THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
What does this mean? Did they not have refined senses, and did they not know what is good and what is evil?
When he says, "to discern good and evil," he is not speaking about life. Every man can know that, and easily. He is speaking of right and lofty doctrines, and likewise of false and low teachings.
A child does not know how to distinguish bad food from good. He often puts dirt into his mouth, takes what is harmful, and does everything without discernment. But this is not perfection.
Such are those who listen to everything without distinction and incline their ear to absurd teachings without discernment. He rebukes them as men continually tossed about, giving themselves now to one group and now to another.
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He hints at this also at the end of the epistle, when he says, "Do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines" (Heb 13:9). This is what it means "to discern good and evil."
The throat tastes food, but the soul understands doctrines. Therefore let us also learn.
If you hear that someone is not a pagan and not a Jew, do not at once consider him a Christian. Learn everything else as well. The Manichaeans and all heretics put on this mask in order to deceive simpler people.
If the senses of our soul have been trained by practice to discern good and evil, then we shall be able to distinguish them.
How do our senses become trained? By constant hearing and by exercise in the Scriptures.
If we set forth their error, and if you listen today and tomorrow, you will learn that they are not sound. Then you will learn everything and know everything. If you do not understand today, you will understand tomorrow.
"Whose senses," he says, "have been trained by practice." Do you see that we must exercise our hearing by listening to the divine Scriptures, so that we are not carried away by strange novelties?
"Trained," he says, "by practice," that is, made experienced. One heretic says there is no resurrection. Another expects nothing in the future. A third says there is another God. A fourth says that Christ has His beginning from Mary.
See how all of them immediately fell into errors through lack of measure, some adding and others subtracting from right doctrine.
Thus the first of all heresies, that of Marcion, invented another god who does not exist. This is addition. After it came that of Sabellius, which asserts that the Son, the Father, and the Spirit are one person.
Then came the heresy of Marcellus and Photinus, which proclaims the same thing. Next came that of Paul of Samosata, which teaches that He received His beginning from Mary.
After that follows the Manichaean heresy, which is later. After them came that of Arius. There are others as well.
But we have received the faith simply. Therefore we have no need to attach ourselves to countless heresies and enter into investigations. Whatever they think to add to it or subtract from it, we count as false.
Lawgivers do not compel men to test thousands of measures. They command them to hold to the measure that has been appointed. So it is also with doctrines.
But no one wishes to attend to the Scriptures. If we attended to them, we would not only avoid falling into error. We would also hold back others who are in error and deliver them from dangers.
A strong soldier can defend not only himself. He can also protect the man standing beside him and deliver him from the assaults of enemies.
But now some do not even know that there are Scriptures, though the Holy Spirit took so many measures that they might be preserved.
Turn to antiquity, and you will see the ineffable love of God for mankind. God inspired blessed Moses, fashioned the tablets, and kept him on the mountain for forty days, and then for as many more, in order to give the Law.
Then He sent the prophets, who endured countless afflictions. When war came, in which all were taken captive or destroyed and the books were burned, He again inspired another wondrous man, Ezra, to set them forth from the remnants.
After this He arranged that they should be translated by the Seventy, and they translated them. Christ came and received them. The apostles spread them everywhere, after the signs and wonders wrought by Christ.
What came next? After such acts, the apostles also wrote, as Paul says, "They were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor 10:11).
And Christ said, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures" (Mt 22:29). Again Paul says, "Through patience and comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom 15:4).
Again, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable" (2 Tim 3:16). Again, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Col 3:16).
Likewise the prophet said, "On His law he meditates day and night" (Ps 1:2). Elsewhere it is said, "Let all your conversation be in the law of the Most High" (Sir 9:20).
Again, "How sweet are Your words to my throat, sweeter than honey to my mouth." He did not say, "to my hearing," but "to my throat are Your words, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Ps 118:103).
Moses likewise said, "You shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise" (Deut 6:7).
And Paul says in the epistle to Timothy, "Meditate on these things; abide in them" (1 Tim 4:15). Many sayings could be brought forward on this subject.
Nevertheless, there are people who do not even know that the Scriptures exist. That is why nothing among us is sound and nothing profitable.
When someone wants to learn the art of war, he considers it necessary to study military laws. When someone wants to learn the art of a pilot, a builder, or any other art, he finds it necessary to study everything belonging to it.
Yet here no one is seen doing anything like this, although this science requires sleepless study.
Listen to the prophet, who shows that this is a science requiring study: "Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps 33:12). Therefore the fear of God truly requires study.
Then he says, "Who is the man who loves life?" (Ps 33:13). Here he is speaking of the future life.
Again, "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it" (Ps 33:14-15).
Do you know which prophet, historian, apostle, or evangelist said this? I do not think so, except for a few. And if we bring testimony from another place, we can say the same again.
I shall bring forward the same saying, only expressed in other words: "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice" (Is 1:16-17).
"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good." Do you see that virtue requires study?
The one says, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord." The other says, "Learn to do good." Do you know where these sayings are found? I do not think so, except for a few.
Yet these things are read to you two or three times every week. The reader comes forward and first says whose book it is, and from which prophet, apostle, or evangelist. Then he pronounces the saying itself.
This is so that you may better notice them and know not only the content, but also the reason for what is written and who said it.
But all is in vain, all is fruitless. All your zeal is directed toward worldly affairs. For spiritual things there is no care.
For this reason even worldly affairs do not go according to your wish, and they meet many obstacles. Christ said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Mt 6:33).
All the rest, He says, will be given as an addition. But we have inverted the order. We seek the earth and earthly goods, as though heavenly goods would be given to us as an addition.
Therefore we receive neither the one nor the other. Let us come to our senses at last and strive for the good things to come. Then all the rest will also be added.
It is impossible that one who seeks divine goods should not also receive human goods. Such is the decree of the Truth Himself, who said this.
Therefore let us not act otherwise, but keep Christ's commandment, lest we be deprived of everything. God Himself is able to produce compunction in us and make us better.
In Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, honor, and worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.