Yet by this he increases still more the radiance of the state that awaits them in the future. He gives them to understand that their glory will be a certain part of God's glory, a divine glory. The Lord is always glorious and wondrous in Himself. But in His saints and believers He is not always, and not fully, glorious and wondrous now. In their person He is humiliated, and men do not stand in reverence before Him. Then He will show what those who are holy and believe in Him are. He will show what grace-filled power they bear within themselves on earth. He will show with what spiritual glory their souls are clothed beneath the covering of a corruptible body and an unbright outward condition. What is now hidden will then be manifested to all. The Lord will clothe them with the glory with which He Himself is clothed. Not only those estranged from Him, but believers themselves and the angels will marvel at this and glorify Him Himself. It hath not yet appeared what we shall be (1 Jn 3:2). Nor hath it entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor 2:9). God is wondrous in His saints (Ps 67:36), and He makes His desires wondrous in them (Ps 15:3), often even here. This is also necessary in view of the ordering of the salvation of the human race. The Lord Himself appeared wondrous on earth. The holy Apostles were wondrous, bearing great divine grace in earthen vessels, the grace that subdued the whole universe. The holy martyrs were wondrous, enduring terrible torments with joy, even weak women, young virgins, and children. The venerable ones were wondrous, finding paradise amid strict deprivations. Especially wondrous are moral changes: from drunkards into sober men, from fornicators into chaste men, from the wrathful into the meek, from the stingy into the generous, from the proud into the humble. But here this is not seen and honored by all. Then the light of the glory of God's grace will shine before all. It will be manifest what perfections each acquired by labors on earth, and in whom divine glory is revealed. For that glory will not clothe them outwardly. It will burst forth from within, from those holy qualities that make up the constitution of their soul. The Apostle has precisely this aim in these words: to drive away dark thoughts to which persecutions and sorrows could give occasion. The holy Fathers also pay greater attention to this side in their interpretation. Here are their thoughts. Theodoret says: The Apostle showed the greatness of the unbelievers' punishment by naming it eternal destruction. Now he also lets us see the glory of those who have believed, saying that God Himself will be glorified in them and will be made wondrous. In the present life some remain in sufferings and labors, while others live wickedly and enjoy abundant blessings. But on the day of judgment the righteous will be glorified and deemed worthy of crowns, while those who lived wickedly will be delivered to torments. Saint Chrysostom says: When the persecutors see that those whom they tortured, despised, and subjected to ridicule have become near to Him, then His glory will be revealed. Or, to speak more precisely, in this will consist both His glory and the glory of these latter ones. His glory will be shown because He did not abandon them, but surrounded them with greater splendor. Their glory will be shown because they were deemed worthy of such honor. He also says: When He deems worthy of such glory those who were wretched, humiliated, and had endured thousands of sufferings, yet amid all this preserved faith in Him, then His power will be revealed. For although here believers seemed to have been abandoned by Him, there they will be deemed worthy of glory. In this especially the whole glory and power of God will be revealed. Oecumenius says: To be glorified can be understood in two ways. It is glorious for Him that there will be many saints whom He will fill with His blessings. Or thus: He will be glorified by the saints when they see Him in the Father's glory, sitting at the Father's right hand as God of all. A third thought may also be admitted: the saints will move the bodiless powers to glorify Him, when they see how many and how great are the blessings with which He deems His faithful worthy. To be made wondrous means that, just as the saints will give occasion for Him to be glorified, so they will also give occasion for Him to appear wondrous. For those who in this life seemed so humiliated and rejected that they were persecuted and killed, He deemed worthy of so many and such great blessings. Theophylact has the same thoughts. Because our testimony was believed. Some see in these words an explanation of the word believers, as though he were saying: the Lord will come to be made wondrous in those who believed, understood as in you, or also in you. For you too believed our testimony, that is, the testimony concerning Christ Jesus, or the preaching of the Gospel. This testimony was received by you with faith. It was believed by you. In that case, in that day will refer to the Lord's glorification and wondrous manifestation in the saints: when He comes to be glorified and made wondrous in that day. The words because our testimony was believed among you will form an inserted clause, as though standing in parentheses. Theophylact writes: God will be wondrous on that day because our word and preaching were believed by you, that is, because you believed and made yourselves worthy of the blessings that will then be given to the faithful. Theodoret says the same: In that day must be referred to what was said above. That is, the Lord will be wondrous in all who believed in that day. He called the preaching testimony, and said that they believed this testimony. Saint Chrysostom, who always had moral aims in his homilies, sees among other things this thought here: Since many pretend to believe, call no one blessed before death, for only in that day will it be revealed who truly believed. Oecumenius also keeps this thought: In that day it will be manifest that you believed, for now many pretend to believe. With this understanding, the words because it was believed also explain the preceding phrase, those who believed, but in another respect. Yet with this understanding there is no need to invent that because it was believed is an inserted clause, or to move in that day to another place. But it seems that nearest to the flow of the discourse is the interpretation of Saint John Damascene. According to him, because it was believed means that what will then be revealed is not the sincerity of the believers' faith, but the divine dignity of the faith itself. He says: The truth that we now preach will in that day, pisteuthesetai, prove to be indisputably true. Now unbelievers have the boldness to say: in whom do you believe, and what do you believe, and why? They speak words of humiliation against the faith, against the Lord Himself, who is the object of faith, and against the believers. They seem to triumph, raising their own reasoning above the simplicity of believers' faith. Then the glory of the faith will shine forth. It will be solemnly revealed before all that this faith is the one guide given by God to those living on earth, for the whole time the earth stands. It will also be revealed that those who followed it, despite many oppositions, were not mistaken in their expectation. The testimony of the Apostles, that they preach not their own word but what was delivered to them by God and the Lord and inspired by the Holy Spirit, will prove true. All will acknowledge this. And the Lord will appear wondrous in the believing of those who believed. He will be justified in His words, and will prevail when He is judged (Ps 50:6). The word believed stands in the past tense, not the future, but this does not hinder the interpretation just given. The Apostle places our attention at the very moment when this will take place, and as though says: the Lord will be wondrous in those who believed, for behold, see, our testimony has been justified. With this Saint Paul ends his depiction of the future judgment and recompense. He held attention on this subject for so long because no other subject is so powerful to sober the mind and give such vigor and energy to the moral powers as the contemplation of what the end of everything will be. The cold strictness of moral instruction, namely to act by the mere consciousness of duty, is foreign to divine teaching. It surrounds man with motives to which human nature responds sympathetically at every stage of its development. Saint Chrysostom teaches about this as follows: The thought of the kingdom moves us to lead a virtuous life. It is true that one who is perfectly virtuous is guided neither by fear of punishments nor by the desire to acquire the kingdom, but by Christ Himself, as Paul was. But let us think on the blessings in the heavenly kingdom and on the torments in Gehenna. At least in this way let us rightly form and educate ourselves. In this way let us move ourselves to fulfill what we must fulfill. When in the present life you see something good and great, then think of the heavenly kingdom, and you will be convinced that what you have seen is insignificant. When you see something fearful, think of Gehenna, and you will laugh at what seemed fearful to you. When fleshly desire takes possession of you, think of the fire. Consider the pleasure itself from this sin, that it is insignificant and does not even bring pleasure. If fear of transgressing the laws enacted here has such power that it restrains us from evil deeds, much more will remembrance of the future, of unceasing torment and eternal punishment. If fear of offending an earthly king restrains us from so many crimes, much more will fear of offending the heavenly King. If the mere sight of a dead man so humbles our mind, much more Gehenna and the unquenchable fire, and much more the undying worm. If we constantly thought about Gehenna, we would not quickly be cast down into it. This is why God threatens punishment. If meditation on Gehenna did not bring us great benefit, God would not have uttered this threat. But since remembrance of it can help us properly accomplish great deeds, He has sown in our souls the terrifying thought of it as a saving medicine (on verse 8).
THEOSIS