The Even Scales of Righteousness

If, then, we have shown that dealing strictly with people is good and healthy, that the Word necessarily takes it up, and that it leads to repentance and heads off sins, we must now look, in turn, at the Word’s mildness. He has already been shown to be righteous. Now he sets his own inclinations before us, and they are an invitation to salvation; by them, in keeping with the Father’s will, he means to make known to us what is noble and what is useful. Look at the two. The noble belongs to the praising kind of speech, the useful to the persuading kind. Urging a course and arguing against it are forms of the persuading kind; commending and blaming are forms of the praising kind. [a]

For the persuading style, taking one shape, becomes exhortation, and taking another, dissuasion; and the praising style, in one shape, becomes blame, and in another, commendation. These are exactly the exercises the Instructor is chiefly busy with — the Righteous One, who has set our advantage before him as his aim. Blame and dissuasion have already been shown us. Now we must handle persuasion and commendation, and balance the scales of righteousness evenly on the beam. The Instructor urges what is useful through Solomon, in these words: “I appeal to you, men, and I lift my voice to the sons of men. Listen to me, for I am going to speak of noble things,” and so on. And he gives healthy counsel — for counsel aims at choosing a course or refusing it — as he does through David when he says, “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of pestilent men; his will is in the law of the Lord.”

Counsel has three departments. The first takes its examples from times past: what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the golden calf, and what they suffered when they fell into sexual immorality, and the like. The second draws its meaning from present times, since it is grasped by the senses — as it was said to those who asked the Lord whether he was the Christ or whether they should wait for another: “Go and tell John. The blind see again, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised; and blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” That is the sort of thing David said when he prophesied, “As we have heard, so we have seen.” And the third department of counsel deals with what is still to come, and by it we are told to guard against what is going to happen — as when it was said, “Those who fall into sins will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth,” and the like. So from all this it is clear that the Lord goes the whole round of ways of treating us, and calls humanity to salvation.

By encouragement he takes the edge off sins, reducing craving and at the same time breathing hope of salvation into us. For he says through Ezekiel, “If you turn back with your whole heart and say, ‘Father,’ I will listen to you, as to a holy people.” And again he says, “Come to me, all of you who are laboring and loaded down, and I will give you rest” — and what is added there the Lord speaks in his own person. And very plainly he calls us to goodness through Solomon when he says, “Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding.” “For the good is found by the one who looks for it, and is usually seen by the one who has found it.” Through Jeremiah, too, he sets out good sense, when he says, “Blessed are we, Israel, for what pleases God is known to us” — and it is known through the Word, by whom we are blessed and wise. That knowledge is good sense the same prophet shows when he says, “Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; give ear, and learn understanding.”

Through Moses, too, out of the love he has for people, he promises a gift to those who hurry toward salvation. For he says, “And I will bring you into the good land that the Lord swore to your fathers.” And further, “And I will bring you into the holy mountain and make you glad,” he says through Isaiah. And there is still another form of training: blessing. “And blessed is he,” he says through David, “who has not sinned; and he will be like the tree planted beside the channels of the waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not wither” — by which he was hinting at the resurrection — “and whatever he does will prosper with him.” This is what he wants us to be, so that we may be blessed.

Then, showing the other scale of the balance of righteousness, he says, “Not so the ungodly — not so; but like the dust that the wind sweeps off the face of the earth.” By showing the punishment of sinners, and how easily they are scattered and carried off by the wind, the Instructor argues us out of crime by way of punishment; and by holding up the penalty deserved, he shows in the most skillful way how kind his kindness is, so that we may keep its blessings and enjoy them. He invites us to knowledge as well, when he says through Jeremiah, “If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived in peace forever” — for by setting out there the reward of knowledge, he calls the wise to love it. And, granting pardon to the man who has gone wrong, he says, “Turn back, turn back, like a grape-gatherer to his basket.” Do you see the goodness of righteousness, in that it counsels us to repentance? And further still, through Jeremiah he gives light in the truth to those who have gone wrong: “This is what the Lord says. Stand in the ways and look, and ask for the everlasting paths of the Lord — which is the good path? — and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” And in order to further our salvation he leads us to repentance. That is why he says, “If you repent, the Lord will cleanse your heart and the heart of your offspring.”

We could have brought in as allies on this question the philosophers who say that only the perfect man deserves praise and only the bad man deserves blame. But some run down blessedness itself, saying that it neither takes any trouble of its own nor gives any to anyone else — which is to miss its love for humanity. On their account, and on account of those who do not put righteousness together with goodness, I have set that argument aside. For it would be a fair inference to say that rebuke and censure suit human beings, since these men say that every human being is bad, and that God alone is wise, the one from whom wisdom comes, and God alone is perfect, and therefore God alone deserves praise. But that is not the language I use. What I say is that praise and blame, or anything resembling praise and blame, are the most necessary medicines people have. Some are hard to cure, and like iron they have to be hammered into shape with fire and hammer and anvil — that is, with threat and rebuke and correction. Others hold to faith itself, teaching themselves, acting of their own free choice; and they grow under praise:

And it was because he grasped this, I think, that Pythagoras of Samos gave this order:

Scolding also goes by the name of admonition; and the Greek word for admonition means, by its make-up, the putting of sense into someone — so that to rebuke a person is to bring him to his senses.

But there are countless directions of this kind to be found, all aiming at getting hold of what is good and steering clear of what is evil. “For there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.” That is why, through Solomon, he tells the children to watch out: “My son, do not let sinners lead you astray, and do not go their way; do not go, if they invite you and say, ‘Come with us, share with us in innocent blood, let us unjustly hide the righteous man in the earth, let us make him disappear alive into Hades.’” And this too is a prediction of the Lord’s suffering.

And through Ezekiel, life itself supplies commands: “The soul that sins will die; but the one who does what is right will be righteous. He does not eat on the mountains, and has not lifted his eyes to the devices of the house of Israel; he will not defile his neighbor’s wife, and will not go near a woman during her period; he will not oppress anyone, and he will give back what a debtor pledged, and will not take plunder; he will give his bread to the hungry and clothe the naked; he will not lend his money at interest and will take no increase on it; he will turn his hand away from wrong and will judge justly between a man and his neighbor. He has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments and done them. This man is righteous. He will surely live, says the Lord.” These words sketch out how Christians live. They are a striking call to the blessed life, which is the reward of a good life: life that lasts forever.

We have shown, as well as we could, the manner of his love and of his training. That is why he described himself so beautifully when he compared himself to a mustard seed. By it he pointed out that the word which is sown is spiritual, that its nature is fruitful, and that the power of the word is grand and quick to grow; and besides that, he hinted that the sting and cleansing power of punishment does good precisely because it is sharp. By that little seed — as it is called in the figure — he gives salvation lavishly to all humanity. Honey is very sweet, and it produces bile, just as kindness breeds contempt, and contempt is the cause of sinning. But mustard cuts down bile, that is, anger, and takes down inflammation, that is, pride. Out of that Word springs the soul’s true health and its lasting good balance. [s]

So long ago he trained people through Moses, and after that through the prophets — and Moses too was a prophet. For the law is the training of unruly children. “They ate their fill,” as it says, “and got up to play” — mindless stuffing with food being called fodder rather than food. And because they filled themselves mindlessly and then played mindlessly, the law was given to them, and fear came with it, to stop wrongdoing and press them toward right action. It kept them alert, and so won them over to obeying the true Instructor — one and the same Word — and bent them into line with what the law was urgently demanding. For Paul says the law was given to be our instructor, to lead us to Christ.

So from this it is clear that there is one Instructor only — true, good, righteous, in the image and likeness of the Father: his Son Jesus, the Word of God. God has handed us over to him, the way a loving father commits his children to a tutor worth having, and he charged us expressly: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” The divine Instructor deserves our trust, decked out as he is with three of the finest ornaments — knowledge, goodwill, and authority to speak. With knowledge, for he is the Father’s wisdom: “All wisdom is from the Lord, and is with him forever.” With authority to speak, for he is God and Creator: “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.” And with goodwill, for he alone gave himself as a sacrifice for us: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” — and he has done exactly that. Now goodwill is nothing but wanting good for your neighbor, for his own sake.

Now that all this is done, the fitting next step is for our Instructor, Jesus, to sketch out for us the pattern of the true life, and to train humanity in Christ. The cast and character of the life he lays on us is not terrifying; nor, because he is kind, is it made altogether easy. He lays down his commands, and at the same time makes them the sort of commands that can actually be carried out. [w]

My own view is this: he himself shaped the human being out of the dust, gave him a new birth by water, made him grow by his Spirit, and trained him by his word for adoption and salvation, steering him with holy commands — so that by his coming he might turn the earth-born human being into something holy and heavenly, and carry out to the full that divine saying, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.” And in truth Christ became the complete fulfillment of what God said; the rest of humanity is thought of as made merely in his image.

But as for us — children of the good Father, nurslings of the good Instructor — let us do the Father’s will, listen to the Word, and take the stamp of the truly saving life of our Savior. Let us think hard on the heavenly way of life by which we have been made gods, and anoint ourselves with the never-fading, undying bloom of gladness, that sweet-smelling ointment, since we have a clear example of immortality in the walk and way of life of the Lord. Let us follow in God’s footsteps, for it belongs to him alone to consider, and it is his care to see, how human life may be made healthier.

Besides, he prepares us for a self-sufficient way of life, for plainness, for having our belts tightened, and for being ready to travel free and unhindered, so that we may reach an eternity of blessedness; and he teaches each of us to be his own storehouse. For he says, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow,” meaning that the man who has given himself to Christ ought to be enough for himself, and his own servant, and moreover to live a life that provides for each day as it comes. For we are being trained not for war but for peace. War needs a great deal of equipment, and luxury craves plenty; but peace and love, plain quiet sisters, need no weapons and no lavish outfitting. The Word is what feeds them.

Overseeing our instruction and training is the Word’s own office. From him we learn thrift and humility and everything that belongs to the love of freedom, the love of humanity, and the love of what is excellent. In short, we are made like God by sharing in moral excellence. Work, and do not lose heart. You will become what you do not hope for and cannot guess at. And just as there is one kind of training for philosophers, another for public speakers, and another for athletes, so the training Christ gives produces a generous character, fitting for the choice a man has made of what is morally beautiful. In people trained under this influence, the way they walk, the way they sit at table, their food, their sleep, their going to bed, their daily routine and the rest of their way of life all take on a higher dignity.

For the training the Word pursues is not strung too tight; it is at exactly the right tension. And this is why the Word has also been called the Savior: because he has found out for people the medicines that work by reason, which give the senses their vigor and bring salvation. He devotes himself to watching for the right moment, rebuking evil, exposing what causes the disordered passions, and cutting at the roots of unreasoning cravings; he points out what we must keep away from, and supplies every saving antidote to those who are sick. For the greatest and most kingly work of God is the salvation of humanity. Sick people are annoyed by a doctor who gives them no advice about getting well. Then how could we fail to owe the deepest thanks to the divine Instructor, who does not keep silent, who does not leave out the threats that point toward destruction but brings them into the open and cuts off the impulses that run that way, and who trains us in the counsel that ends in living truly? We must admit, then, that we are in his debt to the utmost. For what else do we say the reasoning creature — I mean the human being — is bound to do, if not to contemplate the divine? And I say he must also contemplate human nature, and live as the truth directs, and admire the Instructor and his commands as suited to each other and in harmony. And after that same image we ought to shape ourselves to the Instructor, make our words and our actions agree, and live a real life.