystery of the mission.

'If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not have had sin;

but now they have no excuse for their sin.'

For if anyone should perhaps suppose that this saying was made with reference to Greeks and Jews, we say this: that if there had not come to all who are upon the earth the divine and heavenly proclamation — I mean the gospel — showing to each the way of salvation and making white the works of righteousness, there would perhaps have been for each no feeble plea toward the excusing of those not very zealous for virtue, namely, utter ignorance of the things pleasing to God;

on this ground he might call for them to be deemed worthy of pardon.

But since the word of instruction has been made to all, what henceforth could be the plea of excuse, or with what words could one make use before the Judge, being accused of the most shameful things after knowledge? But if the Lord speaks this concerning the Jews alone, inasmuch as they had also often heard him teaching and were ignorant of nothing of all that He charged them to think and to do, you will understand it thus: 'They will not endure your teaching,' He says, 'but they will bring upon you trials and persecutions, and will devise for you every kind of tumult, and will be kindled unto unjust hatred out of bitterness, having no fault to allege, but charging only the love that is toward me.'

And sophistically covering over, as it were, the savagery of their own senselessness, and rubbing off the shame that comes from their voluptuousness, they will assuredly put forward Moses and the things of Moses, and will pretend, as it were, to bear shield to shield with their ancestral laws;

but if, when I came, I did not by the commandment given through Moses set forth better things — if I did not through many words give full assurance that the season was now come at last for the things in figure to pass away, and that there had been enough of shadows and of images, and that it was the hour for the truth itself to shine forth —

if I did not show this also from the law itself, saying most plainly: 'If you believed Moses, you would believe me;

for he wrote concerning me'; if I did not show my own word to be in harmony with the testimonies of the prophets, and the power of my coming to have been both foretold already and proclaimed, they would have had reasonable grounds for their senselessness against me and against you.

But since nothing has been left out, and everything has been said, so far as was necessary to say, vain is any plea that shall be devised by them as an excuse for a sin so naked.

This will grieve them not moderately.

For it sometimes renders the greed of the covetous bearable to those who are wronged, that they firmly believe the workers of covetousness will pay the penalty for their transgressions.

For what did he say? 'God shall smite you, you whitewashed wall.' This too, then, is a remedy for human weakness — I mean, the expecting that those who have chosen to do wrong shall be chastised.

Yet the Lord is superior, and in fuller measure than human faint-heartedness.

For when He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, according to that which is written.

And when He was struck, He uttered nothing offensive, nor did He threaten the one who had dared to smite Him; but most gently and with entire long-suffering He said, 'If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil;'

'but if well, why do you strike Me?' True therefore is the word spoken by the prophets: 'For who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? or who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?' 'He that hateth Me hateth My Father also.'