1 Timothy 1:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why then did the angel say, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10)? Because He who was born was to become Savior in the future. He did not begin to work miracles immediately after He was born.

“According to the glorious Gospel,” he says, “of the blessed God.” By “glory” he speaks here either of divine honor, or he means that if even now all things are full of His glory, much more will they be so in the future. Then His enemies will be placed beneath His feet, nothing will resist Him, and the righteous will behold all those good things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.

“I desire,” Christ says, “that where I am, they also may be with Me, to behold My glory which Thou hast given Me” (Jn 17:24).

Let us therefore learn to recognize what kind of people these are. Let us call them blessed as we consider what good things they will enjoy, and of what glory and light they will become partakers.

The glory here is insignificant and unstable. Even if it remains with us, it remains only until death, and afterward it disappears completely. For it is said, “His glory shall not go down after him” (Ps 48:18). For many, it did not last even until death.

Of that glory, however, one can think nothing of the kind. Quite the contrary, it remains forever and will never have an end. Such is the nature of divine things: they are constant and subject neither to change nor destruction.

That glory will not depend on external things, but on inward ones. It will not consist in costly garments, a multitude of servants, or chariots. Without any of these, the man himself will be clothed with glory.

Now, if these things are lacking, glory is lacking too. There it is not so. In the baths we see both the noble and the ignoble naked, and even criminals. In the marketplaces many have often been in danger when their servants left them for some need.

But there a man will always have his glory with him. As angels have glory in themselves wherever they appear, so also will the saints.

Or better still, as the sun has no need of clothing and requires nothing else, but as soon as it appears the splendor of its glory appears with it, so it will be then.

Let us therefore strive for this glory, than which nothing is more honorable. Let us abandon that other glory, than which nothing is more contemptible.

“Do not boast in the adornment of garments” (Sir 11:4), it says. This was taught to children from ancient times. Indeed, a dancer, a harlot, and an actor dress in brighter and more costly garments than you do.

Besides this, you are vainglorious over a thing which, if a moth attacks it, deprives you of the pleasure it gives. Do you see how unstable glory is in the present life?

You boast in a thing which worms produce and destroy. For they say that in India there are certain insects from which these fabrics are prepared.

If you wish, acquire a garment woven from things above, a wondrous and bright clothing, a robe truly golden. This gold is not among the metals dug up by the hands of criminals, but is born from virtue.

Let us clothe ourselves in this garment, which is fashioned not by poor men and slaves, but by the Lord Himself.

But you will say that this garment is embroidered with gold. What does that have to do with you? Everyone marvels at the one who fashioned it, not at the one who wears it. Indeed, the former deserves admiration.

So also with ordinary clothing, we do not admire the wood on which the garment is hung in the fulling shop, but the one who labors over it. Yet the wood bears it, and it is hung upon the wood.

Just as the garment is hung there not because of need, but for its own benefit, so that, as they say, dust may be shaken from it and moths may not eat it, so it is here also.

Is it not extreme madness to be so concerned about what has no significance, to devise every means for it, to destroy one’s own salvation, to neglect Gehenna, to offend God, and to despise Christ when He hungers?

What shall one say further about costly perfumes: Indian, Arabian, Persian, dry and liquid, ointments and fragrances? Their acquisition involves great and useless expense.

Why, woman, do you anoint your body, which is inwardly filled with impurity? Why do you ruin yourself for a stinking thing? You act as if someone threw fragrant ointment into mud, or began to pour balsam over bricks.

There are perfumes, if you wish. There is a fragrant ointment with which you can anoint the soul. It is brought neither from Arabia, nor from Ethiopia, nor from Persia, but from heaven itself. It is bought not with gold, but with a good disposition of the will and unfeigned faith.

Buy this fragrance for yourself, whose scent can fill the whole universe. It spread from the Apostles. “For we are the fragrance of Christ,” he says, “to the one a scent from death to death, and to the other a scent from life to life” (2 Cor 2:15-16).

What does this mean? They say that a swine suffocates from fragrance.

Not only the bodies of the Apostles, but even their garments poured forth the scent of spiritual fragrance. Such fragrance flowed from Paul’s garments that they drove out demons.

Was this fragrance not more pleasant and useful than every flower, every aromatic root, and every fragrant ointment? If it drove out demons, what else could it not do?

Let us therefore prepare this fragrant ointment. The grace of the Holy Spirit prepares it through almsgiving.

Let us pour forth the scent of this fragrance when we depart there, and let us draw the saints to ourselves by it. Here those anointed with perfumes draw all to themselves. When someone exuding fragrance enters a bath, a church, or another crowded place, all approach him, and he attracts everyone to himself.

So also in that world, when souls enter there from whom the scent of spiritual fragrance flows, all will be seized with wonder, and all will make way.

Even here, neither demons nor any vice dare approach such a soul or remain with it, because they suffocate.

Let us therefore surround ourselves with this fragrance. One fragrance spreads the opinion about us that we are soft and luxurious. The other shows that we are courageous and truly worthy of admiration, and it gives us great boldness.

This fragrance does not grow on earth, but is born from virtue. It never withers, but always blooms. It makes those who possess it worthy of honor.

We are anointed with it when we receive baptism. Then a pleasant fragrance flows from us. That we should continue to pour it forth afterward depends upon our effort.

For this reason, in ancient times priests were anointed with myrrh, to show in this a sign of virtue. The priest must pour forth a pleasant fragrance.

Yet nothing is more foul-smelling than sin. See how the prophet describes its nature: “My wounds stink and fester” (Ps 37:6). Indeed, sin is worse and more foul-smelling than any festering sore.

Tell me, what can be more foul-smelling than fornication? If you do not sense it while the sin is being committed, then think of it after it has been committed. Then you will see its stench, its repulsive impurity, its defilement and abomination.

So it is with sin in general. Before it is done, it still gives some pleasure. After it has been committed, the pleasure passes and disappears, and grief and sorrow take its place.

Righteousness is entirely the opposite. At the beginning it brings labors, but in the end pleasure and rest.

There, even pleasure is not pleasure, because shame and punishment await ahead. Here, even labor is not labor, because there is hope of reward.

Tell me, what is drunkenness? Does it give pleasure only while one drinks? More precisely, it does not bring pleasure even during the drinking itself.

When a man falls into insensibility and sees none of those present, but becomes worse than a demoniac, what pleasure is there?

Moreover, in fornication itself there is no pleasure. When the soul, possessed by passion, loses consciousness, what pleasure is this? If this is pleasure, then itching will be pleasure too.

I call true pleasure that in which the soul is not in a passionate state, where the body enslaves it to itself and distracts it.

What pleasure is there in gnashing the teeth, rolling the eyes, feeling titillation, and burning more than is proper? This condition is so far from being pleasure that we hasten to be rid of it. Then, once rid of it, we grieve.

If this is pleasure, then do not depart from it, but continue to enjoy the pleasure. Do you see that here there is only the name of pleasure?

The pleasures we offer are not like this. On the contrary, they are truly pleasant. They do not give enjoyment filled with fever, but leave the soul free and pour forth joy and gladness.

Paul enjoyed such pleasure when he said, “In this I rejoice, and I will rejoice” (Phil 1:18), and again, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4).

The first pleasure is joined to shame and condemnation. It is done in secret and is filled with countless unpleasant things. The latter is free from all these.

Let us therefore strive for it, that we may receive the good things to come, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

That the Gospel of our Savior was entrusted to blessed Paul by Christ Himself, he again shows in the following lines. He adds to what was said earlier: "I thank Christ Who strengthens me, because He counted me faithful, appointing me to service, though I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and insolent man. But I received mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief."

St. John Chrysostom says: "The Apostle called the Gospel the Gospel of glory for no other reason than for the sake of those who are ashamed of persecutions and of Christ's sufferings. For this reason he calls the Gospel the Gospel of glory, because he wished to show that the suffering of Christ the Lord constitutes His glory. Or else he is alluding by this to the future. For although your present condition is full of shame and reproach, the future is by no means so. The Apostle said that the preaching of the glory of God was entrusted to me. Since by this he exalted himself and loudly praised himself, he then humbles himself, so that you may not think he says this from pride. I thank, he says, the Lord Who strengthens me. Do you see how he always hides his own merits and ascribes everything to God? Here he also points to what belongs to him: He counted me faithful. This is surely because he himself had to cooperate with it. To be convinced that God chose him, foreseeing what he would be, listen to what God Himself says before the Apostle even began preaching: He is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name before the nations."

According to blessed Theophylact, what belonged to St. Paul was only that he was fit for preaching. But in order actually to accomplish what he had been called fit to do, he received power from above. Without it, he could not have succeeded in anything.

First of all, they do not understand the meaning of the law, which is well known to the Apostle. They do not know that the law is useful, καλο'ς, only when people relate to it properly, νομίμως.

Thus, according to the Apostle's well-known view, they should see in the law only a means of knowing their sins and their guilt. See Romans, chapter 7.

They do not know that for the righteous man, δίχαίος, that is, of course, for the Christian justified by the grace of God, the Mosaic law is not obligatory. The Apostle recognizes no other way of justification. Such a man must fulfill the teaching of the Gospel.

The Mosaic law was given for people who stood at a low stage of moral development. The Apostle formed this view of the law entirely correctly, on the basis of the Gospel of the blessed God entrusted into his hands. This Gospel also makes people blessed (vv. 5-11).

"According to the Gospel of glory" means the same as "according to the glorious Gospel." It is glorious because it bears the seal of divinity. It is glorious because, more than anything else, it proclaims the glory of God's boundless mercy toward us.

It is glorious because it clothes those who receive it with spiritual glory here, and promises to clothe them in the age to come with wondrous visible glory.

The reason the Apostle mentioned, among all the qualities of the Gospel, especially its glory, is this. He wished to draw the attention of those who would read his Epistle away from the outward ingloriousness of the Gospel, and likewise from the outward ingloriousness of those who believe in it.

He wished to direct their attention toward seeing the glory of both: inward, essential, and unfailing. This was also needed as a counterweight to the law, which still continued for the time being to enjoy glory.

Those who left the law were not to consider themselves covered with shame because they believed the Gospel, as though they were passing from what was glorious to what was inglorious.

Chrysostom says: "The Apostle called the Gospel the Gospel of glory for no other reason than for the sake of those who are ashamed of persecutions and of Christ's sufferings. For this reason he calls the Gospel the Gospel of glory, because he wished to show that the suffering of Christ the Lord constitutes His glory. Or else he is alluding by this to the future. For although our present condition is full of shame and reproach, the future is by no means so."

The Apostle's naming God blessed is directed to the same end. By this he points to the source and goal of the evangelical divine economy.

God, all-blessed in Himself, was pleased to create rational beings for participation in this blessedness. When through lack of understanding they deviated from this purpose of their creation, He was pleased to return them to this destiny by a certain wondrous manner proclaimed by the Gospel.

Evangelical faith is the way to participation in the all-blessedness of God. Therefore it cannot be magnified better than by calling it the work of the blessed and all-blessing God.

The words "which was entrusted to me" serve as the transition to the second moment of the present section. By them St. Paul suggests that when he says the Gospel has now come, he speaks as one who knows the matter.

For if the Gospel was entrusted to him, then he knows its power. By ascribing to it the significance shown above, he presents it as it is in its very essence.

This suggestion must seem all the more convincing because the Gospel does not take its beginning from him. It was entrusted to him, and entrusted from above, because it is God's.