John Chrysostom, On the Letter to Philemon

would have spared his mother? who would have passed over every pleasure, every vice? And that these things are so, I will try to persuade you from one household alone.

How? If to those of you who ask these things, and who have servants, I make it clear to them, that even if they corrupt the mastership, and commit outrages upon their bodies, and carry everything out, and turn things upside down, and treat them as enemies, you will not threaten, you will not punish, you will not take vengeance, nor will you grieve them even with words; does this seem to be goodness? But I show that it is of the utmost cruelty, not only because the wife and children are betrayed through this untimely kindness, but also because those very persons are destroyed before them. For they will be drunkards and licentious and undisciplined and insolent and more irrational than all beasts. Is this then goodness, tell me, to trample on the nobility of the soul, and to destroy both themselves and one another in addition? Do you see that to demand an account is a thing of great kindness? And why do I speak of servants, who more readily come to these sins? But let someone have sons, and permit them to dare everything, and not punish them; worse than whom will they not be, tell me? So then, in the case of men, to punish is goodness, and not to punish is cruelty, but in the case of God it is no longer so? Therefore, because he is good, for this reason he has prepared Gehenna. Do you wish that I also speak of another goodness of God? Not only this, but also that he does not allow the good to become bad. For if they were to receive the same things, all would be bad; but now this also consoles the good not a little.

For hear the Prophet saying: The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly, he will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. Not rejoicing overmuch, may it not be, but fearing lest he suffer the same things, he will make his own life purer. This, then, is of great care. Yes, he says; but it was necessary only to threaten, but not also to punish. If he punishes, and you say that the matter is a threat, and for this reason you become more careless; if it were really only a threat, would you not have become more supine? The Ninevites, if they had known that the matter was only a threat, would not have 62.719 repented; but since they repented, they stopped the threat at words. Do you wish it to be a threat? you are master of the matter; become better, and it stops at the threat; but if, which heaven forbid, you despise the threat, you will come to the trial; those before the flood, if they had feared the threat, would not have endured the trial.

And we, if we fear the threat, will not 62.720 undergo the trial; may it never be; but may the loving-kind God grant that we all, having now been made sober from this, attain to those ineffable good things; of which may we all be counted worthy, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ἐφείσατο μητρός; τίς δ' ἂν πᾶσαν ἡδονὴν, πᾶσαν κακίαν παρέλιπε; Καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, ἀπὸ μιᾶς οἰκίας μόνης ἐγώ σε πεῖσαι πειράσομαι.

Πῶς; Ἐὰν ὑμῶν τῶν ταῦτα ἐρωτώντων, καὶ οἰκέτας ἐχόντων, δῆλον ποιήσω τούτοις, ὅτι, κἂν διαφθείρωσι τὴν δεσποτείαν, καὶ εἰς τὸ σῶμα ἐκείνων ἐνυβρίσωσι, κἂν πάντα ἐκφέρωσι, κἂν τὰ ἄνω κάτω ἐργάσωνται, καὶ τὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοὺς διαθῶσιν, οὐκ ἀπειλοῦσιν, οὐ κολάζουσιν, οὐ τιμωρήσονται, οὐδὲ μέχρι ῥημάτων λυπήσουσιν· ἆρα δοκεῖ ταῦτα ἀγαθότητος εἶναι; Ἀλλ' ἐγὼ δείκνυμι, ὅτι ὠμότητός ἐστι τῆς ἐσχάτης, οὐ μόνον τῷ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ παιδία προδίδοσθαι διὰ ταύτης τῆς ἀκαίρου χρηστότητος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους πρὸ τούτων ἀπόλλυσθαι. Καὶ γὰρ μέθυσοι καὶ ἀσελγεῖς καὶ ἀκόλαστοι καὶ ὑβρισταὶ καὶ πάντων θηρίων ἔσονται ἀλογώτεροι. Τοῦτο οὖν ἀγαθότητος, εἰπέ μοι, εὐγένειαν τῆς ψυχῆς καταπατῆσαι, καὶ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀλλήλους προσαπολέσαι; Ὁρᾷς, ὅτι τὸ εὐθύνας ἀπαιτεῖν τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ πολλῆς χρηστότητος ὄν; Καὶ τί λέγω οἰκέτας τοὺς προχειρότερον ἐπὶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ταῦτα ἐρχομένους; Ἀλλ' ἐχέτω τις υἱοὺς, καὶ πάντα ἐπιτρεπέτω τολμᾷν ἐκείνοις, καὶ μὴ κολαζέτω, τίνος οὖν οὐκ ἔσονται χείρους, εἰπέ μοι; Εἶτα ἐπὶ μὲν ἀνθρώπων τὸ κολάζειν ἀγαθότητος, τὸ δὲ μὴ κολάζειν ὠμότητος, ἐπὶ δὲ Θεοῦ οὐκέτι; Ὥστε ἐπειδὴ ἀγαθός ἐστι, διὰ τοῦτο γέενναν προητοίμασε. Βούλεσθε καὶ ἄλλην εἴπω ἀγαθότητα τοῦ Θεοῦ; Οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς οὐκ ἀφίησι γενέσθαι κακούς. Εἰ γὰρ ἔμελλον τῶν αὐτῶν τυγχάνειν, πάντες ἂν ἦσαν κακοί· νῦν δὲ οὐ μικρῶς καὶ τοῦτο παραμυθεῖται τοὺς ἀγαθούς.

Ἄκουε γὰρ τοῦ Προφήτου λέγοντος· Εὐφρανθήσεται δίκαιος, ὅταν ἴδῃ ἐκδίκησιν ἀσεβοῦς, τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ νίψεται ἐν τῷ αἵματι τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ. Οὐχ ὑπερηδόμενος, μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ δεδοικὼς μὴ τὰ αὐτὰ πάθῃ, καθαρώτερον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον ἐργάσεται. Πολλῆς ἄρα τοῦτο κηδεμονίας ἐστί. Ναὶ, φησίν· ἀλλ' ἀπειλῆσαι μόνον ἐχρῆν, μὴ μέντοι καὶ κολάσαι. Εἰ κολάζει, καὶ λέγεις, ὅτι ἀπειλὴ τὸ πρᾶγμά ἐστι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ῥᾳθυμότερος γίνῃ· εἰ ὄντως ἀπειλὴ μόνον ἦν, οὐκ ἂν ὑπτιώτερος γέγονας; Οἱ Νινευῖται εἰ ᾔδεσαν ὅτι ἀπειλὴ μόνον τὸ πρᾶγμα ἦν, οὐκ ἂν 62.719 μετενόησαν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ μετενόησαν, μέχρι ῥημάτων τὴν ἀπειλὴν ἔστησαν. Βούλει αὐτὸ ἀπειλὴν εἶναι; σὺ κύριος εἶ τοῦ πράγματος· γενοῦ βελτίων, καὶ ἵσταται μέχρι τῆς ἀπειλῆς· ἂν δὲ, ὅπερ ἀπείη, καταφρονήσῃς τῆς ἀπειλῆς, ἥξεις ἐπὶ τὴν πεῖραν· οἱ πρὸ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ, εἰ τὴν ἀπειλὴν ἔδεισαν, οὐκ ἂν τὴν πεῖραν ὑπέμειναν.

Καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐὰν φοβηθῶμεν τὴν ἀπειλὴν, οὐχ 62.720 ὑποστησόμεθα τὴν πεῖραν· μηδὲ γένοιτο· ἀλλὰ παράσχοι ὁ φιλάνθρωπος Θεὸς πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη σωφρονισθέντας, τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων ἐκείνων ἐπιτυχεῖν ἀγαθῶν· ὧν γένοιτο πάντας ἡμᾶς ἀξιωθῆναι, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα, κράτος, τιμὴ, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.