Made Sin for Us, and Christ’s Gentleness

… 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 …