In epistulas catholicas brevis enarratio

Didymus. For just as worldly people in their writings about business transactions wish to be designated by the titles that pertain to them, so also the apostles at the beginnings of their writings deem it proper to be called slaves of God and of Christ. Therefore, urging them on to perfection in courage and endurance, he accordingly calls them brothers, but not children nor sons. Of Chrysostom. Having sufficiently exhorted them to endure trials with joy, so that a work of proof and perfect endurance may come about—and these things are perfected in themselves, and not done for the sake of something else—he attempts through another admonition to persuade them to accomplish the matters at hand by means of promises, saying that the one who endures the trial is blessed; for the one who thus conducts the contest in an athletic manner will become a man of proof, exercised in all things; and when he has thus emerged from the grievous circumstances, a crown of life will be given to him, prepared by God for those who love him. Thus, the one who, by enduring trial, despises hardships and even death itself will receive the crown of eternal life in exchange for the temporary life he despised. You will inquire whether the material which God prepared for the crown of life for those who love him is that which God prepared for those who love him, which, due to the magnitude of divinity, is subject neither to sight nor hearing, nor has it ascended to mere human intellection. Since the saying of the Savior is true, which says, "Ask and it will be given to you," which he also confirms by saying, "Everyone who asks receives," one might inquire how it is that some who pray are not heard. To this it must be said:

One who comes to ask in the proper way, omitting nothing that contributes to obtaining what is sought, will certainly receive what he has requested to be given to him. But if someone, departing from the aim of the prescribed request, appears to ask, not asking in the right manner nor truly asking at all, then when he does not receive, the saying "everyone who asks receives" is not falsified. For when a teacher says, "Everyone who comes to me for the sake of learning will have knowledge of these subjects," we understand "coming to the teacher" in the grammatical sense, that is, with close attention to what the teacher says, along with practice and study. But if someone does not do this, it must be said to him: "You did not come to him as you were exhorted." Making it clearer, the writer of the letter has anticipated those who seem to ask but do not receive: the gainsayers and those who ask badly for the sake of vain pleasures. But someone will say: "Yet some who ask for divine knowledge and the attainment of virtues do not receive." It must be said to them too that they did not deem it worthy to receive these goods for their own sake, but for the sake of being praised for them. And it belongs to pleasure-lovers to rejoice in praise; hence these too are not given, since they wish to squander on pleasures the things for which they ask. 8 Origen. Since vice procures friendship with the world, and virtue friendship with God, virtue and vice cannot coexist. Proverbs. He who through sinning loves the world is shown to be an enemy of God; likewise, he who confirms friendship with God through piety is immediately found to be an enemy of the world.

Hence it is impossible to serve both God and mammon, just as it is impossible to be a friend to both God and the world. Indeed, when the Lord came, to make those who obey him friends of God, he cast a sword and division upon the earth; for the word of his teaching divides and separates from earthly and material things, thereby preparing enmity toward the world and union with God, which is friendship with him. Therefore he gives peace not as the world offers it; for the world, through the peace it gives, makes people passionate toward material things. But the Lord, by providing peace, prepares friends of God. So in these matters one must understand "world" as sympathy with things here. 9 From Origen's interpretation of "according to the foreknowledge of God." For God, having foreseen the faith and action of men that were accomplished for them through the gospel teaching, foreknowingly chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world, then predestining them to be sons by participation in the spirit of adoption; for foreknowledge is to be considered nothing other than the contemplation of things that will be, which is no longer foreknowledge but knowledge when the things foreseen have come into existence. Therefore, even if those to whom Peter writes were elect according to foreknowledge, the address is not made to them as now existing; thus the myth about natures is refuted by the meaning at hand. If the inheritance is preserved in the heavens for the faithful, some are chilled who think they will receive it in the earthly Jerusalem for a full thousand years, thinking they will receive luxury as the rewards of the kingdom.

between those who were willing to serve God and those who were not. They must also be asked what they can say about bodily luxury as something imperishable and unfading, especially since they define it as ceasing after the millennial year. In addition, one must connect the passages that show that the inheritance is in the kingdom of heaven and that it does not fall under the perception of mortals because it is intelligible. 12 Since some consider the promise and salvation of the saints before the advent of the Savior to be inferior, thinking that those after this advent have something more because they have seen the Lord perceptibly and the signs performed by him, it must be shown that their opinion is mistaken. For how is Abraham, who saw the day of the Lord, inferior to any of those after the advent, when all who are perfected according to the Lord go into his bosom? And how are Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory together with the transfigured Lord, inferior because they did not see the Lord perceptibly? For one should not prefer the one who has seen the Lord in the flesh over those who have had the intelligible advent. (20-26) 14 Many of the heterodox, indeed, agree with this mistaken opinion, having a desire to slander the Old Testament in every way. And this will be said: even if they did not see or hear perceptibly what the Lord said, nevertheless they had divine love for them; "for many prophets and righteous men desired to see.

If someone were to take the salvation sought by the prophets as being according to the end, which is the final and ultimate object of desire—for everything else occurs for its sake, while it itself occurs for nothing else—then it would not be incongruous to understand the present matter concerning the holy angels and, simply, all blessed rational beings, as having a desire to peer into the things pertaining to the end. If the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, what must one think concerning the present matter? For if the Father is the one signified, how is he a judge who judges according to each one's work? But if the Son judges, having received all judgment, how is he the Father? To these things it must be said: if the Father and the Son are one divinity, when the Son judges, the Father is the one judging; but also the Son can be Father of those who are generated, having generated them by participation in holiness; at any rate, he often called his own disciples "children" and said to others, to one: "Child, your sins are forgiven," and to another: "Daughter, your faith has saved you." And these things refute those who divide the divinity.

The living word of God, which remains into eternity, he calls the evangelical word. Since the Gospel says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away," says the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the Lord, being the true light, came into the world for judgment, in order to give eyes to those who were blind before his coming, but to blind those who see wickedly, so also, being a choice and precious stone, he provides honor to those who are built upon him through faith, having been shown to be their firm foundation, but to those who disobey him through unbelief he is not honorable, but is considered a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, and he is heaped upon the builders who have despised him; these are the scribes and Pharisees. And the phrase "into which they were also placed" does not mean that God forced them into this, but that they suffered this from their own depraved judgment and base choice. According to the ancient ordinance of the law, the royal class was one thing and the priestly class another; after that ordinance, the Gospel succeeded, teaching one and the same priest and king: for Christ is both. These things having been built in this way, it is necessary that those sown by him, since he is at once king and priest, should be a chosen race, being at once both a kingdom and a priesthood; for since the one who begot them possesses both principles, it is necessary that they themselves be both royal, as from a king, and a priesthood, as from a priest. Therefore they also exist as a holy nation, having been called by the one who calls, who is holy, to the end that "you shall be holy.

These same people are to be the holy nation and a people made for preservation outside all destruction; for preservation is of those who are taken in, not of those who are ostracized. Since those called from various nations and laws have cast off all diversity in taking up one mind, attending to one faith and teaching, through which soul and heart become one, they are one holy nation. Those who through piety are worthy of obedience are fittingly called beloved, being loved for something human, but not being beloved. Since, therefore, I am so disposed toward you, to whom I write the letter, I exhort and urge you to abstain from pleasures that grow from the flesh; these wage war against the soul, having great enmity toward it, since the substance of the soul is one thing and that of the flesh another. Human creation he calls the authorities appointed by the emperors; to these, then, one must submit for the Lord's sake; but if we submit for the Lord's sake, who said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's," when they command something outside the Lord's will, let us not obey. He does not command that servants have the passible fear toward their masters—for this is irrational and exists even in irrational animals—but the fear that occurs with knowledge and right reason; whose proper name is reverence. For he who fears a master because of Christ and his teaching submits to him with reverence, while he who fears a master because of wickedness and other torments has the passible fear.

He uses this same meaning and elsewhere, speaking to the women, said: “watching,” that is, the men, “your chaste conduct in fear”; for this is customary in many places of divine scripture. 28 He exhorts the women to imitate the holy women and especially Sarah, persuading them to be subject to their husbands as she was to Abraham, of whom he says they have become children through doing good works; for just as one who does the works of Abraham and has his faith becomes his child, so faithful women who do good have Sarah as their mother. But consider allegorically how one becomes a child of Abraham and Sarah: according to the apostle, Abraham had two sons, one from the maidservant and one from the free woman; then, leading them to the two covenants, he says elsewhere that the free woman has become spiritually the upper Jerusalem. This agrees: “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gives you birth”; for it is not possible to refer these things to them; for how could she, who received the death owed to nature many generations before, still give birth to those living at the time of the prophet? Hence these things must be understood of the mother of those born spiritually, the upper Jerusalem, which women he exhorted through good works to have Sarah as mother. “And sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” Just as magnifying God does not mean adding magnitude to him, nor does glorifying him mean bringing him fame from outside, so sanctifying the Lord does not mean adding holiness to him.

This we are commanded to do also in our own heart. For if we were to have an exact understanding of his holiness, we do not sanctify him once for all, but rather, from this action, holiness concerning God is added to our understanding in our heart. Likewise, one who magnifies him receives a share of his greatness into himself; whence it is said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,” and “Magnify the Lord with me.” Similarly, one who knows glory glorifies himself into him. These things do not seem paradoxical to one who knows accurately that God does not receive but supplies the good things. 31 Didymus. For one must be prepared for knowledge of the faith in such a way that, when we are asked at any time for the account concerning it, we may answer readily, and when answering, show gentleness and fear of God. For one who speaks the word concerning God ought to speak as if God were present. (10-14) For action is praiseworthy then when it is performed with reason; for seeming to know something without understanding and examination brings blame. “For knowledge of the foolish is words without examination.” 33 When the time comes for the judgment of God to take its beginning, it begins to pass from the greater to the lesser, that is, from the faithful who fill the church of God. Therefore he adds: if the examination of lives lived takes place first from us who are of the house of God, what end must one think awaits those who disobey the gospel of God? It instills struggle and great fear in the faithful, so that they may securely learn the judge to whom they must give account.

Having roused these to fear of him, he urges those who disobey divine teaching, declaring that punishment, which he called their end, will inevitably befall such persons, circumscribing the disobedience they possessed. Rousing these even more, he says: When the just man barely obtains salvation, what must one think concerning the impious, who, because of self-condemnation, are not roused to judgment, and concerning the sinners who do not rise up in the counsel of the just? For the just man is barely saved, struggling over how he has executed the judgment concerning himself. For even if he is conscious of nothing base in himself, yet knowing that he is not justified in this, until the judge justifies him, he struggles. (204) But the one who is both contained by God and yet otherwise despises and transgresses his laws. If, however, the same person is both sinner and impious in subject, he will have the difference according to conception. It is possible for the one who sins to be also immediately impious, by despising God through contempt. 36 The statement, “The present heavens and earth are treasured up by the same word,” is likened to what happened during the flood. For he says: As through the former

Just as the heavens and the earth were destroyed by the flood, the world of that time perished, so when the heavens and the earth are resolved into fire, the impious and sinful will be utterly destroyed; and this is the point of the likeness, that they perish together in the same way as those who perished in the flood: "For as in the days of Noah," says the Lord, "they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." And arguing further that it will be so, he says that the day of judgment will come, hidden like a thief, in which swiftly and without delay the heavens will pass away, the elements being melted by the fire brought upon them; after these heavens have passed with a rush, there will be new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness and the promises of God have their abode. 38 Or he says this because of the resurrection of Christ, inasmuch as through Thomas this was made known to all the apostles, he having raised this flesh which they nailed to the cross. Each of the generated things is said to be something, such as being an angel, being the sun or the heaven, but the Savior alone simply exists; by participating in him all things come into existence. Having received hearing of this first according to introductory teaching, one comes to see him scientifically after much training, which is called a touching upon the word of life, of the one who said: "I am the life." It will also be said thus: we have heard about the one who is in the beginning through the law and the prophets, that he will come.

We saw him come manifestly before our eyes, not assenting to the flesh that appeared as it happened; for after much palpation, investigating the scriptures that bear witness concerning him, we believed in the word concerning life. He says, "We have seen the life that is in the Father manifested to us," having both seen it accordingly and heard about it; bearing witness to this manifested life, we announce to you also those things by which it follows that you too may see it. He writes that an announcement was made by the Savior himself to the disciples, revealing that God, being light, has no darkness in him; this announcement we also offer to you, so that you may have the same opinion about God as being light; God is intelligible, eternal light; for nothing perceptible exists always; contrary to this light, one must conceive of darkness as ignorance and as being a most base condition; since neither of the forms of darkness, neither ignorance nor evil, is in God, it is fittingly said that there is no darkness in him. But if it is said somewhere, "Darkness is his concealment," darkness in these passages is said to be the obscurity in incomprehensibility; it is possible for our ignorance to be the obscurity, but not for God, who is light. Knowing in scripture, especially, does not always signify understanding, but also having experience of something and being united with it, as in "the one who did not know sin" and "I never knew you, workers of lawlessness"; for he did not know sin not in the sense of not understanding what sin is, but in the sense of not having actualized it.

Therefore, the one who says he has known God, having been mingled with him and partaking of him, necessarily has as a consequence the keeping of his commandments; hence it also converts. Both meanings of "knowing" are revealed from what is set forth. For he says: "In this we know," that is, we understand, "that we have known him," having been united with him and keeping his commandments. For the one who does not keep them is manifestly outside the knowledge of God. Just as our Lord Jesus, not having known sin, nor the workers of lawlessness, is not deprived of fullness, being wisdom and truth of God, so too, not having known the day of judgment, he is not diminished, just as when it is said concerning God that he has forgetfulness, repentance, and anger, the divinity is not diminished. For by the same reasoning by which those things are clarified, the matter of not knowing the day would be resolved. For just as forgetfulness, repentance, or any such thing, when spoken economically concerning the only wise God who has knowledge of all things, does not exist as a passion, so too, because the wisdom and truth of God do not admit ignorance for any useful purpose, it is said that he does not know the hour and the day of judgment. Truly he speaks of perfect love, from which nothing evil or deceitful can separate the one who is encompassed by it. Perhaps someone will say, how is it possible to conceive that the commandment concerning love, which is written, was from the beginning and was heard by those to whom the epistle is written? For they were not Jews, as the end of the epistle shows; for he says, "Children, guard yourselves from idols.

Therefore, is it not the case that an ancient commandment, existing from the beginning and heard by all people, is the friendly disposition according to natural notions? For all, being by nature tame and social animals, love their neighbors; hence the Savior, stirring up this natural disposition, says: "Therefore, everything that you wish people to do to you, do likewise to them." Lest anyone think that the system consisting of heaven and earth and the things in them is presented here from the voice of the world, he explained what "the things in it" happen to be, so that we might accordingly understand them as well. So then, "and the things in it" signifies a passionate and material disposition, indicated by desire of the flesh that campaigns against the soul and by appetite of the eyes. It is possible, from what has been set forth, to understand also concerning the visible world that it is no longer loved by those who have risen above it in their contemplation, no longer attending to transitory things but to eternal ones. And since those who choose to dwell in love of life handle the perceptible things in a passionate manner, it is fittingly said that arrogance of life and desire of flesh and eyes are in it; of all these, the one who thinks beyond them will be supramundane, doing the will of God by always remaining and loving God. He says this because the disciples, having become such, departed from the truth and devised their own blasphemous notions. The one who has scientifically apprehended concerning God that he is just in essence will immediately have knowledge, so that from this is generated the one who does his justice; just as the one who knows him to be sanctification gives himself over to be sanctified, knowing precisely the saying: "You will be holy, because I am holy.

It is also well said, "doing," not having done or about to do, justice; virtue, being practical, presents the one who acts as just. Therefore, no one is just before performing it, nor is one who has ceased to act according to it. That God is just, Moses says: "The Lord is holy and just." This one is the father of the Savior: "Just Father, and the world did not know you." Being his son, as God from God and holy from holy, so also he exists as just from just. This does not conflict with his being called justice; for that which is such in essence would be called justice and just. Now we are children of God, that is, in the present life. From Chrysostom: Since the devil, having turned before all others, came into being in sinning, everyone who acts in a sinful manner is named from him; for he takes the lead in the one sinning through the suggestion of evil thoughts, as in the case of Judas. But someone will say that the devil comes into being in those who sin, among those who have sinned before him, by giving him place. To this it must be said that doing the sin is the same as sinning in giving place to the devil; for he gives

...having been led to give place to desire in himself, after receiving it, he accomplishes the sin in a practical manner; for this is what "doing it" means. And it is well said, "doing," but not "having done," of the one who has repented, who is no longer from the devil, but only of the one who is still actively engaged in it; for thus also the one who does sin is a slave of sin, but not the one who has done it; "for everyone who does sin," he says, "is a slave of it." (59 of Severus) And he adds the reason why he cannot sin, saying that his seed remains in him; what is the seed of God that remains upon the faithful? It is the visitation of the Holy Spirit, through which we were reborn, which does not depart from us when, according to Paul, we do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God through shameful deeds, in which we were sealed until the day of revelation. (15-21) For when we say that the one who has righteousness cannot do injustice, we do not indicate a natural incapacity, such as that by which we say that an irrational animal cannot have knowledge or something else of that sort. If everyone who does sin is from the devil, it is evident from acting in this way that he is a child of the devil, just as Elymas the magician was known as a son of the devil from being "full of all deceit." And since everyone who is born from God does not commit sin because he has the seed of God in himself, the one who does not sin in this way is clearly found to be a son of God. I added "in this way" to the one who sins, so that no one might cleverly argue that we consider all who do not sin to be children of God; for infants who do not commit sin are not to be called children of God.

...for they are prevented from sinning by age, not by virtue, so that we might not say something else by claiming that it is not correctly stated concerning infants that they do not commit sin; for not sinning is not the same as not doing sin: the former resembles a negation, while the latter exists from disposition. Since the one who does righteousness is born from God, and it follows for the one so born to love his brothers; the one who does not have righteousness by not doing it, but hates his brother, is not from God; not in any other way than that he is not born from him; for one must not heed those who say that these are not from God because of an earthy nature. For here he calls the wicked men "world." For just as before the coming of Christ, when there were prophets of God in Judea, many were pretending to be prophets, as there was need of a critical knowledge to determine which of those saying, "Thus says the Lord," had the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and which were moved by an evil spirit and were false prophets, so also after the arrival of the apostles, who spoke in Christ and had the Holy Spirit, which the Lord gave, many false apostles were put forward by the devil, pretending to teach the gospel; it is necessary to have that gift of the Holy Spirit which is called the discernment of spirits, so that we may have the knowledge to test the spirits, so as to believe one and resist the other. For there were some who said that the Lord had come down from heaven in the appearance of a man, whose opinions the Manichaeans confirmed. Having considered the passage:

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” through having accepted Christ Jesus living in me, through bearing the death of Jesus in the body; confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh not only in his own flesh, but also in mine. He says it is characteristic of the Antichrist, of whom we have heard that he comes and is already in the world, to dissolve Jesus through false prophets and spirits by not confessing him to have come in the flesh. This statement must be understood as referring to actual practice; for many speak only with their tongue. Just as blame and reproach attach to one who does not choose what is choiceworthy and does not love what is lovable, so the writer bestows praise on those who love those worthy of being loved, that they are beloved. But when is it possible for this to be brought about except when the Saviour takes away the sin of the world, so that the human being may be shown forth as he was made by God, having been revealed as likeness and image of the maker? For thus the human being, once manifested, is immediately beloved and worthy of being loved. Since, therefore, the Saviour sent to the world came with love for the Father’s own creations, for the revelation of the beauty of those made in the image of God, those who have obtained this gift are beloved, whence they love one another; for each has both the quality of being beloved and of being loving, having the commandment to love one’s neighbour. If love is from God and God is love, who would proceed from him but the Word himself? If, then, anyone has love, he has Christ in himself; that is, the one who said:

God is love.” This one again knows love from God, which must be understood to be none other than the only-begotten, just as God from God, so also being love from love. Those who are born from God, by succeeding in virtue, become both children of God and friends, just as also Abraham. This was known by the one born from God through faith, that Jesus is the Christ, not having a mere assent concerning the conception of Christ, being born from God, but that faith to which works according to virtue are joined; which faith Abraham also, possessing it, is accounted to have righteousness. According to this meaning, one must interpret: “To find a faithful man is a work”; for such a one is rare to find, since there are many who, without works, have a dead faith, which is not faith at all. The one who has believed in such a way as to be born from God has eternal life, as the Savior says: “He who believes in me has eternal life.” If, then, one is born from God by accomplishing the things mentioned, which are worthy of acceptance, he must love also the one who begot him before himself. The substance and, so to speak, matter of the love which one must have toward God, he says, is the observance of the divine commandments; which commandments lead the one who acts according to them toward God; hence they are neither burdensome nor heavy. But if someone approaching them should call them burdensome in a way not as he ought, he would have accused his own weakness; for to those who are excessively lacking strength, even very light and easy things are considered heavy. Therefore he did not write: “His commandments are light,” but:

They are not burdensome,” only for one who grasps the whole of their upward-leading quality, who justly pursues justice, having learned by experience that the yoke of Christ is light, possessing much goodness. One so disposed is born from God, and having obtained this, despises material life and the pleasures of the world; and by this he conquers the world, having passed from it into a supramundane polity. To have advanced thus will exist for faith that is active and reckoned as righteousness. This, showing it as subsistent and enduring, he said: “This indeed is the victory that has conquered the world.” This faith we have who have accepted that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who have learned by technical experience how each of the good things earnestly sought is to be achieved become hopeful also for accomplishing these things at another time. Since, therefore, the holy apostles and the blessed John, by their very deeds, knew that, having often asked God, they received what was dear and desirable to them, they are confident that each time they ask thus they will obtain what they long for, with God assenting. From these things will be shown what is sought by some, how

It would be true: “He who asks receives” does not refer simply to all who ask, even for things that are not beneficial, but to those who ask according to the will of God, which the universal proposition contains. Such boldness arises in one who has a blameless life; but such a person is rare. “For who will boast of having a pure heart?” For few are those who are so virtuous as to say, “If I saw injustice in my heart, let the Lord not hear me; therefore He has heard me,” since I saw no injustice. He was silent about this out of fear that it might be thought to refer to him, according to the one who said, “I am conscious of nothing in myself; but I am not justified by this.” One may also apply to the present matter: “If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness before God.” For if doing righteousness has its origin from God, as we have often said, and at the same time it is impossible both to sin and to do righteousness, it is clear, therefore, that one so disposed and acting is righteous and does not sin. Then, being cautious, since man is a son of God by choice and not by nature, he fittingly added: “But he guards himself, and the evil one does not touch him.” For if the evil one does not touch him for this reason, that he guards himself, he has the property of not sinning not from constitution but from attention. But if one guards himself, why does he also pray to be guarded from God? So that he may remain entirely untouched by the evil one. Having learned through many passages that base men are indicated by the word “world,” we are not superstitious, like the heretics, as if the creation of God, being the world, were established in evil.

The word "world" is used of people, as I said before, both here and in the Gospels; for John writes: "Do not be surprised if the world hates you"; it is clear to anyone with understanding that he means the world that hates the saints signifies wicked people; and further: "They are from the world, and their world listens"; for the world that listens to those who speak deceptively signifies not creation, but passionate people. 81 The meaning which he gave, according to which the true Son of God who came is known, is the same as: "But we have the mind of Christ"; he who has this meaning and this mind knows the one who is true in essence and is in him, united with him in reality, having intellection of him. But how, having testified to perfection throughout the letter to those to whom he writes, does he now exhort them to keep themselves from idols? We say then: since it was written to the whole church, it was likely that in such an assembly there were those recently turning away from idolatry, and for their sake he inscribed the passage. The present passage agrees with what was said in the first letter, which runs thus: "And we know that he who loves God keeps the commandments"; and the Lord says: "If someone loves me, he will keep my commandments"; walking according to the commandments is the same as keeping them; for since the virtues that are activated according to the commandments are practical, he who does not depart from them walks according to them; and in this, keeping them is the same; hence he who ceases to act according to virtue no longer keeps the commandments nor walks according to them.

For the one who advances in virtue walks according to the commandments, since "to walk" indicates progress, while the one who has been perfected, after having walked according to the commandments, preserves them. This agrees with what was said enigmatically, that Adam was placed in paradise to work and to guard it, "to work" indicating progress in activity, and "to guard" indicating perseverance in perfection. He who thinks and acts according to evangelical teaching remains in it, but he who acts and holds opinions contrary to it removes himself from it. Then, since through the practical and the theoretical life the creator God of all becomes someone's God, as in the case of Abraham, when He said to him, "I am your God," the one outside right faith and the observance of Christ's commandments is godless, having cut himself off from having a God, and he is godless who has removed himself from divine instruction in the said manner. He who remains in it has both Father and Son; for the Son said that he would come together with the Father to remain with him who, having become a holy temple built from the observance of the divine commandments, keeps his word. Since "having God" is twofold, one sense is common to all creatures, meaning the same as "having a creator," while the other sense belongs only to those who serve Him through goodness, according to which meaning God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of the Hebrews generally. Pay attention also to what will be said thus: "He who has the Son," it says, "also has the Father," and conversely, so that from this the consubstantiality of the Godhead may be understood; for since the Father is in the Son, he who has the Son also has the Father.

But this also works in reverse: the one who has the Father also has the Son, who is in the Father. If someone, wishing to insist, should say, "The one who has the disciples has the Son, and the one who has the Son has the Father," according to the saying, "The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me," he does not insist in the proper manner. For these things are said concerning teaching, since the one who received the apostles by assent to their teaching received through them the Son and the Father who teach. And in another way: since the one who abides in the teaching has the Father and the Son, and the apostles abode in the teaching as also to proclaim it, the one who received them, being a temple of God, by the very act of receiving them has the Son and the Father who are in them. Since there is no communion of light with darkness or harmony of Christ with Beliar, the one who does good practically and contemplatively, having God the Christ as existing true light, is far from darkness and from Beliar. But also, since doing evil is opposite to doing good, the evildoer, by the very fact of acting thus, being from Beliar and from darkness, has not seen God nor has any knowledge of him whatsoever; "for everyone who sins has not seen God nor known him." Since seeing or not seeing a body is known by using or not using sight, the sense object being seen, and for the evildoer, if he has sight, it is not seen, while for the one deprived of sight, even if he is a doer of good, it is indisputably shown to those to whom it is simultaneously shown, if indeed it is perceived by the doer of good because he has a pure heart, even if he lacks sight, while it is not seen by the evildoer, even if he is most sharp-sighted.

It is shown that opposites are and for this reason cannot coexist, I mean doing good and doing evil, and from the verse: "Turn away from evil and do good" and from passages written similarly. (233) Some impious men, using flattery along with sorcery in the divine teaching, insinuated themselves by pretending to be inscribed beforehand in it, that is, foreknown for this judgment, which they were judged among themselves, having been handed over to a reprobate mind. These, being some licentious ones through excessive impiety, transformed the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness and, through the very act of lewdness, denied the only master, Jesus Christ, the Lord of those called through the gospel. Then, in order to turn the faithful away from such wicked and impious men, he shows what the magnitude of the master they denied is like, indicating that he is the one who led the people out of Egypt, as also to offer them salvation. But since some of them happened to be changeable and fickle, still bearing the harm they had in Egypt, he destroyed them when they disbelieved in the wilderness, even though they had been saved through faith from Egypt. Lest, therefore, these are the hypocrites of the divine teaching, the leaders of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who overlook no form of licentiousness.

They perform shameful and utterly shameful acts, ostensibly in a mystical manner, both the followers of Simon Magus and, in addition to them, those of Marcion and Valentinus and the Sethians. And since they do these shameful things under the pretext of religion, he said that they pervert the grace of the Lord into licentiousness, through which licentiousness and its works they deny the only master and lord of us, Jesus Christ. It has been said, then, before these things concerning him, that this one, the only master and lord Jesus Christ, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, is true God; it follows that the God of Moses is not another; for there is no other besides the Trinity; whence Moses appears to be serving him, according to the saying: "That one wrote about me" and: "Whom Moses wrote about, we have found to be Jesus." Therefore, having also spiritually foreseen the cross, he considered the reproach of Christ to be the greatest wealth, not otherwise than the one who says: "May it be for me to boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus." Now, "proeggrammenoi" in this passage he says instead of "proegnosmenoi," that is, foreknown, just as, of course, the things concerning Judas were forewritten. He called them, then, "waterless clouds" because they do not have the word of the Spirit that irrigates the God-loving souls, which becomes for them a spring of leaping water into eternal life. He says this because, again, the righteous, pretending, compared themselves to shady olive trees and indeed to fruit-bearing vines; he says, then, that some are fruitless and autumnal, that is, bereft of both leaves and fruits, having killed the soul by licentious life and impiety and by evil doctrines; or thus.

Since before their faith they had died in impiety, then having approached the gospel they lived, but again having given themselves over to impiety and pleasure they have died; thus he says they have died twice. And even if, imitating their own founder Satan, who disguises himself as an angel of light, they themselves wish to be transformed into teachers of truth, concerning whom it is said: "in whom you appear as lights in the world, holding forth a word of life," yet they are deceivers, falsifying the truth with the licentiousness of blasphemies, and later they will be punished in gloom and darkness and shadow, which is the outer darkness, which has been prepared for Satan and his angels.