Hebrews 10:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The man freed from these passions is freer than all men and richer than the man clothed in purple. Do you not see how many evils arise because of money?

I do not mean how many evils arise from greed, but how many from attachment to money. For example, someone has lost money, and behold, he lives a life more unbearable than death itself.

Why do you grieve, O man? Why do you weep? Is it because God has freed you from a needless burden? Is it because you no longer sit in fear and trembling?

If someone bound you to a treasure and ordered you to sit there constantly, watching over another's property, you would complain and be indignant. But when you have bound yourself to it with most unbearable bonds, why do you grieve at being freed from such slavery?

Truly, these sorrows and these joys are the result of prejudice. We ought to keep property as though it belonged to another.

Now I address my word to women. When a woman has a garment woven with gold, she often shakes it out, wraps it in linen, carefully preserves it, trembles over it, and does not use it.

It is as though she has died or been widowed. Or, if nothing of the sort has happened, she fears that by wearing it often she will wear it out and lose it.

If another person does not deprive her of it, she deprives herself through stinginess. But has she yielded it to another? This is still unknown. And if she has yielded it, the other uses it in exactly the same way.

If someone inspected what is kept in houses, he would find that the most expensive garments and the finest things are guarded as though they were living masters.

A woman does not use them often, but fears and trembles. She protects them from moths and other insects that eat clothing. She surrounds most of them with ointments and perfumes.

She does not deem everyone worthy even to look at them. She alone, with her husband, often and carefully unfolds them. Tell me, did Paul not rightly call greed idolatry?

The honor which pagans pay to idols, these women pay to garments and golden objects. How long shall we occupy ourselves with filth? How long shall we cling to clay and bricks?

As those Jews served the king of Egypt, so we serve the devil. We receive lashes far heavier than theirs. Do not take these words as exaggeration.

As much as the soul is higher than the body, so much heavier are the wounds that we inflict on ourselves each day by our cares, joined with fear and trembling.

But if we desire to repent, if we desire to lift our eyes to God, then He will send us not Moses and Aaron, but His word and compunction of heart.

When it comes, it will free our souls from bitter bondage. It will lead us out of Egypt, out of these useless and vain anxieties, out of this slavery that brings no benefit.

Those people at least went out with golden objects, as a reward for their labors. But we receive nothing, and would that it were only nothing! Now we receive not golden objects, but Egyptian calamities: sins, punishments, and torments.

Let us learn, then, to find what is for our profit. Let us learn to endure losses. This is worthy of a Christian. Let us disregard golden garments. Let us disregard money, lest we disregard our salvation.

Let us disregard money, lest we disregard our soul. It will bear punishment. It will undergo torment. Everything else remains here, while it departs there.

Why then, tell me, why do you torment yourself and not perceive it? I say this to the greedy. It is also necessary to speak to those who suffer from greed.

Bear bravely the wrongs done by the greedy. They destroy themselves, not you. From you they take property, but they deprive themselves of God's favor and help.

Whoever is deprived of God's favor, even if he possessed all the wealth in the universe, is poorer than all. Likewise, the poorest of all, if he has this favor, is richer than all.

"The Lord," says the Psalmist, "is my Shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps 22:1). Tell me, if you had a great and wonderful husband who loved you and cared for you, what then?

If you knew he would live forever and you would not die before him, and if he entrusted all his possessions to you so that you used them as your own, would you want to acquire anything?

Even if you lost everything, would you not consider yourself rich? Why then do you grieve? Is it because you have no wealth? But know that the occasion for sins has been taken from you.

Is it because you have been deprived of property? But you have acquired God's favor. How, you say, have I acquired it? The Apostle said, "Why not rather suffer wrong?" (1 Cor 6:7).

And again, "Give thanks in everything" (1 Thess 5:18). Christ said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Mt 5:3). Consider, then, what favor you will be counted worthy of if you show this in deed.

Only one thing is required of us: to thank God for everything. Then we shall have everything in abundance. For example, have you lost ten thousand talents of gold?

Immediately give thanks to God. Through this turning to Him and through your thanksgiving, you have already acquired a hundred thousand. Tell me, for what do you bless Job?

Is it because he had so many camels, flocks, and working animals? Or is it because of the words he spoke: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away" (Job 1:21)?

The devil harms us not merely to take our property. He knows that it is nothing. He does it so that through this he may make us say something blasphemous.

Thus he wished to make blessed Job not only poor, but also a blasphemer. When he had deprived him of everything, see what he says to him through his wife.

"And his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die'" (Job 2:9). But you, evil one, have already deprived him of everything!

No, he says, I was not seeking that. I have not yet attained the purpose for which I did all this. I was striving to deprive him of God's help. For this reason I deprived him of property.

This is what I want. That other thing means nothing. If I do not succeed in this, then he will not only suffer no harm, but will even gain benefit.

Do you see that even the evil demon knows what harm comes from this? For this reason, as you see, he devised snares through the wife.

Listen, husbands who have wives attached to wealth and forcing you to blaspheme: remember Job. Yet let us look, if you will, at his great meekness and how he stopped his wife's mouth.

"You speak," he says, "as one of the foolish women speaks" (Job 2:10). Truly, "evil company corrupts good morals" (1 Cor 15:33).

Evil associations always corrupt, but especially in misfortunes. Then those who offer evil counsels are powerful. For if the soul is already inclined by itself to impatience, how much more when it has an adviser?

Is it not then ready to hurl itself even into the abyss? A wife is a great good, but also a great evil. And see how the devil tried to undermine this strong wall.

Since the loss of possessions did not overcome him, and since all his losses produced nothing great, the enemy himself was exposed as having spoken in vain: "But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has; surely he will bless You" (Job 1:11).

Then he arms the wife against him. Do you see what he was striving for? Yet this device helped him no more than the former one.

So also we, if we bear everything with thanksgiving, will receive the same as Job. And if we do not receive it, a greater reward awaits us.

So it was also with that adamantine man. When he had nobly endured everything, God gave him wealth as well. When he proved to the devil that he did not serve God for that, then God gave him that also.

God acts in this way. When He sees that we are not attached to the goods of this life, then He gives them to us. When He sees that we prefer spiritual goods to them, then He also gives us material goods.

He does not give them beforehand, so that we may not forget spiritual things. Thus, sparing us, He does not give us material goods, so as to turn us from them even against our will.

No, you say, on the contrary, when I receive them, then I will be satisfied and will thank God all the more. You lie, O man. Then especially you will become sluggish.

Why then, you say, does He give them to many? But how is it clear that He gives them? Who else, you ask, gives them? Their own greed and robbery do.

And why does He permit this? For the same reason that He permits murder, theft, and violence.

What, you ask, are we to think of those who receive an inheritance from their parents, although they themselves are full of countless vices? How does God allow them to use it?

In the same way that He permits thieves, murderers, and other evildoers. Now is not the time of judgment, but of ordering life.

As I said before, so now I say: they will undergo greater punishment if, while enjoying all good things, they do not become better by them.

Not all will be punished equally. Those who remain evil despite benefactions will be tormented more, while those who lived in poverty will be tormented less.

That this is just, hear what David says: "Did I not give you," He says, all the possessions "of your master" (2 Kgs 12:8)?

Therefore, when you see a young man receive his father's inheritance without toil and remain evil, be assured that a stronger punishment and more severe torment are being prepared for him.

Let us not imitate such a man. Let us imitate the one who inherited virtue, the one who acquired spiritual wealth. "Woe," says the Psalmist, "to those who trust in their wealth" (Ps 48:7).

And again, "Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord" (Ps 127:1). Tell me, among which do you wish to be? Surely among those called blessed.

Then imitate them, not the others, so that you too may receive the good things prepared for them. May we all be counted worthy of these by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.