2 Timothy 2:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His." What does this mean? The Apostle borrowed this from Deuteronomy, or more exactly, from Numbers 16:5. It means that firm souls stand firm and unmoved. And from what is this evident? From the fact that such words are inscribed upon their deeds: God knows them and does not permit them to perish, and they depart from unrighteousness.

"Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." These are the marks of the foundation. Such a man appears as a firm foundation. Just as an inscription is made on a stone so that it may serve as its mark, so this inscription is expressed in him through deeds.

"Having," he says, this seal inscribed: "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." Therefore whoever does unrighteousness does not have this foundation. The mark of this seal is not to do unrighteousness.

Let us not deprive ourselves of this royal seal and sign, lest we remain unsealed and unstable. Let us stand upon foundations, and upon firm foundations, and not be carried away. Here is the mark of people who belong to God: to depart from unrighteousness. How can the one who does unrighteousness belong to God, who is righteous, when he opposes Him by his deeds and offends Him by his actions?

Yet again we condemn unrighteousness, and again we stir up against ourselves a multitude of the discontented. Passion, like a tyrant, has taken possession of the souls of all. What is fearful is that it has possessed them not by compulsion or violence, but by persuasion and enticement, so that they are even grateful for such slavery.

This is truly fearful. If they were held by violence and not by attachment, they would soon break away. And why does that which is in itself very unpleasant appear pleasant? Conversely, why does righteousness appear unpleasant, though it is very pleasant? This depends on our dispositions. Some have found even honey bitter, while they have taken some harmful thing with pleasure. The cause is not in the nature of things, but in the corruption of the wicked themselves.

Think of the tribunal in our soul. When the plumb line is not properly fixed, scales falsely show the weight of the things being weighed. So also the soul cannot judge things well, but wavers and is carried away, when the plumb line of its thoughts is not established and firmly attached to the law of God.

If one looks carefully, one can see that unrighteousness is very bitter, not only for those who suffer from it, but also for those who do it. Indeed, it is much more bitter for the latter than for the former. Let us not yet speak of the future, but only of the present. Are lawsuits, trials, condemnation, envy, and slander not its companions? What could be more unpleasant than this?

Are hatred, enmity, reproaches, and the constant torments and gnawings of conscience not its companions? I wish, if it were possible, to draw the soul of an unjust man out of his body. Then you would see how it grows pale, trembles, is ashamed, is troubled, and condemns itself.

Whatever depth of evil we may have fallen into, the judge of our soul is not destroyed. He remains incorruptible. No one will openly say that unrighteousness is good. Rather, he invents pretexts and uses every means at least to justify himself in words. Yet he cannot receive justification from conscience.

Among us, eloquence, the corruption of rulers, and the multitude of flatterers can darken the truth. But within, in the conscience, there is nothing of this kind. There are no flatterers there, no money to bribe the judge. This judge has been implanted in us by God by nature, and what is from God cannot suffer anything of this kind.

On the contrary, unpleasant dreams, apparitions, and the constant remembrance of the evil done disturb our peace. For example, has someone unjustly appropriated another's house? Then not only the one deprived suffers, but also the one who appropriated it, if he believes in the future judgment. If he believes in it, he grieves deeply and weeps. If he does not believe in the future, even then he is ashamed and blushes.

Indeed, there is no man who does not fear judgment, whether he is pagan, Jew, or heretic. If he does not think of the future, he fears and trembles over this life. He fears lest he suffer misfortune in money, or children, or household, or soul, because God sends many such things.

Since the teaching about the resurrection cannot bring all to their senses, God even here gives and shows us many signs of His justice. Such a covetous man had no children. Another fell in war. Another was maimed. Another lost his son. He knows and imagines all this, and therefore remains in constant fear.

Or do you not know how unjust men suffer, and how unpleasant this is? Even if they experienced none of these things, does not everyone despise them? Does not everyone hate them? Does not everyone turn away from them? Does not everyone call them more senseless than wild beasts, even the ungodly who are like them?

If they condemn themselves, still more do they condemn another, calling him a robber, a covetous man, and a villain. What, then, is pleasant in covetousness? Nothing, except that anxiety over preserving wealth increases, cares and sorrows multiply, and the more one accumulates wealth, the greater insomnia one acquires for himself.

And what shall we say of the curses and complaints of those who have been wronged? What if illness occurs? Truly, there is no man who, when he is in illness and unable to do anything, does not become anxious and tormented, even if he were the most godless of all.

While we live here, the pleasure-loving soul estranges itself from everything sorrowful. But when the time comes for it to be separated from the body, then great fear seizes it, as though it were entering the very forecourt of the tribunal.

Robbers, while they remain in prison, live without fear. But when they are brought to the very curtain, to the place of judgment, then they lose themselves from fear. Indeed, when the fear of death comes, it burns up everything else like fire. It compels the soul to come to its senses and care for the future.

Then neither desire for wealth, nor the passion of covetousness, nor sensual pleasure rules it. All this passes like a cloud. The inner judge becomes clear, and the sorrow that has seized the soul softens its hardness. Nothing so hinders the love of wisdom as a life of pleasures. Conversely, affliction helps the love of wisdom.

Imagine what will then happen to the covetous man. "A moment of suffering," says the Wise One, "makes one forget delights" (Sir 11:27). What will it be like for him to remember those he robbed, those he wronged, and those who suffered from his greed? What will it be like to see others enjoying the gain, while he himself is preparing to receive punishment?

It is impossible, truly impossible, that one who has fallen ill should not think of this. Often in such cases the soul, losing itself and suffering torment, shudders. Tell me, what kind of torment is this? It necessarily occurs in every illness. And what will he not suffer when he sees others punished and dying?

And this is here. What will be there cannot be expressed in words: what recompense there will be, what punishments, what torments, what lacerations. Therefore we say: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Lk 8:8).

We speak of this often, not because we wish to speak of it often, but because we are compelled to do so. We would wish that there were no need even to begin speaking of it. But if it is impossible not to begin, then at least we would wish, by a small remedy, to free you from sickness and restore you to health.

But when you persist in sickness, it would be base and pitiful to abandon the treatment. It would even be cruel and inhuman. If we entreat physicians who despair of healing the body, saying to them, do not leave us and do not cease using your remedies until the last breath, should we not much more urge ourselves on?

Perhaps someone, even after reaching the very gates of Hades and the forecourt of the very depth of evils, will be able to come to himself, rise, be strengthened, and receive eternal life. How many people, after hearing exhortations ten times, do not come to repentance, but later are converted by a single exhortation?

Or rather, not by a single exhortation. Although they remained insensible during the previous ten, they nevertheless received benefit from them, and afterward showed the whole fruit all at once. A tree receives ten blows and does not fall from the ten. Then suddenly it falls from one later blow. Yet, strictly speaking, the effect of the last blow comes not from the one, but from the ten. Whoever looks at the root sees this. Whoever looks from above at the trunk cannot see anything of the kind.

So it is here. Physicians often give many medicines without benefit. Then someone gives his medicine and sets everything right. Yet this is not his work alone, but also the work of the earlier medicines, which had already acted upon the disease. So also we, if we do not show the fruits of hearing now, will show them later. That we shall show them, I am entirely confident.

It is impossible, truly impossible, that such love and such zeal of yours for hearing should remain fruitless. May this not be. Rather, may all of us, who have been counted worthy to hear the commandments of Christ, be counted worthy of eternal good things.

This means that these people, or such souls, were foreknown by God as wholly belonging to Him. They were forechosen so that they would not be led astray together with the weaker.

By unrighteousness the Apostle means either error in dogmas, or every injustice in general. One who acts unjustly has no foundation and does not belong to God.

For how can he belong to God, when God is righteous? He does not have the seal.

Notice this. If the one who names the name of the Lord must depart from unrighteousness, then the one who does not depart is unworthy to name His name. For praise is unseemly in the mouth of a sinner.

As the Apostle then warned men to beware the error of the followers of Philetus and Hymenaeus, so now he warns everyone against the impiety of the Arians. He says: "But the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His,'" and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."

The Apostle fittingly said both things. He commands those who have believed to flee fellowship with the impious. He also commands them not to be indignant at their uprising.

For, the Apostle says, the God of all has from the beginning foreseen both those who believe and those who openly arm themselves against the truth.

Then, after presenting a fitting image, he proposes that Timothy draw consolation from this.

"And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." Here unrighteousness means every sin. Everyone who sins first unjustly harms himself, and likewise another. Injustice is deception and error.

Therefore he who is known by God and departs from sin bears the seal mentioned above. He bears these very words as though written upon him, like marks of distinction, and by them he is recognized.

Let us withdraw from overeating, and even from eating to fullness. Let us establish for ourselves a rule of moderate and constant abstinence in food and drink.

Let us deny ourselves the enjoyment of tasty foods and drinks. Let us give ourselves sufficient sleep, but not excessive sleep.

Let us renounce idle talk, laughter, jokes, and mockery of holy things. Let us cease unnecessary visits from the cell to the brethren, and the reception of brethren in the cell.

This is often done under the pretext of love, whose name covers empty conversations and occupations that empty the soul.

Let us renounce fantasy and vain thoughts. They arise in us because of our unbelief, because of unreasonable anxiety, and because of our other passions.

With fullness of faith let us entrust everything to the Lord. Let us replace our many thoughts and our empty fantasies with unceasing prayer to the Lord Jesus.

It also shows that the Church consists only of those who are known by God. This was so even in the Old Testament, where the Lord separated His faithful ones from those who thought they stood by their own righteousness (Num. 16:5).

The other inscription defines the character of those persons who must enter into the Church. It reads: “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

The chosen and God-known members of the Church must depart from every unrighteousness and from all unrighteous men. This means also from persons like Hymenaeus and Philetus.

By his expression, the Apostle recalls the well-known rebellion of Korah and Dathan in the wilderness. In their destruction, he indicates an example of the coming Judgment upon present and future disturbers of the Church’s peace (Num. 16:26).

What precisely is this? It is faith, planted by God in the heart of the believer, and the holy Church built upon such faith. Faith is formed in this way. Having arranged the incarnate divine economy of salvation, God calls men to receive salvation according to this economy through the preaching of the Gospel.

In the Gospel, together with the word, the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit passes through the hearing of the ear to the heart. The Spirit governs the Gospel and awakens there the spiritual elements of life according to God, which remained after the fall. If the one who has heard the Gospel inclines toward it and desires to follow it, then God, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, helps him receive faith according to the measure of his devotion to God.

In the one who gives himself wholly to God's guidance, faith takes up its dwelling in full strength. It is not so much dogmatically complete as strong in assurance toward God. When this is built up in the heart, then faith, by God's grace, rebuilds everything within. It becomes the source and foundation of life according to God.

This, then, is the faith founded by God in the heart, serving as the foundation of life according to God. Not all faiths are faiths founded by God. Even faiths founded by God in the heart are not all equally strong and firm. The degree of firmness and strength of each person's faith depends on the degree and strength of his devotion to God.

In the one who gives himself wholly to God, God, meeting no obstacle from human freedom, quickly builds faith and the order of life according to faith. He establishes it deeply and firmly. But the one who does not give himself wholly to God, and leaves a part of activity for himself independently of God, loses God's cooperation in the same measure as he leaves the greater part for himself. For God does not intrude into the sphere of self-activity and freedom.

In the measure that such a man lacks this cooperation, the formation of faith is delayed. In the same measure faith appears weak and unstable. Some such men, convinced by the experiences of life how unreliable free self-activity is in the matter of faith, finally give themselves wholly to God. Then God quickly completes in them what was lacking, and faith appears in them in full strength, as fully founded and established by God.

Others remain all their life with an admixture of self-made activity in their faith. Such people are always unstable in faith, each in his own measure. There are also those who hold faith externally, as a document or program, while they themselves construct their whole life according to faith. In such people there is nothing divine. Everything is self-made, and they do not belong to God.

In the present passage the Apostle means faith firmly founded by God in the heart of those who give themselves wholly to Him. Such faith stands firm and never falls. What Saint Paul said of love applies to it: who shall separate us? No one and nothing (cf. Rom 8:35-39). It is also the rock upon which the Lord promised to build His Church, and upon which He built it (cf. Mt 16:18).

Ambrosiaster writes: "The foundation of God is faith, which firmly holds what God has promised. Such faith cannot be crushed by the false reasonings of treacherous heretics." Since this faith was weak in some, they wavered and were carried away after those who had erred concerning the truth.

Chrysostom says of them: "Here, by the words, the foundation stands, it is shown that they were not firm even before they were shaken. Otherwise they would not have been shaken by the first assault. The firm not only suffer nothing from deceivers, but even deserve admiration. Thus one must be devoted to the faith."

The blessed Theophylact adds something to this: "Not all were led astray, but the unstable. For if they had not been such, they would not have fallen away. Those perfectly planted in the faith stand firm and unmoved. And see: he says firm, and foundation. Thus must we hold fast to the faith."

"Having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His." The foundation of God is faith in all its strength, founded and planted by God in the heart wholly devoted to Him. This divine action within a man rebuilds everything there and gives everything its own character and its own form.

If the eyes of someone outside were opened and he saw the inner form of the believer in this way, he could not restrain himself from crying out: this man is God's. So brightly does the seal of God shine upon him. Since he gives himself wholly to God, by this he makes himself God's own. And whoever makes himself God's own, God also makes His own.

This was His intention in the creation of rational and free creatures: to have them all as His own, on the condition that they freely make themselves His. Therefore, as soon as this making of oneself God's is accomplished in a man through whole devotion in faith, God immediately makes him His own. A living and strong communion comes into being.

It is imprinted upon the inner form of the believer, and all rational creatures see it. In the Apostle's words, "those who are His," the persons are indicated who give themselves wholly to God in faith. As soon as they give themselves to God, they are essentially made God's, truly His own before God.

The words "the Lord knows" mean that the Lord, as soon as such devotion to Him takes place in the soul of a believer, immediately knows it. There is no need for anyone from outside to tell Him this. He Himself sees. These are known to Him more than to anyone else. As soon as He sees this, He at once makes them His own, makes them His, and begins to have a special care for them as His own.

Many think that when a man has fully believed, everything has already been accomplished, salvation has been effected, and paradise has been taken possession of. In reality, by faith, even in the degree of strength just described, only the beginning of salvation is laid, or its foundation is deepened. The actual accomplishing of salvation follows after this, amid the labors of doing good and the struggles of self-denial.

The Apostle immediately adds this: "And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." Such is the task of the believer's life, who for the sake of faith and devotion to God has received the seal of belonging to God. This seal alone does not do the whole work. It does not dispose the one who has received it toward rest, but toward the labor of departing from unrighteousness and walking the path of righteousness.

Walking the path of righteousness is accomplished not only by giving each person his due, but also by doing him every possible good. Departure from unrighteousness is accomplished not only by avoiding unrighteous deeds and words, but also by suppressing all unrighteous thoughts and feelings. This is fulfilled through the struggle of self-opposition and self-compulsion, with the addition of outward self-restraints.

All this is required of the one who has received the seal of belonging to the Lord. Chrysostom says: "Firm souls stand firm and unshaken. On their deeds such words are inscribed, that God knows them. Just as an inscription is made on a stone to serve as its mark, so this inscription is expressed in them through deeds. The mark of this seal is not to do unrighteousness. Therefore let us not deprive ourselves of this royal seal and sign, lest we remain unsealed and unstable. Rather, let us stand upon foundations, firm foundations, and not be carried away. Here is the mark of people who belong to God: to depart from unrighteousness. For how can the man who does unrighteousness belong to God, who is righteous, when he opposes Him by his deeds and offends Him by his actions?"

The two halves of this verse indicate moments of the spiritual life which are related to one another as cause and effect, and stand in an inseparable bond. The foundation is God-devoted faith, receiving in the spirit the inscription of belonging to God. It contains a zealous resolve to stand in the righteousness of God. Having received the powers of grace, it appears in deed as the worker of every righteousness, with withdrawal from every unrighteousness.

But one must remember that, in the spirit, everything is accomplished according to the laws of free choice. Therefore the latter is not a mechanical consequence of the former apart from freedom. On the contrary, free choice draws from faith the motives for every righteousness and the obligation to fulfill it. Through faith it also receives the grace-filled power for this. Then, by free decision, it determines itself to do every righteousness and does it in the sense of strength in the Lord.

The one in whom both are joined will never be shaken. And behold: this is the firm foundation of the Church. In this place the Apostle speaks in the words of the Prophets. The first saying, "The Lord knows those who are His," is taken from the book of Numbers. There, on the occasion of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who said to Moses and Aaron, Why do you rule over us? We are the assembly of God, all are holy, holy Moses said to them: We are not acting this way of ourselves. Rather, God knows those who are His and has brought them near to Himself. That is, God chose us, knowing that we would remain faithful to Him (cf. Num 16:5).

The second saying is taken either from the words of holy Moses, spoken to the people on the same occasion, when the punishment of God was ready to fall upon those rebels and their whole family: "Depart from the tents of these hard-hearted men" (Num 16:26). Or it is taken from the words of holy Isaiah. Foretelling the coming of the Lord, the deliverance of men from slavery to sin, and the preaching of the Gospel, he addresses from afar those who would believe, that they should courageously depart from those who persist in unbelief: "Depart, go out from the midst of them, and touch not their uncleannesses" (cf. Isa 52:11). How all this applies to the Apostle's discourse is evident in itself.