When the holy Apostle Paul and his fellow-worker Barnabas had been called by the Holy Spirit from Antioch to preach the Gospel in the lands of the Gentiles, they founded several new Christian Churches and returned to Antioch, where they lived.
'After some days,' as the book of Acts relates, Paul said to Barnabas: 'Let us return and visit our brethren in every city where we preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are.' And indeed Paul 'went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches' (Acts 15:36, 41).
This is what the clear-sighted teacher did. Or, better, the Holy Spirit Himself moved him to do this as a precaution. Those newly enlightened by faith might, through habit, turn back to pagan superstitions. Or, through simplicity, they might be led away from the path of truth by the craft of false teachers. Or, through the usual scandals of the world, they might turn aside from the holiness of Christian life.
But false teachings can appear not only in new Churches, but also in Churches long established. The scandals of the world never cease as long as the world remains what it is. Therefore the successors of the apostles, 'building up' believers 'on the foundation of the apostles and prophets' (Eph 2:20), commanded all pastors of Churches, from time to time, to 'visit their brethren in every city.'
That is, they commanded them to teach and themselves to act as the apostles taught and acted. They were to visit the cities over which they were appointed rightly to divide the word of truth, and to see 'how they are' (Acts 15:36).
This same lot of service, having come down by sacred succession even to our unworthiness, has brought us to you also, brethren, to visit you. We have come to learn 'how you are': how you, faithful ones, abide in the true faith, and how you, Christians, abide in Christian life.
Your zealous gathering in the churches persuades us to think good things of you. So does your reverent attention to everything that bears the sign of holiness. So does the frequent remembrance of the Kingdom of heaven, which we have heard even in your greetings.
May the Lord by His grace make the venerators of His temple and holiness living temples of the Holy Spirit. May He remember in His Kingdom those who remember His Kingdom with faith. May He make them true sons of this blessed Kingdom.
But when I, newly arrived, examine according to my duty 'how you are,' one must think that you also, according to your duty. Are ready to hear from me 'how you ought to abide.' Through this mutual comparison of teaching and life, both you and I may be 'mutually encouraged,' as the Apostle says, 'by the faith common to you and me' (Rom 1:12).
By what brief but faithful word can I depict for you how you ought to abide? I hear the divine Chief Shepherd saying, 'My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me' (Jn 7:16). How much less does it befit us men to present teaching as our own.
Therefore I shall set before you as a faithful teacher, worthy of all acceptance, the saving grace of the heavenly Father, who sends earthly teachers. 'For the grace of God,' says the Apostle, 'has appeared, bringing salvation to all men' (Tit 2:11).
If saving grace has appeared, then certainly it has also made manifest the path of salvation. And indeed, the Apostle continues: 'The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us,' that is, teaching us. What, then, does saving grace teach?
It teaches that, 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ' (Tit 2:12-13).
Before grace leads us into the saving life that we must lead, it inspires us to abandon the ruinous life that we lead without grace: 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.'
How, says a man who has not experienced the life of grace, and therefore does not feel the deep corruption of ordinary natural life, can all our worldly life outside grace consist only of ungodliness and lusts? However strange this may be to such a man, the truth of God commands us to affirm that it is so.
'All that is in the world,' says the Apostle John, 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life' (1 Jn 2:16). Notice how strongly the Apostle expresses himself here: 'All that is in the world is lust.' Everything whatsoever in the world is one lust.
What does not live by lust is already not in the world, but in grace and in God. What is not in God, not in grace, but in the world, lives by lust.
Whoever is not wholly blinded by attachment to himself, and not wholly drawn away from himself by distraction in worldly vanities, can see this in himself. He can be a witness to this strict truth for himself.
Those who examine human nature know that thoughts are governed by the heart, as the word of God also says: 'Out of the heart come thoughts' (Mt 15:19). The heart is governed by desires. Therefore the will, or ruling desire, is the ruling principle and moving force of every life.
Look, then, at what desires govern the worldly man in worldly life. They are many and varied in relation to particular cases. But if one ascends to their common sources, the following root desires are seen: the desire for one's own sensual pleasure, the desire to possess what one sees, and the desire to be above others.
In shorter words, these are love of fleshly pleasure, love of gain, and ambition. In the Apostle's words, they are 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life' (Tit 2:11).
Since lust either does not listen to reason, or listens only in pretense, the lover of fleshly pleasure seeks enjoyment without considering that by it he damages, and even destroys in himself, the creation of God.
The lover of gain pursues acquisition without considering that he is stealing from his neighbor the portion of God's gifts that belongs to him. The ambitious man strives toward self-exaltation so uncontrollably that, if he could rise above everything on earth, he would not be satisfied at all.
Like the king of Babylon depicted by the Prophet, he would say: 'I will ascend into heaven; above the stars of heaven I will set my throne' (Isa 14:13). Or, like the king of Egypt: 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?' (Ex 5:2).
From this it is not hard to see that, together with lusts, the life of worldly men is, if not openly marked by ungodliness, at least secretly infected by it.
Therefore, if we desire to lead a life worthy of true Christians, then first of all we must, as saving grace teaches, deny 'ungodliness and worldly lusts.' To the extent that we strive to succeed in this teaching of renunciation of worldly life, grace leads us into higher knowledge and into the very experience of actual Christian life.
It teaches that 'we should live soberly, righteously, and piously' (Tit 2:12).
Human life, in its activity, moves among three limits. When it strikes against them wrongly, it throws its own movements into confusion and injures itself. These spiritual limits are the man himself, his neighbor, and God.
To give life in all these relations the right direction toward its true goal, that is, eternal salvation and blessedness, saving grace grants and teaches the use of three powers. It gives chastity, so that a man may not injure himself by love of fleshly pleasure. It gives righteousness, so that he may not strike against his neighbor through love of gain. It gives piety, so that through pride and ungodliness he may not offend God.
Under the name of chastity, grace teaches more than bodily purity alone. He through whom 'grace came' says the same in His teaching: 'Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Mt 5:28).
To live chastely, in the exact meaning of this word, means to live under the governance of whole, uncorrupted, and sound understanding. It means not allowing oneself any pleasure that sound reasoning does not approve. It means preserving the mind unstained by impure thoughts, the heart uninfected by impure desires, and the body uncorrupted by impure deeds.
Even the natural reason of worldly men cannot fail to acknowledge the dignity of such a life. For who can assert that it is not good to have a pure thought, a pure heart, and pure deeds? But they say this is too strict, and even impossible.
Poor souls! Is it strict that they wish to make you like the pure heavenly Powers and the all-pure God? Would you really find it pleasant if condescension left you in the lust of the flesh, making you like irrational animals?
As for the fact that perfect purity seems impossible to you, this is true: 'With men this is impossible' (Mt 19:26). For this reason we set as teacher in this purity not human reason, but the grace of God. 'The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us' (Tit 2:11-12).
The grace of God has no need to ask what lies within man's strength. 'The things impossible with men are possible with God' (Lk 18:27).
According to a very common explanation, righteousness is taken to consist in 'giving each one his own.' This explanation of righteousness rests on an unstable foundation, namely that man has appropriated something as his own, when he 'has nothing that he has not received' (1 Cor 4:7) from God.
It is no wonder that, while holding this notion, men do not learn by themselves the righteousness of God, which the grace of God teaches. To love those who love us, to do good to those who do good to us, and to lend in order to receive an equal return is considered righteousness.
The righteousness of God calls this Pharisaic righteousness, and a righteousness that does not lead into the Kingdom of the righteous. 'Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,' says the divine Righteous One, 'you will not enter the kingdom of heaven' (Mt 5:20).
What shall we say of the righteousness that some think they find in returning insult for insult, hatred for hatred, and evil for evil? If love only for those who love us is called Pharisaic righteousness, then hatred and malice against those who hate us must be recognized as lower than pagan righteousness.
Learn true righteousness, worthy of heaven, in the grace-filled teaching of the Gospel: 'Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them' (Mt 7:12). Do you want men to love you? Love men. Do you want all without exception to do you good? Then do good to all without exception.
Would it be pleasant for you if all dealt with you meekly and humbly? Be meek and humble before all. To the one who has not yet tasted how sweet such a life of righteousness is, we can only say this. If men were governed by this righteousness, there would be no offenses, no courts, no plundering, no murders, no disputes, no war, and no poverty.
What happiness there already is for a Christian in being able to hope to see this life of righteousness, even if he does not yet see it. We await 'the blessed hope' (Tit 2:13). 'There shall be one flock and one Shepherd' (Jn 10:16). 'According to His promise we await new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells' (2 Pet 3:13).
The highest subject of the teaching of saving grace is piety. 'God is high above,' says our popular proverb. It is sad if such a thought has force among a people to whom approach to God has been opened by the grace of God.
Outside grace, however, God and the piety worthy of Him, that is, true knowledge and worship of God, are truly an unattainable height. In paganism, the inability to reach this height appeared in such extremity that men made gods for themselves from wood and stone, or deified contemptible animals. To express reverence for them, they slaughtered men like themselves before them in sacrifice.
More refined minds scarcely rose so far as to accept the heavenly luminaries and subtle powers of the bodily world as deities. There was found, according to the witness of the singer of God, a fool who 'said in his heart, There is no God' (Ps 13:1).
THEOSIS