14

¹ But if, once the doctrine has been set right for them and the innovation has receded among the elders, they still cling fondly to their own customs concerning the unleavened bread and the fasts, and shy away when we ask, in a spirit of gentleness, for likemindedness in these matters too—then in this be Paul: who to those under the Law became as one under the Law, purifying himself alongside those under a vow, shaving his own head, and spending on the sacrifices of purification, and circumcising Timothy — he who counted the righteousness that is in the Law as refuse; who showed the Galatians who were being circumcised that Christ would be of no benefit to them — nor the very name of faith in him—contriving all this so that he might gain something—those countless thousands of the Church in Jerusalem—and might still the surge that the apparent disagreement had raised against the preaching.

² So too do ship’s captains: they slacken the sheet, so as to spill the drenched sail, and so the ship’s company is brought safely through together with the ship. This same thing your own skill at the helm demands of you: not to keep everything drawn taut, especially where the wind of pride is excessive—the wind of national conceit—but to slacken the line with skill, and to make the voyage safe by slowness rather than fatal by speed, keeping the ship afloat by yielding rather than running it aground by refusing to give way at all.

³ It would be a most beautiful thing indeed if the body of the faithful, besides being sound of limb, were also well kept in hair and nails, as befits the body of a king’s daughter, the bride of Christ, who is fairer in beauty than the sons of men, full and perfect, and who gladly joins to himself his like. And it is good, too, if she lacks no member, above all the eyes, by which we see the sun of the Trinity, and through them all else that we need for the sustaining of the spirit—even if her hair and nails do not match the rest of her beauty; suppose the hair is a little darker, not like that of King David, who was ruddy, with beautiful eyes, nor like the hair of the bride’s kinsman, the white and the ruddy;[1] and suppose the nails are either too long or too short, so that small splinters can be caught by them either not at all, or only awkwardly. You will not, then, for these reasons despise the rest of the body—indeed, you will not even look at these things, delighting instead in the rest, your eyes so fixed on their beauty that they do not even glance elsewhere.

⁴ In this way, all the more, may you burn with the Spirit, and serve the Lord with the service of a good and faithful servant, if you show yourself concerned for the household of the Master—and you will show such concern if you do not tolerate its suffering loss; and it suffers loss whenever it has less than its full number; and it has less whenever we drive away our fellow servants; and we drive them away whenever we harden ourselves against them; and we harden ourselves whenever we do not condescend to them. Let us, then, condescend, and not show ourselves hard; for by not hardening ourselves we will win others over; and by winning them over we will fill the house of the Lord; and by filling it we make it richer; and by enriching it we will show our goodwill; and from this we will be attested as good and faithful servants; and from this we will be led into the joy of the Lord. Do you see where this condescension, in carrying us down, has in fact raised us up?