Homilies on First Corinthians 7 part 1/2

'Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect;

yet a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, that come to nought;

but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages unto our glory.'

Darkness seems more suitable than light to those whose eyes are diseased;

and for this reason they rather flee to a shadowed little room.

This also has happened in the case of spiritual wisdom;

the wisdom of God seemed to be folly to those outside, while their own wisdom, being in truth folly, was reckoned by them to be wisdom.

And the same thing happened as if a man, endowed with the pilot's skill, should promise to cross a boundless sea without a ship and without sails, and then should attempt by arguments to establish that this is possible;

while another man, wholly inexperienced in all these things, having entrusted himself to a ship and a pilot and sailors, so sailed in safety.

For indeed the seeming ignorance of the latter was wiser than the wisdom of the former.

For the pilot's art is a good thing, but when it promises things too great for it, it is a kind of folly;

and every art that is not content with its own limits would be the same.

So also the wisdom from without would have been wisdom, if it had made use of the Spirit;

but since it committed everything to itself, and thought it had no need at all of that help, it became folly, even though it seemed to be wisdom.

Wherefore, having first convicted it by the facts, he then called it folly;

and having first called the wisdom of God folly according to their verdict, he then shows it to be wisdom (for after the proofs it is most possible to put to shame those who contradict).

'Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.'

For when I, who am reputed foolish and to preach foolish things, prevail over the wise man, it is not by a foolish wisdom that I prevailed,

but by a more perfect wisdom, and one so great and so much greater, that that other appears as folly.

For this reason, having first so called it, as they then named it, and having shown the victory from the facts, and having declared them to be exceedingly foolish, he then rendered to it the name that befits it, saying:

'Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.'

By 'wisdom' he means the preaching and the manner of salvation, the being saved by the cross;

and by 'the perfect' he means those who have believed.

For those are perfect who know that human things are exceedingly weak, and who despise them, being persuaded that they contribute nothing to them—such as the faithful have become.

'Yet a wisdom not of this age.'

For where is the wisdom from without useful, since it comes to an end here and advances no further, and

not even here is able to profit at all those who possess it? And by 'the rulers of this age' he does not here mean certain demons, as some suspect;

but those in dignities, those in positions of power, those who deemed the matter worth contending for—philosophers and rhetoricians and speech-writers;

for indeed they held sway, and often became leaders of the people.

And he called them 'rulers of this age,' since their rule does not extend beyond the present age;

disparaging it both from its own nature and from those who employ it.

For having shown that it is false, that it is foolish, that it can discover nothing, that it is weak, he shows that it is also short-lived.

'But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.'

In what mystery? And yet Christ says:

'What ye have heard in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.'

How then does he call it a mystery? Because neither angel nor archangel nor any other created power knew it before it came to pass.

Wherefore he says, 'To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God.'

And this God did, honoring us, so that together with us they might hear the mysteries.

For we too, whenever we make certain people our friends, declare this to be the proof of our friendship toward them: that we tell no one before them the things that are secret.

Let those hear this who parade the preaching abroad,

and who without discrimination display to all the pearls and the doctrine, casting the holy things to dogs and swine and to superfluous reasonings.

For the mystery needs no elaborate embellishment, but is proclaimed simply for what it is, being only that.

For it will not be a divine and complete mystery, whenever you add something also of your own.

And in another sense too it is called a mystery, because we do not believe the things we see, but we see one thing and believe another.

For such is the nature of our mysteries.

At any rate, I and the unbeliever are differently disposed concerning these things.

I hear that Christ was crucified, and I straightway marvel at His love for mankind;

that man hears it, and reckons it weakness.

I hear that He became a servant, and I marvel at His tender care;

that man hears it, and counts it dishonor.

I hear that He died, and I am amazed at His power, that having come to be in death He was not held fast by it, but even loosed death;

that man hears it, and suspects powerlessness.

That man, when he hears of the resurrection, says the thing is a fable;

but I, having received the proofs that come through the events themselves, worship the divine economy of God.

That man, when he hears of the washing, reckons it to be mere water;

but I do not simply look at what is seen, but at the cleansing of the soul that comes through the Spirit.

That man supposes only that my body has been washed;

but I have believed that the soul also has become pure and holy, and I reckon the tomb, the resurrection, the sanctification, the righteousness, the redemption, the adoption, the inheritance, the kingdom of heaven, the supply of the Spirit.

For I do not judge the things that appear by sight, but by the eyes of the understanding.

I understand what is said in one way, the unbeliever in another.

And just as little children, when they look at books, do not know the power of the letters, nor do they know what they see—indeed, even a man unskilled in letters will experience the same thing—

but the man who is skilled will discover much power laid up in the letters, whole lives and histories;

and when the unskilled man receives a letter, he will consider it to be paper and ink;

but the skilled man will both hear a voice and converse with the one who is absent, and will say again through the letters whatever he wishes;

so also it happens in the case of the mystery;

the unbelievers, though indeed they hear, do not seem to hear;

but the faithful, having the experience that comes through the Spirit, behold the power of the things laid up within.

This very thing, then, Paul was making clear when he said:

that even now what is preached is hidden;

for to those who are perishing, he says, it is veiled.

And in another way too he shows the paradoxical character of the preaching.

For thus is Scripture wont to call the things that come to pass beyond hope and above human understanding.

Wherefore also elsewhere it says, 'My mystery is for Me and for My own;'

and again Paul says, 'Behold, I tell you a mystery:'

'we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.'

But if it is preached everywhere, how is it thus a mystery?

For just as we were commanded to speak upon the housetops the things we heard in the ear, so also we were charged not to give the holy things to the dogs, nor to cast the pearls before the swine.

For some are natural men, and do not understand;

and others have a veil upon their heart, and do not see.

Therefore this is most especially a mystery, which is preached everywhere, yet is not recognized by those who do not have a right disposition of mind;

and it is revealed not from wisdom, but from the Holy Spirit, so far as it is possible for us to receive it.

Wherefore one would not err in calling it, even after this, an ineffable mystery;

for not even to us who are faithful has all clearness and exactness been entrusted.

We know in part, and we prophesy in part.

For now we see through a mirror, as in a riddle, but then face to face.

For this reason he said, 'We speak wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the ages unto our glory.'

'Hidden'—that is, either because no one before us among the powers above learned it, or because not even the many now know it.

For this is what the phrase 'He foreordained unto our glory' makes plain;

for He accounts our salvation to be His own glory, just as indeed He also calls it His own riches, although He Himself is the wealth of good things, and needs nothing in order to be rich.

'He foreordained,' he says, thereby showing forth His care concerning us.

For those are thought most of all both to honor and to love us, who from the beginning have been prepared to do us good;

which is exactly what fathers do in the case of their children;

for even if they give the money later, yet from the beginning and from the first they have purposed this.

This also is what Paul is now eager to show, that God always loved us, even from the beginning, when we had not yet come into being.

For unless He had loved us, He would not have foreordained the riches for us.

Do not, then, dwell in your mind upon the enmity that arose in the meantime;

for the friendship was older than it.

And the phrase 'before the ages' denotes that which is eternal;

for elsewhere too he speaks thus.

The Son too, then, will be found to be thus eternal.

For concerning Him also he says that through Him He made the ages, which is to exist before the ages.

For it is quite evident that the Maker is before the things made.

'Which none of the rulers of this age has known;'

'for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.'

Are they not, then, worthy of blame, if indeed they did not know, and yet crucified Him?

And if they did not know, how did He say to them, 'You both know Me, and know where I am from?' For concerning Pilate the Scripture says that he did not know;

and it is likely that neither did Herod know.

These one might say are called the rulers of this age.

And if one were to say that this is spoken also concerning the Jews and concerning the priests, he would not err;

for to those also He says, 'You know neither Me, nor My Father.'

How then does He say above, 'You both know Me, and know whence I am'? But what is the manner of this reading and what of that has already been told in the commentaries on the Gospels;

and, so as not to be continually turning over the same matter, we there refer our readers to that place.

What then? Was the sin committed at the cross, one says, forgiven them? For indeed He said so;

for indeed Paul, who cast stones at Stephen with ten thousand hands and persecuted the Church, became the Church's champion.

So then it was forgiven those also who were willing to repent;

which indeed Paul too proclaimed aloud, saying,

'Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid.'

And again, 'Has God cast away His people whom He foreknew? God forbid.'

Then, showing that repentance was not shut off from them, he brought forward his own conversion as proof, saying,

'For I also am an Israelite.'

But the phrase 'They knew not' seems to me here to be spoken not concerning Christ, but concerning the very dispensation of the matter itself;

that is, what the death and the cross were meant to accomplish, they did not know.

For indeed there too He did not say, 'They know Me not,' but, 'They know not what they do'—that is, they are ignorant of the dispensation being fulfilled and of the mystery.

They knew that the cross was thus to shine forth, that it becomes the salvation of the world and the reconciliation of God toward men, and that their city would be taken, and that they would undergo the utmost dreadful things.

And he calls both Christ, and the cross, and the preaching, 'wisdom.'

And seasonably he called Him 'the Lord of glory.'

For since the cross seems to be a thing of dishonor, he shows that the cross was a great glory.

But great wisdom was needed, not only to know God, but also to learn this dispensation of God;

and the outward wisdom became a hindrance not only to the former but also to this.

But, as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'

And where are these things written? For a thing is said to be written even when it is set down not in words but in the very deeds themselves, as in the case of the historical narratives;

or when the same thought is set down, though not in the very words, as here.

For the passage, 'They to whom it was not announced concerning Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand'—

this is the same as, 'Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard.'

Either therefore he means this, or it is likely that these things were actually written in books, and the books have been lost.

For indeed many books perished, and few were preserved, even at the time of the former captivity.

And this is plain in the books of Chronicles;

for indeed the Apostle says that 'From Samuel and the prophets that followed after, all have spoken concerning Him.'

And yet these things are not everywhere extant;

but Paul, being learned in the law and speaking by the Spirit, was likely to know all things with exactness.

And why do I speak of the captivity? For even before the captivity many books had perished, the Jews having run aground upon the extremity of impiety.

And this is plain from the end of the fourth book of Kingdoms;

for the book of Deuteronomy was scarcely found somewhere, buried in a dunghill.

In another way too, there are in many places double prophecies, easily grasped by the more intelligent, from which one may find the solution of many obscure passages.

What then? Did no eye see the things which God has prepared? No indeed;

for who among men saw the things that were to be brought to pass? Did then no ear hear them either, nor did they enter into the heart of man? And how so? For if the prophets spoke them, how, one asks, has ear not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man? They did not enter;

for he speaks not concerning them alone, but concerning the whole of human nature.

What then? Did the prophets not hear? They did hear indeed, but the prophetic ear was not a man's ear;

for they heard not as men, but as prophets.

Wherefore he says, 'He added to me an ear to hear,' speaking of the addition that is from the Spirit.

Whence it is plain that before they heard, it had not entered into the heart of man.

For after the giving of the Spirit, the prophets' heart was no longer a man's heart, but a spiritual heart, even as he himself says:

Before enjoying the Spirit and learning the ineffable things, neither any of us nor any of the prophets conceived of them.

For how could they, where not even the angels knew them? For what need is there to speak, he says, concerning the rulers of this age, when no one of men understood these things, nor did the powers above? And what were these things? That through the seeming foolishness of the preaching He would master the world, and the nations would be brought in, and that there would be a reconciliation of God toward men, and that so great blessings would come to us.

How then did we come to know them? 'But to us,' he says, 'God has revealed them through His Spirit.'

Not through the outward wisdom;

for this, like some dishonored handmaid, was not permitted to enter within and peer into the Master's mysteries.

Do you see how great the interval between this wisdom and that? The very things which the angels knew not, these this wisdom has taught us.

But the outward wisdom did the contrary;

not only did it not teach, but it even hindered and walled off, and after the things had come to pass it cast a shadow over what had been done, making void the cross.

So then he shows the honor toward us, not merely by the fact that we have learned, and that we have learned along with the angels, but also by the fact that we have learned through His Spirit.

Then, showing the greatness, he says, that if the Spirit, who knows the ineffable things of God, had not revealed them, we should not have learned them.

The matter was to God an object of great earnestness, so as to be among the ineffable things.

Wherefore we also needed that Teacher who clearly knew these things.

'For the Spirit,' he says, 'searches all things, even the depths of God.'

'For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God no one knows, save the Spirit of God.'

'But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.'

For here the word 'searches' is indicative not of ignorance, but of exact knowledge.

At any rate, he uses this same expression concerning God also, saying:

'And He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.'

Then, having spoken with exactness concerning the knowledge of the Spirit, and having taught that it is thus equal to the knowledge of God, even as a man's own knowledge is equal to itself, and having shown that we learned all things from thence, and necessarily from thence, he added:

'Which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.'

Do you see to what a height he has raised us, from the dignity of our Teacher? For we are as much wiser than they, as is the interval between Plato and the Holy Spirit.

For they have the outward rhetoricians for teachers, but we have the Holy Spirit.

And what is, 'comparing spiritual things with spiritual'? When a thing is spiritual and hard to grasp, we bring our testimonies from the spiritual things.

For example, I say that Christ rose again, that He was born of a Virgin;

I bring forward testimonies and types and demonstrations: Jonah's sojourn in the whale and his subsequent deliverance, the childbearing of the barren women—of Sarah, of Rebecca, and of the rest—the sprouting of the trees in Paradise that came to pass without seeds being sown, without rains being sent down, without a furrow being cut open.

For the things to come were fashioned and delineated beforehand, as in a shadow, in the earlier things, that when they came to pass they might be believed.

And I show once more how man came from the earth, and how woman came from man alone, and nowhere is there any conjugal union; how the very earth came from nothing at all, since the power of the Creator suffices everywhere and for all things.

Thus do I compare spiritual things with spiritual, and nowhere have I any need of the wisdom that is from without, nor of reasonings, nor of elaborate preparations.

For those things both unsettle the feeble understanding and throw it into confusion, and they are unable to demonstrate clearly any of the things they assert; nay, they even do the very opposite.

They rather bring disturbance, and fill the soul with gloom and with much perplexity.

'Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.'

Do you see how he shows it to be superfluous? And not merely superfluous, but even contrary and harmful.

For in saying, 'Lest the cross of Christ should be made void,' and, 'That our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,' this is what he made plain.

But here he shows that it is impossible, for those who trust in it and commit everything to it, to learn anything of what is profitable.

'For the natural man,' he says, 'receiveth not the things of the Spirit.'

It is necessary, then, that one first lay this wisdom aside.

What then? Is the wisdom that is from without, someone will say, thus condemned? And yet it too is a work of God.

Whence is this evident? For He did not Himself make it; rather, you devised it in addition.

For here by 'wisdom' he means the meddlesome curiosity of inquiry and the superfluous eloquence.

But if anyone should say that he means human understanding, then in this way too the blame is yours.

For it is you who defame it—you who have used it ill, who have turned it to harm and to opposition against God, who demand of it what it did not possess.

Since, therefore, you boast in it and war against God, He convicted it of its weakness.

For bodily strength too is a good thing;

but since Cain used it not for what he ought, God enfeebled him and made him to tremble.

But since the Jews enjoyed it without measure, God utterly forbade to the priests the use of the fruit.

Since, therefore, you too misused wisdom unto the setting aside of God, and demanded of it more than its own strength could yield, He, leading you away from human hope, showed its weakness.

For indeed he is 'natural' who gives the whole to cold reasonings and thinks he has need of no help from above—which is a mark of folly.

For God gave it in order that the soul might learn and receive what comes from Him, not that it should think itself sufficient unto itself.

For the eyes too are good and useful; but if they should wish to see without light, neither their beauty nor their own strength profits them at all—rather, it even does them harm.

In the same way, then, the soul also, if it should wish to see apart from the Spirit, becomes a hindrance even to itself.

'How then,' someone says, 'before this did it see all things of itself?' Never of itself, but it had the creation set before it in the midst, in place of a book.

But when, having forsaken to walk the road which God commanded them, and through the beauty of the things seen to know the Creator, they committed the sceptre of knowledge into the hands of reasonings, they, grown weak, sank into a sea of impiety, forthwith bringing in the abyss of evils.

And saying that nothing comes into being out of things that are not, but out of unbegotten matter, whence also they gave birth to ten thousand heresies;

and in things utterly absurd they were carried along together, while in the very things where they seemed to dream some sound thought, as it were amid shadows, they clashed against one another, so that on both sides they might be laughed to scorn.

For that out of things which are not nothing comes into being, almost all together said and wrote, and that with much diligence.

In the absurdities, then, the devil drove them on;

but in the useful things, wherein they seemed to find, even if but in a riddle, something of what was being sought, in these he set them at war against themselves.

As, for instance, that the soul is immortal, and that virtue needs none of the things from without, and that it is not by necessity nor by fate that men become good, or not such.

Do you see the malice of the devil? Wherever he saw them saying something corrupt, he made them all of one mind;

but wherever he saw them uttering something sound, he stirred up others against them;

so that the absurdities might not fall away, being confirmed by their agreement, while the useful things might be dissipated, being assailed in manifold ways.

See how everywhere the soul is powerless, and does not suffice for itself.

And this has come to pass with good reason.

For if, being such as it is, it contends that it has need of nothing and leads itself away from God, had it not been made such, into what depth of madness would it not have slipped? If, having taken a mortal body, from the false promise of the devil it expected things far greater—

'For ye shall be,' he says, 'as gods';

if it had received this immortal from the beginning, into what would it not have fallen? For even after that it declared itself to be unbegotten and of the very substance of God, through the putrid mouth of the Manichaeans;

and from this disease of a hypothesis they moulded the gods that are among the Greeks.

For this reason it seems to me that God also made virtue laborious, bending it and leading it to moderation.

And that you may learn that this is true—as one might conjecture great things from small—let us learn it from the Israelites.

These, then, when they lived not a laborious life but enjoyed ease, not bearing their prosperity, slipped away into impiety.

What then did God do after this? He laid on them a multitude of ordinances, restraining their licence.

And that you may learn that these ordinances contribute nothing to any virtue, but were given to them in place of a kind of bridle, furnishing an occasion of occupation, hear what the prophet says concerning them:

'I gave them statutes that were not good.'

And what is 'not good'? Contributing nothing great toward virtue.

'Ordinances whereby they shall not live in them.'

'But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit.'

For just as with these eyes no one could discern the things in the heavens,

so neither can the soul alone discern the things of the Spirit.

And why do I speak of the things in the heavens? Not even all the things upon the earth.

For indeed, seeing a square tower from afar, we suppose it to be round;

but the things of such a supposition are a deception of the eyes.

So then, when anyone judges the things far off from us by the understanding alone, much laughter will follow.

For not only will he fail to see them as they are, but he will even suppose them to be the contrary of what they are.

But this is not of the nature of the thing, but of the weakness of him who was not able to attain to their greatness through the eyes of the soul.

Then he also sets down the cause in turn, saying:

'Because he knoweth not that it is spiritually discerned.'

That is to say, because the things spoken have need of faith, and one cannot comprehend them by reasonings.

For their greatness far transcends, by a great abundance, the meanness of our understanding.

'But he that is spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man.'

For indeed he that sees discerns all things, both his own and those of him that sees not; but of that man's things none of those who see not can discern anything.

So also now: we ourselves know all things, both our own and those of the unbelievers; but they can no longer know our things.

For indeed we know what is the nature of things present, and what the worth of things to come, and what the world will one day become after these things, and what the sinners shall suffer, and what the righteous shall enjoy; and that things present are of no worth we both know and convict of their meanness (for to 'discern' is also to convict); and that the things to come are immortal and unmoved.

All these things the spiritual man knows: both what the natural man shall suffer when he has departed thither, and what the believer shall enjoy when he has journeyed hence—of which the natural man knows nothing.

Wherefore also, having brought forward a clear demonstration of the things said, he went on to say:

'For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he shall instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.'

That is: these things which are in the mind of Christ, these we know—even the very things that He wills and has revealed.

Then, since he had said that the Spirit revealed these things, lest anyone should thrust the Son aside, he adds that Christ also showed them to us;

not meaning by this that we know all that He knows, but that all we do know is not human—so as to fall under suspicion—but belongs to that Mind and is spiritual.

For the mind that we have concerning these matters is the mind of Christ;

that is, the knowledge which we have concerning the matters of the faith is spiritual, so that fittingly we are judged by no one.

For it is not possible for a natural man to know the things of God;

'For who has known the mind of the Lord?'—calling our mind concerning these things His mind.

And the phrase 'who shall instruct him' he did not add without purpose, but in reference to what he had already said, that 'the spiritual man no one judges.'

For if no one is able to know the mind of God, much less to teach and correct it;

for this is the meaning of 'who shall instruct him.'

Do you see how on every side he thrusts out the wisdom that is from without, and shows the spiritual man to know more and greater things? For since those reasons—such as, 'that no flesh should glory';

and that for this cause 'He chose the foolish things, that He might put to shame the wise';

and, 'lest the cross of Christ should be made void'—did not seem to the unbelievers to be very convincing, nor persuasive and necessary and useful, he next puts down the chief reason of all: that in this way especially are we able to see, and from it we shall be able to learn the lofty and unutterable things, even the things beyond us.

For indeed the word was being made void by our inability to grasp, through the wisdom that is from without, the things that are beyond us.

Do you see that it was also more expedient to learn thus from the Spirit? For indeed the teaching is both most easy and most clear.

'But we have the mind of Christ.'

That is, a spiritual mind, a divine one, having nothing human.

For it is not Plato's nor Pythagoras', but Christ who has placed His own things into our understanding.

Let us therefore be ashamed at this, beloved, and let us display a most excellent life;

since He Himself also makes this a proof of great friendship, namely, that He reveals to us the secret things, saying:

'No longer do I call you servants;

for you are all My friends, because all that I heard from the Father I have made known to you.'

But if this alone is a proof of friendship, to be bold and open;

when He appears not only to have boldly spoken the mysteries by words, but also to have graciously bestowed these very things on us through deeds, consider how great a love that is which comes to pass!

And even if there were to be for us no such great account of hell, yet let it be more fearful than hell to become ungrateful and thankless toward so great a Friend and Benefactor;