Chapter Six

¹ Chapter Six. Dare any of you, having a matter against his brother, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Many, having lawsuits over money, were judged before the Greek judges, as being learned in the law. This, then, he sets right, it having fallen in between. For since he had made mention of the covetous, he straightway grew hot with care concerning those who sin in such things. And see how he shows indignation from the very beginning, and calls the thing daring and lawlessness. And he did not say, Before the unbelievers, but, “Before the unjust.” For since he who goes to law wishes to obtain justice, he shows that they do not obtain it. For the Greeks who judge, he says, are unjust; how, then, will they judge you justly? And by “saints” he means the faithful, showing the difference from the very names: for the one sort are unjust, but the others are saints.

² Or do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? Since the faithful, being private men, did not seem trustworthy to decide a matter, he makes them trustworthy, first by calling them saints, then by saying that they shall judge the world—not they themselves sitting and giving judgment (for the Lord shall judge), but they shall condemn; for when, being of like passions, they themselves shall be found to have believed, while those others disbelieved, is not this a condemnation of the unbelievers?

³ And if the world is judged in you, are you unworthy of the smallest tribunals? See, he did not say, Is judged by you, but, “In you”—that is, It is judged by God, but condemned in you, instead of, In that you, having believed, are an example. And the phrase “Are you unworthy of the smallest tribunals” has this sense. For since it was likely that they were ashamed at being judged by those within, on the contrary, he says, it is rather a shame when you are judged by those outside. For those are the smallest tribunals, not those within.

⁴ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things of this life? By “angels” he means the demons. These, then, we shall also condemn, when we who are in the flesh shall be found to have more than those bodiless ones.

⁵ If then you have tribunals of things pertaining to this life, set those who are least esteemed in the Church to judge. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man, who shall be able to decide between his brother and brother? Wishing, out of superfluity, to draw them away from the tribunals outside, he says that, Perhaps someone might say that there is not among you a wise man able to decide. For if, according to your account, there is no wise man, you are setting men least esteemed as judges rather than the unbelievers. But this I said to your shame, going along with your false pretext, that there is then so great a scarcity of wise men among you that men paltry and rather private should judge. And the phrase “his brother” he added, signifying that, when the suit is against a brother, there is need neither of much subtlety nor of knowledge, inasmuch as the brotherly disposition contributes much toward the dissolving of the contention.

⁶ But brother goes to law with brother, and this before unbelievers? The evil is twofold: both that the suit is against a brother, and that it is before unbelievers.

⁷ Now therefore there is altogether a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. First he took away the being judged before unbelievers; but now he takes away the being judged at all, saying that it is “altogether a defeat”—that is, A condemnation, a shame, that you have lawsuits at all—that is, suits with one another; for this is the meaning of “with one another.” And he said this emphatically; for we Christians ought to reckon the brethren as our own selves.

⁸ Why do you not rather suffer wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. The charge is manifold: first, that they do not know how to bear being wronged; second, that they rather do wrong themselves; third, that it is the brethren. It were good, he says, neither to wrong nor to be wronged; but in the choice, it is better to be wronged.

⁹ Or do you not know that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? He shuts up the exhortation in a threat, making the word stronger, and questioning them as concerning a thing agreed upon.

¹⁰ Be not deceived. Here he hints that there were certain among them who said that God is loving toward men, and will not punish, but will bring them into the kingdom. He says, therefore, “Be not deceived.” For it is indeed of deceit and of error to hope for good things here, and there to obtain the contrary.

¹¹ Neither fornicators. Him who had already been condemned he places first.

¹² Nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate. By “effeminate” he means those who suffer shamefully. He then brings in also those who do shamefully.

¹³ Nor sodomites, nor covetous, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor rapacious, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Some inquire why ever he set the drunkards and revilers together with the idolaters and those who do unspeakable things. Because Christ too said that he who said Fool to his brother is liable to hell-fire; and again, the Jews from drunkenness came to idolatry. And further, the discourse now is not concerning punishment, but concerning falling away from the kingdom. And from the kingdom all fall away alike; but whether they shall have a difference in their punishments is not for the present occasion to inquire.

¹⁴ And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God. Consider, he says, from how great evils God delivered you, and how great good things he bestowed upon you. For you also had all the things mentioned; but he made you clean of them; and not only this, but he also sanctified you. How? By justifying you, he says. For he washed you, then, having justified, he sanctified; not in the name of this or that teacher, but in the name of Christ, and in the Holy Spirit—that is, The Trinity bestowed these things upon you. For in saying that God, in the name of Christ and in the Holy Spirit, sanctified, he sets forth nothing other than the Trinity.

¹⁵ All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. Since he had spoken concerning the fornicator, and is about again to speak concerning him, he meanwhile interposes also the discourse concerning gluttony. For from this, for the most part, comes the passion of fornication. He says, then, that “It is lawful for me to eat and to drink,” but it is not profitable to do these things without measure.

¹⁶ All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. I am lord, he says, of eating and drinking; but if I give myself over to these without measure, I shall be found their slave instead of their lord. For he who uses them as he ought is himself their lord; but he who goes out into excess is no longer lord, but becomes their slave, gluttony tyrannizing within him. Do you see how he showed him who thought he had authority to be under authority? For consider: each of those men said, It is lawful for me to live luxuriously; he says that one does this not as having authority over it, but as being himself subject to this authority. For you have no authority over the belly, so long as you are profligate, but it has the authority over you.

¹⁷ Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods. By “belly” he means gluttony, not our member; and by “foods,” the immoderation of foods. He says, then, that the immoderation of foods has a friendship and kinship toward gluttony, and that toward this; and these cannot lead us to Christ, but send those who obey them over to themselves—the immoderation to the gluttony, and that to this.

¹⁸ But God will bring to nought both this and these. Not the belly, but gluttony; not the food, but the immoderation. And as to the “will bring to nought,” some say that it is a prediction concerning the age to come, that there is neither eating nor drinking there. And if eating in measure is not there, much more shall immoderation and gluttony be brought to nought. But the Theologian,[1] by saying that the thing brought to nought is straightway brought to nought together with the foods that are brought to nought, declared that, as soon as one is satisfied, that which until then sought after many things is brought to nought. But others say that he sealed the exhortation with a prayer, praying that both immoderation and gluttony might be brought to nought, that is, made to cease.

¹⁹ But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Behold, he showed that it was on account of the discourse concerning fornication that he spoke beforehand concerning gluttony. For it would have followed to say, But the body is not for foods, nor for the belly; but he did not so speak, but, “For fornication,” showing what is the outcome of luxury—namely, fornication. And what he means is this: The body, he says, was not fashioned for this, that it should live luxuriously and fall into fornication; but that it should follow Christ as its head, and that the Lord, in turn, as head, should be set over it.

²⁰ And God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us through his power. Be not troubled at hearing that God raised up the Lord; for he condescends to them as to babes. And since concerning the Father, as cause, all confessedly glorified great things, on this account he ascribes the resurrection to him, and declares that we too shall be raised by him. For just as he raised up our head, Christ I mean, so also he will raise up the rest of the body, namely, us. And confirming the saying, he added, “Through his power,” as if saying this: Do not disbelieve the things I say; for the power of God, which accomplishes great things, will do this also. And that he ascribes the resurrection of Christ to the Father as cause is plain from the Lord’s saying concerning himself, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And again it is written that He presented himself alive. So that, he himself having raised himself, the deed is ascribed to the Father as cause.

²¹ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Again he came to the exhortation set before him, that against fornication; and he handles the discourse in the most awe-striking manner.

²² Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid! He did not say, Shall I join them to a harlot, but what was awe-striking, “Shall I make them members of a harlot?” For who will not shudder on hearing this—to tear away the members of Christ, and to make them a harlot’s?

²³ Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? For the two, he says, shall be one flesh. He confirms what he said, how the members of Christ become a harlot’s. Through the union, he says, the man becomes one with the harlot. So that his members also, which were Christ’s, became members of her.

²⁴ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. See how, even from the bare names themselves of the harlot and of Christ, he advances the accusation, making it dreadful. He says, then, that he who is joined to the Lord becomes spirit only, by doing nothing carnal—that is, he is made spiritual. For union with the Lord furnishes him the sanctification of the Spirit. And through these things he showed the reasons why the faithful become members of Christ.

²⁵ Flee fornication. As though it were a kind of pursuer, ever pressing upon us, he exhorts us to flee it, enjoining upon us a strained abstinence from it. For nothing pursues us so much as carnal desire.

²⁶ Every sin that a man may do is outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. By fornication, he says, the whole body is defiled; whence it is also the custom for those who have fornicated to run to the baths, as the body has, of course, been defiled. Against the body itself, then, the fornicator sins, defiling it and befouling it. For even if murder too seems to be done through the body, yet it does not defile the whole body. For it is possible to strike with a stone, or with wood, or with some other instrument, and the body not be defiled; but for fornication to be accomplished without the body is impossible; whence it is necessarily defiled also. And he wished to exalt the matter, since the exhortation concerning it lies before him. For fornication is not altogether worse than all things. I know also other solutions to this: for instance, that the fornicator sins against his own body, inasmuch as he is joined not from desire of begetting children, as with a lawful wife, but vainly corrupts it by the effusion, and weakens it. And again otherwise, that the fornicator sins against the woman with whom he is joined, who is his body through the union; for inasmuch as he is not joined to her lawfully, he sins against her. But the solution of the great John is better than all—the first one, namely. And some are at a loss: What then? Does not envy waste the body? And they solve it again, that envy is a passion, not an activity; but the discourse now to the Apostle is concerning activity. For he says, “Every sin that a man may do”; but not concerning passion. For envy is not done by us, but is worked within us.

²⁷ Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? He strikes fear yet more, both by the greatness of the gift—that is, of the Spirit—and by the worth of the giver—that is, of God. A temple, he says, not simply, but of the Holy Spirit. Do not, then, defile the holy temple, nor make useless the gift of God; for from God you have the gift and so great a Spirit.

²⁸ And you are not your own; for you were bought with a price. You are under a Master, he says, and have nothing of your own, not even the body. “For you were bought with a price”—that is, Through the blood of Christ. So that your members are subject to another Master, and where he wills, there they must be led. And these things he says, not taking away free will, but showing the justice of our being bound to serve God, by whom also we were bought.

²⁹ Glorify, then, God in your body. Since, then, you were bought, he says, glorify God in your body, accomplishing good deeds through the body, and keeping it holy and pure. For God is glorified when men see your good works and accordingly glorify him.

³⁰ And in your spirit. He shows that one must flee fornication not in body only, but also in soul, by not being defiled even in thought (for by “spirit” he called the mind); for adultery in the heart also is forbidden in the Gospels. These too belong to God.[2] Continually he reminds us that we are not our own, but belong as servants to God, who bought both our soul and our body.