Theodore’s Answer

This question often troubles the minds of those who have little faith or knowledge, and who imagine that the prizes and rewards of the saints, which are not given in this world but laid up for the future, are handed out in the short span of this mortal life. But our hope in Christ is not in this life only, for fear that, as the apostle says, we should be “of all people most miserable,” because, receiving none of the promises in this world, we would through our unbelief lose them in the world to come as well. So we ought not wrongly to follow their ideas. Otherwise, through ignorance of the true explanation, we might hesitate and tremble and fail in the trial, if we found ourselves handed over to such men. We might charge God with injustice, or with not caring about human affairs (a thing it is almost a sin to mention), because he does not protect in their trials men who live an upright and holy life, and does not repay good men with good things and evil men with evil things in this world. And so we would deserve to fall under the condemnation of those whom the prophet Zephaniah rebukes, saying, “who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.’” Or at least we would be found among those of whom we are told that they blaspheme God with complaints like this: “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such people please him; for surely, where is the God of judgment?” They add the further blasphemy described in the same way in what follows: “He labors in vain who serves God. And what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and walked mournfully before the Lord? So now we call the proud happy, for those who work wickedness are made rich, and they have tested God and are kept safe.” So, to avoid this ignorance, which is the root and cause of this most deadly error, we ought first of all to know what is truly good and what is bad. Then, if we grasp the true scriptural meaning of these words and not the false popular one, we will escape being deceived by the errors of unbelievers. [a]