THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
And why does he send the accusers there? So that even in that tribunal, where the case would be examined more carefully, Paul might be shown innocent.
But, you will say, if he was recognized as innocent, why were the accusers sent there? So that the matter might be examined more precisely, and this man might appear all the more pure.
Such is the divine economy of God: the very things by which people harm us serve for our benefit. Thus Joseph was slandered by his mistress. She thought she was harming him, but by her slander she obtained safety for him.
The prison was far more peaceful than the house where this beast was being reared. While he was there, though he served, he was in constant fear lest his mistress attack him. This fear troubled him more than the prison.
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On the contrary, after being accused, he began to live without fear and in peace. He was delivered from that beast, from shamelessness, and from slander.
It was better for him to be with unfortunate men than with a frenzied mistress. There he found consolation in the thought that he had been put there for chastity. In the house he feared receiving a wound in his soul.
For a young man there is nothing heavier, more tormenting, or more unbearable than a woman who loves him when he does not want her. This is worse than any bonds.
Thus he was not cast into prison, but was delivered from prison. She armed his master against him, but preserved him in peace with God. She brought him nearer to the true and real Master.
She deprived him of authority in her house, but made him belong to the Lord. Likewise, his brothers sold him. Yet by this they delivered him from domestic enemies, from great malice and envy, and from daily slanders.
They removed him from those who hated him. Indeed, what could be worse than being forced to live with envious brothers, to remain under suspicion, and to be subjected to slanders?
Therefore she and they did one thing, while God arranged another and greater thing for the righteous man. When he was in honor, he was in danger. When he suffered dishonor, he was in safety.
The eunuchs did not remember him, and this was good. His release was arranged more gloriously, so that everything had to be ascribed not to human kindness, but to the divine economy of God.
He was released at the proper time, when there was need. Thus Pharaoh brought him out of prison not as a benefactor, but as one receiving a benefit.
It was necessary that the slave not receive a gift, but that the king experience need. It was necessary that his wisdom be revealed. Therefore the eunuch forgets him, so that Egypt might not forget him, and so that the king might not remain ignorant of him.
If he had been brought out earlier, perhaps he would have wished to return to his own land. For this reason he is held there by a thousand necessities: first by authority, then by prison, and third by affairs in the kingdom.
All this was arranged in this way. Like a noble horse striving to gallop away to its own, God held him there for glorious purposes. That he desired to see his father and relieve his grief is clear from the fact that he summoned him there.
Do you wish us to examine other cases of treachery, and how they serve for our benefit? They do so not only by preparing a reward for us, but also by arranging our welfare at the same time.
His uncle plotted against Joseph’s father and drove him from his homeland. What then? He himself placed him far from danger, because Jacob found safety there. He gave him occasion to become more philosophical and to see the dream.
But he was a slave in a foreign land? Yet he found his own people, took a bride, and proved himself a worthy son-in-law to his father-in-law. But his father-in-law deceived him? Yet this too turned to good, for he became the father of many children.
But his father-in-law had an evil design against him? Yet good came even from this: he returned to his own land. If he had prospered, he would not have wished to go to his homeland.
But he was deprived of his reward? He received a greater reward. So it always is: those against whom more plots were made were counted worthy of greater blessings.
If Jacob had not taken the elder sister as his wife, he would not have become the father of so many children. Rather, he would have spent much time childless and would have wept, as his other wife did.
She rightly wept until she became a mother. But he had consolation, and therefore he rebuked her. Again, if he had not been deprived of his reward, he would not have wished to see his homeland.
The wisdom of this man would not have been revealed, nor would his wives have cleaved to him so strongly. See what they say: “He has sold us and has even devoured our money” (Gen 31:15). Thus this increased their love.
Instead of wives, they became servants to him, and they loved him. This is above every treasure, for truly there is nothing more precious than to be so loved by a wife and to love her.
“A wife and husband living in harmony with one another,” says the Wise One, placing this among the beatitudes (Sir 25:2). In this is all wealth and all the happiness of life.
Without this, everything else is useless, disordered, and full of unpleasantness and grief. Therefore let us seek this also, before all else. He who seeks money does not seek this.
Let us seek what can be firm. Let us not seek marriage with the rich, lest the abundance of wealth produce arrogance in the wife, and lest arrogance become the cause of corruption.
Do you not see what God has done, and how He subjected the wife to the husband? Why then are you inattentive? Why are you without sense? Do not yourself break the assistance that He gave you by nature.
One must not seek a rich wife, but rather to have in her a companion of life for the begetting of children. God gave woman to man not so that she might bring money, but so that she might be a helper to him.
A wife who brings money becomes treacherous. She becomes a mistress instead of a wife, or rather, a beast and not a wife, giving herself over to arrogance because of her wealth.
There is nothing more contemptible than a husband who wishes to grow rich in this way. If enrichment in general is full of temptations, what will enrichment by this means be?
Do not look at the fact that someone has received an extraordinary amount, accidentally and unexpectedly. In other matters also one must not attend to what some possess, or how unexpectedly they receive it.
Rather, one must prudently examine whether the matter is not accompanied by countless troubles. Through this you will not only subject yourself to dishonor, but you will also bring shame upon your children.
You will leave them in poverty if you happen to die first. You will also give your wife many occasions to marry another man.
Do you not see how, for many women, the pretext for a second marriage was that they drew attention to themselves and sought managers for their property?
Let us not admit so many evils for the sake of money. Leaving everything else, let us seek a good soul in a wife, so that we may also find love in her.
In this is great wealth. In this is a lofty treasure. In this are countless good things. May we all enjoy them, living as we ought and in accordance with the divine laws.
Then may we also be counted worthy of the future good things, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him be glory, dominion, and honor to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.