Fragments on 2 Corinthians

Divinity of Christ§1

1By the same Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria: a few fragments on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Volume 1, Discourse 1.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1).

The most wise apostle Paul, appointed to the ministry in Christ, says that he was brought to it by the will of God. He thrusts aside the reputation of the false prophets and false apostles as ungodly, while he himself speaks in the Spirit and has Jesus dwelling in his own soul, so that he can say in one place, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 7:40), and in another, “If you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me” (2 Corinthians 13:3). He says that he is His servant, although God alone holds authority over all things and rules them; for it is said to God, “For all things are Your servants” (Psalm 119:91). How, then, does he not plainly assign to Him the glory of lordship, a glory that is His by nature and truly most fitting for God?

By calling himself an apostle of Jesus, he proclaims Jesus to be God by nature and in truth; for no one would be an apostle of men, but rather of Him who is God by nature. He also shows that he was not called to the apostleship against the Father’s will, and that he does not speak from his own heart as the false seers do (Jeremiah 23:16), but serves the oracles of God. He makes Timothy a partner in the letter, as one who is approved and walks in his footsteps, so that by their agreement he may persuade the more forcefully, since the law says, “On the word of two witnesses and of three every matter shall be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15).

“To the church of God that is in Corinth” (2 Corinthians 1:1).

They write to the church of God that is in Corinth, although the Church is said to be Christ’s; for He presented her to Himself as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27). If, then, the Church is God’s, and Christ is the one who presented her to Himself, then He who was born of the holy Mary, Mother of God, is God by nature.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:2).

If he had known that the Son was not God by nature, how could he not have had to say instead, “Grace to you and peace from God the Father alone”? But as it is, by including Christ with the Father and making Him a co-giver of whatever the divine nature bestows, he plainly shows that he knew full well that the Son is God by nature. Of necessity, then, we shall include the Son with God the Father in the account of their identity and consubstantiality, so that the one God may be understood as the giver of spiritual goods.

In naming Christ Jesus, he means the Word from God who appeared in the flesh. And if He gives the very things the Father Himself gives, how is Christ not understood to be God by nature, even in the union with His own flesh that belongs to the plan of salvation? So too the most wise Paul says somewhere of those from Israel, “Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:5).

Volume 1, Discourse 2.

“As God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No” (2 Corinthians 1:18).

No one says “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3), and the Spirit is truth, as it is written (1 John 5:6). Since, then, the heralds of the gospel’s divine decrees have their minds filled with truth, that is, with the Holy Spirit, they could not be thought liars; whatever they say about Christ is entirely right and firmly fixed. Christ Himself will confirm this when He says, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20).

He says this, then, against those who tried to slander him as contradicting himself, because at one time he preached Jesus as God by nature and at another as a man. Of necessity, then, rounding as it were on their unfairness, he assures them that his word had not been double and …

Christ, the Yes to God’s Promises§2

2…obscure, but rather simple and true, saying, “Our word to you was not yes and no” (2 Corinthians 1:18). That is, he was not at war with himself or sick with inconsistency, praising a thing at one time and blaming it at another, but he spoke the truth in his preaching. So “God is faithful” (2 Corinthians 1:18), that is, free of falsehood and true.

The learned men of the Greeks will hold differing opinions about the gods they believe in, saying both yes and no; for truth is not among them, but rather falsehood. That is why they are tossed about by differing opinions. But He who is truly and by nature the Son of God Almighty, how could He become yes and no? …

Necessarily, then, the Son who is from Him by nature, “who was proclaimed among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no” (2 Corinthians 1:19). For every word about Him spoken through the voice of those who spoke for God has proved true. And “as many as are the promises of God,” he says, “in Him is the Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20); that is, in Him we have received from God the Father every bounty and every promise. And this is “in the Yes,” that is, in truth; for these things have come to their fulfillment through Christ. For “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54), the power of corruption has been overthrown, and weakness too will cease, and dishonor besides (1 Corinthians 15:43), just as the most wise Paul also said in his first letter.

We have also been declared heirs and sharers of the very kingdom of the saints. For He in whom is the Yes will Himself say to us at the divine judgment seat, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). By nature we are servants; but through Him we have been called from slavery to the dignity of the free, from corruption to incorruption, and we have been set free from serving the devil.

Every promise of God through Christ, then, has the Yes alone; the No, which is denial, is altogether inadmissible, for He Himself is the Truth (John 14:6). From this he also shows, of this One in particular, that He is God by nature. For if He would not break the promises, but will rather bring them to fulfillment for the saints, though it is God the Father who distributes the good things, how could He not be Son by nature and in truth, and God from God, He in whom, without falsehood, is “every good gift and every perfect gift” (James 1:17)?

That the word is free of falsehood he confirms further, saying, “Therefore through Him also is the Amen to God, for glory through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). For since He is the Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), through whom alone the Father can be approached, and in whom is every spiritual gift, surely through Him every prayer will also reach its fulfillment; and this is the Amen. The Son Himself has taught us this, saying to the holy apostles, “In that day you will ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23–24). Through Him, then, is the Amen to God the Father, for glory through us. For it is our custom to close every prayer in the name of Christ.

That He Himself would not lack the glory that befits Him we shall see without effort, when the blessed Jacob prophesies, “Judah, may your brothers praise you” (Genesis 49:8), for Christ sprang from the tribe of Judah according to the flesh (Hebrews 7:14); and when the prophet Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a throne, high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1), with the seraphim standing around Him, calling Him holy, naming Him Lord of hosts, and saying that heaven and earth are full of His glory (Isaiah 6:2–3). And that it was the Son Himself whom he beheld, the wise John will show when he says, “Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory …

The Father Establishes and Seals Us in Christ§3

3… and spoke about Him” (John 12:41). So even if the Father is glorified through Him, and since He has been set forth as “a propitiation through faith” (Romans 3:25), and has also become “a minister of the holy places” (Hebrews 8:2) because of His humanity, offering as a priest the prayer of each of the saints as a spiritual sacrifice (for through Him is our Amen), still He could not be thought to stand outside the duty of being worshiped and glorified together with the One who begot Him, both by us and by the multitude of holy spirits above.

The inspired Paul says somewhere, “And when He again brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all the angels of God worship Him’” (Hebrews 1:6). And yet to which of all beings is it unclear that He is Only-begotten insofar as He is understood to be God? For He alone has been begotten of the Father alone. But when He lowered Himself into our condition and came to be among many brothers (Romans 8:29), then He was set in the first place. So besides being Only-begotten as God, He has also been called Firstborn because of His humanity.

“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ,” and so on (2 Corinthians 1:21). God the Father establishes us in Christ by setting a right and unshaken faith in the souls of all, persuading them to hold that He is God by nature and in truth, even if He was seen in our form, He who is above all creation having been born of a woman according to the flesh. Indeed, when Peter confessed the faith and said plainly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), our Lord Jesus Christ Himself answered, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). For since the mystery is exceedingly great, it would rightly need instruction from above, from the Father. So it is God Himself, who has also sealed us and anointed us and given us the pledge of the Spirit, who establishes us in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:21–22).

From these words too it should be clear to us that the Son did not become “yes and no” (2 Corinthians 1:19), but is rather true God, and that in all good things “in Him is the Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20). For while God is said to seal and anoint us and to have given the pledge of the Spirit, it is again Christ who accomplishes these things in us, not as a servant, nor anointing and sealing us with a Spirit foreign to Him, but with the very Spirit that is His own and the Father’s. For the Holy Spirit is in both, because of the sameness of substance, not divided, but as reaching from the Father through the Son to the creation. For He breathed on the holy apostles, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

Through Him and in Him we have been sealed into the divine and spiritual image. For the divine apostle himself, writing to the Galatians, said, “My little children, for whom I am again in the pains of birth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). And if, by being formed into Christ, we gain the riches of the divine image in ourselves, then He Himself is the image of God the Father and His exact likeness, not as we are, called to likeness by sharing in holiness, but rather by nature and in substance. For He who is God by nature can have nothing unlike Himself in the One who is God by nature and in truth and begotten of His own substance.

The most wise John says that He too has been sealed by God the Father: “For whoever has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true” (John 3:33). Yet He has been sealed, again, not in the same way as we are, but with the Father all but writing His whole self into the nature of the Son and, as it were, imprinting Himself there in substance. That is why He said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us makes known the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place” (2 Corinthians 2:14). The apostles give thanks …

Christ as the Fragrance of the Knowledge of God§4

4… as they are tested and toil, and they glory in the struggles they endure for Christ. For just as Christ was put on display for our sake when He endured death on the tree and was made perfect through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10), so they too say that they are led in triumph for Him, that is, made known to people everywhere and made glorious through trials, and that they conquer the world by being ready to suffer all things, and very gladly, for the name of Christ. For they are sharers in His sufferings and, as he says, partakers “of the glory that is to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1).

They say that it is God who leads them in triumph, not as handing them over to suffering, nor as heaping afflictions on them, but because, by His good pleasure, as they proclaim Jesus to people throughout the whole world under heaven, they fall into the trials that come for His sake. For without trials it is impossible to win approval. And the fruit of these trials is that they suffer in Christ, that is, for Christ’s sake, which is glorious and full of good hopes.

What, then, is this fragrance of the knowledge of God the Father, made known to the world through the holy apostles, and in every place, as they themselves say? The inspired Paul himself will teach us again when he says, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants through Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:5); and again, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

How, then, will He who was born of a woman, who endured the cross and underwent death, even though He came to life again, be the fragrance of the knowledge of God the Father, if, as some suppose, Christ is thought to be a mere man like us, that is, a God-bearing man, and not Himself God by nature, even if the Word from God is understood to have taken up the human in the plan of salvation? For by being like us and nothing more, He will not give forth the fragrance of the nature of God the Father; nor would He who endured death become the fragrance of the One who knows no death.

How, then, is Christ the fragrance of the knowledge of the Father? Is it not clear that it is insofar as He is understood to be God, and is God, even though He appeared in the flesh for our sake? Otherwise, how do those who preach Christ proclaim to the world the One who is God by nature and in truth? Or how could they know Jesus? And how is God the Father said by the holy teachers of the mysteries to be reconciling the world to Himself in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19), unless one accepts the humanity into union with the Word who was born of God, as the wise plan of salvation required? For the inspired disciples, speaking in the Spirit, proclaim the Word of God not as having dwelt in a man, but as having become flesh (John 1:14), that is, as united to flesh that has a rational soul. For in this way the One who was crucified would also be the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8).

So whether the Word from God is thought of with the flesh, or not so, but by Himself, as before He became like us, He is the fragrance of the knowledge of God the Father, since in His own nature He spreads to us the fragrance of the One from whom He is. And if what I say is true, how could He be something that came into being, counted among those who received their being out of nothing? For such a one could not become the fragrance of the One who is uncreated and who does not exist as something brought into being. For we shall not see what has come into being in what never came into being, nor what never came into being in what has come into being.

Yet the Son has shown the Father in Himself; therefore He is God by nature, because of the sameness of substance. So let the Son hear from us as well, “Your name is ointment poured out” (Song of Songs 1:3); for through Him and in Him we have come to know the God and Father from whom He was begotten.

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).

The Fragrance of Christ and the New Covenant§5

5They make our Lord Jesus Christ a sweet fragrance to God the Father. First, they have Him dwelling and abiding in them through the Spirit. Then, as they proclaimed to people everywhere and carried about the message concerning Him, they offered to God their zeal in this work like one of the most fragrant incenses. And in a third way, having been conformed to Him, they have been made perfect through like sufferings.

But they say that they themselves are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life (2 Corinthians 2:15–16). It follows that we should look into this.

Those being saved and those perishing, then, may fittingly be understood by us, at least according to the aim proper to spiritual contemplation, as those who believe and those who thrust the faith away. Some have not yet known Him who is God by nature and in truth, but have worshiped the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). These do not accept the message of the divine preaching; they laugh it to scorn instead and think the mystery of Christ foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23), and so they receive “the fragrance of the knowledge” of the Father (2 Corinthians 2:14) from death to death. For since they are in death through the ignorance and hardness within them, they would all but stumble into a second death as well and be caught by it (Revelation 20:14).

But those who have been brought through the training of the law to the beginnings of the knowledge of God are in a certain sense in life; yet if they should believe, they will receive the fragrance of the knowledge of the Father from life to life. For Christ says somewhere to His Father and God in the heavens, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

“And who,” he says, “is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). And with good reason. For truly hard to find is the one who has the power to speak the mystery of Christ rightly and without error, as the inspired disciples did, who also set right the perversities of those who think otherwise. It is the custom of these people, and they have spent the greatest zeal on it, to peddle, as it were, the word of God (2 Corinthians 2:17), and they love always to make their account of the faith a mixture of deceit and falsehood; for among them one cannot find the truth unmixed and unadulterated. But the divine teachers of the mysteries, speaking in the Spirit, do and say all things as from sincerity, in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 2:17).

“You are our letter, written on our hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

We need no testimony in words. For you, who have been shown to be disciples and believers of Christ and are approved by the deeds themselves, crown us your teachers and have shown us to be approved. Therefore “you are our letter, written on our hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2), that is, kept always and at every moment in the memory that lies within us; for we always take pride in you, he says.

“Not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3).

He seals the words “Not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart” with the testimony of the prophet as well. For God said somewhere, he says, through the voice of the prophet, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. Putting My laws into their mind, I will also write them on their hearts; for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

For of old the inspired Moses received the law, our tutor (Galatians 3:24), on tablets of stone, as it is written (Exodus 31:18). And we say that this became a figure of the hardness of heart of the Jews. For it shows rather that the law could not, so to speak, be received into their minds, and that it had settled into them as into stones, only a little and with difficulty, yet …

The New Covenant of the Spirit§6

6… utterly easy to throw off and very readily spat out. And indeed God said somewhere, “This people draws near to Me with their mouth and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8–9). But our Lord Jesus Christ writes His holy and divine laws for us on fleshly tablets of the heart, that is, on tablets that can feel (2 Corinthians 3:3). That is why He also said through the voice of the prophet Ezekiel, “And I will tear out their heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in My ordinances” (Ezekiel 11:19–20). If anyone, then, does not lean on the shadows given through Moses, and does not have the law written in ink as on tablets of stone, but within, in the mind, through the Spirit, he is a letter of Christ known by all men (2 Corinthians 3:2–3).

Volume 2, Discourse 1.

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God,” and so on (2 Corinthians 3:4).

Paul, knowing it well, ascribes the dignity of the apostleship not to human powers but to God, who is mighty in all things and who holds it out, through Christ the mediator, to those worthy to receive it. That is why he says that all good things come to the saints in Christ; for “every perfect gift is from above,” from “the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Yet He through whom all things are, and in whom all things are, is Christ (1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16). He mediates between us and God in the saving economy, yet He works all things from God the Father, since He is His very Wisdom and Power (1 Corinthians 1:24).

But what is the confidence through Christ toward God? Listen as he goes on to say, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as coming from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 3:5); for “all wisdom is from the Lord” (Sirach 1:1), as it is written; “but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6).

And what is the letter? The type in the law, the things still carried out as in shadows. And the spirit is the power of the worship in Christ, which shows those who approach it through faith to be spiritual. As far as the type falls short of the truth, so far, I think, do those who serve it come behind those who minister the truth as priests. For Christ sprinkles us with His own blood, and not only for “the purity of the flesh,” as the rites of the law certainly did; rather He cleanses “our conscience from dead works” (Hebrews 9:13–14) and frees us from transgression. Besides this He also grants us the hope of life; for it is true that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). For He has promised also the resurrection of our very bodies, and their return to incorruption and to a life without end.

“For indeed what was glorified has not been glorified in this respect, because of the glory that surpasses it” (2 Corinthians 3:10).

Again he brings the dignity of the divine apostleship back to its incomparable superiority. Having compared the two ministries and set out very well what is proper to each, he shows that the ministry in Christ through the Spirit is the more radiant. This is the aim of his thought in these words, but the saying is not phrased very clearly; for it seems somehow not very easy to see into, nor ready to hand even for those who wish to see it. For what does “What was glorified has not been glorified,” and what follows, mean? What he wants to show is something like this. Moses was indeed glorified, he says, as minister of the law that is being set aside; but the glory of the new proclamation, the proclamation in Christ, overcame the first and made it seem not to have been glorified at all. For just as, while night still remains and its darkness blackens this whole universe, the disk of the moon flashes out, as it were, and the chorus of the stars has its own glory, yet when the sun …

The Veil Taken Away in Christ§7

7… rises and spreads out the glory of its brilliance, the light of the moon is overcome by what surpasses it and seems, somehow, never to have shone at all. In the same way, I think, you will take the sense of the words before us. For “what was glorified,” he says, that is, the ministry of the law, though it received its glory from God, seems somehow not to have been glorified at all, because of the surpassing glory, the glory, that is, given to those who serve the divine proclamation of the gospel; for the lesser always somehow gives way to what surpasses it.

“For if what is being set aside came with glory, much more will what remains be in glory” (2 Corinthians 3:11). What is being set aside? The shadow and the law, that is, the type. And what remains? The decrees of God. So the shadow too was in glory, but the things of Christ are in a brighter glory; for they remain, since they will prevail over the whole world under heaven.

“Since, then, we have such a hope, we use great boldness” (2 Corinthians 3:12). What hope? That of being made sufficient by God and fully fitted through grace to be “ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter” (2 Corinthians 3:6). It befits such men to speak with great boldness, ashamed neither of the weakness of the types nor of the lack of learning in their hearers; for the Holy Spirit, settled in the souls of the faithful, makes them understand with ease even the deep sayings.

“And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face” (2 Corinthians 3:13). In this too, again, the disciples of Christ are brighter in glory, because the word of their preaching was clear and not to be withstood, and had nothing hard in it, as the word through Moses did. For since the sons of Israel had proved unworthy, making the calf after so many wonders (Exodus 32:4), Moses put a mask over himself (Exodus 34:33), and in speaking the divine law to them he used veils, teaching through riddles. For they would not have been able to see the true face of the law, that is, Christ, but could barely approach, as it were, a second face, the shadow, which has no glory; and this, the shadow and the type, is being set aside. For it has ceased now that the new covenant has been brought in, and Christ is the end of the law that is being set aside (2 Corinthians 3:13; Romans 10:4).

So the hidden glory of Moses, Christ, was the end of the law that is being set aside. For if anyone takes away the shadow and strips off, as it were, the outward and second face, the face in the letter, he will see Emmanuel taking shape in many ways in each one, enduring slaughter for the world and saving all under heaven, so that He may be glorified by us and worshiped by the holy angels. So the light of the Savior’s glory is beyond the reach of Jewish minds. For since all spiritual contemplation looks to the mystery of Christ, and the unhappy Jews do not accept faith in Him, the veil has remained upon them, though it is set aside in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14).

“But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16).

The Lord Himself is the light, and He “reveals the deep and hidden things” (Daniel 2:22); He shows the true and glorified face of the law to the wise, who are sanctified in the Spirit and made radiant through faith in Christ. For the law leads us like a tutor to Christ (Galatians 3:24); and one appointed to lead others to someone else does not have his pupils stop at himself, but rather carries them on to something better and greater than himself. That is why the inspired Paul says that he counted the things in the law as rubbish “because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). We must therefore become spiritual, for in no other way is it possible to behold Christ, who is “the end of what is being set aside” (2 Corinthians 3:13), I mean the law. Then “the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16) wholly and completely, and they will see holy Moses with his face bare and uncovered, no longer wearing the mask that comes from the letter, that is, the shadow cast by the …

From Glory to Glory through the Spirit§8

8… outward narrative. For among these are those in Christ who have richly received the free revelation of the Spirit. And if wherever the Spirit is, there freedom surely is as well (2 Corinthians 3:17), how is the Spirit not free by nature? If that is so, the Spirit stands outside the bounds of slavery and is no longer something created, but would rightly be ranked with the highest and free nature, to which power over all things belongs. For the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, reaching out from Him to the creation in Christ.

“And we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Moses put a veil over himself because the sons of Israel could not look upon “the glory of his face” (2 Corinthians 3:7, 13), for they were unspiritual and fleshly and immature in faith. But we believers, whose heart has been enlightened by the torch the Spirit carries, and whose mind’s eye knows how to see purely, have beheld the Lord with unveiled face. For He has spoken to us and has been seen in glory and in a majesty most worthy of God; for we have known Him as God, the exact imprint of the Father’s being (Hebrews 1:3).

As in a mirror, then, we behold the divine and ineffable nature. For the mind of believers is, as it were, remolded from its schooling in the law into the teaching of the gospel, and is in a certain way transformed into spiritual knowledge. It does not settle for shadow or types, but has chosen to pass from the glory that belongs to the law to another glory, the glory in Christ, through the Spirit. So we are transformed into the same image. For as we carry the types over into truth, and out of the shadow in the law give shape to the mystery of Christ by the fine discernment of our thoughts, we shall find the same glory as if in plain sight. For if glory was given to those who served the law, greater still, and beyond all comparison surpassing the first, is the glory of the holy priestly ministers, who are also made sufficient by God as ministers “of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

It is plain, surely, and obscure to no one at all, that those who are moved from training in the law to the precision of the gospel would by all means be understood to be going, as it were, from the first glory to another glory, and to be remolded, so to speak, toward better things. And what moves them to this is the Spirit, who sets them free from the slavery that comes from the law; for in the Spirit “we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15) as sons and as free.

There is no other way to see the depth beneath the spare wording of the law except through the Holy Spirit alone; for it is the Spirit who searches “even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). By “the depths of God” we say is meant the knowledge stored up like treasure in the sacred writings. That is why the inspired David made his prayers to God, saying, “Unveil my eyes, and I will perceive Your wonders out of Your law” (Psalm 119:18). And the Savior Himself regarded with no small admiration the one who rises from knowledge of the law to spiritual knowledge, that is, the knowledge of the gospel. For He said, “Therefore I tell you that every scribe who has been made a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who brings out of his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:52). The old are the things in the law; the new are the things in Christ.

But if someone wishes the transformation of our same image from glory to glory to be understood in another way as well, he will take some such thought to mind: all of us who have known Christ and have been counted among the children of God are by all means in glory; but it is at the time of the resurrection that we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). For Christ Himself, who to us “the pledge of the …” (2 Corinthians 5:5)

Light of the Gospel, Image of the Father§9

9…of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:5) as His gift, will at that time add what is still lacking, and “will transform the body of our lowliness, to be conformed to the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21).

Since our guide into the mysteries says, “just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18), and, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17), we will not tolerate the slander of the unholy heretics, who count the Spirit among created things. For if wherever the Spirit is, there freedom surely is as well, how is the Spirit not free by nature? And if that is so, the Spirit stands above the bounds of slavery. For the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, reaching out from Him to the creation in Christ.

“So that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Since the holy preaching shines out like the sun, and every believer with unveiled face beholds “the glory of the Lord” as in a mirror (2 Corinthians 3:18), no one who thinks rightly would lay the ignorance of some to the charge of the divine preaching. For what does it matter if some, though they could know, shake off knowledge, their minds hardened by the devil’s deceit? Those who rise above his perversity, being wise and more discerning, have grown rich in knowledge.

For suppose barbarians had taken some people captive and put them under the yoke of slavery, and someone else offered those who had fallen into this misery release from what had befallen them. Suppose they then preferred to stay under the yoke rather than be free, and so made their misfortune one they could never escape. Tell me, would anyone blame the one who generously offered them leave to go free, or would he not rather charge them with bad judgment?

So the God of all has set before those who are willing to believe in the Son that they may behold His glory with bare and unveiled face. But those who keep the devil’s darkness, which they ought to cast off, and senselessly refuse to admit the light of the gospel’s oracles, have missed the grace. For the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, would have shone on them as well (2 Corinthians 4:4).

He names Satan “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), not because he is God by nature, but because he has been thought to be so by those who do not know who is God by nature and in truth. Yet this too is worth our wonder: Paul speaks of the Godhead, and makes plain the mystery of the Only-begotten’s dispensation in the flesh. For see, he plainly calls the apostolic preaching “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” And yet it was at the time of His anointing that the One who is by nature the Son from God was called Christ; at that time, though He Himself is the Giver of the Holy Spirit, He is said to have been anointed by God the Father “with the oil of gladness” (Psalm 45:7).

So it is when the Only-begotten Word of God had come to be in our form and was seen as a man on earth that then, and only then, He is understood and called Christ, and most rightly. The faith, then, is not proclaimed to the world by those who bear the Spirit as faith in one of us, a mere man; rather they proclaim the Word from God who appeared in human form, and the Only-begotten as “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). For how else could we understand the light of the gospel of His glory, unless He is understood to be God and the image of the Father, not in the way that we are, but rather in essence and by nature?

We certainly do not say that the Father Himself must therefore also be thought to have come in the flesh, for the beauty of the image does not lie in these things. Rather, this is worth pondering: that “the Word was God” (John 1:1), and even before the flesh was the exact imprint (Hebrews 1:3) and natural likeness of the One who begot Him; and again, that when He had become as we are, He is to be thought of as in the form of the Father, while the human belongs to Him by the dispensation. He is therefore reckoned as one with His own flesh, and even so He is the image of the Father, in that He is God and has been begotten from Him by nature.

“Who has shone in …” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

God’s Glory in the Face of Christ; Treasure in Earthen Vessels§10

10…our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

By this phrase our guide into the mysteries makes clear that faith is directed to God, even when it is exercised in the face of Christ. For both Jews and Greeks have been called to the knowledge of Christ: the one group, as it were, out of error and false worship into the true knowledge of God; the other, who were schooled under the Law, into a knowledge more exact than that of the Law. That is why the inspired Paul too is seen to have cared little for the lessons of the Law, “because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge” of Christ (Philippians 3:8).

Since, then, the guides into the mysteries preach Christ, and those who believe in God believe in the one God, and believe truly, how is Christ not God? He is not spurious, not falsely so called, not of another nature than the Father; rather, He is true God, as being from Him by nature.

The mind of those who go astray is filled with a darkness of the mind and with demonic deceit, but God promised that light would shine out of darkness for us (2 Corinthians 4:6). For He said somewhere through the voice of Isaiah, “The people that sits in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light will shine on you” (Isaiah 9:2). And the inspired David says, as if speaking for those in gloom and darkness, “For You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, You will light up my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). Since the Father’s promise has now been fulfilled in us, and the divine light, seen by the mind, has dawned on us, we have come to know His glory in the face of Christ.

And then, if Christ is not God by nature and in truth, how have we beheld the Father’s glory in Him? Yet I plainly hear God the Father say, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8); and see, He has given it to the Son. The Son, then, is not other than He, except in His own hypostasis and in His distinct existence; otherwise the Father would seem to have spoken falsely when He set His own glory in the face of the Son. It shows, too, that He who is God by nature is known both in Him and through Him. For the Son is the face and image and radiance of His hypostasis (Hebrews 1:3). The Son is revealed by the Father, and He in turn reveals the Father to us in Himself (Matthew 11:27).

Volume 3, Discourse 1.

“In earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). He calls the plainness of his speech “earthen vessels.” For the divine mysteries were not handed down to us in pompous words, but in the language that everyone is used to, so that all might learn and understand.

What then, Paul? Was it not within the power of God, who makes all wise, to make the holy apostles exceedingly eloquent with ease, far more polished in speech than those others, and skilled at stunning their hearers with the din of words? “Yes,” he says, “for He Himself is the giver of wisdom.” But He has shut up the divine treasure for us in earthen vessels, that is, in a lowly form. For what reason? “So that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

For in this way the apostles persuaded all to run to the faith. If their speech had been brilliant, it might at times have seemed that the faith of those who were called was not the work of His power. But since they persuaded with plain words, no one doubts that the surpassing power at work in this came from God.

By “earthen vessels” we mean the bodies we wear while we live among the things of sense, and we mean it in this way: since, while still clothed in flesh, which hinders the contemplation of the truth, we have the knowledge of the Trinity, the surpassing greatness of this knowledge is made known to us as coming not from ourselves but from the power of God.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed,” and so on (2 Corinthians 4:8).

For they are seen to have endured even death itself for the sake of their devotion to Him. Yet even if this befell them, still they live, since they are to live to God. And, as the book of Wisdom says, “In the eyes of men they seemed…” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:2).

The Dying and the Life of Jesus§11

11“…to have died, and their departure was counted an affliction, and their going from us a ruin; but they are at peace, and their hope is full of immortality” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:2–4). What, then, is the meaning of their toils? Paul explains it again, saying, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:10).

We say that the dying meant here is to be understood in two ways: one is inward and spiritual, the other is taken as something felt in the body. For the Only-begotten Word of God, being God and having come forth from God by nature, made His own the flesh that is from the earth, and clothed Himself with this mortal human body, having also a rational soul. And what was the reason for this? That He might put sin to death in the flesh, and blunt the sting of the impulses inborn in it that carry us away to improper pleasures.

It was not for His own sake that the Word, being God, achieved this, that He should be seen above the passions that are in us; for He knows no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Rather, He was, as it were, refashioning the whole of human nature in Himself into a holy and blameless life, when He became man and took the form that is ours. For He became “first in all things” (Colossians 1:18), so that we too, following in His steps (1 Peter 2:21), might have His dying in ourselves, that is, the power of sin made idle in the flesh, and so might be able to take up the blamelessness that leads to life.

You may also take the dying and the life of Jesus spoken of here in another way. For He became obedient to God the Father, as it is written, even to death itself (Philippians 2:8), and He laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). Yet “He died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:10), that is, for the sin of the world, for He has been set forth as a propitiation through faith (Romans 3:25); “but the life He lives, He lives to God” (Romans 6:10).

This dying, then, which passes through sufferings and reaches even to death itself, the guides into the mysteries carry about in their own bodies, “so that the life of Jesus,” as he himself says, “may be made manifest in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:10). For they too will live to God the holy, blameless, and blessed life.

That he is speaking here specifically of this dying, and of this life, is confirmed for the present by the sense of the preceding verses, which recount the trials and toils that anyone who wishes to complete the glorious course of the apostleship must endure. And he will persuade us no less to think so, all but explaining to his readers what he had said; for he at once adds what follows: “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,” and so on (2 Corinthians 4:11).

By these words he shows that they gladly choose to endure the death of the flesh for the sake of their devotion to Christ. For their aim is not to look at present things, but rather to look ahead to what is to come and to the rewards of their toils. They count as nothing the sweat of their struggles and rejoice instead in the good things from above, for they reckon how wide is God’s generosity. This is why they are given over to death for Jesus’ sake, “so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in the mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11).

And what is the life of Jesus? Incorruption and holiness, and a great glory beyond this world. For so it will be seen by us in its own time, when He comes down to us from above, from heaven, as Judge. And He will “transform the body of our lowliness, to be conformed to the body of His glory, by the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21).

“So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12). For the guides into the mysteries for the whole world under the sun have imitated their own Master: they too have laid down their lives, so that we who once went astray might gain the life that comes from faith in Christ. That is why…

Inner Renewal and the House from Heaven§12

12…they say, in the voice of the psalmist, as though speaking to our Lord Jesus Christ, “For Your sake we are put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:36).

Volume 3, Discourse 2.

“Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer self is wasting away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

One may approach the sense of these words aptly by setting the matter out as common, so to speak, to all who have chosen to live in godliness. For “the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other,” as it is written (Galatians 5:17). We say, then, that it is altogether necessary that when the flesh has in some way wasted away and its impulses have grown weak, then above all the other, that is, the mind of the Spirit (Romans 8:6), should grow all the stronger.

The word “Therefore” introduces the giving of a reason, a kind of reminder of something said before. He has said, then: If “we who live are given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest” in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:11), then, he says, since we hold this hope and rejoice in what is to come, we do not lose heart, for we see ahead of time the beauty of the glory to come; rather, even if affliction comes upon us, we bear it nobly. For even if, being human, we feel pain and suffer some harm in the body, still we are not overcome by these things, for our inner self is being renewed.

This, then, is the sense that applies to all. So when our outer self wastes away through the labors of spiritual discipline, then of necessity our inner self is renewed day by day.

But you may also take these words in another way. Because they proclaimed Jesus to Jews and Greeks alike, they endured terrible and unbearable persecutions, and their bodies were worn down by the labors this involved. But the greater the labor, the more abundant, I think, would be the repayment of grace that fittingly follows.

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).

He strengthens the resolve of those who wish to compete, making little of the contests while exalting the crowns of the victors, and assigning lightness to the afflictions but weight to the glory. For the assault of the things of this life is measured, because it is temporary, even if it should come “beyond all measure”; yet he says that it will issue in an eternal weight of glory, since the good things of the age to come are beyond words. So we must not look at the things that are seen, which are temporary, but at the things that are unseen, which are eternal.

“For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is destroyed,” and so on (2 Corinthians 5:1). By “the earthly house of our tent” he names, in a roundabout way, the tent itself, that is, the body. For it is written in Job, “But those who dwell in houses of clay, of whom we too are, made of the same clay” (Job 4:19).

So, he says, we know that when death has destroyed the earthly house of our tent, that is, the body, the dwelling from heaven, that is, incorruption, will take its place before long, at the time of the resurrection, clearly. He says that it is from above, first because the gift is given by God; and then, besides, because all who dwell in the city above, I mean the ranks of the holy angels, are in incorruptible and imperishable bodies, for the nature of angels is free of this earthly grossness. So it is incorruption that he calls “a building from God,” “a house not made with hands,” and “eternal” as well (2 Corinthians 5:1).

“For in this we groan, longing to put on our dwelling from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2). That is why we groan, weighed down as we are by corruption, and we long for what is from above…

Clothed with Incorruption§13

13… and from heaven, that is, incorruption, to put on over us. So we groan, not because we desire to be rid of what we now are, but because we pray rather to have incorruption, the dwelling not made with hands, put on over it, “if indeed, having put it on, we shall not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3). For it is true that “a corruptible body weighs down the soul” (Wisdom of Solomon 9:15). We have made our being weighed down by corruption the reason for our groaning, and we long to put on over us the dwelling from above and from heaven, that is, incorruption. And what does “to put on over” mean, if not surely to wrap incorruption around the body we now have? So we groan.

“If indeed, having put it on, we shall not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3).

He does not say “if indeed” in doubt, but rather as a declaration, showing it to be firmly settled that when we put on the dwelling from heaven and from above, we shall not be stripped of the tent that lies beneath, that is, the earthly body. So he has put “if indeed” in place of “when,” and the saying means something like this: “When we have put it on, we shall not undergo the laying aside of the first, nor indeed shall we be stripped of the body that lies beneath.” This he makes clear in what follows.

The mortal is swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4), not by vanishing or passing into utter non-existence, but rather by being changed into incorruption. For so it was done in the beginning too. It is written that God took dust from the earth and formed man (Genesis 2:7); and so that what is corruptible might be swallowed up by life, for the flesh is corruptible by nature, “He breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). But death came in between through sin (Romans 5:12). Then, as the inspired Paul himself says, the God and Father was pleased “to sum up all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10); for He came to renew us through the Spirit to what we were from the beginning. And it is He who, as God, has prepared us for this very thing and has given us the pledge of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5).

So, as a sure security for the incorruption that will be given us in the last times of the age, the life-giving Spirit has been placed in us by Christ: for now, as a firstfruits, but after the return to life from the dead, in full measure. Then, yes then, when corruption has been wholly abolished, we shall go out, as the prophet says, and leap “like calves set free from bonds” (Malachi 4:2), and indeed we shall say, mocking corruption, “Where is your penalty, O death? Where is your sting, O Hades?” (Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:55). For sin and death will have ceased, and Christ will reign over the saints in incorruption. And so that what is corruptible, that is, the flesh, corruptible by nature, might be swallowed up by life, “God breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

Volume 4, Discourse 1.

“Who has also given us the pledge of the Spirit,” and so on (2 Corinthians 5:5).

Those who have the pledge of the Spirit and are rich in the hope of the resurrection lay hold of what they expect to come as though it were already present, and say: “So from now on we know no one according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16); for we are all spiritual, and not in fleshly corruption. For here, I think, he calls the corruption of the flesh “flesh.” Since the Only-begotten has shone upon us, we have been transformed toward the Word who gives life to all things. For just as we were subject to the bonds of death while sin reigned, so, now that the righteousness in Christ has come in, we have shaken off corruption. So no one, then, is in the flesh, that is, in fleshly weakness. And with regard to the others as well, corruption may fittingly be understood by it.

But since he said that he knew no one according to the flesh, he adds, wary of the strange notions of some: “Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him no longer” (2 Corinthians 5:16). It is as if he chose to say: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among …”

A New Creation, Reconciled through Christ§14

14… us” (John 1:14), and He underwent death in the flesh for the life of all, and so we have known Him; but from now on we know Him so no longer. For even though He is in the flesh, since He came back to life on the third day and is with the Father in heaven, yet He is understood to be above the flesh. For having died once, He “dies no more; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God” (Romans 6:9–10). If, then, the Author of our life (Acts 3:15) has come to be in this state, it is altogether necessary that we too, following in His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21), be understood to be not in the flesh but rather above the flesh. Very rightly, then, does the inspired Paul speak.

“So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” he says; “the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

For the old is the saying, “Earth you are, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19), and also that word in the book of Moses, “For the mind of man is intently set on evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Old as well, besides these, are the things in the law. All these, he says, have passed away; for we have been justified through faith in Christ, and the power of the curse has ceased. He who trampled the might of death came back to life for us, and we have come to know Him who is God by nature and in truth, as we fulfil the worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24), while the Son mediates and gives the world the blessings from above and from the Father. Hence the inspired Paul says very wisely: “All things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:18). For truly, the mystery of the economy in the flesh, and the renewal made through Him, are not against the Father’s will.

Our guide into the mysteries adds to this that the Father Himself reconciled us to Himself through Christ: us Greeks, who had been made His enemies by straying into the worship of many gods, and Jews, by wishing to stay fastened to the shadows of the law and not accepting the message of true worship. For through Him we have obtained access (Ephesians 2:18), and “no one comes to the Father,” as He Himself says, “except through” Him (John 14:6). So “all things are from God, who reconciled us through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Notice again, I ask you, that although it was Christ who gave them the ministry of reconciliation, for they were appointed to apostleship through Him, he said that God was the giver. So they proclaim Him God, equal in glory to the Father, knowing that the two have one lordship and authority. What sort, then, is this word concerning the ministry, or what is the manner of the reconciliation? He goes on to say: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), that is, He who was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ was God. For through faith in Christ, as I said, we have made peace with God (Romans 5:1), that is, we have been reconciled. And a clear proof of this is the forgiveness of our offences, which the God and Father grants; and the Son in turn, as God, extends it with authority, saying to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2; Luke 5:20). So “in Christ,” that is, in the person of Christ, God reconciles the world to Himself, “not counting” their trespasses against those who have sinned (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Since, he says, we have been appointed to the sacred service of the gospel’s decrees, and the word of reconciliation has been placed in us (2 Corinthians 5:19), for we are God’s ministers (2 Corinthians 6:4), we must make entreaties to those who have believed in this way, for their own sake; and, taking up as it were the very person of Christ, we say to those who wish to drift away: “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20), by believing in Him, that is, clearly, in the One on whose behalf we are ambassadors. For Christ is the door (John 10:9), and He Himself is the way (John 14:6).

But since it was likely that some would disregard the gospel preaching, count as nothing the truly “acceptable time” of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and after this thrust the faith aside, our guide into the mysteries devises something more for them, well able to shame them and to persuade them readily not to …

Made Sin for Us, and Christ’s Gentleness§15

15… fall back into carelessness, but rather to take firm hold of the life that is in Christ. And he says of the God and Father: “Him who knew no sin He made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is as if he were saying: He caused the One who had never sinned at all to suffer the lot of those who greatly love sin, so that He might show us, who have received faith in Him, to be righteous. For He endured “the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2); for One died for all (2 Corinthians 5:14), He whose worth equals that of all.

So when He is said to have become sin, do not suppose that He committed sin; for the Word, being God, does not know how to do wrong. Know rather that He was given by the God and Father for our sins, just as, under the law of Moses, they called the victims slain for sin “sins.” At any rate it is written in the prophets about those appointed to serve as priests: “They will eat the sins of My people, and in their iniquities they will take their souls” (Hosea 4:8). For under the law the overseers and ministers of the divine altars ate the sacrifices offered for sins.

It is a great means, then, of shaming those who would be careless, to ponder wisely that He who did not know sin was condemned with sinners and hung beside them for our sake, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). For we have been justified by the God and Father “not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His great mercy” (Titus 3:5), through faith in Christ.

“I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” and so on (2 Corinthians 10:1).

Many of the wise men of Athens lived among the people of Corinth. They regarded the Savior’s cross as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23), and they called the blessed Paul himself, the herald of the word of inspired Scripture, a charlatan and a babbler (Acts 17:18), together with the other saints. Some others of the circumcision, in turn, were setting upon the believers, praising circumcision and the sacrifices of the law, and saying that the blessed Paul was out of his mind, as one who had impiously chosen to make war on the ancient decrees. Against such men the zealous among the Corinthians were stirred up, and quite naturally; they wanted to lay hands on them as enemies of the divine preaching.

But the thing was most unseemly, and as far as could be from the gentleness that befits saints; for, as it is written, “the Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be kind to all, correcting his opponents with meekness” (2 Timothy 2:24–25). So he gives them a charge, saying: I, Paul myself, the priest of the divine mysteries, the steward and apostle, the one renowned for zeal, who spur you yourselves on to say with me, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, “who when He was reviled did not revile in return, when He suffered did not threaten, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). So at the right moment he brings them to remember the life of Christ, and makes them most meek and gentle.

I, Paul myself, he says, who am lowly when present among you face to face, not haughty, nor sharpened for quarrels and fights; who am bold when absent, I ask even now that when present I may not have to be bold (2 Corinthians 10:1–2). For, as I am minded to think, you will by no means take bold action against certain people who think that we walk, as it were, according to the flesh, that is, live in a fleshly way, in strife and jealousy. For, he says, “where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and walking in a human way?” (1 Corinthians 3:3).

Those, then, who wish to follow the Savior’s gentleness ought to rise above the suspicion of those men and not walk in a fleshly way. For if some disobey, one must not beat them down with clubs and force them, but rather wait for their willing …

Weapons Not of the Flesh; Christ Speaks in Paul§16

16… turning to God. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful through God” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4).

Those who know how to win renown in battle, and who rise against their enemies in a fleshly way, would quite naturally have fleshly armour; for they have helmets and breastplates, weapons and swords, and all the things by which they could conquer. But our wrestling and our manner of warfare need spiritual weapons (Ephesians 6:12). Indeed, the inspired Paul says very well that the one who is counted a soldier in Christ must be adorned with such splendid armour. He puts on him righteousness as a breastplate and salvation as a helmet, “and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” and besides these “the shield of faith,” by which all the flaming arrows of the evil one are quenched (Ephesians 6:14–17).

So the arrows of the saints are not fleshly but rather spiritual and powerful through God, useful for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4), I mean the doctrines of the Greeks and of the heretics, and for showing their arguments to be rotten, utterly unskilful, and senselessly put together. “Let us then pull down such things, and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God; and we shall take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). That is to say: let us pull down every height of impious notions raised up against God, and glorify Him with fitting words, imagining nothing lowly about Him. For we shall benefit others too, bringing them onto the right and most unerring path of thought, so that we may punish all disobedience once our own obedience has first been fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10:6). For great in the kingdom of heaven will be not the one who has only taught, but whoever is willing to add to his word the boast that comes from good works (Matthew 5:19).

“Since you seek proof,” and so on (2 Corinthians 13:3). “For we too are weak in Him, but we shall live in Him by the power of God toward you” (2 Corinthians 13:4).

He threatens those in Corinth who had sinned before (2 Corinthians 12:21) that, if they would not do what was fitting and live in holiness, he would not spare them again (2 Corinthians 13:2). The word “again” recalls the indignation he had already shown. And he tries to persuade them further that, should he rebuke those who stumble, his word will surely take effect, arguing as it were from what has already passed and from what is expected to come. This is why he says: “If you seek proof of Christ speaking in me” (2 Corinthians 13:3). For it is likely, he says, that you are waiting to see, the second time as well, whether Christ really speaks in me and carries His rebukes through to the end. Do not think, he says, as some who are still unbelieving and insolent think, that He is weak; for He is powerful among you (2 Corinthians 13:3), clearly among those who have believed and have come under Him, to whom He grants the care they need, and whom He turns back when they go wrong. So He is powerful among you; for He acts as God and shows the words of the saints to be true. And you will find my word strong in every way and at every point; for it is not I myself who speak, but rather Christ who is in me (Matthew 10:20).

But since he mentions those who, out of utter folly, supposed that Christ was truly weak because He endured the cross and bore the perversity, or rather the impiety, of the Jews, he makes a useful defence. He brings the power of the mystery forward at the right moment, and explains the willing self-emptying of the Only-begotten (Philippians 2:7) and the incomparable pre-eminence of the glory that came after it. “Yes,” he says, “He was crucified out of weakness” (2 Corinthians 13:4), as at least those still far from believing suppose among themselves; He suffered as man, and willingly endured death in the flesh. But they needed to know this as well: that having despoiled Hades and trampled the might of death, He came back to life on the third day, using not human power but power divine and beyond words.

Weak in the Flesh, Living by God’s Power§17

17For it befits God alone to be able to do all things, so as even to destroy the power of death itself, and to crown the body held fast by corruption with the grace of incorruption. So He willingly endured being weak for a little while, as far as the nature of the flesh is concerned, just as He is indeed said to have hungered (Matthew 4:2), to have thirsted (John 19:28), and to have grown weary (John 4:6), and even to have died, for the sake of the economy.

Yet He lives by the power of God (2 Corinthians 13:4). He did not receive the power to do all things from another, but has it of Himself and possesses it in His very being; for the One who suffered in the flesh for us is God by nature. So if they stumble over the cross, let them marvel at the resurrection. And even if He is said to live by the power of God, you will none the less understand the power of God to be the Son Himself (1 Corinthians 1:24).