Good, indeed, is prudence, but mercy is sweet. Few attain the former, whereas the latter comes to all men. By reason of your loving-kindness, the souls renewed in the spirit love you. On this account it is also said to the soul, Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s.^[1] For the psalmist spoke to the soul and said, Bless the Lord, O my soul.^[2] And therefore the soul hastens to the Word and asks that she be drawn to him, so that she may not, perhaps, be left behind, for the Word of God runs and is not bound.

He also says to the Thessalonians, For the rest, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run and may be glorified even as among you; that we may be delivered from troublesome and evil men, for not all men have faith. How else could the word of God run and be glorified except by the conversion to the faith of those to whom it is preached, when Paul says to present believers, Even as among you? Surely he knows that this is accomplished by him to whom he wishes prayer to be made that this may be so, and also that he may be delivered through their prayers from troublesome and evil men. It is for this reason that he adds, For not all men have faith, as if to say, The word of God will not be glorified among all, even though you are praying because those who were likely to believe were the ones who were ordained to life everlasting,^[1] predestined to the adoption of children through Jesus Christ to himself and chosen in him before the foundation of the world.^[2] No one is so unlearned, so carnal, so slow of wit as not to see that God does what he commands us to ask him to do.

Through the operation of these millstones—the new and the old covenants—the holy church, then, acts with unceasing care so as to draw out the fine flour of a clean heart from hidden thoughts, once the roughness of sins has been scattered, and to produce spiritual food from their kernels when they have been cleansed by the heavenly commandments. The apostle Paul says about this food, I gave you milk to drink, not food,^[1] and again, Solid food is for the perfect, who have their faculties trained by habit,^[2] and so forth. Purifying our hearts from all that is human, the faithful soul strives to offer God as it were the finest wheat, as holy David says, A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God.^[3] The gospel rushes forward with such speed, however, that only the wise know of its movement. About this speed the blessed Paul says with understanding, May the word of God speed on and be made glorious in us. But in the eyes of the foolish the gospel seems to stand still, I say, because they neglect its commands, for they do not believe that what has been written will come to pass.

With this in mind, dearly beloved, let us always look forward with longing toward our everlasting joy. Let us always pray for fortitude in our temporal labors and trials. Let us offer prayers for one another. Let my prayers be offered for you, and yours for me. And, brothers, do not think that you need my prayers, but that I have no need of yours. We have mutual need of one another’s prayers, for those reciprocal prayers are enkindled by charity and—like a sacrifice offered on the altar of piety—are fragrant and pleasing to the Lord. If the apostles used to ask for prayers on their own behalf, how much more does it behoove me to do so? For I am far from being their equal, although I long to follow their footsteps as closely as possible. But I have neither the wisdom to know nor the rashness to say what progress I have made.

Just as it is expedient for us to implore God’s mercy for the salvation of your souls, so you ought to pour forth prayers to the Lord on our behalf. We should not consider the apostle’s actions inappropriate. To so great an extent did he long to be commended to God through prayer that he himself implored the people and said, Pray for us. Therefore we ought to say what can both encourage ourselves and instruct you. Just as we must reflect with great fear and anxiety on how we may fulfill the office of bishop without reproach, so you should observe that you ought to strive to practice humble obedience in everything that has been commanded you. So let us pray, dearly beloved, that my episcopacy may be profitable for both you and me.

For a man swollen with pride in comparison to another might say, My faith distinguishes me, or my justice or whatever. It is to prevent such ideas that the good teacher asks, But what do you have that you have not received? Did you not receive it from him who chose to distinguish you from another? It was he who chose to give you what another did not receive. But if you have received, why do you glory as if you had not received it?^[1] Now I ask, is the apostle concerned here with anything else than that He who glories should glory in the Lord?^[2] But nothing is so contrary to this sentiment than for anyone to glory in his own merits as if he and not the grace of God were responsible for them. I refer to that grace that distinguishes the good from the wicked, not one which is common to the good and the wicked. On this premise the grace by which we are living and rational creatures, and thus distinguished from beasts, would be enmeshed in nature. The grace by which the beautiful are distinguished from the ugly, or the intelligent from the stupid, is a grace that perceives nature. But that person whose pride the apostle was trying to restrain was not puffing himself up in comparison to the beasts, nor in comparison to the gifts of nature that might exist even in the worst of men. Rather, he was puffed up because he attributed some good thing which pertained to the morally good life to himself and not to God. Thus, he deserved to hear the rebuke, For who distinguishes you? Or what do you have that you have not received? For though the ability to possess faith belongs to our nature, is that also true of the actual possession of faith? For not all men have faith, although all men have the possibility of having faith.

Then, therefore, they afterwards marveled at the fact that they saw him ascending and they rejoiced that he went up to heaven, for the precedence of the Head is the hope of the members.^[1] Moreover, they heard the angelic message, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus. . . shall come in the same way as you have seen him going up to heaven.^[2] What is the significance of he will come in the same way? He will come in that same form, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, They shall look upon him whom they have pierced.^[3] He shall come to men; he shall come as a Man; but he shall come as the God-Man. He shall come as true God and true Man to make men like God. He has ascended as Judge of heaven; he has expressed himself as Herald of heaven. Let us stand justified so that we may not fear the judgment that is to come. As a matter of fact, he did ascend; those who announced it to us witnessed it. The people who did not see it believed; still some incredulous persons mocked, for not all have faith.

We are convinced that action taken by one or two pious men is done through the counsel of the Spirit. Since there is no human motive placed before their eyes, and saintly men are moved to action not with an aim of personal advantage but after having proposed to themselves what is pleasing to God, it is evident that it is the Lord who directs their hearts. And whenever spiritual men are the initiators of plans, and the people of the Lord follow them in harmony of thought, who will doubt that the plan has been arrived at in communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, who poured out his blood for the churches?

And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.^[1] In view of such declarations on the part of our Lord and the apostle, I marvel, I say, how it is that men display such zeal and such intense absorption in the pursuit of goods that will come to an end and be destroyed but have no regard for that which will remain, especially charity, the greatest of all goods, the distinguishing mark of the Christian. And not only this, but they show hostility to those who are zealous in its practice, and in fighting against them they fulfill the words of the Lord, namely, that they themselves do not enter in and those that are entering in they hinder.^[2] I beg and implore you, therefore, to be content with the words of the saints and of the Lord himself. Desist from curious inquiry and unseemly controversies. Think on those things that are worthy of your heavenly calling. Live in a manner befitting the gospel of Christ, relying on the hope of eternal life and the heavenly kingdom prepared for all those who keep the commandments of God the Father, according to the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord in the Holy Spirit and in truth.

[Paul] says, Knowing this, that our old nature is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed to the end that we may serve sin no longer.^[1] By these words we are taught that he who is baptized in Christ is baptized in his death, and is not only buried with Christ and planted together with him but is first of all crucified with him. Thus we are instructed that as he who is crucified is separated from the living, so also he who has been crucified with Christ in the likeness of his death is completely set apart from those who live according to the old nature. Hence the Lord commanded us to beware of false prophets,^[2] and the apostle says, And we command you, brothers, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the tradition which they have received of us. The old nature mentioned by the apostle signifies all sin and defilement, taken individually and together, as if they represented his own members.

Lastly, those very people [the Thessalonians] whom in his first epistle Paul had treated with the gentle application of his words, he endeavors in his second epistle to heal with severer and sterner remedies, as those who had not profited from any more gentle treatment. And he no longer applies the treatment of gentle words, no mild and kindly expressions such as, But we ask you, brothers. Rather he says, We command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother that lives in a disorderly fashion. In the first letter Paul asks; in the second he commands. In the first we see the kindness of one who is persuading; in the second the sternness of one protesting and threatening. We command you, brothers, because, when we first asked you, you scorned our words. Now at least obey our threats. Paul renders this commandment severe, not by his bare word but by the imprecation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is concerned that they might again scorn his teaching as merely a human word, considering it of little importance. And so quite directly, like a well-skilled physician operating on infected limbs to which he could not apply the remedy of a mild treatment, Paul attempts to cure by an incision with a spiritual knife. . . . He bids them withdraw from those who will not make time for work and to cut them off like limbs tainted with the festering sores of leisure. This is so that the malady of idleness, like some deadly contagion, might not infect even the healthy portion of their limbs by the gradual advance of infection.

The words of the apostle’s testimony are, We command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from all brothers who are living disorderly lives and not according to the tradition which they received from us. And again he says, Let no one deceive you with empty words; for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Don’t be, therefore, partakers with them.^[1] We must withdraw, indeed flee from those who fall away, lest, while one is joined with them while they walk wickedly, passing over the paths of error and crime, wandering apart from the way of the true road, he himself also be caught in a similar crime. God is one and Christ one and his church one and the faith one and the people one, all joined together by the tie of concord into a solid unity of body. The unity cannot be torn apart, nor can the one body be separated by a division of its structure, nor torn into bits by the lacerating of its entrails. Whoever departs from the root of the parent body will not be able to breathe and live apart. By departing one loses the substance of health.

A teacher demonstrates great confidence if he uses his own good actions to reprove his disciples. And so Paul writes, For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us. And he ought to be a teacher more of life than of the word. Let no one think that Paul says this because of a boastful heart. The necessity of the situation in Thessalonica drove him to speak this way, with a view to the advantage of the entire community.

Perhaps someone will dare to think or say that the apostle Paul did not attain the perfection of those who, leaving all behind, followed Christ. The reason for entertaining such a thought would be because Paul procured his own substance by his own hands in order that he might not burden anyone of those to whom he was preaching the gospel. Thus the words he says, I have labored more than all of them, have all been fulfilled, and he added, Yet not I, but the grace of God with me.^[1] We can only ascribe Paul’s ability both to preach and support himself financially to the grace of God at work in his mind and body. He neither ceased from preaching the gospel nor did he, as his detractors, support himself financially from the gospel.^[2]

Of course, there are those who misunderstand the same apostle when he writes, He who was apt to steal, let him steal no longer; but let him labor, doing good with his hands, that he may have something to give to one who has need.^[1] For, when he is ordering such persons to work so efficiently with their hands that they will also have something to bestow on others, his misinterpreters believe that he is going counter to the instruction which the Lord gives when he says, Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns. . . . Consider the lilies of the field: They neither toil nor spin.^[2] Paul does not seem to have imitated the birds of the air and lilies of the field. He has repeatedly said of himself that he was working with his own hands so as not to burden anyone,^[3] and it is written of him that he joined with Aquila because of the similarity of their handicraft, so that they might work together to maintain a livelihood.^[4] From these and other such passages of the Scripture it is clear enough that our Lord does not reprove a man for procuring these things in the usual manner.

But why should we dwell upon the amount of evil there is in idleness, when the apostle clearly specifies that he who does not work should not eat. As daily sustenance is necessary for everyone, so labor in proportion to one’s strength is also essential. Solomon has written effectively in praise of hard work: And she has not eaten her bread in idleness.^[1] And again, the apostle says of himself, neither did we eat any man’s bread for nothing, but in labor and in toil we worked night and day. Yet, since he was preaching the gospel, he was entitled to receive his livelihood from the gospel. . . . We have reason to fear, therefore, lest, perchance, on the day of judgment this fault also may be alleged against us, since he who has endowed us with the ability to work demands that our labor be proportioned to our capacity. For the Lord says, To whom they have committed much, of him they will demand much.^[2]

In this way we acquire a recollected spirit—when in every action we beg from God the success of our labors and satisfy our debt of gratitude to him who gave us the power to do the work, and when, as has been said, we keep before our minds the aim of pleasing him. If this is not the case, how can there be consistency in the words of the apostle bidding us to pray without ceasing,^[1] with those other words: we worked night and day? Thanksgiving at all times has been commanded even from law and has been proved necessary to our life from both reason and nature. So we should not therefore be negligent in observing those times for prayer customarily established in communities—times which have inevitably been selected because each period contains a reminder peculiar to itself of blessings received from God.

Once Abba Serapion finely mocked this sham humility.^[1] A man arrived at his cell, making a great show of lowliness in his dress and speech. Serapion, as is usual, asked him to offer a prayer. The visitor refused and said that he was guilty of such crimes that he did not deserve even to breathe the same air. Refusing the mat, he sat on the ground. Still less would he allow Serapion to wash his feet. After supper it is usual to have a religious conference. So Serapion began, with kindness and gentleness, to warn him against being an idle and haphazard wanderer, especially as he was young and strong. He told him that he ought to settle in a cell, subject himself to the rules of the elders and maintain himself by his own work instead of living on the hospitality of others. Since St. Paul was working for the spread of the gospel, he might reasonably have lived on others. Yet he preferred to work day and night to get daily bread for himself and those who were ministering to him and could not work themselves. . . . You must keep true humility of heart—and true humility comes not from affectation of posture or speech but from an interior humbling of the mind.

Let everyone who comes in the name of the Lord be received, and then, when you have taken stock of him, you will know—for you will have insight—what is right and false. If the person who comes is just passing through, help him as much as you can, but he shall not stay with you more than two or three days—if that is necessary. If he wants to settle in with you, though, and he is a craftsman, let him work and eat. If he has no craft, take care in your insight: no Christian should live with you in idleness. If he is unwilling to do what that calls for, he is using Christ to make a living. Be on your guard against people like this.

Let the young persons of the church endeavor to minister diligently in all essential matters. Mind your business with all suitable seriousness, that so you may always have enough to support yourselves and those who are needy, and not burden the church of God. For we ourselves, besides our attention to the word of the gospel, do not neglect our inferior vocations. For some of us are fishermen, some tentmakers, some farmers, that so we may never be idle. So says Solomon somewhere, Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways diligently, and become wiser than she. For she, having neither field, overseer, nor ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and lays up a great store in the harvest. Or else go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is, and how valuable her work is, whose labors both kings and common men make use of for their health. The bee is desirable and glorious, though she be weak in strength, yet by honoring wisdom she is improved^[1]. . . Labor therefore continually; for the blot of the slothful is not to be healed. But if anyone among you does not work, let not such a one eat among you. For the Lord our God hates the lazy. For no one of those who are dedicated to God ought to be idle.

Therefore also the Scripture has sent the sluggard to the ant, saying, Go to the ant, you sluggard, emulate his ways, and be wiser than he.^[1] Are you unwilling, he means, to learn from the Scriptures, that it is good to labor, and that he who will not work neither should eat? Learn it from the irrational beasts! We do the same in our families, urging those who have erred—though they be older and considered superior—to observe thoughtful children. We say, Note how earnest and watchful this child is, though he is younger than you. In the same way learn from the ant the best exhortation to hard work. Marvel at your Lord, not only because he has made heaven and the sun, but because he has also made the ant. For although the ant is small, it proves the greatness of God’s wisdom. Consider, then, how prudent the ant is. Consider how God has implanted in so small a body such an unceasing desire for work! But while you learn the lesson of hard work from the ant, learn from the bee a lesson of neatness, industry and social concord! For the bee labors more for us than for herself, working every day. This is indeed a thing especially proper for a Christian, not to seek his own welfare, but the welfare of others. As, then, the bee travels across the meadows that she may prepare a banquet for another, so also O man, you do likewise. And if you have accumulated wealth, spend it on others. If you have the ability to teach, do not bury the talent, but bring it out publicly for the sake of those who need it! Or if you have any other advantage, become useful to those who reap the benefit of your labors.

In the first place, we must prove that the blessed apostle Paul wished the servants of God to perform manual labor which would merit a great spiritual reward, and to do this without seeking food and clothing from anybody but to procure these commodities for themselves by their own work. Secondly, we must show that those gospel precepts by which some monks justify not only laziness but even arrogance are not contrary to the direction and example of the apostle. Let us examine the statements made by the apostle prior to this one: If any man will not work, neither let him eat, and the statements which follow it, so that the meaning which St. Paul intended may be gathered from the setting of the passage. What can be said in reply to this, since, indeed, by his own example he taught what he commanded, lest later someone might be permitted to interpret this with a view to his will and not his charity. For, the Lord had directed that apostle, as preacher of the gospel, as soldier of Christ, as planter of the vineyard, as shepherd of the flock, to live by the Gospel; nevertheless, St. Paul did not accept the payment due him in order to give example to those who wished to exact unmerited compensation.

We read in sacred Scripture, dearly beloved, that a holy understanding should keep those who are concerned about their soul’s salvation, as the divine Word puts it, Holy understanding shall protect you.^[1] If such holy understanding keeps a soul, that which is unholy not only fails to keep it but even kills it. Perhaps someone says, Who can always be thinking of God and eternal bliss, since all men must be concerned about food, clothing and the management of their household? God does not ask us to be free from all anxiety over the present life, for he instructs us through his apostle, If any man will not work, neither let him eat. The same apostle repeats the idea with reference to himself when he says, We worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you.^[2] Since God especially advises reasonable concern for food and clothing, so long as avarice and ambition. . . are not linked with it, an ordinary action or thought can be most rightly considered holy. The only provision is that those preoccupations should not be so excessive that they do not allow us to have time for God, according to the words, The burdens of the world have made them miserable.^[3]

I do not say these things haphazardly now, but rather because many are often overly intrusive in their investigation of the needy. They examine their lineage, life, habits, vocation and the vigor of their body. They make complaints and demand immense public scrutiny for their health. For this precise reason, many of the poor simulate physical disabilities, so that by dramatizing their misfortunes they may deflect our cruelty and inhumanity. And although when it is summertime, it is terrible to make these complaints, it is not quite so dreadful. However, during the frost and the cold, for someone to become such a savage and inhuman judge and not impart any forgiveness to the unemployed, does this not involve extreme cruelty? Therefore, what did Paul ordain by law, they say, when he said to the Thessalonians, ’If any one does not wish to work, neither let him eat’? So that you, too, may also hear these things, you should discuss the words of Paul not only with the poor individual but even with yourself. For the laws of Paul are laid down not only for the poor but also for all. Let me say something burdensome and grievous. I know that you will grow angry. Nevertheless, I will say it; for I do not say it to strike you but to correct you. We criticize them for their laziness, something which is worthy of forgiveness for the most part. However, we too often do things which are even more grievous than any laziness. . . . Therefore, when you say, What then shall we say to Paul? converse with yourself, too, and say these things not only to the poor. Read not only the threat of punishment but also Paul’s admonition to forgiveness, for the one who said, If anyone does not wish to work, neither let him eat, added, And you, brothers, do not lose heart in doing good.

There are some other men going about, as they say, pretending only to devote themselves to prayer^[1] and doing no work, making piety a pretext for cowardice and a means of gaining a living, but not thinking rightly. Let them say that they are better even than the holy apostles who worked when opportunity gave them time for it, and they were exhausted for the word of God. How did they miss reading the holy Paul writing to certain people, For I hear that some among you are living irregularly, doing no work but busy at meddling. The church does not admit those who do this. It is necessary without doubt that those who live a quiet life in the monasteries pray continually. But it does no harm and rather is exceedingly helpful to work so that he who accepts the labors of others for his own need may not be found to be burdensome to others. It might be possible from his labors to relieve the widow and the orphan and some of the weak ones of his brothers.

This we must also keep in mind—that he who labors ought to perform his task not for the purpose of ministering to his own needs but that he may accomplish the Lord’s command, I was hungry and you gave me to eat,^[1] and so on. To be concerned for oneself is strictly forbidden by the Lord in the words, Be not concerned for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on, and he adds, for the heathens seek after all these things.^[2] Everyone, therefore, in doing his work, should place before himself the aim of service to the needy and not his own satisfaction. Thus, he will escape the charge of self-love and receive the blessing for fraternal charity from the Lord, who said, As long as you did it to one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it to me.^[3] Nor should anyone think that the apostle is at variance with our rule when he says, that working they would eat their own bread. This is addressed to the unruly and indolent, and means that it is better for each person to minister to himself at least and not be a burden to others than to live in idleness.

Here it is as though doves are quarreling together. The apostle said, If anyone fails to obey our word by this letter, mark that person and do not mix with him. There’s the quarrel. But notice how it’s a quarrel of doves, not of wolves. He immediately added, And do not regard him as an enemy, but rebuke him as a brother. A dove is loving even when it is beating; a wolf hates even when it is being charming.

It is true that some take the phrase from your midst^[1] to mean that each one is to expel the wickedness out of oneself in order to be good. But, no matter how it is interpreted, whether that the wicked in the church are checked by the severity of excommunication or whether each one by self-blame and self-discipline drives wickedness out of himself, there can be no misunderstanding of the teaching of the apostle in the passage of Scripture just quoted: we are to refrain from association with brothers who are accused of any of the vices mentioned above, that is, with those who are notoriously scandalous. With what intention and with what charity this merciful severity is to be administered is evidenced not only by his statement, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,^[2] but appears elsewhere even more clearly where he says, if anyone does not obey our word by this letter, note that man and do not associate with him, that he may be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

What then does Paul mean^[1] when he says, If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him? In the first place, he says this of brothers, but with a significant limitation which is stated with gentleness. Do not disconnect what is said here from what follows, where, having said, have nothing to do with him, he added, do not look on him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Do you see how he urges us to hate the deed but love the person? For indeed it is the work of the devil to tear us apart, and he has always taken great care to destroy love, so that the means of correction will be gone, the sinner maintained in error and the way of his salvation blocked. For when the physician hates the sick man and runs from him, and the sick man turns away from the physician, when will the distempered person be restored, seeing that neither the one will call in the other’s aid, nor will the other go to him?

I have been exceedingly grieved on account of Valens, who was at one time a presbyter among you, because he forgot the office that was given him. I warn you, therefore, to refrain from the love of money and be pure and truthful. . . . I am, therefore, very grieved indeed for that man and his wife. May the Lord grant them true repentance.^[1] But you, too, must be moderate in this matter; and do not consider such persons as enemies but reclaim them as suffering and straying members, in order that you may save the whole body of you. For in doing this you will edify yourselves.^[2]