Hebrews 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When He had assumed it, all such things could thereafter be said of Him without danger. The flesh can receive exaltation, just as the Godhead can receive abasement.

If God did not disdain to become man and did not reject the deed, will He reject the names?

Knowing this, let us not be ashamed, and let us not be lifted up. If He, being God, Master, and Son of God, did not refuse to take “the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7), then much more must we do everything, even what is most lowly.

Tell me, man, why are you lifted up? Is it by worldly goods? But they vanish as soon as they appear.

Is it by spiritual goods? But one of the spiritual goods is precisely not to be lifted up. Why, then, are you lifted up?

Is it because you do good works? But listen to Christ, who says, “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants, for we have done what we ought to have done’” (Lk 17:10).

Are you lifted up by wealth? Tell me, why? Have you not heard that we entered life naked, and naked shall we depart (Job 1:21)?

Or rather, do you not see others depart before you, naked and stripped of everything? Who is lifted up by what belongs to another?

He who wishes to use this only for his own enjoyment is deprived of it even against his will. Often this happens before death, and at death it certainly happens.

But they will say: while we live, we use it as we wish. No. You will not quickly find a man who uses his possessions as he wishes.

Even if someone did use them as he wished, this would be no great matter, because the present time is short compared with endless ages.

Are you lifted up, man, because you are rich? Why so? Wealth is found also among robbers, thieves, murderers, the dissolute, adulterers, and all wicked people.

Why then are you lifted up? If you use it as you ought, you should not be lifted up, lest you transgress the commandment of the Lord.

If you do not use it as you ought, you should rather be contrite, because you have become a slave of property and of wealth, which rules over you.

Tell me, if someone suffering from fever drank much water, which quenches thirst for a short time but then inflames the fire, could he be lifted up by this?

Or if someone busied himself about many things in vain, could he be lifted up by this? Tell me, then, by what should you be lifted up?

Is it because you have many masters over you? Is it because you have an innumerable multitude of cares? Is it because many flatter you? But this is nothing other than slavery.

That you may be convinced that in such a case you become a slave, listen attentively to what follows.

Our other passions are sometimes useful. Anger is often useful. “Unjust anger,” says the wise man, “cannot be justified” (Sir 1:22). Therefore one may also be angry justly.

And again the Lord says: “Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment” (Mt 5:22).

Likewise zeal and desire can be good. Desire is good when it serves childbearing. Zeal is good when it is directed toward emulation in good works, as Paul says: “It is good to be zealous in a good thing always” (Gal 4:18).

And again: “Earnestly desire the greater gifts” (1 Cor 12:31). Therefore both are useful.

But pride is never good. It is always useless and harmful. If there is anything in which one might glory, it would rather be poverty than wealth.

Why? Because he who can live on little is much better and higher than the one who cannot.

Tell me, if certain men were invited to the royal city, and some of them required neither horses, nor servants, nor tents, nor inns, nor garments, nor vessels, but were content only with bread and water from springs, what would we think?

And what if others began to say: if you do not give us carriages and soft beds, we cannot arrive? If we do not have many attendants, if we are not allowed to rest often and travel only a small part of the day, we cannot go.

If you do not provide us with horses and many other things necessary for us, we cannot set out. Tell me, which are worthy of our respect, the first or the last?

Clearly those who need nothing. So it is here as well. Some require much for the passage through the path of this present life, while others require nothing.

Therefore those who live in poverty would rather have reason to be lifted up, if anyone should be lifted up at all.

But you will say: the poor man is often treated with contempt. No, not he, but those who despise him are worthy of contempt.

How can I fail to despise men who do not wish to honor what ought to be honored? A painter laughs at all those who, being ignorant themselves, laugh at him.

He pays no heed to their words, but is content with his own testimony. Why then do we make ourselves dependent on the opinion of others? Is this excusable?

We are worthy of contempt when we do not despise those who despise us for poverty, and when we do not consider them miserable.

I do not mention what sins arise from wealth and what blessings arise from poverty. Or rather, neither wealth nor poverty is good in itself. Each becomes such according to those who use it.

A good Christian is revealed more in poverty than in wealth. Why? Because in poverty he becomes less proud, more chaste, more honorable, more humble, and more prudent.

In wealth there are many obstacles to these things.

Let us remember what the rich man does, or rather, what one who abuses his wealth does. He seizes, practices usury, and oppresses.

From where do criminal attachments, unlawful unions, sorceries, enchantments, and all other kinds of evil come, if not from wealth?

Do you see that in poverty it is much easier to be virtuous than in wealth?

Do not think that because the rich are not punished here, they are therefore not guilty. No. If it were possible to punish the rich without hindrance, prisons would be filled with them.

Besides, wealth contains still another evil. The man who has acquired it unjustly commits sins without punishment and never ceases committing them. He receives incurable wounds, and no one puts a bridle on him.

Poverty, if we wish, can provide us with far more occasions for satisfaction. Why? Because it is free from cares, hatred, hostility, envy, quarrels, and countless evils.

Therefore let us not strive to become rich, and let us not continually envy those who have much. If we have wealth, let us use it as we ought.

If we do not have it, let us not grieve over this, but thank God for everything. Let us thank Him that He has granted us the possibility, with little labor, to receive a reward equal to the rich, or, if we wish, even greater.

From little we may draw great fruits. The man who brought two talents was honored and deemed worthy of a reward equal to the one who brought five talents.

Why? Because although two talents had been entrusted to him, he on his part fulfilled all that was required and returned what was entrusted in double measure.

Why then should we strive to receive much, when through little we can obtain the same thing, or even something greater? With little labor we can be deemed worthy of a reward far greater than the labor.

A poor man will part from his property much more easily than a rich man who possesses too much.

Do you not know that the more a man has, the more he desires? Therefore, lest we experience this, let us not seek wealth. Let us not complain of poverty.

Let us not strive to become rich. Even if we possess wealth, let us use it as Paul commanded: “Those who have,” he says, “should be as though they had not; and those who use this world, as though they did not use it” (1 Cor 7:29, 31).

Then we shall receive the promised good things. May we all be deemed worthy of them by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Nevertheless, some thought that the words "today I have begotten Thee" were said not about His eternal birth, but about His birth according to the flesh. For that too was from above, from the Holy Spirit, by the Father's blessing.

And again: "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son" (2 Sam 7:14). This is plainly said with reference to the flesh. For when He assumed it, all such things are said of Him without danger.

Thus the assumed nature inherited the true name of Son, which the Word possessed, when it was united to Him. For it is enhypostatic in Him, as the angel also said: "the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God" (Lk 1:35).

And again: "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Lk 1:32). None of the angels received this.

If some of the righteous are called sons of God, they are so by grace. But this is not so with Christ. His Sonship is according to hypostatic identity with the human flesh He assumed.

He underwent this so that, as man adopted as Son, though He was God by nature, He might through Himself open for human nature the path to participation in adoption (cf. Gal 4:5).

He did this to call into the Kingdom of Heaven those who were under the power of sin.

For just as, because of Adam's transgression (cf. Rom 5:14), we acquired calamities as a kind of inheritance passing from the father to the whole race descended from him, and were condemned to curse and death, so also the splendor that is in Christ will be extended to the whole human race.

For the Only-begotten receives this for us, certainly not for Himself. He is full, because He is God by nature and lacks absolutely nothing. Rather, He enriches all creation with the good things from above.

But, as I have already said, after teaching about the divine nature, the Apostle begins to speak about the divine economy. He teaches that the Son is both the Creator of all as God, and the heir of all as man.

He is the Maker of angels as God, and became better than the angels as man. He is Son by nature, yet as man He receives again what He has as God.

"And again," that is, He said: "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son" (2 Sam 7:14). A true Son.

For being Son according to His divinity, He will also be Son according to His humanity, in the sense of inheritance and participation in the higher. If His Sonship meant a Sonship that is not true, then Christ would prove not only not to surpass the angels, but to be far lower than they.

For righteous men also are called sons of God, by grace.

For He was born by the good pleasure of the Father. "The Holy Spirit," says the angel, "shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee" (Lk 1:35).

We have heard that men too are sons of God, but by grace. We have not heard this of the angels, lest their greatness should be recognized as belonging to them not by grace, but by nature.

Christ, on the contrary, is Son not by grace, but by nature. "Today I have begotten Thee." The Father appropriates to Himself the Son's birth according to the flesh. Therefore the Apostle said "today."

So also says holy Athanasius. "I will be to Him a Father." Take this also as the Father's appropriation to Himself of the Son's birth according to the flesh. For it is clear that the word "will be" is spoken in accordance with what belongs to the flesh.

God Himself, through the mouth of the psalmist David, bears witness to the great name of Son. He calls only the Messiah His only Son, "I have begotten Thee," and explains this title by indicating the time of His birth (Ps 2:7).

The expression of the psalm, "Today I have begotten Thee," refers to Christ's birth. Already then God declared, by various signs, the great dignity of the Child.

Yet the words of David's prophecy concerning the Messiah were perfectly fulfilled only with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Apostle Paul himself interprets it in Acts 13:33; cf. Mt 28:18.

Besides this, the Apostle cites Nathan's prophecy spoken to David about his offspring, which chiefly referred to the Messiah (2 Sam 7:14). In relation to Him, God presented Himself as Father.