Virginity Needs the Commandments

Now, then, since we have set out, though in few words, both the difficulty and the merit of purity, great care must be taken that a thing which in itself involves great virtue, and for which a vast reward is also waiting, does not fail to bear its proper fruit. For the more precious anything is, the more anxiously it is guarded. Many things fail to reach their proper excellence unless other things come to their aid. Take honey, for example. Unless it is kept safe by the protection of wax and by the cells of the honeycomb, or rather, to put it more truly, unless it is held together by these, it loses its sweetness and cannot exist on its own. Or take wine. Unless it is kept in sweet-smelling jars, with the pitch often renewed, it loses the strength of its natural sweetness. In the same way, great care must be taken in case some things are also necessary to virginity, without which it can by no means bear its proper fruit. Otherwise a thing so difficult may be of no benefit at all, while all the time it is believed to be a benefit, because it is held without the other things it needs. [a]

For unless I am mistaken, chastity is kept whole for the sake of the reward to be gained in the kingdom of heaven, and it is quite certain that no one can gain that reward without deserving eternal life. But that eternal life cannot be merited except by keeping all the divine commandments, as the Scripture testifies when it says, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” So no one has that life except the person who has kept all the precepts of the law, and whoever does not have that life cannot possess the kingdom of heaven, in which it is not the dead but the living who will reign. Therefore virginity, which hopes for the glory of the kingdom of heaven, will profit nothing by itself unless it also has that to which eternal life is promised, the very thing through which the reward of the kingdom of heaven is possessed. Above all, then, those who keep their chastity whole, and who hope for its reward from the justice of God, must keep the commandments laid upon us. Otherwise all the pains taken to maintain a glorious chastity and self-control may come to nothing.

No one who knows the law is unaware that virginity is above the commandment, or precept. As the apostle says, “Now concerning virgins, I have no precept of the Lord, but I give my advice.” Since, then, he only gives advice about keeping virginity, and lays down no precept, he admits that it is above the commandment. So those who keep their virginity do more than the commandment requires. But it will profit you to have done more than was commanded only if you also do what is commanded. For how can you boast that you have done more, if on some point you do less? If you wish to fulfill the divine counsel, see that above all you keep the commandment. If you wish to win the reward of virginity, see that you hold fast to what is necessary to merit life, so that your chastity may be the kind that can receive a reward. For just as keeping the commandments secures life, so breaking them brings about death. And someone who has been condemned to death for disobedience cannot hope for the crown that belongs to virginity; nor, once he is actually handed over to punishment, can he expect the reward promised to chastity.