Martyrdom Out of Love

Then what evil do we suppose that man is in who has lied, shown himself unfaithful, and deserted to the devil’s army? He speaks falsely about the Lord — or rather, he cheats himself out of his own hope, because he does not believe God; and a man who does not do what God has commanded does not believe him. And what of this? Does the man who denies the Lord not deny himself? Does he not rob his Master of his authority, when he strips himself of any relation to him? So the man who denies the Savior denies life, for “the light was life.” He does not call such men men of little faith; he calls them faithless and hypocrites — men who have the name written on them but deny that they are really believers. The faithful man, on the other hand, is called both servant and friend. So if a man loves himself, he loves the Lord, and he makes his confession so as to be saved — so that he may save his own soul. And though you die for your neighbor out of love, and though you count the Savior our neighbor (for God, who saves, is said to be near to what is being saved), you are still choosing death for the sake of life, and suffering for your own sake rather than for his. Is this not why he is called brother? The man who suffered out of love for God suffered for his own salvation; and the man who dies for his own salvation endures it out of love for the Lord. For he, being life himself, wished in what he suffered to suffer, so that we might live by his suffering. [a]

“Why do you call me Lord, Lord,” he says, “and not do the things I say?” For “the people who love with their lips, but whose heart is far away from the Lord,” are another people; they trust in another, and they have willingly sold themselves to another. But those who carry out the Lord’s commands bear witness in every action, by doing what he wishes and by naming the Lord’s name in a way their conduct matches. They bear witness by deed to the one they trust, showing that they are men “who have crucified the flesh with its passions and cravings.” “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” “The man who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh; but the man who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.”

But to those wretched men, bearing witness to the Lord by blood looks like the most violent death there is. They do not know that such a gate of death is the beginning of the true life. They will understand neither the honors after death that belong to men who have lived holy lives, nor the punishments of men who have lived unrighteously and impurely. I do not argue only from our own Scriptures, though nearly every command points to these things. They will not even listen to their own writers. Theano the Pythagorean writes, “Life really would be a feast for the wicked, who die once they have done their evil; if the soul were not immortal, death would be a windfall.” And Plato says in the Phaedo, “For if death were release from everything,” and so on. So we are not to think, as the Telephus of Aeschylus does, “that a single road leads to Hades.” The roads are many, and so are the sins that lead there. Men as deeply mistaken as the faithless are, Aristophanes rightly makes the stuff of comedy. “Come,” he says, “you men of dim life, you who are like the race of leaves, feeble, figures of wax, shadowy tribes, fading, fleeting, creatures of a day.” And Epicharmus: “This nature of men is inflated skins.”

And the Savior has said to us, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The apostle explains: “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God — it cannot. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” And he goes on explaining, so that no one may treat what God created as evil, the way Marcion does: “But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” And again: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed in us. If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified together with him, as joint heirs with Christ. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those he knew beforehand he also marked out beforehand to be shaped to the likeness of his Son, so that his Son might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he marked out beforehand he also called; and those he called he also counted righteous; and those he counted righteous he also glorified.”

You see that martyrdom is taught for love’s sake. And if you would rather be a martyr for the sake of the advantages you will be paid back with, listen again. “For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for why does a man still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we wait for it with endurance.” “But if we also suffer for righteousness’ sake,” says Peter, “we are blessed. Do not be afraid of their fear, and do not be troubled. But make the Lord God holy in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you — but with gentleness and fear, keeping a good conscience, so that in the very matter for which you are spoken against, the men who slander your good way of life in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is God’s will, than for doing evil.” But suppose someone objects and says: how can feeble flesh stand up to the energies and the spirits of the Powers? Then let him know this — that trusting in the Almighty and in the Lord, we make war on the rulers of darkness and on death itself. “While you are still speaking,” he says, “here I am.” Look at the unconquerable Helper who shields us. “So do not be surprised at the burning that comes among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you; but as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that when his glory is revealed you may be glad and overjoyed. If you are insulted in the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” As it is written: “For your sake we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. No — in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us.”

says a woman in the tragedy who plays the man’s part. And Antigone, treating Creon’s proclamation with contempt, says boldly:

But it is God who makes proclamation to us, and he is the one who must be believed. “For with the heart a man believes and so comes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made and so he is saved. That is why the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Simonides is right, then, when he writes: “They say that virtue lives among rocks that can hardly be climbed, but that she crosses a clean place quickly. She is not visible to the eyes of every mortal. The man who is not soaked with heart-wringing sweat will never reach the summit of manliness.” And Pindar says:

Aeschylus, too, grasped this thought and says:

“For great fates attain great destinies,” as Heraclitus says:

“For God has not given us a spirit of slavery again, to fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner,” he writes to Timothy. Such will be the man “who clings to what is good,” as the apostle says, “who hates what is evil, whose love is without pretense; for the man who loves another has fulfilled the law.” If, then, this God to whom we bear witness is what he is — the God of hope — we acknowledge our hope, hurrying on toward hope, “filled with goodness, filled with all knowledge.”

The Indian sages said to Alexander of Macedon: “You carry men’s bodies from place to place. But you will not force our souls to do what we do not want to do. Fire is the worst torture there is for men; we despise it.” That is why Heraclitus preferred one thing, glory, to everything else, and declared that he leaves the crowd to stuff themselves full like cattle.

So to the crowd this empty labor looks desirable. But the apostle says to us, “Now we know this, that our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we should no longer be slaves to sin.” And does the apostle not plainly add the following, to show how the crowd holds faith in contempt? “For I think God has put us apostles on show last of all, as men under sentence of death. We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. Up to this present hour we are hungry and thirsty and naked, we are beaten, we are weak, we work hard with our own hands. When we are insulted we bless; when we are persecuted we endure; when we are slandered we plead. We have become like the scrapings of the world.” Plato says the same sort of thing in the Republic: “The just man, though he is stretched on the rack, though his eyes are burned out, will be happy.”

So the one who truly knows will never place his goal in living, but in being always happy and blessed, a friend of God with a king’s standing. Even if he meets with disgrace and exile and the seizing of his property — and above all with death — he will never be wrenched away from his freedom and from his conspicuous love for God. “The love that bears all things, endures all things” is sure that God’s providence orders everything well. And so it is said, “I urge you, become imitators of me.” The first step toward salvation is instruction that comes with fear, which makes us keep away from what is wrong; the second is hope, which makes us want the best things; but love, as is right, completes the work, training us now by knowledge. For the Greeks — I do not know how — put what happens down to a necessity that has no reason in it, and admit that they give in to it unwillingly. So Euripides says:

Then he adds:

And for those who are aiming at perfection, the knowledge that goes with reason is set before them, and its foundation is the sacred three: “faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.” Truly “all things are lawful, but not all things are useful,” says the apostle; “all things are lawful for me, but not all things build up.” And, “Let no one look for his own advantage, but for his neighbor’s” — so that a man may be able both to do and to teach, building and building up. That “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” is granted; but the conscience of the weak man is to be supported. “Conscience, I mean, not your own, but the other man’s. For why is my freedom judged by another man’s conscience? If I take my share with thanks, why am I spoken against for the very thing I give thanks for? So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful before God for pulling down strongholds — pulling down arguments and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of Christ.” Equipped with these weapons, the one who truly knows says: Lord, give me the opportunity, and take the proof of it; let this dreaded thing take its course; I think nothing of the dangers, for the love I bear you.

“So put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. And above all these, love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, the peace to which you were called in one body; and be thankful” — you who, while you are still in the body, like the righteous men of long ago, enjoy freedom from passion and quietness of soul.