To your command, holy brother Aurelius, I ought to have submitted the more devoutly, the more clearly it appeared to me who it was that commanded through you. For our Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling in your inner man, and inspiring in you the solicitude of a paternal and fraternal charity — as to whether this licence ought to be permitted to our sons and brethren the monks, who neglect to obey the blessed Apostle Paul when he says, 'If any will not work, neither let him eat' — taking up your will and your tongue into His own work, commanded me through you, that I should write something on this to you. May He therefore Himself also be present with me, that I may so obey Him as to understand that I obey Him by His own gift, through the very usefulness of a fruitful labour.
First, then, it must be seen what those men of that profession say, who are unwilling to work; and then, if we find that they think not rightly, we must dispute against them, for their correction and for the fulfilling of the office of our episcopate. 'Not,' they say, 'of this bodily labour, in which either farmers or craftsmen toil, did the Apostle give the precept, when he said, "If any will not work, neither let him eat." For neither could he be contrary to the Gospel, where the Lord himself says: "Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?"'
'Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious about raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.'
'For your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore be not anxious for the morrow: for the morrow shall be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' 'Behold,' they say, 'where the Lord bids us be free from care concerning our sustenance and covering. How then could the Apostle think against the Lord, so as to prescribe to us that we ought to be so anxious what we may eat and what we may drink and wherewith we may be covered, that he should even burden us with the arts, cares, and labours of craftsmen? Wherefore, in that which he says, "If any will not work, neither let him eat," we ought,' they say, 'to understand spiritual works, of which it is said in another place:'
to each as the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; and a little later: each shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow-workers; you are God's tillage, God's building. According to the grace which was given to me, as a wise master-builder I laid the foundation. Just as, therefore, the Apostle works by planting, watering, building, and laying the foundation, so let him who is unwilling to work not eat. For what does it profit to eat spiritually, that is, to be fed with the word of God, if one does not thereby work for the building up of others? Just as, in the case of that slothful servant, what did it profit him to receive the talent and hide it and not work for the Lord's gains?
Or was it that in the end it should be taken from him, and he himself be cast into the outer darkness? So, they say, we too do this: we read with the brethren who come to us weary from the heat of the world, that they may find rest among us in the word of God and in prayers, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We address them, we console them, we exhort them, building them up—if we perceive anything in their life to be according to their rank. If we did not do such works, we should be taking those very spiritual foods from the Lord at our peril; for this the Apostle said: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat.
Thus these men suppose that they are obeying the apostolic and evangelical judgement, since they both believe that the Gospel commanded us to take no thought for the bodily and temporal want of this life, and hold that the Apostle spoke concerning spiritual work and food when he said: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat. Nor do they consider that, if someone were to say that the Lord, speaking in parables and similitudes, gave counsel about spiritual sustenance and covering, so that his servants should not be anxious about it—just as He says: when they drag you before tribunals, do not think what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
For the discourse of wisdom is indeed spiritual, concerning which He was unwilling that they should take thought, promising that nothing would be lacking to them on that account when they were not anxious—whereas the Apostle, now speaking after the apostolic manner more openly and more properly than figuratively, as very many and almost all things stand in the apostolic epistles, spoke properly concerning bodily work and food: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat. Their opinion would be rendered doubtful to them, unless, considering the rest of the Lord's words, they found something whereby to prove that He spoke of not being anxious about bodily sustenance and clothing, when He said: do not be anxious what you shall eat and what you shall drink, and wherewith you shall be clothed; as though they would take note of what He says:
for all these things do the nations seek; for there He shows that He spoke of those very bodily and temporal things. Thus, therefore, if the Apostle had said this alone on this matter—he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat—these words could be diverted to another meaning; but since in many other places of his epistles he teaches most plainly what he means by this, they labour in vain to spread darkness over themselves and others, so that what that charity usefully counsels they are not only unwilling to do, but are unwilling even to understand it themselves, or that it be understood by others—not fearing what is written: he refused to understand, that he might do well.
First, therefore, we must show that the blessed Apostle Paul wished the servants of God to do bodily works which should have their end in a great spiritual reward, to this end—that in their very sustenance and covering they should be in need of no man, but should procure these things for themselves with their own hands; then we must show that those evangelical precepts, by which some cherish not only their laziness but even their arrogance, are not contrary to the apostolic precept and example. Let us see, then, whence the Apostle came to say: if any will not work, neither let him eat, and what he goes on to weave together, so that from the very context of the reading the meaning may appear declared. We charge you, he says.
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in a disorderly manner and not according to the tradition which they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, for we were not disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil, working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any will not work, neither let him eat. For we have heard that some walk disorderly among you, working nothing, but busy about other men's matters.
Now such as these we command and beseech in the Lord Jesus Christ, that working with quietness they may eat their own bread. What can be said against this, seeing that, lest afterwards it should be lawful for anyone to interpret this according to his own will rather than out of charity, he taught by his own example what he commanded? For to him, as an apostle, a preacher of the Gospel, a soldier of Christ, a planter of the vineyard, a shepherd of the flock, the Lord had appointed that he should live by the Gospel; and yet he himself did not exact the stipend due to him, that he might give himself as a pattern to those who desired to exact things not due. As he says to the Corinthians: who serves as a soldier at his own charges at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?
Therefore what was owed to him he was unwilling to accept, that by his example those might be restrained who, not being so appointed in the Church, supposed that such things were owed to them. For what is it that he says: neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us? Let those, then, to whom he gave this command hear it—that is, those who do not have this power which he had, so that, working only spiritually, they may eat bread free of bodily labour—and in what manner he says:
we command and beseech in Christ, that working with quietness they may eat their own bread; let them not dispute against the most manifest words of the Apostle, for this too pertains to the quietness with which, while working, they ought to eat their own bread. I would still consider and treat these words more thoroughly and diligently, were it not that I have other passages of his epistles far more manifest, by comparison with which these too are made clearer, and which, if these did not exist, would suffice. For writing to the Corinthians on this same matter, he thus says: am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, yet to you at least I am.
For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defence to those who examine me is this. Have we not the power to eat and to drink? Have we not the liberty to lead about a sister, a woman, even as the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? See how first he shows what is lawful for him, and lawful for this reason, because he is an apostle. For he began thus: am I not free? Am I not an apostle? And he proves himself an apostle, saying: have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? Having proved this, he shows that the same is lawful for him as for the other apostles, that is:
that he should not work with his own hands, but should live by the Gospel, as the Lord appointed—which in what follows he most plainly demonstrated; for to this end also faithful women, having earthly substance, went about with them and ministered to them of their substance, that they might lack none of those things which pertain to the substance of this life. This the blessed Paul indeed shows to be lawful for him, as the other apostles also did, but he afterwards records that he was unwilling to use that power. Not understanding this, some have interpreted, not 'a sister, a woman'—when he said: have we not the power to lead about a sister, a woman?—but 'a wife'.
The ambiguity of the Greek word deceived them, for both 'wife' and 'woman' are expressed in Greek by the same word; although the Apostle so put it that they ought not to have been deceived, since he did not say merely 'a woman', but 'a sister, a woman', nor 'to lead', but 'to lead about'. Yet this ambiguity did not deceive other translators, and they interpreted it 'a woman', not 'a wife'. But whoever thinks that it could not have been done by the apostles, that women of holy conduct should go about with them wherever they preached the Gospel, to minister to them of their substance the things necessary, let him hear the Gospel and learn how they did this after the example of the Lord Himself.
For our Lord, after the manner of His mercy having compassion on the weaker, though angels could minister to Him, both had a purse into which money was put—money which was contributed, of course, by the good faithful, necessary for their sustenance; which purse He entrusted to Judas, that we might learn to tolerate even thieves in the Church, if we cannot avoid them. For he, as is written of him, carried off the things that were put in. And He willed that women should follow Him to prepare and minister the things necessary, showing what is owed to the evangelists and ministers of God, as to soldiers, by the people of God, as by provincials;
so that, if anyone were unwilling to use what was owed to him—as the Apostle Paul was unwilling—he might spend the more upon the Church by not exacting the stipend due, but by supplying his daily sustenance from his own labours. For the innkeeper had heard, to whom that wounded man was brought: whatsoever you shall spend over and above, on my return I will repay you. The Apostle Paul, then, spent the more, who, as he himself testifies, served as a soldier at his own charges. For in the Gospel it is written:
afterwards He Himself went about through city and village, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who is called Magdalene, out of whom seven demons had gone; Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward; and Susanna; and many others, who ministered to them of their means. This example of the Lord the apostles imitated in receiving the food owed to them; of which the same Lord speaks most plainly. Go, He says, preach, saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your belts, no wallet for the journey, neither two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the labourer is worthy of his food. Behold where the Lord appointed what the same Apostle records. For to this end He said that they should carry none of those things, that, where there was need, they might receive from those to whom they announced the kingdom of God. But lest anyone should suppose that this was granted to the Twelve alone, see what Luke also relates. After these things, he says, the Lord appointed others also, seventy-two, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come. And He said to them: the harvest indeed is plentiful, but the labourers are few;
pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He may send labourers into His harvest. Go; behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals, and salute no man on the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say: peace be to this house. And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what things are with them; for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Here it appears that those were not commands, but permissions; so that whoever wished to use it might use that which was lawful for him by the Lord's ordinance;
but if anyone were unwilling to use it, he would not act against a command, but would relinquish his own right, having conducted himself more mercifully and more laboriously in the Gospel, in which he was even unwilling to accept the reward due. Otherwise, the Apostle acted against the Lord's command—he who, after he had shown that it was lawful for him, immediately added: but nevertheless I have not used this power. But let us return to the order and diligently consider that whole passage of the epistle. Have we not, he says, the liberty to eat and to drink? Have we not the liberty to lead about a sister, a woman? What liberty did he mean but that which the Lord gave to those whom He sent to preach the kingdom of heaven, saying: eat the things that are set before you by them;
for the labourer is worthy of his hire—setting himself forth also as an example of the same power, to whom the most faithful women ministered such necessary things of their means? But the Apostle Paul did more, in that he adduced from his fellow-apostles a proof of this liberty permitted by the Lord. For he did not add by way of reproach: even as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas, but that he might thereby show that he was unwilling to accept this, which was proved to be lawful for him to accept by the practice of the rest of his fellow-soldiers also. Or is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working? Behold, he has removed all doubt even from the slowest hearts, that they may understand of what work he speaks. For why does he say:
is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working?—except that all the evangelists and ministers of the word of God had the power received from the Lord not to work with their own hands, but to live by the Gospel, working only spiritual things in the preaching of the kingdom of heaven and the building up of the Church's peace? For no one can say that the Apostle spoke of that spiritual working: is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working? For this power of not working all those had. Let him therefore say—he who tries to distort and pervert the apostolic precepts to his own opinion—let him say, if he dares, that all the evangelists received from the Lord the power of not evangelizing.
But if it is most absurd and most insane to say this, why are they unwilling to understand what is plain to all—that those indeed received the power of not working, but of bodily works, whereby they might seek their sustenance, since the labourer is worthy of his food and his hire, as the Gospel says? Not, then, Paul and Barnabas alone lacked the power of not working, but all alike had this power, which these men did not use, spending the more upon the Church, according as they judged it fitting for the weak in those places where they evangelized. And therefore, lest he should seem to have reproached his fellow-apostles, he adds and says: who serves as a soldier at his own charges at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?
who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? Or does not the law also say this? For in the law of Moses it is written: you shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For it is written for our sakes, because he that ploughs ought to plough in hope, and he that threshes, in hope of partaking. By these words the Apostle Paul sufficiently indicates that he had not usurped anything to himself beyond what was owed to his fellow-apostles, because they did not work bodily whereby they might have the necessaries of this life, but, as the Lord appointed, living by the Gospel, ate free bread from those to whom they preached free grace. For they received their stipend as soldiers, and
freely gathered from the fruit of the vineyard planted by them what they needed; and drank of the milk of the flock which they fed; and took their food from the threshing-floor which they threshed. And more openly he links the rest together and altogether removes all evasions of doubt. If we, he says, have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? What are the spiritual things which he sowed, but the word and the ministry of the sacrament of the kingdom of heaven? And what the carnal things which he says it is lawful for him to reap, but these temporal things which are granted to the life and want of the flesh? But he makes plain that he had not sought nor accepted these things owed to him from them, lest he should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.
What remains, but that we understand him to have worked, whereby he might have his sustenance, by bodily and visible work with his own hands? For if he had sought his sustenance and covering from spiritual work—that is, that he should receive these from those whom he was building up in the Gospel—he would not consistently say: if others partake of this power over you, do not we the more? But we have not used this power, but bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. What power does he say he did not use, but that which he had received over them from the Lord, namely, to reap their carnal things for the sustenance of this life, which is carried on in the flesh?
Of which power others also were partakers, who did not first announce the Gospel to them, but afterwards came preaching the same to their church. Therefore, when he had said: if we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? he added: if others partake of this power over you, do not we the more? And when he had demonstrated what power was theirs, but we have not used, he says, this power, but bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. Let these men, then, say how from spiritual work the Apostle had carnal sustenance, when he himself openly says that he did not use this power.
But if from spiritual work he did not have carnal sustenance, it remains that he had it from bodily work, and thence says: neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us. We bear all things, he says, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. And he returns again, and in every way, again and again, commends what is lawful for him and yet he does not do. Do you not know, he says, that they who labour in the temple eat the things that are of the temple? They who serve the altar are partakers with the altar? So also the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel;
but I have used none of these things. What is plainer than this? What is clearer? I fear lest perchance, while I discourse wishing to expound it, that should become obscure which shines and cries aloud of itself. For those who do not understand these words, or feign that they do not understand them, understand mine far less, or profess that they understand them—unless perhaps for this reason they quickly understand ours: because it is granted to them to deride our words when understood, but concerning the Apostle's words the same is not granted. Therefore, where they cannot interpret them otherwise according to their own opinion, they answer that even things clear and manifest are obscure and uncertain, because they dare not say they are crooked and perverse. The man of God cries aloud: the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel;
but I have used none of these things—and flesh and blood tries to distort the straight, to shut what is open, to cloud what is serene. He did spiritual work, they say, and thence he lived. If it is so, he lived by the Gospel. Why then does he say: the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel; but I have used none of these things? Or if they wish to interpret this very word here spoken, 'to live', according to the spiritual life, the Apostle had no hope toward God, seeing he did not live by the Gospel, because he said: I have used none of these things. Wherefore, that his hope of eternal life might be sure, the Apostle assuredly lived by the Gospel spiritually. Therefore what he says:
but I have used none of these things—concerning this life which is carried on in the flesh, he causes it without doubt to be understood that he said the Lord had ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel—that is, to carry on this life, which needs sustenance and covering, from the Gospel, as he said above of his fellow-apostles, whence the Lord Himself says: the labourer is worthy of his food, and: the labourer is worthy of his hire. This food, therefore, and this hire owed to the evangelists for the sustaining of this life, the Apostle did not accept from those to whom he preached the Gospel, saying truly: but I have used none of these things. And it follows, and he adds, lest perchance anyone should suppose that he did not accept it because they had not given it:
but I have not written these things that it should be so done in me; for it is good for me rather to die than that anyone should make my glory void. What glory? but that which he wished to have with God, in Christ having compassion on the weak, as he is presently about to say most plainly. For if I preach the Gospel, he says, it is no glory to me; for necessity is laid upon me—that is, of sustaining this life. For woe is me, he says, if I preach not the Gospel—that is, to my own hurt I will not preach the Gospel, because I shall be tormented with hunger and shall have nothing whereby to live. For it follows, and he says: for if I do this willingly, I have a reward. He says he does it willingly, who does it compelled by no necessity of propping up this life, and on this account has a reward, namely, of everlasting glory with God.
But if unwillingly, he says, a dispensation is committed to me—that is, if by the necessity of carrying on this life I am unwillingly compelled to evangelize, a dispensation is committed to me, so that, namely, by my dispensation of it—because I preach Christ, because I preach the truth, though from an occasion, though seeking my own, though compelled by the necessity of earthly gain—others may profit, but I do not have that glorious and everlasting reward with God. What reward, then, he says, shall be mine? He asked, questioning; therefore the delivery must be suspended, until he answers. That this may be more easily understood, let us, as it were, question him:
what reward, then, shall be yours, O Apostle, when you do not accept that earthly reward, owed even to good evangelists who preach not for this reason, but who nevertheless take it as a consequence and as offered by the Lord's ordinance? What reward, then, shall be yours? See what he answers. That, evangelizing, he says, I may set forth the Gospel without cost—that is, that the Gospel may not be costly to believers, lest they should think the Gospel is preached to them for this end, that the evangelists should seem, as it were, to sell it. And yet he returns again and again, to show what is lawful for him by the Lord's right, and which he himself does not do. That I may not abuse, he says, my power in the Gospel. Now indeed, because he did this out of compassion for the weakness of men, let us hear what follows.