Acts 11:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see how everything was accomplished by Peter’s speech, when he recounted what had happened in detail? For this reason they glorified God, because He had granted repentance to them also.

Thus they were humbled by these words. Then, finally, the door of faith was opened to the Gentiles. By his defense he shames them and strikes them forcefully: “I could not,” he says, “resist.”

Therefore, being then afraid, “they fell silent and glorified God.” So must we also glorify God for the good things received by our neighbors, and not envy them.

Many of the newly baptized envy when they see others departing from this life soon after baptism. We must glorify God also because He does not grant them a continuation of life.

But you, if you wish, have received an even greater gift. I mean that you received not only illumination through baptism, for that is common both to him and to you.

You also received the time needed for good works. That man put on the garment of renewal and did not have time to enjoy it.

God gave you a greater opportunity to use the weapons as you should, and thus to test them in action. That man departs, receiving a reward only for his faith.

You stand in the arena of works, having the possibility of receiving many rewards. You can appear brighter than he, as much as the sun is brighter than the smallest star.

You can appear as much brighter as a commander than the last soldier, or rather, as the king himself. Therefore blame yourself. Or rather, do not blame yourself only, but constantly correct yourself.

It is not enough only to blame yourself. You must stir yourself up for the struggle. Have you fallen? Have you suffered grievously? Rise. Be strengthened. You are still in the arena. The spectacle still continues.

Do you not see how many wrestlers, after being thrown down, again stirred themselves up for the struggle? Only do not fall voluntarily. Do you call the departed man blessed? Call yourself much more blessed.

He received forgiveness of sins. But you, if you wish, will not only wash away your sins, but will also have good works, which for him is impossible.

We have the possibility of restoring ourselves. Repentance is a great medicine. Do not despair. The one truly worthy of despair is the one who despairs of himself.

He no longer has hopes of salvation. It is not so terrible to fall into the depth of evils as it is, after falling, to remain there.

It is not so impious to fall into the depth of evils as it is, after falling, to remain careless. Why then, tell me, do you not care for what you must especially strive after?

You have fallen after receiving so many wounds? But there is no wound of the soul that cannot be healed. On the body there are many such wounds, but in the soul not one.

We care for those bodily wounds without ceasing, but for these wounds we are not at all anxious. Do you not see in how short a time the thief was corrected (Lk 23:40)?

Do you not see in how short a time the martyrs accomplished everything? But is it no longer the time of martyrdom? Even now it is a time of contests, if we wish, as I have often said.

“All,” says the Apostle, “who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). Those who live piously are constantly persecuted, if not by men, then by demons.

This is the heaviest persecution. Even before this, careless people suffer persecution especially from security itself. Or do you think it is not a great persecution to be secure from persecutions?

This is the heaviest of all persecutions. It is worse than persecution itself. Security relaxes the soul like an overflowing torrent. As heat and cold are to the body, so persecution and security are to the soul.

So that you may be more fully convinced that it is worse than persecution, observe the following. It brings sleep upon the soul, produces great inattention and carelessness, and stirs up every kind of passion.

It arms pride, arms love of pleasure, arms anger, envy, vainglory, and rivalry. During persecution nothing of this sort can be disturbed.

Fear draws near and, as though striking a barking dog hard with a whip, does not allow any of these passions even to utter a sound.

During persecution, who can be vainglorious? Who can give himself to love of pleasure? No one. Instead there is great fear and trembling.

This produces great stillness, leads to a quiet harbor, and makes the soul reverent. I once heard from our fathers, though may this not happen to us, since we have been commanded not to seek temptations (Mt 6:13).

They said that during the ancient persecutions one could see men who were truly Christian. No one then cared for property, no one for wife, no one for children, no one for fatherland.

All had one care: to save their soul. Some hid in tombs and caves, others in deserts. Not only men, but also delicate and weak women hid then, continually enduring hunger.

Imagine whether any desire for luxury or love of pleasure could arise in a woman hiding in a cave. She waited for a maidservant who was to bring food.

She feared lest she be caught, and lay in a tomb as though in a furnace. Could she even think that there was such a thing as luxury, or that the world existed at all?

Do you see that now there is especially persecution, when passions attack us from every side like wild beasts? Now there is a heavy persecution, both for this reason and because it is not even considered persecution.

Indeed, this battle presents this danger also: it is considered peace, so that we do not arm ourselves against it and do not rise up. No one fears it. No one is afraid.

If you do not believe it, ask the pagans who persecute Christians. When were Christian duties fulfilled more exactly? When were all more pious?

Their number was not great then, but the wealth of virtue was great. Tell me, what profit is there if there is much hay, when one could have precious stones?

The whole matter is not in multitude, but in the excellence of virtue. Elijah was one, but the world was not worth him (3 Kgs 19:14). The world consists of multitudes.

Yet even a multitude is nothing when it cannot compare with even one man. “Better is one righteous man” who does the Lord’s will “than a thousand sinners” (Sir 16:3).

The Wise One expresses the same thing when he says, “Do not desire a multitude of useless children” (Sir 16:1). Such people give more occasion for blasphemy against God than if they were not Christians.

What need have I of a multitude? Only more food for the fire. You can see the same thing in the body.

Moderate food that promotes health is better than luxurious food that causes harm. The former nourishes far more than the latter. The former is food; the latter is disease.

The same thing can be seen in war. Ten skilled and brave men are better than thousands of the unskilled. The latter do nothing, and even hinder those who act.

The same can be seen on a ship. Two skilled sailors are better than a countless multitude of the unskilled, because the latter will sink the ship itself.

I say this not because I am displeased with your multitude, but because I desire all of you to be excellent in virtue and not to rely on multitude.

Those going to Gehenna are far more numerous. But the Kingdom of God is greater than Gehenna, though it contains few. The people of Israel were as numerous as the sand of the sea, but one man saved them.

Moses was one, but he had greater power than all (Num 12:7). Joshua was one, but he had greater power than six hundred thousand (Ex 12:37).

Let us not strive only that they be many, but more that they be excellent in virtue. When the latter is attained, then the former will follow.

No one who builds a house wishes first to make it spacious, but first strong and trustworthy, and only then spacious. No one lays a foundation so as to provoke ridicule against himself.

Let us first strive for the latter, and then also for the former. If the latter exists, then the former will easily exist. If the latter does not exist, then the former, even if present, brings no benefit.

If there are those who can shine in the Church, then soon there will be many. If there are no such first ones, then the multitude will never possess excellence.

How many do you think are being saved in our city? What I am about to say is grievous, yet I will say it.

From so many thousands, one cannot find more than a hundred being saved, and even of these I am doubtful. What impiety is there in the young, tell me? What negligence in the old?

No one cares as he should for his own son. No one, when he sees an elder, is zealous to imitate him. Models for imitation have been lost. Therefore the young are not in any way worthy of admiration.

Do not tell me that we are a multitude. That belongs to cold people. Before men one could rightly speak about this, but not before God, who has no need of us.

And to show that these words are cold even for men, listen. One who has many servants, but corrupt servants, how many vexations will he suffer?

To one who has not even one servant, it seems unpleasant to remain without servants. But one who has bad servants destroys himself together with them, and suffers greater harm.

It is much harder to punish others and quarrel with them than to serve oneself. I say this so that no one may marvel at the Church because of its multitude.

Rather, let us strive to make this multitude excellent. Let each one care for his own member, not only for friends, relatives, or neighbors, as I always say, but also draw strangers into the Church.

For example, prayer is taking place. Everyone sits coldly, both young and old, though the young are more like outcasts than young men. They laugh, roar with laughter, and talk.

Indeed, I have heard this: they mock one another while on their knees. You stand there, whether young man or elder. Stop them when you see it.

Rebuke more strongly the one who does not listen. Call the deacon. Threaten him. Do your part. If he dares to do anything against you, many will certainly help you.

Who is so senseless that, seeing you rebuke for this and those being rebuked, he will not take your side? Then go home, having received the reward for prayer.

In the master’s house, we consider those servants most zealous who do not leave even one vessel lying in disorder. Tell me: if you saw a silver vessel thrown outside the house, would you not take it and bring it in?

You would do so even if you were not obliged. If you saw a garment thrown about in disorder, would you not put it in order from affection for the master?

You would do so even if you did not have to care for it, and even if you were an enemy of the one appointed to that task. So it is now.

These are vessels. If you see them lying in disorder, put them in order. Come to me; I will not refuse. Tell me. Inform me. I cannot observe everything myself. Forgive me.

You see what evil rules in the world. Not without reason did I say that we are a heap of hay, a disorderly sea.

I do not speak about what those people do, but about the fact that those who come here fall into such sleep that they do not correct this.

Again I see some talking while standing when prayer is being offered. Others, who are more modest, talk not only when prayer is being offered, but even when the priest blesses.

O audacity! When, then, will there be salvation? How shall we propitiate God?

If you come to a place of games, you will see everyone forming a choir in good order, and nothing discordant. On a lyre, variously but harmoniously arranged, one melodious tone comes from the good order of each component part.

So here also, one harmonious concord should be formed from all. We constitute one Church, members harmoniously joined to one Head. We are all one body.

If any one member is left neglected, the whole body is neglected and corrupted. Thus the disorder of one disturbs the good order of all.

This is truly fearful: you come here not to a place of games or dancing for amusement, yet you stand in disorder. Do you not know that you stand together with angels?

At these words they became meek and fell silent. Do you see that through Peter’s speech to the people everything turned out well, once he recounted what had happened? From that time, at last, the doors were opened to the Gentiles for entrance into the Church.

"Zion hears and is glad" (Ps 96:8). What does Zion hear? That all His angels worship Him. What does Zion hear? This is what it hears: "The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory. Let all who serve graven images be put to shame, who boast in idols" (Ps 96:6-7). For among the Gentiles there was not yet a Church. Certain Jews in Judea came to faith, and those Jews who believed thought that they alone had a relation to Christ. Then the apostles were sent to the Gentiles, and a command was given to Cornelius. Cornelius believed and was baptized, and those who were with Cornelius were baptized also. But you know what happened so that they might be baptized. An angel was sent to Cornelius. The angel sent Cornelius to Peter, and Peter came to Cornelius.

We read of this in the book of blessed Job: “From the north comes fair weather, and around God is fearful splendor” (Job 37:22). First the light of faith arose in the cold breast of the Gentiles. Because of this unexpected faith, Judea glorifies God with trembling.

Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob 27.43.71 (PL 76:440).

Preaching in certain coastal cities, such as Azotus, Joppa, and Caesarea, could serve to spread the Gospel even into distant lands. Yet even now some were going beyond the borders of Palestine: to the island of Crete, to Phoenicia, to Syria, specifically to Damascus and Antioch.

At first they preached only to the Jews. These newly founded churches from the Jews entered into relations with Jerusalem, the mother of the churches. Though diminished in the number of her own members, she now had incomparably more churches dependent upon her.

The news of what had occurred in the house of Cornelius quickly spread among the Christians and reached, among others, the Church of Jerusalem. There this report caused serious perplexity.

The Christians from the circumcision were perplexed, and even indignant, above all because the Apostle Peter had allowed himself to enter the house of uncircumcised men and eat with them.

Therefore, when Peter came to Jerusalem, they reproached him for what, in their opinion, was a defilement of himself through fellowship with Gentiles.

But the Apostle Peter's detailed account of all the extraordinary circumstances, in which God's will concerning the Gentiles was expressed, completely quieted their minds.

All the Christians glorified God, saying: evidently God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life.

Thus, on the ground of Christianity, there took place the union of two worlds hostile to one another and until then irreconcilable: the Jewish and the Gentile. Both alike were called into the Church. The only condition for entering it was faith in Jesus Christ as Savior of the world, not belonging to one nation or another, or to one tribe or another. Representatives of every belief and tribe were now admitted into the Church. These included Jews and Samaritans, the Ethiopian proselyte from the distant south, and Gentiles from the very capital of the world, Rome. This freedom of access to the Church for all Gentiles now received a double confirmation. It was confirmed in the person of the Apostle Peter, who received the firstfruits from the Gentile world. It was also confirmed in the person of the Apostle Paul, who received a special commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentile nations and had already begun his great work in various cities of Syria and Cilicia.

When they had heard this, they became silent, and so forth. By his account Peter did not answer precisely the reproach made by those of the circumcision, that he had gone to the uncircumcised and eaten with them.

Rather, he placed as the ground for justifying his actions toward them the will of God concerning these Gentiles. This will had been directly shown in indisputably true and great works of God.

If God, with such extraordinary signs, had received the Gentiles into His Church, could Peter not deal with them as his brothers? Could he not eat and drink with them, and live in their house?

The effect of Peter's speech on those who reproached him was striking. They not only ceased reproaching him, but also magnified the Lord, who had so solicitously willed to order the salvation of the Gentiles.

At the same time they made a very significant observation. This meant that the Gentiles too, by God's help, were beginning to come to awareness of their religious and moral helplessness.

In theological language, this is called the action of God's prevenient grace.

Their observation, together with their glorification of God for the conversion of the Gentiles, shows that they were good-hearted people. The reproach they had expressed against the Apostle was therefore the result of misunderstanding or of some external influence upon them.