Homilies on Second Corinthians

⁴ Such also now should be the feelings of those who are reprehended; thus should they lament and mourn; thus yearn after their teachers; thus, more than fathers, seek them. For by those indeed living comes, but by these good living. Thus ought they to bear the rebukes of their fathers, thus to sympathize with their rulers on account of those that sin. For it does not rest all with them, but with you also. For if he that has sinned perceives that he was rebuked indeed by his father, but flattered by his brethren; he becomes more easy of mind.

But when the father rebukes, be thou too angry as well, whether as concerned for your brother or as joining in your father's indignation; only be the earnestness you show great; and mourn, not that he was rebuked, but that he sinned. But if I build up and thou pull down, what profit have we had but labor? Yea, rather, your loss stops not here, but you bring also punishment on yourself. For he that hinders the wound from being healed is punished not less than he that inflicted it, but even more.

For it is not an equal offense to wound and to hinder that which is wounded from being healed; for this indeed necessarily genders death, but that not necessarily. Now I have spoken thus to you; that you may join in the anger of your rulers whenever they are indignant justly; that when you see any one rebuked, you may all shun him more than does the teacher. Let him that has offended fear you more than his rulers. For if he is afraid of his teacher only, he will readily sin: but if he have to dread so many eyes, so many tongues, he will be in greater safety.

For as, if we do not thus act, we shall suffer the extremest punishment; so, if we perform these things, we shall partake of the gain that accrues from his reformation. Thus then let us act; and if any one shall say, 'be humane towards your brother, this is a Christian's duty.' let him be taught, that he is humane who is angry [with him], not he who sets him at ease prematurely and allows him not even to come to a sense of his transgression. For which, tell me, pities the man in a fever and laboring under delirium, he that lays him on his bed, and binds him down, and keeps him from meats and drinks that are not fit for him; or he that allows him to glut himself with strong drink, and orders him to have his liberty, and to act in every respect as one that is in health?

Does not this person even aggravate the distemper, the man that seems to act humanely, whereas the other amends it? Such truly ought our decision to be in this case also. For it is the part of humanity, not to humor the sick in every thing nor to flatter their unseasonable desires. No one so loved him that committed fornication among the Corinthians, as Paul who commands to deliver him to Satan; no one so hated him as they that applaud and court him; and the event showed it. For they indeed both puffed him up and increased his inflammation; but [the Apostle] both lowered it and left him not until he brought him to perfect health.

And they indeed added to the existing mischief, he eradicated even that which existed from the first. These laws, then, of humanity let us learn also. For if you see a horse hurrying down a precipice, you apply a bit and holdest him in with violence and lashest him frequently; although this is punishment, yet the punishment itself is the mother of safety. Thus act also in the case of those that sin. Bind him that has transgressed until he have appeased God; let him not go loose, that he be not bound the faster by the anger of God.

If I bind, God does not chain; if I bind not, the indissoluble chains await him. For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged. Think not, then, that thus to act comes of cruelty and inhumanity; nay, but of the highest gentleness and the most skillful leechcraft and of much tender care. But, says one, they have been punished for a long time. How long? Tell me. A year, and two, and three years? Howbeit, I require not this, length of time, but amendment of soul. This then show, whether they have been pricked to the heart, whether they have reformed, and all is done: since if there be not this, there is no advantage in the time.

For neither do we inquire whether the wound has been often bandaged, but whether the bandage has been of any service. If therefore it has been of service, although in a short time, let it be kept on no longer: but if it has done no service, even at the end of ten years, let it be still kept on: and let this fix the term of release, the good of him that is bound. If we are thus careful both of ourselves and of others, and regard not honor and dishonor at the hands of men; but bearing in mind the punishment and the disgrace that is there, and above all the provoking of God, apply with energy the medicines of repentance: we shall both presently arrive at the perfect health, and shall obtain the good things to come; which may all we obtain, through the grace and love towards men of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom, to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and world without end.

Amen.