Paul shows that the man who does evil and consents to others who do it is deserving of death, lest perhaps the one who does it and pretends not to approve of others who do it . . . might think he can be excused, because he can conceal his sin for a time. . . . It is not right to give in to someone who pretends to be better when in fact he is worse. Such a person appears to escape notice and to be worthy of honor, but in fact he will be punished.

Paul says this with the rulers of the city in mind, because at that time they ruled the entire world. He was telling them . . . that when they pass sentence on someone they are passing sentence on themselves as well. ^[1] JUDGED ^[1]

Paul is speaking here of sins already committed. And when he says O man, whoever you are, he includes not only the Gentile but also the Jew who wanted to judge the Gentiles according to the law.

This concerns those who are in a position to pass judgment. Judges and princes are being put on trial. By a natural process everyone pronounces a sentence which fits the crime and knows that righteousness deserves reward while wickedness should be punished.

The judgment of God is to be expected . . . not only for those who do the things which are listed above but for all who have in any way done anything good or evil. What Paul wants to show here is that only God can judge rightly. For there are some crimes committed in which the deed is evil but the intention is not, e.g., when someone accidentally kills someone else. And there are other cases in which the deed may be good but the thought behind it is not, e.g., if someone shows pity not because God has commanded it but in order to win praise from men. And there are still other cases in which thought and deed are so interfused that one cannot distinguish which is good or evil. Given that only God knows the hearts of men and only he can discern the secrets of the mind, only he has the power to judge rightly.

God has judged rightly in the case of those whose iniquities have been forgiven by the grace of baptism, whose sins have been covered by repentance and whose sin has not been imputed to them because of the glory of martyrdom. Rightness of judgment presupposes that the evil person will receive bad things and the good person good ones. Although the gifts and generosity of God do not allow of any dispute, nevertheless we shall show just how right the divine judgment is. It is commonly accepted that a good man should not be punished and that an evil man should not be rewarded with good. Suppose a man has at some point done evil. It is certain that at the time he was doing it he was evil. But if he repents of his previous deeds, turns his mind to the good and does what is right, says what is right, thinks what is right, desires what is right—does not that person seem good to you, and worthy to receive good things? Likewise, if someone is turned from what is good to what is evil, he will be judged now not to be good (which he was but is no longer) but rather evil, which he is now. For the deeds of both a good and an evil man pass away, but they shape and construct the mind of the doer according to their respective quality and leave it either good or bad and accordingly destined to receive either punishment or rewards. Therefore it will be unjust either for a good mind to be punished for evil deeds or for an evil mind to be rewarded for good deeds.

This means that we are not unaware that God will judge these people in truth, for we judge them ourselves. If what they do is displeasing to us, how much more will it be so to God, who is truly just and efficient in carrying out his work. . . . Paul is instilling fear, so that although the ungodly say that God does not care, in fact he will judge the wicked and most severely render to each one according to his deserts, not sparing any.

Paul shows that the ungodly had fallen even with a knowledge of God. Such knowledge they had got even from their creation.

Judgment means the tribunal and judgment seat of God, and as if to make the condemnation of the wicked certain Paul added rightly.

If you, a sinner, pass judgment upon a sinner like yourself, how much more will God, who is just, condemn you as unjust? If he did not do so, it might appear that evil is pleasing to him while good is not. But God has no favorites, and he spared neither his friends (the patriarchs) nor his angels when they sinned! Human judgment on the other hand is imperfect in many ways. The integrity of judges is often compromised by love, hate, fear and greed, and occasionally mercy is allowed to overturn the rule of justice.

For this reason it is right for each person to examine his own conscience first and then debate the deeds of the person whom he is judging. If this were to happen, all desire for high ecclesiastical office would vanish from those appointed to it, if those who want to preside over the people were more concerned to judge themselves than to judge others.

No one should imagine that he can escape the judgment of God, as the prophet also says: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?^[1] These things apply most of all to those who preside over the judgment of the people. Scripture also says elsewhere that judgment will begin at the house of God.^[2] . . . Therefore judgment begins with the children of God first of all, for God chastises everyone whom he accepts into the number of his children. Indeed, I think that even if it were possible, nobody should try to escape God’s judgment, for not to come to God’s judgment is not to come to improvement, to health or to a cure.

Paul does not want them to hope that they can be pardoned, since that would be unjust, when they have been given the ability to judge evil and wrongdoing and to avoid it. If they cannot manage to avoid it in this life, they will not be able to escape the judgment of God in the future. For God, with whom there is neither flattery nor respect of persons, will judge them on his own authority.

If someone thinks he ought to be immune from such punishment, let him say so. But if it is right that he should not escape, let him trust that God will judge and judge rightly, and that God, the Creator of the world, will offer proper attention and care to his creation. If God had made the world and then neglected it, he would be called a bad Creator, because he would be demonstrating by his neglect that what he had made was not good. But since it cannot be denied that God made good things—for it is unworthy and impossible for one who is good to make evil things—it is necessary to say that he is concerned about them. It would be a crime and a reproach to him if he were to neglect the good things which he had made. Life itself is governed by his servants the natural elements, who act according to his pleasure and plan, as the Lord himself says: he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.^[1] Therefore, if he does all that, will he not take care to look after what he has made, so as to reward those who love him and condemn those who reject him?

Paul argues that these people, because they have condemned themselves by their condemnation of others, will not escape the judgment of God. For how can it be reasonable if they condemn themselves and then expect God to approve of them and praise them?

Sinning, by itself, is not as serious as falling into the sins one has accused others of committing. See how Paul makes the whole thing more serious! For if you punish a person who has committed smaller sins . . . how will God not turn the tables on you and punish you who have committed greater transgressions? . . . And if you say that you know you deserve punishment but think that because God is patient with you that you will escape it and therefore do not take it seriously, this is all the more reason to fear and tremble! For the fact that you have not yet suffered punishment does not mean that you will not suffer it but that you will suffer more severely if you do not repent. ^[1] BAD ^[1]

Is the fact that some persist in their wickedness any proof that God does not persist in his patience, punishing very few sins in this world, lest we fail to believe in his divine providence and, saving many for the last judgment, to justify his future decree?

The last times are upon us.^[1] Let us therefore be of a reverent spirit and fear the longsuffering of God, lest we despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance.

You can recognize the riches of God’s kindness if you consider how many evils men do every day on earth. Almost everyone has fallen away and become worthless, traveling down the wide and broad way of perdition, ignoring the narrow road that leads to eternal life.^[1] Yet God lets his sun shine daily on all of them and sends them rain, however much they may blaspheme him. . . . Therefore if anyone despises God’s kindness and forbearance and patience, he does not know that he is being encouraged by these things to repent.

Forbearance differs from patience in that it applies more to those who sin because of their weakness and not deliberately, whereas patience is brought to bear in the case of those who sin deliberately, as if to glory in their wrongdoing. But as God has made everything with a certain measure, weight and number, so also his patience has certain limits. Those limits were reached by the people who perished in the flood,^[2] as well as by the men of Sodom who were destroyed by fire from heaven.^[3]

Paul says this so that no one should think that he has escaped, just because God’s goodness has allowed him to go on sinning. Nor should anyone think that God’s patience is to be despised, as if he did not care about human affairs, but rather understand that God conceals himself, because his judgment is not promised in this life. It is for the future, so that in the next life the man who did not believe that God is a judge will repent. For in order to reveal the terror of future judgment and that his patience should not be despised, God said: I have been silent. But shall I be silent for ever?^[1] Thus the man who has been punished and has not re-pented will repent when he sees the future judgment of God, which he has spurned. Then he who thought that the longsuffering of God’s goodness was something to laugh at will not hesitate to beg for mercy. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.^[2] OPPORTUNITY TO REPENT. CHRYSOSTOM: God shows us his kindness in order to lead us to repentance, not in order that we might sin even more. If we do not take advantage of this opportunity, the punishment we shall receive will be all the greater. ^[3] GOD ^[1]

Do you imagine you can act with impunity just because God does not punish immediately. . . . Listen to the words of Scripture: The Lord is not slow with his promises . . . but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.^[1] The Lord is good in as much as he waits and just in as much as he punishes. . . . People may go far astray because of God’s patience, because he does not want to punish sinners immediately. And because he delays, people suppose either that he does not care at all about human affairs or that he overlooks sins.

Those who depart from God and despise his precepts, and by their deeds bring dishonor on him who made them, and by their opinions blaspheme him who nourishes them, heap up against themselves most righteous judgment.

In the Scriptures a hard heart refers to a human mind which, like wax hardened by the cold of wickedness, cannot receive the imprint of God’s image. The same thing is called a dull heart elsewhere.^[1] Its opposite is a soft heart, which in the Scriptures is called a heart of flesh.^[2] . . . When someone knows what is good and does not do it, he is said to be contemptuous of all good things because of the hardness of his heart. For hardness of heart occurs when the mind has no feeling for a refined and spiritual understanding. . . .

The day of wrath will be a day of vengeance and judgment, as is clear from many passages of Scripture. But note that it will also be a day of revelation, when all things are to be revealed.^[3] . . . Some people want to know why this day has been fixed for the end of the world, so that everyone who has died from the beginning to the end of time is held over for judgment on the last day. It is certain that the real reasons for this are concealed in the secret mysteries of God, but we shall try to give some explanation for it insofar as it is possible to do so in writing. There are many who, when they leave this life, leave behind them seeds of good or evil that will sprout after their deaths and become occasions either for salvation or for damnation for those who are left behind. I would say, for instance, that this applies to all those philosophers who founded depraved sects which are far from God, or who set up magical sacrileges, or who practiced astrology, not to mention those among us who promoted heresies and false teachings by the books they wrote, or who have brought about divisions, scandals and dissensions in the church. On the other side there is the work of the apostolic writings and the emergence through them of the universal church, conversion to God and the transformation of the entire world. These things will go on to the end of time, and therefore the judgment of God will not be just until the final results are known. This is what the apostle means when he says: The sins of some men are conspicuous, pointing to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.^[4]

It may also be that the saints who are outside the body and who dwell with Christ may be doing something and working on our behalf after the example of the angels, who minister to us for our salvation. On the other hand, perhaps sinners who too have left the body are doing something in line with the disposition of their mind, and no less after the example of the fallen angels. . . . These things too are among the hidden things of God and have not been committed to writing. But they will be made known on the day of wrath and revelation.

Now let us consider what is meant by the just judgment of God, in which he will reward each one according to his works. First of all, we must reject the heretics who say that souls are good or evil by nature and maintain instead that God will reward each one according to his deeds and not according to his nature. Second, believers are to be instructed not to think that it is enough merely to believe [lacking fruit]; they ought to realize that the just judgment of God will reward each one according to his works. . . . Nor are Gentiles to be excluded from this, if they do good.

Without doubt this is said of Christ, for he himself will judge.

When talking about the way they were storing up an accumulation of sins, Paul showed that there would also be a greater store of punishment, as a result of the patient endurance of the judge toward those who were suffering so incurably.

The one who hopes he can get away with his sins not only remains unconvertible and intractable but in addition sins more seriously still, sure that there will be no future judgment. He has an impenitent heart, unaware that he is storing up wrath for himself on the day of wrath.

When a man is neither softened by goodness nor turned back by fear, what can be harder than he is? . . . The true originator of wrath is the one who has stored it up, not the one who judged, as Paul makes plain. For he says you are storing up wrath for yourself, not God is storing up wrath for you.

God’s patience toward you gives you the opportunity for every kind of wickedness. Realize clearly therefore that you are storing up wrath for yourself because of your hardness. ^[1] CONVERSION TO CHRIST. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Before the revelation of God’s righteous judgment comes to you, that day says to everyone: Behold the man and behold his works. We must be converted to Christ all the more quickly therefore, lest we be deprived of our body by a hard heart and found naked, without the faith of Christ which was promised to us by the Law and the Prophets. ^[1]

Whenever Paul talks about the wrath of God he understands it to mean punishment.

Unaware that you are sick, you use the very cure in order to sustain even greater wounds. . . . Rejected kindness leads in the end to severer judgment, so that the man who refused to be touched by mercy is afflicted with punishment.

If a person sins once or even twice and then without excuses has recourse to the healing of penance, he will recover his former good condition without any delay. But if he begins to add sin upon sin and prefers to acquire an infection by concealing or defending the wounds of his soul rather than cure them by confession and the performance of penance, it is to be feared that these words of the apostle will be fulfilled in him.

Christ died and rose again, and ascended into heaven to him who sent him, and sat down at his right hand, and will come at the end of time with his Father’s glory to judge the living and the dead.^[1]

Such a person must be punished more severely, even to the point of being tortured in eternal fire,^[1] because despite a long stay of execution, not only did he not want to change, but he increased his sinning, adding to his contempt for God. The day of wrath is for sinners, because it is the day on which they will be punished. Therefore the wrath is on those who receive punishment on the day when the just judgment of God is revealed. For it will be revealed and made known, even though it continues to be denied as long as it is in the future.

The Savior says the same thing: He (the Son) will repay every man for what he has done.^[1] Therefore, whatever is said to belong to God also appears to belong to the Son, which shows that they share a common nature.

You are storing up for yourself wrath upon wrath on the day of judgment, which will be revealed at a fixed and certain time.

God has given that which is good, and those who do it will receive glory and honor because they have done good when they had it in their power not to do so. But those who do not do it will receive the just judgment of God, because they did not do good when they had it in their power to do so.

In saying this, Paul indicates that those who desire to do good will have to struggle and will suffer for it. . . . Therefore patience is necessary.

Now Paul predicts the just judgment of God, as he has declared it will be for the good; that is to say, for those who, recognizing that the patience of God is designed partly for concealment and partly for greater revenge on those who do not correct themselves, repent of their previous works and live rightly, armed with confidence in their faith in God that they will not have to wait long before receiving their promised reward of eternal life. For God will give them glory and honor. And to avoid invidious comparisons with this life, where there is another kind of glory and honor, Paul added immortality, so that people would realize that the glory and honor which they will obtain will be of a different order altogether. . . . For in this life honor and glory are frequently lost, for the one who gives them, what he gives and the one who receives them are all mortal. But on the day of God’s judgment honor and glory will be given to the immortal so that they will be eternal. For this same substance will be glorified by a certain change of properties. Therefore, those who seek eternal life are not merely those who believe correctly but those who live correctly as well.

Here Paul stirs up those who had fallen away during the persecutions and shows that it is not right to trust in faith only. For God’s tribunal will demand deeds as well. But note that when he talks about what is to come, he cannot say exactly what the blessings will be but talks in general terms of glory and honor. For because the rewards transcend everything which we have here below, there is no image he can use to illustrate them, but instead he takes things which give us a picture of brightness and sets them before us. . . . Glory, honor and life are things men strive for, but what God promises us are much better still because they are incorruptible and immortal. See how he has opened the door to the resurrection of our body by speaking of immortality. . . . For all of us will rise immortal but not all to glory. Some will rise to punishment and others to life.

The reward for well-doing is awaited with patience because it is not given in this life.^[1] The glory is that with which the saints will shine like the sun.^[2] Nothing is greater than the honor of the children of God, on account of which they will judge even the angels.^[3]

Well-doing is for a time, but the reward is eternal. Moreover, eternity applies not only to life but to honor, glory and immortality as well. Paul wanted to show that there are many rewards for those who are good.

To the unbelieving and despisers who obey not the truth but unrighteousness, when they have been filled with adulteries, and fornications and filthiness, and covetousness and unlawful idolatries, there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish, and at the last everlasting fire shall possess them.^[1] You asked me to show you my God—this is my God, and I advise you to fear and trust him.

Those who doubt that there will be a future judgment of God through Christ, and who for that reason despise his patience, do all they can to discredit it as being true and certain. For they believe in wickedness. It is wickedness to deny what God has foretold. Paul mentions three things which are fitting punishments for unbelief—wrath, fury and tribulation. The locus of wrath is not in the one who judges but in the one who is judged. God is said to get angry and to take vengeance, but in reality the nature of God transcends such passions. But this is said so that we should believe that God judges sin and that he will finally take revenge. So Paul adds and fury. This means that God will seek vengeance, adding to his anger in response to the injury which has been done to him.

Paul deprives those who live in wickedness of any excuse and shows that it is from factiousness and carelessness that they fall into unrighteousness. . . . Their fall is voluntary; their crime is not of necessity.

Those who are frequently overcome by hatred and fall into quarreling should be careful and afraid of persisting in so harmful a habit, in case the punishments mentioned are visited upon them. It has already been pointed out^[1] that a man is factious when he tries to defend something against his conscience. Such people do not believe the truth of the gospel and approve of wickedness. They have abandoned the Creator and diligently serve the creature instead. Wrath and fury are the punishments that God’s judgment brings.

It is enough for anyone who simply accepts this to interpret it along the lines already mentioned, viz., that God will reward everyone according to his works. . . . But those who think that in the apostolic writings, through which Christ speaks, not one jot or tittle is superfluous will insist that it was not by accident that the apostle added tribulation and distress to what he had said earlier. From this a spiritually minded person will understand what the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul . . . that those who from a spirit of contention refuse to accept the truth but instead consort with wickedness will receive wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress, not as God’s gift but as a consequence of their own evil deeds, because they have been storing these things up for themselves.

Tribulation refers to the punishment which the condemned sinner will suffer. Evil is not just a matter of deeds but of unbelief as well. . . . Paul always puts the Jew first, whether he is to be praised or blamed, because of his privileged ancestry. If he believes he will be all the more honored because of Abraham, but if he doubts he will be treated all the worse, because he has rejected the gift promised to his forefathers.

Having shown the extreme seriousness of the disease . . . Paul goes on to give the Jew the greater burden in the tribulation. For the Jew has enjoyed a larger share of instruction and so also deserves to suffer a larger share of the punishment if he does wrong. The wiser or mightier we are, the more we will be punished if we sin.^[1]

The apostle threatens the soul with punishment because of heretics^[1] who say that only the flesh does wrong and that the soul cannot sin. Or perhaps soul refers to the whole man.^[2]

Here Paul uses the word Greek to refer not to Gentile believers but to those who lived before Christ’s incarnation.

Given that Paul puts the Jews first and the Greeks second, both for punishment and for reward, we have to ask who is meant by these terms. If he meant by Jews those who are still under the law and who have not come to Christ, and by Greeks those who are Christians from among the Gentiles, it is clear that he would be going completely against the meaning of the gospel.

It seems to me that the apostle has distinguished three types of people in this passage. First of all, he talks about those who are looking for glory and honor and immortality by patience in well-doing, whom God will reward with eternal life. Patience in well-doing is something which is certainly to be found in those who have endured suffering and struggle for the sake of godliness, and therefore, as we have already explained above, this must be said about Christians, among whom the martyrs are found.

But as I understand it, when Paul mentions Jews and Greeks he is talking about people who in neither case have become believers in Christ. It may happen that among those who are still under the law there will be someone who, because of pressure from his family and friends, has not believed in Christ but nevertheless does what is good, upholds righteousness, loves mercy, preserves chastity and continence, guards modesty and meekness, and does every good work. Although this person does not have eternal life—because despite the fact that he believes that there is only one true God he has not believed in his Son Jesus Christ, whom God has sent—nevertheless it may be that the glory of his works and the peace and honor which they bring may not perish.

But the Greek, that is the Gentile, if he does not have the law, is a law to himself, showing the work of the law in his heart, and motivated by natural reason, as we see that quite a few Gentiles are, either because they uphold righteousness or preserve chastity or maintain prudence, temperance and modesty. Although such a man is cut off from eternal life because he has not believed in Christ, and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because he has not been born again of water and the Spirit, yet it appears from what the apostle says that he cannot entirely lose the glory, honor and peace of good works. For if it appears, according to what we discussed above, that the apostle condemned the Gentiles on the ground that although they knew God by their natural intelligence they did not glorify him as God, how can we not think that he can and must praise them if they recognize God by their behavior and glorify him? Therefore I do not think it can be doubted that someone who deserves to be condemned because of his evil deeds will also be considered worthy of the reward of good works if he does something good. Consider what the apostle says: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.^[1]

Paul is right to put the Jew first here and then the Greek. For those who are closer to the Lord and to his rebukes are honored above others, and they enjoy their rewards more than others.

Just as Paul mentioned three woes for unbelievers, so now he mentions three benefits for believers: genuine honor as sons of God, unchanging glory and peace. Those who live rightly may be quiet in the future, undisturbed by any commotion. For everyone who keeps himself from wrongdoing has a judge who will be favorable to him.

Which Jews and Greeks is Paul talking about here? Those before Christ’s coming! For he has not yet gotten to the time of grace in the development of his argument but is still dwelling on earlier times. . . . For if there was no difference before, . . . how can there be any now? This is why he puts so much emphasis on this point.

When referring here to Greeks, Paul does not mean those who worshiped idols but those who adored God, who obeyed the law of nature, who kept all the commandments without fail apart from the Jewish observances, which contribute toward godliness. Melchizedek was one of these people, and so were Job, the Ninevites and Cornelius.

It is on works that punishment and reward depend, not on circumcision and uncircumcision. Paul has already said that the Gentile will not go unpunished, . . . and on this basis he said also that the Gentile would be rewarded. Now he shows that the law and circumcision are superfluous. For in this passage it is the Jews that he is mainly opposing.

Glory is opposed to wrath and honor to displeasure. What Paul called immortality above he calls peace here. The word first is emphatic and means indeed, because God does not play favorites. Or it may mean first in time but not in honor.

God did not promise eternal life to those who worshiped idols but to those who even apart from the law led a Mosaic life, embraced godliness and the worship of God, and were concerned about righteousness.

Anyone who doubts this needs only read what Peter said when he went to visit the Gentile Cornelius: Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.^[1] We might go even farther and quote what our Lord says in the Gospel: he who believes in me is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.^[2]

Paul shows that neither Jews nor Greeks will be rejected by God if they believe in Christ, but that both are justified by faith. Likewise, he says that those who do not believe are equally guilty, since circumcision without faith is worthless but uncircumcision with faith is acceptable. For God does not stick to any privilege of race, so as to accept unbelief on account of ancestors and reject believers because of the unworthiness of their parents. Rather he rewards or condemns each one on his own merits.

When Paul says that Jews as well as Gentiles will be punished if they sin, he does not have to argue his case. But when he wants to prove that the Gentile is honored, then he needs a reason for saying so, because it seemed too much to say that someone who knew nothing of the Law or the Prophets would be honored merely for doing good. . . . God shows no partiality toward persons; he judges actions. Paul says that Jews differed from Gentiles, not in their actions but in their persons only. But it is not for this reason that one is honored and the other disgraced. It is from their works that honor or disgrace will come. He does not say it quite like this though, so as not to rouse the Jews to anger.

Therefore the Gentiles should not be smug about their false ignorance, nor the Jews about their privilege in the law and in the circumcision.

We are all born equal, emperors and paupers, and we die as equals. Our humanity is of one quality.

We have learned from the prophets, and we believe it is true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. If it is not so, then all things happen by fate, and nothing is in our own power. If it is fated that this man be good, and this other evil, the former is not meritorious nor the latter blameworthy.

Again, we [Christians] affirm that a judgment has been ordained by God according to the merits of every man.

The root of all good works is the hope of the Resurrection; for the expectation of the recompense steels the soul to do good works. For every laborer is ready to endure the toils, if he sees its reward.

What merits of his own has the saved to boast of when, if he were dealt with according to his merits, he would be damned? Have the just then no merits at all? Of course they do, for they are the just. But they had no merits by which they were made just.

What merit, then, does a man have by which he might receive grace, when our every good merit is produced in us only by grace and when God, crowning our merits, crowns nothing else but his own gifts to us?

Give heed to the bishop, that God may give heed to you. My soul is for theirs that are submissive to the bishop, to the presbyters, and to the deacons, and may my portion be with them in God! Labor together with one another; strive in company together; run together; suffer together; sleep together; and awake together, as the stewards, and associates, and servants of God. Please him under whom you fight, and from whom you receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as complete armor. Let your works be the charge assigned to you, that you may receive a worthy recompense. Be long-suffering with one another, in meekness, as God is towards you. May I have joy of you for ever!

The bad man may be justly punished, having become depraved through his own fault, but the just man may be deservedly praised for his virtuous deeds, since in the exercise of his free choice he refrained from transgressing the will of God.

And we shall make no mistake in saying that the final cause of an intelligent life and rational judgment is to be occupied uninterruptedly with those objects to which the natural reason is chiefly adapted, and to delight unceasingly in the contemplation of him who is, and of his decrees, notwithstanding that the majority of men, because they are affected too passionately and too violently by things below, pass through life without attaining this object. For the large number of those who fail to reach the end that belongs to them does not make void the common lot, since the examination relates to individuals, and the reward or punishment of lives ill or well spent is proportionate to the merit of each.

For he who gave the mouth for speech, and formed the ear to hear, and made the eye to see, will examine all things, and will judge righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who by patient continuance in well-doing [Rom 2:7] seek immortality, he will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest, and abundance of good things, which neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive [1 Cor 2:9]. But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness, when they have been filled with adulteries and fornications, and filthiness, and covetousness, and unlawful idolatries, there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish [Rom 2:8–9], and at the last everlasting fire shall possess such men.

This able wrestler [Paul], exhorts us to the struggle for immortality, that we may be crowned, and may deem the crown precious, namely, what is acquired by our struggle, but which does not encircle us of its own accord. And the harder we strive, the more valuable it is; the more valuable it is, so much the more should we esteem it. And indeed things that come spontaneously are not esteemed as highly, as those that are reached by much anxious care.

In former times the Jews enjoyed much of God’s favor, when the fathers of their race were noted for their righteousness and faith. So it was that as a people they flourished greatly, and their kingdom attained a lofty eminence; and so highly blessed were they, that for their instruction God spoke to them in special revelations, pointing out to them beforehand how they should merit his favor and avoid his displeasure.

For God, never giving his sanction to the condemnation of good deeds, because they are his own (of which, being the author, he must necessarily be the defender too), is in like manner the acceptor of them, and if the acceptor, likewise the rewarder.

And being present at his judicial decision, all men and angels and demons shall utter one voice, saying, “Righteous is your judgment,” in which voice the justification will be seen in the awarding to each what is just; since those who have done well shall righteously be assigned eternal bliss, and the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal punishment. And the fire that is unquenchable and without end awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm that does not die, and that does not waste the body, but continues bursting forth from the body with unending pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no voice of interceding friends will profit them.

And you who are a wealthy and rich matron in Christ’s Church, anoint your eyes, not with the ointment of the devil, but with Christ’s salve, that you may be able to attain to see God, by deserving well of God, both by good works and character.

Let every one train himself to justice, mold himself to self-restraint, prepare himself for the contest, equip himself for virtue, that if by any chance an adversary shall wage war, he may be driven from what is upright and good by no force, no terror, and no tortures, and may not give himself up to senseless fictions, but in his uprightness acknowledge the true and only God, cast away pleasures, by whose attractions the lofty soul is depressed to the earth, may hold fast innocence, may be of service to as many as possible, may gain for himself incorruptible treasures by good works, that he may be able, with God for his judge, to gain for the merits of his virtue either the crown of faith, or the reward of immortality.

We are commanded to live righteously, and the reward is set before us of our meriting happiness in eternal life. But who is able to live righteously and do good works unless he has been justified by faith?

He bestowed forgiveness; the crown he will pay out. Of forgiveness he is the donor; of the crown, he is the debtor. Why debtor? Did he receive something? . . . The Lord made himself a debtor not by receiving something but by promising something. One does not say to him, “Pay for what you received,” but “Pay what you promised”.

Indeed, a man who has been justified, who from impious has been made pious, receives a gift, since he had no antecedent good merit, by which gift he may acquire merit. Thus, what was begun in him by Christ’s grace can also be augmented by the industry of his free choice, but never in the absence of God’s help, without which no one is able to progress or to continue in doing good.

Hear, all you who love God, the holy merits of Patrick the bishop, a man blessed in Christ; how, for his good deeds, he is likened to the angels, and, for his perfect life, he is like the apostles.

But do you also, if you please, give reverential attention to the prophetic Scriptures, and they will make your way plainer for escaping the eternal punishments, and obtaining the eternal prizes of God. For he who gave the mouth for speech, and formed the ear to hear, and made the eye to see, will examine all things, and will judge righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who by patient continuance in well-doing [Rom 2:7] seek immortality, he will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest, and abundance of good things, which neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive [1 Cor 2:9]. But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness, when they have been filled with adulteries and fornications, and filthiness, and covetousness, and unlawful idolatries, there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish [Rom 2:8–9], and at the last everlasting fire shall possess such men.