John Chrysostom

Part one…because there is too much here.

I know many things, but I do not know how to explain them.  I know that God is everywhere and I know that He is everywhere in His whole being.  But I do not know how He is everywhere.  I know that He is eternal and has no beginning.  But I do not know how.  My reason fails to grasp how it is possible for an essence to exist when that essence has received its existence neither form itself nor from another.  I know that He begot a Son.  But I do not know how.  I know that the Spirit is from Him.  But I do not know how the Spirit is from Him.

A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, edited by James R. Payton, Jr

We can only go so far, whether through revelation or through our reasoning.  It seems to me a good place to stop, because perhaps there is little reason or benefit to our knowing more, while it comes with risk to speculate.

God

…we are unable to get hold of the loving-kindness of God, no matter the ways we try to describe it, since its utter magnitude baffles our feeble utterances.

Try to grasp how the Creator of everything from nothing took human form and died on a cross for the sake of humanity.  We are unable to get hold of this.

The Son

Just as He hungered, as He slept, as He felt fatigue, as He ate and drank, so also did He pray for deliverance from death – in this He manifested His humanity and the weakness of that human nature which does not submit without pain to be torn from this present life.

The doctrine of the incarnation is very hard to receive…that this God who surpasses all understanding and baffles all calculation…[would] suffer all those things to which human beings are liable.

Jesus took on all that we are to heal all that we are.  Or, as St. Gregory said: “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.”

Man

God will judge you at the last day not by the civil law but by His law.

You certainly deceive yourself and are greatly mistaken if you think that there is one set of requirements for the person in the world and another for the monk.

As Lloyd-Jones offered regarding his examination of the Sermon on the Mount, it is for all Christians to live, not just the special ones.

Sin

To sin may be a human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human and becomes altogether devilish.

As if a demon has taken hold.

Sins have become an art!  We pursue them not by chance, but with studied earnestness, and finally the devil assumes control of his own troops.

We revel in the pride of our sins.

Let no one tell me that this is the custom.  Where sin is boldly committed, forget about custom.  If evil things are done, even if the custom is ancient, abolish them.

“Why then,” you ask, “is not everyone punished in this life?”  Because God has established the day on which He will judge the world, and this day has not yet come; if it were otherwise, our entire race already would have been destroyed and exterminated.

The Cross

This will be long….

The cross destroyed the enmity of God towards humanity, brought about reconciliation, made the earth heaven, associated human beings with angels, pulled down the citadel of death, hamstrung the force of the devil, extinguished the power of sin, delivered the world from error, brought back the truth, expelled the demons, destroyed temples, overturned alters, suppressed sacrificial offerings, implanted virtue, and founded the Church.

The cross has broken our bond, it rendered the prison of death powerless, it demonstrated the love of God. …The cross opened Paradise.

The cross, and what happened there, isn’t just one thing.  From C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start.

“Somehow” is a good way to describe it.  Not merely because different Christian traditions understand the meaning of what happened on the cross differently, but, as can be seen in Chrysostom’s words, much more than one thing happened there.

Repentance

We should have good courage and trust in the power of repentance. … In God’s lovingkindness, He never turns His face away from a sincere repentance. 

Repentance is judged not by quantity of time but by disposition of soul.

It is not possible for one who has departed to the other world to repent.

Humility

For us, humility is the foundation of the love of wisdom.

And humility is the foundation on which all other virtues can grow.

[Regarding others with faults]: …consider that Christ died for his sake – that suffices you as reason to care for him.  Consider what sort of person he must be, whom Christ valued as so high a price that He did not spare even His own blood.

[If someone angers you]: Make your mind contrite, humble your soul with the memory of the offenses you have committed, and you will not be enflamed with anger.

The cause of our evils in this regard is that we scrutinize the sins of others with great exactitude, while we let our own pass with carelessness.

Look at the log in your own eye; be careful regarding the standard by which you judge, because you will be judged by the same standard; forgive seventy-times-seven.  You get the idea.

Love casts out all inequality and knows no superiority or dignity.

True wisdom and true education is nothing other than fear of God.

Prayer

Earnest prayer is an unquenchable and perpetual light for the understanding and the soul.  That is why the devil collects and pours out into our minds countless rubbish-heaps of ideas and things we had never imagined, at the very moment we pray.

A regular and recurring problem for me.  I have found a couple of things that help me: pray a Psalm or from a prayer book; for the prayers of my own authorship, keep it short.

Good Works

This is how the matter stands: a great recompense awaits those who do good works, but this reward is better and greater when those who do the good works have had to experience danger and great dishonor.

What benefit is the faith, tell me, unless there is also a pure way of life.

God did not create man to provide only for himself, but to provide for many others as well.

I offer a quote from Martin Luther (forgive the length):

I reply to the argument, then, that our obedience is necessary for salvation. It is, therefore, a partial cause of our justification. Many things are necessary which are not a cause and do not justify, as for instance the earth is necessary, and yet it does not justify. If man the sinner wants to be saved, he must necessarily be present, just as he asserts that I must also be present. What Augustine says is true, “He who has created you without you will not save you without you.”

Works are necessary to salvation, but they do not cause salvation, because faith alone gives life. On account of the hypocrites we must say that good works are necessary to salvation. It is necessary to work. Nevertheless, it does not follow that works save on that account, unless we understand necessity very clearly as the necessity that there must be an inward and outward salvation or righteousness.

Works save outwardly, that is, they show evidence that we are righteous and that there is faith in a man which saves inwardly, as Paul says, “Man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved” [Rom. 10:10]. Outward salvation shows faith to be present, just as fruit shows a tree to be good.

Marriage and Family

No teacher is so effective as a persuasive wife.

God…made it impossible for men and women to be self-sufficient.

The love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together.

You must consider that marriage is not a business venture but a fellowship for life.

Only after we honor our parents can we do anything good for the rest of mankind.  If a person does not honor his parents, he will never treat other people with kindness.

The greatest sin of all and the absolute height of wickedness is to neglect one’s children.

It is necessary for everyone to know Scriptural teachings, and this is especially true for children.  Even at their age they are exposed to all sorts of folly and bad examples from popular entertainments.

Apparently this isn’t just a problem in recent years.

The Evil One

When the evil one perceives that we are oppressed by the consciousness of evil we have done, he steps in and lays upon us the additional burden, heavier than lead, of anxiety arising from despair.  If we allow that, then we are immediately dragged down by the weight…and descend into the depths of misery.

The evil one sees vulnerability and recognizes the weakness at such a time.

New Creation

Consider the transfiguration which is to take place in the whole creation.  It will not continue to be like it is now, but will be far more brilliant and beautiful; and as gold glistens more brightly than lead, so the future state of the universe will be greater than the present.

To prove that these words are no empty claim, let us journey in thought to the mountain where Christ was transfigured. … At that time on the mountain He disclosed to them [the disciples] as much as it was possible for them to see without injuring their sight; even so, they could not endure it, but fell on their faces.

Other

The only person who is free is the one who lives for Christ.

I came to this conclusion after much time studying that which I though had nothing much to do with Christ.

You need no mediators to win you an audience with God…

I won’t take this one in too much of a low-church Protestant way!

Biographies / Sources

John Chrysostom (347 – 407) was a preacher.  His epithet means “golden-tongued,” so he must have been an excellent preacher.  He served in Antioch and Constantinople, in the latter as its bishop.  He boldly denounced the wayward morals of the imperial court, earning the hostility of the queen, and, thereafter, exile.

He would produce many commentaries on Scripture, as well as write on the responsibilities and tensions in the life of the clergy.