THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Lest they think that he draws such a conclusion from flattery toward them, he says, “in Christ Jesus.” His love contains nothing human and nothing fleshly. It is spiritual, and therefore utterly sincere.
His expressions reveal strong love. Though separated from them in place, he seems to stretch out his right hand and embrace them with the arms of love: “My love,” he says, “be with you.” It is as though he says: I myself am with you all.
This shows that what he wrote did not come from irritability or anger, but from care for the Corinthians. Even after such rebukes, he does not turn away from them. He loves and embraces them despite the great distance, and pours out his soul before them in writings and letters.
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Everyone who corrects others should act in this way. If he does it with anger alone, he satisfies his passion. But if, after rebuking the sinner, he also shows love for him, he proves that his reproaches came from love.
Let us also instruct one another in this way. Let the one who rebukes not be angry, because anger reveals passion, not the desire to correct. Let the one rebuked not be grieved, because the rebuke given to him is medicine, not something hostile.
When physicians cauterize, they are not blamed, even though they often err as to the success of the treatment. Patients who undergo cautery and incisions even consider those who cause them such suffering to be their benefactors.
So much more should the one who receives rebuke have such a disposition, and listen to the one instructing him as to a physician, not as to an enemy.
When we rebuke someone, let us approach him with great meekness and great prudence. If you see a brother sinning, rebuke him not before everyone, but as Christ commanded: “between you and him alone” (Mt 18:15).
Do not revile him or attack the one who lies fallen, but suffer with him and be contrite. Be ready yourself to hear rebuke, if you sin in anything.
To make what has been said clearer, let us present it by an example. Yet I do not wish such examples to exist in reality.
Suppose that some brother lives together with a young woman. Let him be a well-mannered and chaste man. Still, there is an evil report about him.
When the report of his cohabitation reaches you, do not leave it without attention. Do not say: Does he not have his own mind? Does he not know what is useful for him?
Love without cause, but do not allow hatred without cause, as the proverb says. Why should I needlessly draw enmity upon myself?
Such foolish words belong to wild beasts, or rather to demons. Whoever wants to correct another does not draw enmity upon himself needlessly. He acts to obtain great blessings and ineffable crowns.
Against what you say, “Does he not have his own mind?” I will say to you that indeed he does not. He is drunk with passion.
If in secular courts defendants, being agitated by anger, are unable to speak for themselves, though such sensitivity is not counted as their fault, how much worse is the condition of a man given over to a vicious passion?
Therefore I say that even if he were wise a thousand times over, he still does not have a sober mind.
Who was more prudent than David, who said, “You have revealed to me the unknown and hidden things of Your wisdom” (Ps 50:8)? But when he looked with immodest eyes upon the wife of the soldier, he experienced what commonly happens to those sailing on a stormy sea.
As he himself says, “All their wisdom was swallowed up” (Ps 106:27). He needed others to correct him, and did not even perceive the depth of evils in which he stood.
Therefore, lamenting his sins, he said, “For my iniquities have gone over my head. Like a heavy burden they have become too heavy for me. My wounds have become foul and corrupt because of my foolishness” (Ps 37:5-6).