Homily 7 — Second Timothy 3, verses 1 to 4

“Know this also, that in the last days perilous times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, greedy, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of those who are good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such people. For of this sort are those who worm their way into households and take captive foolish women loaded down with sins, led away by various cravings and pleasures, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” [a]

In the former letter he had said that “the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith” (First Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2). Elsewhere in this letter, too, he foretells that something of this kind will happen afterward, and here he does the same thing again: “Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” And he declares it not only from the future but from the past: “As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses.” And again from reasoning: “In a great house there are not only articles of gold and of silver.” But why does he do this? So that Timothy would not be troubled, nor any one of us, when there are evil men. If there were such men in the time of Moses, and there will be hereafter, it is no wonder that there are such men in our own times.

“In the last days perilous times will come,” he says — that is, exceedingly bad times. How will times be perilous? He says it not to blame the days or the times, but the people of those times. For this is how we usually speak: we call times good or evil from the things that happen in them, things that people cause. At once he sets down the root and the spring from which these and all other evils flow, and that is arrogance. Whoever is seized by this passion is careless even of his own interests. For when someone overlooks his neighbor’s concerns and does not care about them, how will he look after his own? Just as the one who looks after his neighbor’s affairs will, through them, arrange his own to good advantage, so the one who looks down on his neighbor’s concerns will neglect his own. [c]

For if we are members of one another, our neighbor’s welfare is not his concern alone but that of the whole body, and an injury to our neighbor does not stop with him but racks all the rest with pain as well. If we are a building, whatever part is weakened affects the whole, while the part that is solid gives strength and support to the rest. So it is in the church too: if you have slighted your neighbor, you have injured yourself. How? In that one of your own members has suffered no small harm. And if the one who does not share his possessions goes into hell, much more will he be condemned who sees his neighbor suffering worse evils and does not stretch out his hand, since in this case the loss is more grievous.

“For people will be lovers of themselves.” The one who loves himself may be said not to love himself at all, while the one who loves his brother loves himself in the truest sense. From self-love springs greed. For the miserable, stingy temper of self-love squeezes into a narrow space the love that ought to be spread wide and poured out on every side. “Greedy.” From greed springs boasting; from boasting, pride; from pride, blasphemy; from blasphemy, defiance and disobedience. For one who sets himself up against people will easily do the same against God. This is how sins are produced. Often they climb up from below. One who is reverent toward people is still more reverent toward God. One who is gentle to his fellow servants is gentler still to his Master. One who despises his fellow servants will end by despising God himself. [d]

So let us not despise one another, for that is an evil training, one that teaches us to despise God. In fact, to despise one another is in effect to despise God, who commanded us to show every regard for one another. This can also be shown another way, by example. Cain despised his brother, and right after that he despised God. How did he despise him? Notice his insolent answer to God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4, verse 9). Again, Esau despised his brother, and he too despised God. That is why God said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” (Romans 9, verse 13; Malachi 1, verses 2 and 3). Hence Paul says, “so that there is no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau” (Hebrews 12, verse 16). Joseph’s brothers despised him, and they also despised God. The Israelites despised Moses, and they also despised God. So too the sons of Eli despised the people, and they too despised God.

Would you like to see it from the opposite side as well? Abraham, who was tender toward his brother’s son, was obedient to God, as is plain from his conduct toward his son Isaac and from all his other virtues. Again, Abel was gentle to his brother, and he was also reverent toward God. So let us not despise one another, or we will learn to despise God as well. Let us honor one another, so that we may learn to honor God as well. One who is insolent toward people will be insolent toward God too. And when greed and selfishness and insolence come together, what is lacking to complete the ruin?

Everything is corrupted, and a foul flood of sins bursts in. “Ungrateful,” he says. For how can the greedy man be grateful? To whom will he be grateful? To no one. He considers everyone his enemy and wants everyone’s goods. Though you spend your whole fortune on him, he will feel no gratitude. He is angry that you did not have more, so that you could give it to him. And if you made him master of the whole world, he would still be ungrateful and think he had received nothing. This desire cannot be satisfied. It is the craving of disease, and that is what the cravings of disease are like.

A man with a fever can never be satisfied. With a constant desire to drink he is never filled, but suffers a continual thirst. In the same way, the man who is mad for wealth never knows the fulfillment of his desire. Whatever is given him, he is still unsatisfied, and so he will never be grateful. For he will feel no gratitude to anyone who does not give him as much as he wants, and no one can ever do that. And since there is no limit to his wishes, he will feel no gratitude. So no one is as ungrateful as the greedy man, no one as unfeeling as the lover of money. He is the enemy of the whole world. He is indignant that there are other people at all. He would have the whole earth one vast desert, so that he might have everyone’s property. And he dreams up many wild fantasies. He says: “Oh, if only there were an earthquake in the city, so that all the rest were swallowed up and I were left alone, to have, if possible, everyone’s possessions! Oh, if only a plague would come and destroy everything but the gold! Oh, if only the land would sink beneath the waters, or the sea burst out over it!” Such are his fantasies. He prays for nothing good, only for earthquakes and thunderbolts, for wars and plagues and the like.

Well, tell me now, you wretched man, more slavish than any slave: if everything were gold, would you not be destroyed by your gold and die of hunger? If the world were swallowed up by an earthquake, you too would perish through your deadly desire. For if there were no other people but you, the necessities of life would fail you. Suppose that the rest of the earth’s inhabitants were destroyed all at once, and that their gold and silver came to you of their own accord — for such men imagine absurd and impossible things. Even if their gold and silver, their silk robes and their cloth of gold, came into your hands, what good would it do you?

Death would only overtake you the more surely, when there was no one to make bread for you or to work the land; wild beasts would prowl around you, and the devil would shake your soul with fear. Many demons possess it even now, but then they would drive you to despair and plunge you at once into ruin. But you say: “I would want there to be people to work the land and people to prepare food.” Then they would eat up some of it. “But I would not have them eat anything.” That is how insatiable this desire is! For what could be more ridiculous than this? Do you see how impossible the thing is? He wants many people to wait on him, yet he begrudges them their share of food, because it reduces his property! [f]

What then? Would you have men made of stone? This is all a mockery. Waves and tempest, huge breakers, violent tossing and storm overwhelm such a soul. It is always hungry, always thirsty. Shall we not pity him and mourn for him? Among the diseases of the body this is thought one of the most painful; physicians call it boulimia, when a man who has eaten his fill is still always hungry. And is not the same disorder in the soul more pitiable still?

For greed is the soul’s diseased hunger, always filling, never satisfied, still craving. If we had to drink hellebore, or undergo something a thousand times worse, would it not be worth our while to do it gladly, to be set free from this passion? No abundance of riches can fill the belly of greed. And shall we not be ashamed that people can be so carried away by the love of money, while we show not even a fraction of such earnestness in our love for God, and do not honor him as bullion is honored? For money, people will put up with sleepless nights, journeys and continual dangers, hatred and hostility — in short, everything.

But we do not dare to say a single word for God, or to take on anyone’s enmity. If we are asked to help someone who is being persecuted, we abandon the injured person and pull ourselves out of the way of the hatred of the powerful and the danger that comes with it. And though God has given us the power to help him, we let him perish, because we are unwilling to incur people’s hatred and displeasure. Many even defend this with the saying, “Be loved for nothing, but do not be hated for nothing.” But is this being hated for nothing? Or what is better than such hatred? For to be hated because of God is better than to be loved on his account. When we are loved for God’s sake, we are debtors for the honor; but when we are hated for his sake, he is our debtor, to reward us.

The lovers of wealth know no limit to their love, however great it is; but we, if we have done the least thing, think we have done everything. We do not love God as much as they love gold — no, not by many times over. Their frenzied passion for gold is a heavy charge against them. And it is our condemnation that we are not so beside ourselves for God, that we do not give the Lord of all as much love as they give to mere earth; for gold from the mine is no better than earth.

So let us look at their madness and be ashamed of ourselves. For what does it matter that we are not inflamed with the love of gold, if we are not earnest in our prayers to God? Those men despise wife, children, property and their own safety, and that when they are not even certain they will increase their property. For often, in the very midst of their hopes, they lose their life and their labor at one stroke. But we, though we know that if we love him as we ought to love him we will obtain what we desire, still do not love him. We are altogether cold in our love both for our neighbor and for God — cold toward God because cold toward our neighbor. For it is not possible, truly it is not possible, that someone who is a stranger to the feeling of love should have any generosity or courage, since the foundation of everything good is nothing other than love. “On this,” it says, “hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22, verse 40). [g]

Fire set to a forest clears away everything; in the same way the fire of love, wherever it is received, consumes and cuts its way through everything that harms God’s harvest, and leaves the soil clean and ready to receive the seed. Where there is love, all evils are removed. There is no love of money, the root of evil; there is no self-love; there is no boasting — for why would anyone boast over his friend? Nothing makes a person so humble as love. We do the work of servants for our friends and are not ashamed; we are even grateful for the chance to serve them.

We do not spare our property, and often not even our own persons, for at times we face dangers for the one we love. Where there is genuine love, there is no envy and no slander. We not only do not slander our friends; we stop the mouths of those who do. Everything is gentleness and mildness. Not a trace of strife or quarreling appears. Everything breathes peace. For “love,” it says, “is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13, verse 10). Nothing that gives offense goes with it. How so? Because where love is, all the sins of greed, plunder, envy, slander, arrogance, perjury and lying are done away. For people perjure themselves in order to rob; but no one would rob someone he loved — he would rather give him his own possessions.

For then we feel more obliged to him than if we had received from him. You know this, all of you who have friends — friends, I mean, in reality and not in name only — everyone who loves as one ought to love, everyone who is truly bound to another. And let those who do not know it learn from those who do.

I will now give you from the Scriptures a wonderful example of friendship. Jonathan, the son of Saul, loved David, and his soul was so knit to his that David, mourning over him, says, “Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women. You were wounded to death” (Second Samuel 1, verses 25 and 26). What then? Did he envy David? Not at all, though he had good reason. How so? Because from the way things were turning out he saw that the kingdom would pass from himself to David; yet he felt nothing of the kind. He did not say, “This is the man who is robbing me of my father’s kingdom,” but he favored David’s gaining the throne, and he did not spare his own father for his friend’s sake. [h]

Yet let no one think he turned against his own father. He did not harm his father; he held back his unjust attempts. He spared him rather than harmed him, for he would not let him go on to an unjust murder. Many times he was ready even to die for his friend; and far from accusing him, he held back even his father’s accusations. Instead of envying him, he worked with him to win the kingdom for him. Why do I speak of wealth? He even gave up his own life for him. For his friend’s sake he did not stand in awe even of his father, since his father was plotting injustice, while his own conscience was free of all such things. So justice was joined with friendship.

That, then, was Jonathan. Now let us look at David. He had no chance to repay the kindness, for his benefactor was taken away before David reigned, killed before the man he had served came to his kingdom. What then? As far as it was allowed him and left in his power, let us see how that righteous man showed his friendship. “Very pleasant have you been to me, Jonathan,” he says; “you were wounded to death” (Second Samuel 1, verse 25, in the Greek). Is this all? This was indeed no small tribute; but he also often rescued Jonathan’s son and grandson from danger, in memory of the father’s kindness, and he went on supporting and protecting his children as he would have done for those of his own son. Such friendship I would wish everyone to have, both toward the living and toward the dead. [i]

Let women listen to this — for it is especially on their account that I speak of the departed — women who enter a second marriage and defile the bed of their dead husband, though they loved him. Not that I forbid a second marriage or call it a proof of loose living. Paul does not allow me to; he stops my mouth when he says to women, “If she marries, she has not sinned” (First Corinthians 7, verses 28 and 40). Yet let us pay attention to what follows: “But she is happier if she remains as she is.” This state is much better than the other. Why? For many reasons. For if it is better not to marry at all than to marry, much more is it so in this case. “But some,” you say, “could not bear widowhood, and have fallen into many misfortunes.” Yes, because they do not know what widowhood is. For it is not widowhood merely to keep clear of a second marriage, just as it is not virginity merely to be unmarried.

For just as “what is fitting” and serving “the Lord without distraction” is the mark of the one state, so the mark of the other is to be left alone, to “continue in petitions and prayers,” to give up luxury and pleasure. For “she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives” (First Timothy 5, verse 6). If, while remaining a widow, you would keep the same pomp, the same show, the same clothes as you had while your husband was living, it would be better for you to marry. For it is not the union that is objectionable, but the mass of cares that come with it. Yet what is not wrong, you do not do; while what is not neutral, what is open to blame, that you get yourself tangled in. That is why “some have turned aside after Satan”: because they were not able to live properly as widows. [j]

Would you know what a widow is, and what a widow’s dignity is? Hear Paul’s account of it: “If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has devoted herself to every good work” (First Timothy 5, verse 10). But when, after your husband’s death, you are arrayed in the same pomp of wealth, it is no wonder if you cannot bear widowhood.

So transfer this wealth to heaven, and you will find the burden of widowhood bearable. “But what if I have children to inherit their father’s estate?” you say. Teach them, too, to despise riches. Transfer your own possessions, keeping back just enough for them. Teach them too to rise above riches. “But what if, besides my silver and gold, I am surrounded by a crowd of slaves and weighed down by a mass of business? How will I be equal to the care of all these things, deprived of my husband’s support?” This is only an excuse, a pretext, as many things show. For if you do not desire wealth or seek to increase what you already have, your burden will be light. Getting riches is far more laborious than taking care of them. So if you cut off this one thing, accumulating, and supply the needy out of your property, God will hold his protecting hand over you. And if you say this from a real desire to preserve your fatherless children’s inheritance, and are not, under this pretext, gripped by greed, he who searches the heart knows how to keep their riches safe — he who commanded you to bring up children. [k]

For it is not possible — truly it is not — that a house founded on almsgiving should suffer any disaster. Even if it meets misfortune for a while, in the end it will prosper. This will be more than spear and shield to the whole household. Hear what the devil says about Job: “Have you not put a hedge around him and around his house and around all that he has, on every side?” (Job 1, verse 10). Why was that? Hear Job himself saying, “I was eyes to the blind, and feet I was to the lame. I was a father to the orphans” (Job 29, verse 15). [l]

Just as the one who does not turn away from the troubles of others will not suffer even in his own misfortunes, because he has learned to feel with others, so the one who will not bear the griefs of sympathy will learn every sorrow in his own person. Think of a disease of the body. If, when the foot has turned gangrenous, the hand does not share its suffering by cleaning the wound, washing away the discharge and applying a medicated dressing, it will suffer the same disease itself. So the hand that will not tend another member while it is not itself afflicted will have sufferings of its own to bear. For the evil, spreading from the other part, will reach it too, and the question will no longer be one of tending the other, but of its own cure and relief. So it is here also. Whoever will not relieve others will be a sufferer himself.

“You have hedged him in, within and without,” says Satan, “and I dare not attack him!” “But he suffered afflictions,” you say. True. But those afflictions were the occasion of great good. His property was doubled, his reward increased, his righteousness enlarged; his crown was splendid, his prize glorious. Both his spiritual and his earthly blessings grew. [m]

He lost his children, but he received — not those same children restored, but others in their place; and the first ones too he had kept safe for the resurrection. Had they been restored, the number would have been smaller; but now that God has given others in their stead, he will present those first ones also at the resurrection. All these things happened to him because of his open-handedness in almsgiving. So let us do the same, that we may obtain the same rewards, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.