Good, Bad, and Indifferent

Altogether there are three kinds of things in the world: good, bad, and indifferent. So we ought to know what is properly good, what is bad, and what is indifferent, so that our faith may be supported by true knowledge and stand firm in all trials. We must believe, then, that in merely human things there is no real good except virtue of soul alone, which leads us with sincere faith to divine things and makes us cling constantly to that unchanging good. On the other hand, we ought not to call anything bad except sin alone, which separates us from the good God and joins us to the evil devil. But those things are indifferent which can be turned to either side according to the fancy or wish of their owner: riches, for instance, power, honor, bodily strength, good health, beauty, life itself and death, poverty, bodily infirmities, injuries, and other things of the same sort. These can contribute either to good or to evil, as the character and fancy of their owner directs. [a]

For riches are often useful for our good, as the apostle says when he charges “the rich of this world to be ready to give, to share with the needy, to store up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come,” so that by this means “they may lay hold of the true life.” And according to the Gospel they are a good thing for those who “make friends for themselves of the unrighteous mammon.” And again, they can be drawn toward what is bad when they are piled up only for the sake of hoarding, or for a life of luxury, and are not used to meet the needs of the poor. That power and honor and bodily strength and good health are also indifferent, and available for either good or bad, can easily be shown from the fact that many of the saints of the Old Testament enjoyed all these things. They held positions of great wealth and the highest honor and were blessed with bodily strength, and yet they are known to have been most acceptable to God. On the other hand, those who have wrongly misused these things and turned them to their own purposes are not without good reason punished or destroyed, as the Book of Kings shows has often happened.

That even life and death are indifferent in themselves is proved by the birth of Saint John and that of Judas. In the one case, his life was so profitable to himself that we are told his birth brought joy to others too, as we read, “And many will rejoice at his birth.” But of the life of the other it is said, “It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.” Again, it is said of the death of John and of all the saints, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” But of the death of Judas and men like him: “The death of the wicked is very evil.” How useful bodily sickness can sometimes be is shown by the blessing of Lazarus, the beggar who was full of sores. For Scripture mentions no other good qualities or merits of his; it was for this alone, that he endured want and bodily sickness with the greatest patience, that he was counted worthy of the blessed lot of a place in Abraham’s bosom. As for want and persecution and injuries, which everyone thinks bad, how useful and necessary they are is clearly proved by this: the saints not only never tried to avoid them, but either sought them with all their might or bravely endured them, and so became the friends of God and gained the reward of eternal life. As the blessed apostle sings: “That is why I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong; for power is made perfect in weakness.”

So those who are raised high by the greatest riches and honors and powers of this world should not be thought to have gained their chief good from them, for that is shown to consist only in virtue. They have gained only something indifferent. For just as these things will be found useful and convenient to good men who use them well and properly, since they give them opportunities for good works and for fruits that will last to eternal life, so to those who wrongly misuse their wealth they are useless and out of place, and furnish occasions of sin and death.