THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
“But I am not ashamed,” he says. Indeed, tell me, are these bonds shameful? Are these sufferings shameful? Then do not be ashamed either.
Do you see how he teaches doctrine by deed itself? I suffer, he says. I have been cast into prison. I endure persecution. “For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep my deposit until that day.”
What does “deposit” mean? Faith, preaching. The One who entrusted it to me, he says, will preserve it unchanged. I endure everything so that this treasure may not be plundered, and I am ashamed of nothing, if only it remains intact.
Or he calls the believers the deposit, whom God entrusted to him, or whom he entrusted to God. Behold, now I commend you to the Lord, he says. That is, this will not be useless for me.
Timothy himself presents to me the fruit of this deposit. Do you see how, in hope for his disciples, he does not even feel his sufferings? Such a teacher must be. He must care for his disciples in this way, counting them everything for himself.
“For now we live,” he says, “if you stand fast in the Lord” (1 Thess 3:8). And again: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? Is it not even you before our Lord Jesus Christ?” (1 Thess 2:19).
Do you see how he cares for the good of his disciples no less than for his own? Teachers must surpass bodily fathers and be more zealous than they. But children also must nourish love for them.
“Obey your leaders,” he says, “and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls, as those who must give account” (Heb 13:17). Tell me then, when your teacher is subject to such dangerous accountability, why do you not even wish to obey him, and that for your own benefit?
Even if everything concerning himself is in order, he is anxious until everything concerning you also is in order. He gives a double account. Consider how much he must labor and care for each of those subject to him.
What honor or service can you repay him that would be equal to such dangers? You can offer nothing equal. You have not yet laid down your soul for him, but he lays down his soul for you.
If he does not lay it down here, as circumstances require, he will lose it there. Yet you do not wish to obey him even in words. This is the cause of all evils: the obedience due to those in authority has disappeared.
There is neither shame nor fear. “Obey your leaders,” he says, “and submit to them.” But now everything has been distorted and overturned.
I say this not for the sake of those in authority. What benefit will they receive from our honor, even if we are obedient to them in the highest degree? I say it for your own benefit.
If they are respected, they receive no benefit for themselves in the future life, but may even fall under greater condemnation. If they are insulted, they suffer no harm in the future life, but may even have greater justification.
No, I desire this for your own sake. When those in authority are respected by those subject to them, even this turns against them. Thus God said to Eli, “I chose you from the house of your father” (1 Sam 2:28).
But when they are insulted, as happened with Samuel, God says, “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me” (1 Sam 8:7). Thus insult serves them for benefit, while honor is a burden.
Therefore I say this not for their sake, but for your own. Whoever honors the priest will also honor God. Whoever begins to despise the priest will gradually one day come to insulting God.
“He who receives you,” the Lord said, “receives Me” (Mt 10:40). Elsewhere it is said, “Hold His priests in honor” (Num 18:8). The Jews came to despise God because they despised Moses and threw stones at him.
Whoever reverences the priest will all the more reverence God. Even if the priest is impious, God sees that out of reverence for Him you honor even one unworthy of honor, and He Himself will give you the reward.
If “he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet,” as the Lord says, “will receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt 10:41), then certainly he who respects the priest, listens to him, and obeys him will receive a reward.
If in the matter of hospitality, when you do not know whom you receive, you receive such a reward, then much more will you receive one when you obey the man whom the Lord commands you to obey.
“The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,” He said. “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do. But do not act according to their works” (Mt 23:2-3).
Do you not know what a priest is? He is an angel of the Lord. Does he speak what is his own? If you despise him, you despise not him, but God who ordained him.
But how, you say, is it known that God ordained him? If you have no conviction of this, then your hope is vain. If God does nothing through him, then you have no baptism, do not partake of the Mysteries, and receive no blessings.
Consequently, you are not a Christian. What then, you say? Does God ordain all, even the unworthy? God does not ordain all, but through all He Himself acts, even if they are unworthy, for the salvation of the people.
If for the people’s sake He spoke through the donkey and Balaam, an impious man (Num 22), then much more through the priest. What does God not do for our salvation? What does He not speak? Through whom does He not act?
If He acted through Judas and through those prophets to whom He says, “I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity” (Lk 13:27; Mt 7:23), and who cast out evil spirits, then much more will He act through priests.
When we begin to investigate the life of those in authority, we want to be ordainers of teachers ourselves. In this way everything is overturned, the feet are above, and the head below.
Hear Paul, who says, “It is a very small thing to me that I should be judged by you or by a human court” (1 Cor 4:3). And again: “Why do you judge your brother?” (Rom 14:10).
If one must not judge a brother, then much more must one not judge a teacher. If God had commanded you to do this, you would act well and would sin by not doing so. But if He commanded the opposite, do not be bold and do not go beyond your limits.
When the calf had been made, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose up against Aaron (Num 16). What then? Did they not perish? Let each care for his own affairs.
Do not listen to one who teaches wrong doctrine, even if he is an angel. But if someone teaches right doctrine, look not at his life, but at his words. You have Paul, who teaches you what is fitting both by deeds and by words.
But, you say, the priest does not give to the poor and does not manage affairs well. How do you know this? Before you know for certain, do not reproach him. Fear the accountability.
Many things are condemned on suspicion. Imitate your Master. Hear what He says: “I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against them that has come to Me; and if not, I will know” (Gen 18:21).
Even if you have learned, investigated, and seen, still wait for the Judge. Do not seize for yourself Christ’s right beforehand. The right to judge belongs to Him, not to you.
You are the lowest servant, not the master. You are a sheep. Do not judge the shepherd, lest you be punished also for the very thing of which you accuse him.
But how is it, you say, that he speaks to me and does not do it himself? He is not the one speaking to you. If you obey only him, you will receive no reward. Christ commands you.
What am I saying? Even Paul should not be obeyed if he said anything from himself, anything human. He must be obeyed as an apostle having Christ within him, who spoke through him.
Let us therefore not judge the affairs of others, but each his own. Examine your own life. But, you say, the priest ought to be better than I. Why? Because he is a priest.
What does he not have more than you? Labors, dangers, cares, or sorrows? Having all this, how is he not better than you? But even if he is not better than you, tell me, why must you destroy yourself?
Your words come from pride. How do you know that he is not better than you? He steals, you say, and commits sacrilege. Man, how do you know this? Why do you rush into the abyss?
If someone says to you that a certain man hides the royal purple in his possession, then even if you know it, you stop your ears. Even if you could expose him, you immediately withdraw and show that you know nothing, not wishing to incur needless danger.
But here you not only do not withdraw, you bring needless danger upon yourself. Such words of yours are not without accountability. Hear what Christ says: “I tell you that for every idle word that men shall speak, they will give account on the day of judgment” (Mt 12:36).
In any case, if you consider yourself better than another and do not sigh, do not strike your breast, do not bow your head, and do not imitate the publican, then you have destroyed yourself, even if you truly are better.
Are you better than another? Then be silent, so that you may remain better. As soon as you speak, you lose everything. If you think this about yourself, you are no longer such. If you do not think it, you will gain still more.
If such a sinner, by confessing his sins, went away justified, what will he not gain who, not being so sinful, regards himself as such? Examine your own life. You do not steal? But you plunder, commit violence, and do countless other such things.
I say this not to praise theft. No, I am ready to weep bitterly if such a man is truly found, though I do not believe it. It is impossible even to say how great a sin sacrilege is.
But I pity you. I do not want your virtues to be made void through judging others. Tell me, what is worse than a publican?
It was true that he was a publican and guilty of many transgressions. Yet it was enough for the Pharisee merely to say, “I am not like this publican” (Lk 18:11), in order to lose everything.
And you say of the priest, “I am not like this sacrilegious man,” and do you not lose everything? I am compelled to say this and refute such speech, not because I am so concerned for priests, but because I fear for you.
I fear lest you make your virtues void by such self-praise and condemnation of others. Hear the exhortation Paul gives: “Let each one examine his own work, and then he will have boasting in himself alone, and not in another” (Gal 6:4).
Tell me, if you received a wound and came to a hospital, would you, instead of applying medicine and healing the wounds, begin to inquire whether the physician has a wound or not?
If he has one, do you concern yourself with this? Because he has it, do you leave your own wound without treatment and say, “As a physician, he ought to be healthy; but since he, being a physician, is not healthy, I leave my wound untreated”?
So it is here. If the priest is not good, will this be any consolation for the subordinate? Not at all. He will receive the appointed punishment. You also will receive what is due and deserved.
The teacher performs only a service. “They shall all be taught by God,” it is said (Jn 6:45). “And they shall no more say, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest” (Jer 31:34).
Why then, you say, does he preside? Why does he hold such a place? I exhort you, let us not speak evil of teachers. Let us not reason about them, so that we do not harm ourselves.
Let us examine our own deeds, and speak evil of no one. Let us be ashamed before the day on which he enlightened us by baptism. In a father, even if he has countless weaknesses, a son covers them all.
“Do not seek glory,” the Wise One says, “in your father’s dishonor, for your father’s dishonor is no glory to you. Though he fail in understanding, have forbearance” (Sir 3:10, 13).
If this is said of bodily fathers, then much more must it be said of spiritual fathers. Be ashamed. Every day he serves you, sets forth the reading of Scripture for you, adorns the house of God for you, keeps vigil for you, prays for you.