In the New Testament Scriptures they are called Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, and Judeans. Perhaps at that time the most honorable name was Jew, both in the mouths of the Jews themselves and among others. The Apostle used it, wishing to show what honorable name they bear, so that afterward their lack of correspondence to this name in life might appear more shameful. We too bear the highest name, Christian, as those clothed in Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Yet this great name turns to our shame if we do not correspond to it by life; see Saint Chrysostom. In the word Jew the Apostle combined all the Old Testament advantages which the Jew loved to turn over in his thought. He speaks as if saying: behold, you love to call yourself a Jew, God's chosen one, enjoying God's special protection. You are one with whom God was pleased to enter into a special covenant, above other peoples. Look, then: are you such in deed? Or, by saying "you are called a Jew," he has already hinted by this very phrase that he only calls himself such without being such in deed. He suggests that only this honorable name remains with him. So also people sometimes say to us: you are a Christian only by name; see Saint Chrysostom and Blessed Theodoret. And you rest upon the law, ἐπαναπαύῃ. As it is restful for someone to recline upon a well-prepared bed, so the Jew rested comfortably upon the law. This was a saving institution that had unquestionably come from God. It unquestionably led to the goal set within it and secured one from every error in the matter closest to every heart: pleasing God and salvation. Having such an institution, the Jew rested, casting aside all cares in this regard, as though, having this, he had everything and nothing more was required from him. Yet this was only the beginning. What was required according to this beginning had not even been begun. Thus in the words "you rest upon the law" high praise is given to the law, and a reproachful exposure is hinted at for the one who stands in the law. This can also apply to us. We may rest in the fact that we have the true Orthodox confession, the truly saving mysteries, the God-befitting order of approach to God in prayer, and sure guidance in salvation through the pastorate established by God. Yet we may rest on this alone, without moving from the place ourselves. Blessed Theodoret writes: "You rest upon the law, for you do not labor, like one living outside the law, to seek out what must be done. You have the law, which clearly teaches you everything." Blessed Theophylact says the same: "You do not labor, do not walk about, do not investigate what must be done. You have the law, which instructs you in everything without labor." Could this expression also mean diligent study of the law, as we say of someone, "he sleeps on his books"? You love, he says, to rummage in the books of the law, so as to know surely what is pleasing to God. Therefore he adds below: being instructed by the law. The Jews cannot be censured for neglecting knowledge of the law. In this regard they are sound, sounder than we Christians. Most of us have no concern for what is written in the Christian books and what Christ the Lord wants from us, though we believe in Him and are adorned with His name. And you boast in God, ἐν Θεῷ, in God, by God. "You boast in God, as having preferred you above all the nations of the universe, as having deemed you worthy of great care, having given the law and guides, the Prophets" (Blessed Theodoret). "You boast that you are loved by God and preferred to other men" (Saint Chrysostom). You say: see what kind of God I have. He has done this and that for me, given me this and that, promised me this and that. He loves me and is always ready to help me. I am God's, and my God is the true God. To boast in God is truly an expression that our relations with God are in the proper form. Only one who is in living union with God can act thus, living in Him alone and by Him alone. This is the fruit of the final degrees of moral and spiritual perfection. All who have the true faith should be such. Consequently, to boast in God is the duty of those who have received the true faith from God. It is not fitting for them to boast in anything else. "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord"; cf. 2 Cor 10:17. Yet one can boast only with the tongue, without having such boasting in the heart. In the heart one cannot pretend to such boasting. It is the fruit of life. The Apostle says: do you boast in God? This is good. But look whether this boasting is sincere and true. One can boast in God with the tongue in order to magnify oneself before others, without having corresponding feelings in the heart. Saint Chrysostom therefore infers: "By this, I think, the Apostle wishes to mock the high-mindedness and excessive ambition of the Jews. They turned this gift of God, that they were loved and preferred by God, not to their own salvation, but into an occasion for disputes and contempt for others." Did the Apostle perhaps wish to say by this that they boast in sound concepts about God, that they know the true God and know Him truly? Among the Gentiles he exposed the distortion of the truth about God, and then about the proper life. In the Jews, by contrast, he sees both sound concepts about God and knowledge of His true will, as he mentions immediately afterward. Before this, resting upon the law may lead to the same thought. By studying the law together with all the Holy Scriptures, the Jew acquired true knowledge of God. In this he could truthfully boast before all nations. There too he understood the will of God.
THEOSIS