Homily 44 — First Corinthians 16, verses 10 to 24

“Now if Timothy comes to you, see that he is with you without fear.” [a]

Perhaps someone may think there is something in this piece of advice unworthy of Timothy’s courage. But it is not said for Timothy’s sake. It is said for the hearers’ sake, so that they would not harm themselves by plotting against him; for Timothy, for his part, always had his post in the path of danger.

“For as a child serves a father,” he says, “so he served with me in the work of the good news” (Philippians 2, verse 22). But so that their presumption toward the disciple would not go on to the teacher as well, and make them worse, he checks them from far off, saying, “that he may be with you without fear”; that is, so that none of those reckless people would rise up against him. For Timothy perhaps intended to rebuke them about the very things Paul had written about; and indeed Paul said that he was sending him for this very reason. “For I have sent Timothy to you,” he says (First Corinthians 4, verse 17), “who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”

They might trust in their high birth and their wealth, in the backing of the people, and in the wisdom from outside, and so attack him, spit on him, and plot against him, stung by the rebukes that came from him. Or they might take revenge on him for the teacher’s rebuke, and so punish Paul through him. To prevent all this he says, “that he may be without fear with you.” It is as if he had said: “Do not talk to me about those outside, the pagans and unbelievers. It is your part that I am asking for — you, for whom this whole letter was written.” These were the very people he had frightened at the beginning and outset of the letter. That is why he says, “with you.”

Then, on the strength of his ministry, he presents him as someone to be trusted completely, saying, “For he is doing the work of the Lord.” That is: “Do not look at this — that he is not rich, or highly educated, or old — but at the commands laid on him, at the work he is doing. ‘For he is doing the work of the Lord.’” And this serves him in place of all noble birth and wealth and age and wisdom.

He is not content with this, but adds, “as I am also.” And a little earlier he had said, “who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways in Christ.” Timothy was young, and he had been entrusted all by himself with setting right so large a people, and both of these things tended to bring him into contempt. So Paul naturally adds, in verse 11: “So let no one despise him.”

He asks not only this of them but greater honor as well. That is why he says, “but send him on his way in peace”; that is, without fear, stirring up no fights or quarrels, no hostility or hatred, but showing him every kind of submission, as to a teacher.

“So that he may come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.” This too is the language of someone who means to alarm them. That is, so that they would become more considerate, knowing that he would be told everything, however Timothy was treated, he adds, “for I am expecting him.” Besides, he shows by this that Timothy deserves their confidence, since Paul, though he is on the point of leaving, is waiting for him. And he shows the love he has for them, since it is plain that for their sake he sent away someone so useful to him.

Verse 12: “Now concerning Apollos our brother, I urged him strongly to come to you with the brothers.”

This man seems to have been both well educated and older than Timothy. So that they would not say, “Why in the world did he not send the grown man, but the youth in his place?” — notice how he softens this point too, both by calling him a brother and by saying that he had urged him strongly. He did not want to seem to have held Timothy in higher honor than Apollos and to have raised him higher, and for that reason not to have sent Apollos, and so make their envy break out all the more. So he adds, “I urged him strongly to come.”

What then? Did Apollos not give way or agree? Did he resist and show himself contentious? Paul does not say this. So as not to stir up ill feeling against him, and also to excuse himself, he says, “and he was not at all willing to come now.” Then, to keep them from saying that all this was an excuse and a pretense, he adds, “but he will come to you when he has the opportunity.” This both excused Apollos and refreshed those who wanted to see him, with the hope it gave of his coming.

Next, to show that they ought to place their hopes of salvation not in their teachers but in themselves, he says, in verse 13: “Be watchful; stand firm in the faith.” [d]

Not in the wisdom from outside, for there it is impossible to stand; one can only be carried along. But “in the faith” you can “stand.” “Act like men; be strong.” “Let all that you do be done in love.” In saying these things he seems to be giving advice, but he is really scolding them as lazy. That is why he says “Be watchful,” as though they were asleep; “Stand,” as though they were tottering to and fro; “Act like men,” as though they were playing the coward; “Let all that you do be done in love,” as though they were quarreling.

The first warning is aimed at the deceivers: “Be watchful,” “stand.” The next is aimed at those who plot against us: “Act like men.” The third is aimed at those who form factions and try to tear them apart: “Let all that you do be done in love.” For love is “the bond of perfection,” and the root and fountain of all blessings.

But what does “all things in love” mean? “Whether someone rebukes,” he says, “or rules or is ruled, or learns or teaches, let everything be in love.” For in fact all the faults he has mentioned arose from neglecting love. If love had not been neglected, they would not have been puffed up; they would not have said, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos.” If love had been there, they would not have gone to court before pagans — or rather, they would not have gone to court at all. If love had been there, that notorious man would not have taken his father’s wife; they would not have despised the weak among their brothers and sisters; there would have been no factions among them; they would not have puffed themselves up with empty glory over their gifts. That is why he says, “Let all things be done in love.”

Verse 15: “Now I urge you, brothers and sisters — you know the household of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to serving the saints.” [f]

He mentions this man at the beginning of the letter too, saying, “I also baptized the household of Stephanas.” And now he speaks of him as “the firstfruits,” not of Corinth only, but of all Greece. This too is no small praise, that he was the first to come to Christ. That is why in the Letter to the Romans as well, praising certain people on this account, he said, “who were also in Christ before me” (Romans 16, verse 7).

And he did not say that they were the first to believe, but that they were the “firstfruits,” implying that along with their faith they also showed a most excellent life and proved themselves worthy in every way, as fruits do. For the firstfruits ought to be better than the rest of the crop whose firstfruits they are. This is the kind of praise Paul has given these people too by this expression: not only did they have a genuine faith, as I was saying, but they also showed great devotion to God, the very height of virtue, and generosity in almsgiving.

And he shows their devotion not from this alone but from another point as well: they had filled their whole household with godliness too.

That they abounded in good works as well, he makes plain by what follows, saying, “They have devoted themselves to serving the saints.” Do you hear how great the praise of their hospitality is? For he did not say “they serve,” but “they have devoted themselves.” They have chosen this way of life with their whole heart; this is the business they are always busy with.

“That you also submit to such people” — that is, that you take a share with them both in spending money and in personal service, that you become their partners. For their labor will be light to them when they have companions, and the fruit of their active goodwill will reach more people.

He did not say merely “be fellow helpers,” but added, “whatever they direct, obey,” implying the strictest obedience. And so as not to seem to be showing them favoritism, he adds, “and to everyone who works with them and labors.” “Let this be a general rule,” he says. “I am not speaking about them as individuals. If there is anyone else like them, let him have the same privileges.” And so, when he begins his commendation, he calls on the Corinthians themselves as witnesses, saying, “I urge you — you know the household of Stephanas.” “For you yourselves know,” he says, “how they labor, and you have no need to learn it from us.”

Verse 17: “I am glad about the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, for they have made up for what was lacking on your part.”

Verse 18: “For they refreshed my spirit and yours.”

The Corinthians were likely to be very irritated with these men. It was they who had come and told Paul all about the division, and it was by them, too, that the Corinthians had sent their written questions about the virgins and about married people. So notice how he softened the Corinthians toward them. He did it at the beginning of his letter, by saying, “For it has been reported to me by those of Chloe’s household” — keeping these men out of sight at once, and putting the others forward (for it seems that Chloe’s people had sent their report by way of these men). And he does it here again: “They have made up for what you lacked, and refreshed my spirit and yours.” He means that they had come in place of all of them, and had chosen to undertake so long a journey on their behalf.

How, then, can this praise, which belongs to them alone, become shared by all? “If you will make up to me for what was lacking on your part by your kindness toward them; if you will honor them, if you will receive them, if you will share with them in doing good.” That is why he says, “So give recognition to such people.” And while praising those who came, he takes in the others too, the senders together with the sent, where he says: “‘They refreshed my spirit and yours; so recognize such people,’ because for your sakes they left their country and their homes.”

Do you see his consideration? He implies that they had done a kindness not to Paul only but to the Corinthians as well, since they carried the whole city about in their own persons. This both added to their credit and did not allow the others to cut themselves off from them, since in the persons of these men the Corinthians themselves had presented themselves to Paul.

Verse 19: “All the churches of Asia greet you.”

He is constantly using the greeting to make the members hold together and cling to one another as one.

“Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord” — for Paul was staying with them, being a tentmaker — “together with the church that is in their house.” This too is no small mark of excellence: they had made their very house a church.

Verse 20: “All the brothers and sisters greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.” [i]

Only here does he add this “holy kiss.” What can the reason be? They had been badly at odds with one another because they were saying, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ”; because “one is hungry, and another is drunk”; because they had quarrels and jealousies and lawsuits. And the gifts had given rise to much envy and great pride. So, having knit them together by his exhortation, he naturally tells them to use the holy kiss too as a means of union; for it unites them and makes them one body. And a kiss is holy when it is free of deceit and hypocrisy.

Verse 21: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.”

This shows that the letter was written with great seriousness. That is why he added, in verse 22: “If anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.”

By this one word he strikes fear into all of them: those who made their members the members of a prostitute; those who put stumbling blocks in their brothers’ way through food sacrificed to idols; those who named themselves after men; those who refused to believe in the resurrection. And he not only strikes fear into them; he also points out the way to virtue and the source of vice. Just as, when our love for him has grown intense, there is no kind of sin that is not quenched and driven out by it, so when that love is too weak, it lets sin spring up.

“Maran atha.” Why is this word used? And why in the Hebrew language at that? Arrogance was the cause of all their evils. It was the wisdom from outside that had produced this arrogance, and this arrogance was the sum and substance of all the evils, the thing that tore Corinth apart most of all. So in putting down their arrogance he did not even use the Greek language, but the Hebrew, showing that, far from being ashamed of that kind of simplicity, he embraces it with great warmth.

But what does “Maran atha” mean? “Our Lord has come.” Why, then, does he use this phrase in particular? To confirm the teaching about the plan of salvation — the subject from which, more than any other, he had built the arguments that are the seeds of the resurrection. And not only that, but also to rebuke them, as if he had said: “The Lord we all share has stooped to come down this far — and are you still the same? Do you remain in your sins? Are you not thrilled by the greatness of his love, the crowning point of his blessings? Yes, just think about this one thing, and it will be enough to carry you forward in every virtue, and you will be able to put out every sin.”

Verse 23: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

This is what a teacher does: he helps not only with advice but with prayers too.

Verse 24: “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

To keep them from thinking that he ended this way to flatter them, he says, “in Christ Jesus.” His love has nothing human or fleshly in it, but is of a spiritual kind, and so it is thoroughly genuine. And in fact these are the words of someone who loves deeply. Since he was separated from them by distance, it is as though he stretched out his right hand and enfolded them in the arms of his love, saying, “My love be with you all” — just as if he had said, “I am with all of you.” By this he shows that what he had written came not from wrath or anger but from care for their good, since after so heavy an accusation he does not turn away from them. On the contrary, he loves them and embraces them from far away, throwing himself into their arms by these letters and writings.

This is how anyone who corrects others ought to act. The one who acts merely out of anger is only satisfying his own feelings; but the one who, after correcting the sinner, also performs the duties of love shows that even the words he spoke in reproof were words of warm affection. Let us correct one another in just this way. Let the one who corrects not be angry — for that belongs not to correction but to passion — and let the one who is corrected not take it badly. For what is being done is healing, not spite. [m]

Doctors use the cautery and are not blamed for it, and that often, even when they miss their aim entirely; and even in their pain, those who are cauterized and cut regard the ones causing them this pain as their benefactors. How much more, then, should the one who receives a reproof feel this way, and listen to the one correcting him as to a doctor, not as to an enemy! And let us who rebuke come to it with great gentleness and great good sense. If you see a brother committing sin, do as Christ commanded: do not make your rebuke public, but keep it “between you and him alone” (Matthew 18, verse 15) — not reproaching him or trampling on him when he is down, but in pain and with a melting heart. And show yourself ready to receive reproof as well, if you go wrong in anything.

To make what I am saying plainer, let us imagine a case and test our rule on it — far be it from us to have a real example of it before our eyes! Suppose a brother is living in the same house with a virgin, honorably and chastely, and yet even so not quite escaping gossip. If you hear talk about their living together, do not shrug it off, and do not say: “Why, has he no sense? Doesn’t he know for himself what is good for him? ‘Win love for nothing, but do not win hatred for nothing.’ What business do I have taking on an enmity that gains me nothing?” These are the senseless words of wild beasts, or rather of demons. The man who does this to correct his brother is not hated for nothing; he is hated for the sake of great blessings and crowns beyond words.

But if you say, “What? Has he no sense?” you will hear from me that he has none: he is drunk with his passion. In the courts of the pagans, those who have been wronged are not allowed to speak for themselves while they are burning with anger — though there is nothing blameworthy in that kind of feeling. How much more does this hold for those whom an evil habit holds in subjection! So I say that, however wise he may be in many ways, his mind is not awake.

For who could be wiser than David, the man who said, “The dark and hidden things of your wisdom you have made known to me” (Psalm 51, verse 6)? Yet when he looked at the soldier’s wife with unjust eyes, then, as he himself said of those who sail on a raging sea (Psalm 107, verse 27), “all his wisdom was swallowed up.” He needed others to correct him, and he did not even see how deep in evil he was. That is why, lamenting his offenses, he also said, “Like a heavy burden they weighed grievously on me; my wounds stank and festered because of my folly” (Psalm 38, verse 5). So the one who commits sin has no sense, for he is drunk and in darkness.

Do not say these things, then, and do not add that other remark: “I don’t care about it at all. ‘For each one will carry his own load’ (Galatians 6, verse 5).” No: this too grows into a serious charge against you, that you see someone going astray and do not set him right. If under the law of the Jews it was not right to neglect even an enemy’s animal (Exodus 23, verses 4 and 5), what pardon will he get who neglects, not a beast of burden, nor even the soul of an enemy perishing, but the soul of a friend?

Nor is it any excuse for us that he has sense of his own. We ourselves, after our many and varied exhortations, have not been enough for ourselves, or of any use to ourselves. Keep this in mind, then, about the one who has gone wrong: he is likely to get the best advice from you rather than from himself.

And do not say: “But what do I care about these things?” Fear the one who first spoke this word; for the saying, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4, verse 9) comes to the same thing as this. This is the mother of all our evils: that we regard the concerns of our own body as foreign to us. What are you saying? You do not care about your brother? Who, then, is to care for him? The unbeliever, who gloats over him and taunts and insults him? Or the devil, who drives him on and trips him up?

And where does this attitude come from? “How do I know that I will accomplish anything,” he says, “even if I speak and give good advice?” But how is it clear that you will do no good? This, again, is the height of folly: while the outcome is still hidden, to bring on yourself the heavy blame of open indifference. And yet God, who foresees the future, often speaks and does no good; yet even so he does not give up, and that though he knows he will not persuade them. Now if he who knows in advance that he will gain nothing does not stop the work of correction, what excuse will you have, who know nothing at all of the future and yet lose heart and grow numb? Indeed, many have succeeded by trying again and again, and it was when they most despaired that they most gained their point. And even if you gain nothing, you have done your own part.

So do not be inhuman, or unmerciful, or careless. That these words come from cruelty and indifference is plain from this: why is it that when one of the members of your body is in pain, you do not say, “What do I care?” And yet how is it clear that if it is properly cared for, it will recover? Still, you leave nothing undone, so that even if you do no good, you will not have to blame yourself for leaving out anything that should have been done. So I ask: are we to take such care of the members of our body, and neglect those of Christ? How can such things deserve pardon?

If I make no impression on you by saying, “Take care of your own member,” then — so that you may become better, even if only through fear — I remind you of the body of Christ. How can it be anything but horrifying to see his flesh rotting, and neglect it? If you had a slave or a donkey suffering from a sore that was turning gangrenous, you would not have the heart to neglect it. Yet you see the body of Christ full of scabs, and you hurry past? And you do not think that such things deserve countless thunderbolts? This is why everything is turned upside down: because of this inhumanity of ours, because of our indifference.

So now, I beg you, let this cruelty be driven out from among us.

Go to the man I spoke of, the one living with a virgin, and say a few words in your brother’s praise, drawing them from the other good qualities he has. Bathe him with your praises as though with warm water, and so bring down the swelling of his wound. Call yourself wretched too. Blame our common human race, and point out that we are all in sins. Ask his pardon, saying that you are taking on something too great for you, but love persuades you to dare anything. Then, when you give your advice, do not give it like a master giving orders, but like a brother. [s]

And when by all these means you have brought down the swelling and eased the pain that the cutting rebuke in store for him will cause; when you have again and again begged and pleaded with him not to be angry; when you have bound him fast with these things — then use the knife. Do not press too hard, and do not let the matter go slack, so that he neither bolts on the one hand nor thinks little of it on the other. If you do not cut to the quick, you have done no good; and if your stroke is violent, you make him jump away.

So even after all this, when you are at the very point of the rebuke, mix praise in with your blame again. The thing itself cannot be praised, for it is not commendable to keep house with a young woman who is a virgin. So make the purpose of the man who does it your ground for this, and say: “I know, of course, that you are doing this for God’s sake. You saw how lonely and unprotected that poor woman was, and that made you stretch out your hand to her.” Even if that is not really why he is doing it, say it anyway. And after this, add the rest, again excusing yourself and saying: “I say these things not to instruct you but to remind you. You are doing it for God’s sake; I know that too. But let us see whether some other harm is not coming from it. If there is none, keep her in your house and hold on to this excellent purpose. No one is stopping you. But if some harm comes from it that outweighs the good, let us take care, I beg you, that while we are eager to comfort one soul, we do not put a stumbling block in the way of ten thousand.”

Do not add at once the punishments that await those who cause others to stumble. Instead, take his own testimony as well, and say: “You have no need to learn these things from me. You yourself know how great a penalty is threatened ‘if anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble.’” In this way, once you have sweetened your words and smoothed down his anger, apply the medicine of your correction. And if he pleads the woman’s helpless state again, do not even then expose his pretext, but say to him: “Do not let anything of that kind frighten you. You will have a full defense: the stumbling block it put in the way of others. It was not out of indifference but out of care for them that you gave up this purpose of yours.”

Keep the advice itself short, for there is no need of much teaching; but let your words of forbearance be many, one close upon another. Keep coming back to the theme of love, throwing the painfulness of what you say into the shade, and leaving the decision fully in his hands. Say: “This is what I, for my part, advise and recommend. But whether to take the advice is for you alone to judge. I am not compelling you or forcing you; I leave the whole thing to your own discretion.”

If we handle our rebukes this way, we will easily be able to correct those who go wrong. What we do now is surely more like the behavior of wild beasts or animals without reason than of human beings. As things are, if people see someone making mistakes of this kind, they say nothing at all to the man himself; instead, like silly old women who have had too much to drink, they whisper about it with one another. In their opinion the saying “Win love for nothing, but do not win hatred for nothing” has no place here. When they have a fancy to speak evil, they do not mind being “hated for nothing” — or rather, I should say, being punished, since it is not only hatred that comes from this, but punishment too. But when correction is needed, they bring out this saying and countless other excuses.

Yet the time to think of these things would be when you speak evil, when you slander — I mean the sayings “Do not be hated for nothing,” and “I can do nothing,” and “It is none of my business.” But as it is, in the one case you are fiercely and idly curious, and care nothing for hatred and countless harms; but when you ought to be giving thought to your brother’s salvation, then you choose to be the sort of person who minds his own business and offends no one. Yet speaking evil brings hatred from God and from people alike, and that does not trouble you much; while by giving advice privately, and rebukes of that kind, you will make both him and God your friends. And even if he should hate you, God loves you all the more for it. Indeed, he will not even hate you the way he did when his hatred came from your speaking evil of him. In that case he will avoid you as a foe and an enemy; but now he will regard you with more reverence than any father. And if he seems to take it badly, inwardly and in private he will feel very grateful to you.

So, keeping these things in mind, let us take care of our own members. Let us not sharpen our tongues against one another, nor speak words that do harm, undermining our neighbor’s good name, giving and taking blows as in war and battle. For what, after all, is the good of fasting or keeping vigil, when the tongue is drunk and feasts at a table more unclean than one spread with dog’s flesh; when it has grown ravenous for blood, and pours out filth, and turns the mouth into the channel of a sewer — or rather into something more loathsome than that? What comes out of a sewer defiles the body; but what comes from the tongue often suffocates the soul.

I say these things not out of concern for those who are falsely spoken of — they are worthy even of crowns when they bear what is said nobly — but out of concern for you who speak this way. The one who is falsely spoken against, the Scriptures call “blessed”; but the one who speaks evil they shut out of the holy mysteries, and even out of the very precincts. For it is written, “Whoever secretly speaks against his neighbor, him I drove out” (Psalm 101, verse 5). And he says too that such a person is unworthy to recite the sacred books. “Why,” he says, “do you declare my righteous laws, and take my covenant in your mouth?” (Psalm 50, verse 16). Then, adding the reason, he says, “You sat and spoke against your brother” (Psalm 50, verse 20).

Here, it is true, he does not say plainly whether the things the man says are true or false. But elsewhere this too is part of his prohibition, and he shows that even if what you say is true, such things are not for you to utter. For “Do not judge,” he says, “so that you will not be judged” (Matthew 7, verse 1). And indeed the man who spoke evil of the tax collector was condemned, even though the charge he laid against his neighbor was true.

“What then? If someone is reckless and defiled, must we not correct him? Must we not expose him?” We must both expose and correct him — but in the way I described earlier. If you do it by heaping reproach on him, be careful that by imitating that Pharisee you do not fall into his condition. For nothing good comes of it: none for you who speak, none for the one who hears you, none for the man accused. The accused, for his part, becomes more reckless. As long as he is unnoticed, he feels shame; but once he is exposed and talked about, he throws off even the curb that shame had put on him.

The hearer, in turn, will be harmed even more. If he knows he has good deeds to his credit, he grows puffed up and swollen over the charge brought against someone else; if he knows he has faults, he becomes all the more eager for wrongdoing. And third, the speaker himself will both lose his hearer’s good opinion and provoke God to greater anger against himself.

So I beg you, let us throw away every rotten word. If there is anything good for building others up, let us speak that.

But are you set on taking revenge on the other person? Then why punish yourself instead of him? No — you who are so eager to get satisfaction from those who have annoyed you, take your revenge the way Paul advised: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink” (Romans 12, verse 20). But if you do not do this, and only plot against him, you are pointing the sword at yourself.

So if that other man speaks evil of you, answer him with praise and commendation. That way you will both take your revenge on him and free yourself from any suspicion of evil. For the man who is pained to hear evil spoken of himself is thought to feel that way because he knows of something wrong in himself; but the man who laughs at what is said gives the surest sign that he knows of nothing wrong in himself.

Since, then, you do no good to your hearer, or to yourself, or to the man accused, and only point your sword at yourself, learn more self-control even from considerations like these. One ought, of course, to be moved by the thought of the kingdom of heaven and of what pleases God. But since you are of a coarser nature and bite like a wild beast, be taught even by these things. Then, once these arguments have corrected you, you will be able to order your life simply out of regard for what pleases God, and, having risen above every passion, you will obtain the heavenly blessings. May God grant that we all obtain them, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and his love for humankind; with whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, power and honor, now and always, and to everlasting ages. Amen.