Ver. 7. "For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory: why yet am I also judged as a sinner?"
For if God, he means is shown to be a Lover of man, and righteous, and good, by your acts of disobedience, you ought not only to be exempt from punishment but even to have good done unto you. But if so, that absurdity will be found to result, which is in circulation with so many, that good comes of evil, and that evil is the cause of good; and one of the two is necessary, either that He be clearly unjust in punishing, or that if He punish not, it is from our vices that He hath the victory. And both of these are absurd to a degree. And himself meaning to show this too, he introduces the Greeks (i.e. heathens) as the fathers of these opinions, thinking it enough to allege against what he has mentioned the character of the persons who say these things. For then they used to say in ridicule of us, "let us do evil that good may come." And this is why he has stated it clearly in the following language.
Ver. 8. "If [1261] not (as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil that good may come? Whose damnation is just."
For whereas Paul said, [1262] "where sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. v. 20), in ridicule of him and perverting what he said to another meaning, they said, We must cling to vice that we may get what is good. But Paul said not so; however [1263] to correct this notion it is that he says, "What then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!" (ib. vi. 1, 2.) For I said it, he means, of the times which are past, not that we should make this a practice. To lead them away then from this suspicion, he said, that henceforth this was even impossible. For "how shall we," he says, "that are dead unto sin, live any longer therein?" Against the Greeks then he inveighs (katedramen) without difficulty. For their life was exceeding abandoned. But of the Jews, even if their life seemed to have been careless, still they had great means of cloaking these things in the Law and circumcision, and the fact of God having conversed with them, and their being the teachers of all. And this is why he strips them even of these, and shows that for these they were the more punished, and this is the conclusion to which he has here drawn his discussion. For if they be not punished, he would say, for so doing, that blasphemous language--let us do evil that good may come--must necessarily gain currency. But if this be impious, and they who hold this language shall be punished (for this he declared by saying, "whose damnation is just"), it is plain that they are punished. For if they who speak it be deserving of vengeance, much more are they who act it, but if deserving thereof, it is as having done sin. For it is not man that punishes them, that any one should suspect the sentence, but God, that doeth all things righteously. But if they are righteously punished, it is unrighteously that they, who make ridicule of us, said what they did. For God did and doth everything, that our conversation might shine forth and be upright on every side.
Let us then not be listless; for so we shall be able to recover the Greeks also from their error. But when we are in words lovers of wisdom, but in deeds behave unseemly, with what looks shall we face them? with what lips shall we discourse concerning doctrines? For he [1264] will say to each of us, How can you that have failed in what is less, claim to teach me about what is greater? you who as yet have not learnt that covetousness is a vice, how can you be wise upon the things in heaven? But do you know that it is a vice? Then, the charge is the greater, because you transgress knowingly. And why speak I of the Greek, for even our laws allow us not to speak thus boldly when our life has become abandoned. For to "the sinner," it says, "saith God, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes?" (Ps. l. 16.) There was a time when the Jews were carried away captive, and when the Persians were urgent with them, and called upon them to sing those divine songs unto them, they said, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (Ps. cxxxvii. 4.) Now if it were un lawful to sing the oracles of God in a strange land, much less might the estranged soul do it. For estranged [1265] the merciless soul is. If the Law made those who were captives and had become slaves to men in a strange land, to sit in silence; much more is it right for those who are slaves to sin and are in an alien community (politei& 139;) to have a curb upon their mouths. And however they had their instruments then. For it says, "Upon the willows in the midst thereof did we hang our instruments," but still they might not sing. And so we also, though we have a mouth and tongue, which are instruments of speech, have no right to speak boldly, so long as we be slaves to what is more tyrannical than any barbarian, sin. For tell me what have you to say to the Greek, if you plunder, and be covetous? will you say, Forsake idolatry, acknowledge God, and draw not near to gold and silver? Will he not then make a jest of you, and say, Talk to thyself first in this way? For it is not the same thing for a Gentile to practise idolatry, and a Christian to commit this same (4 mss. om. "same") sin. For how are we to draw others away from that idolatry if we draw not ourselves away from this? For we are nearer related to ourselves [1266] than our neighbor is, and so when we persuade not ourselves, how are we to persuade others? For if he that doth not rule well over his own house, will not take care of the Church either (1 Tim. iii. 5), how shall he that doth not rule even over his own soul be able to set others right? Now do not tell me, that you do not worship an image of gold, but make this clear to me, that you do not do those things which gold bids you. For there be different kinds of idolatry, and one holds mammon lord, and another his belly his god, and a third some other most baneful lust. But, "you do not sacrifice oxen to them as the Gentiles do." Nay, but what is far worse, you butcher your own soul. But "you do not bow the knee and worship." Nay, but with greater obedience you do all that they command you, whether it be your belly, or money, or the tyranny of lust. For this is just what makes Gentiles disgusting, that they made gods of our passions; calling lust Venus, and anger Mars, and drunkenness Bacchus. If then you do not grave images as did they, yet do you with great eagerness bow under the very same passions, when you make the members of Christ members of an harlot, and plunge yourself into the other deeds of iniquity. (1 Cor. vi. 15.) I therefore exhort you to lay to heart the exceeding unseemliness hereof, and to flee from idolatry:--for so doth Paul name covetousness--and to flee not only covetousness in money, but that in evil desire, and that in clothing, and that in food, and that in everything else: since the punishment we shall have to suffer if we obey not God's laws is much severer. For, He says, "the servant that knew his Lord's will," and did it not, "shall be beaten with many stripes." (Luke xii. 47.) With a view then to escaping from this punishment, and being useful both to others and to ourselves, let us drive out all iniquity from our soul and choose virtue. For so shall we attain to the blessings which are to come, whereto may it be granted us all to attain by the grace and love toward man, etc.
[1246] One ms. appears to have ei de "but if," with most mss. of the N.T., instead of ide, "behold," which St. Chrysostom appears to have read with the present T. R.
[1247] From the 17th verse on the apostle speaks of the Jew by name and clearly shows that he had him in mind from the beginning of the chapter. The correct text reads ei de instead of ide to which the question of v. 21 corresponds as apodosis. Chrys.' interpretation of dokimazeis ta diareronta is that which is followed by the Vulgate ("probas utiliora"), most anct. vss., Wordsworth, Meyer, and our Eng. vss. The majority of modern commentators, however, adopt the interpretation: "testest things that differ." So Weiss, Godet, Wilke (Clavis N.T.), Lange, Tholuck. Alford, Philippi. This interpretation has the advantage of following the original meaning of both verbs.--G.B.S.
[1248] The younger Buxtorf, in his preface to his father's Synagoga Judaica, gives specimens of their language, as from Cad Hakkemach, "Such is the power of Circumcision, that none who is circumcised goeth down into Hell," and R. Abraham, than the Israelites were "all wise, all understanding, all skilled in the Law." See also Smith's Select Discourses, No. 7.
[1249] There are three interpretations of hierosuleis (22) (1) "rob (heathen) temples." So Wilke, Meyer, Godet, Philippi, Alford, Conybeare and Howson, R.V. (2) "Rob the temple" (at Jerusalem, by embezzling or withholding the temple-tribute). So Hofmann, Ewald, Lange, Weiss. (3) "commit sacrilege," Calvin, Bengel, Luther, A.V. marg. of R.V. The contrast with hobdel, ta eidola strongly favors (1) which is adopted by Chrys. That such robbery had taken place among the Jews seems implied in Acts xix. 37, and is clearly referred to in Josephus' Ant. iv. 8, 10.--G.B.S.
[1250] apo tou meizonos. Perhaps "the more guilty," as having offended with greater advantages.
[1251] See Butler, Anal. II. i. v. fin.
[1252] Four mss. have metatrapesetai, both here and a little below: the others read logisthesetai here, and then contradict themselves, by putting trapesetai there. The old Edd. have peritrapesetai. Nearly all mss. of the N.T. have logisthesetai: so we must either think with Heyse that St. Chrysostom expresses his definite opinion in favor of metatr. or with Matthiae that he made a slip of memory.
[1253] It might be observed, that all St. Paul's reasoning here and to the Galatians holds against circumcision and the Sabbath alike.
[1254] politei& 139;. We want a word to express at once the spiritual citizenship and the corresponding life.
[1255] The passage iii. 1-8 considers four possible objections. (1) "This placing of Jews and Gentiles in the same condition, takes away all the theocratic prerogatives." (v. 1.) No, answers Paul, they have a great advantage as to light and privilege, though none as to righteousness. (v. 2.) (2) "They have the O.T. scriptures, you say; but what if those scriptures have not attained their end in bringing the Jews to believe in Jesus as the Messiah? If some have not believed, does not that render void God's promises to his people in the O.T., so that he is no longer bound by them?" (v. 3.) The answer is: "No, God is faithful to his promises in all conditions (v. 4). (3) "Then the unbelief of the Jews seems to be the occasion of eliciting God's faithfulness. The conclusion would be that falseness contributes to God's glory." To this Paul gives no specific reply but develops the argument so as to show that it leads to a (5) position: "Let us do evil that good may come." (v. 8.) He thinks it enough to exhibit the logical conclusion of such an objection. It is enough to know that it obliterates all moral distinctions and impugns the justice of God. Paul might have shown that from God's overruling of sin to his praise the approval of sin does not follow. But he is content to make it clear that the objection is inconsistent with a righteous judgment of the world.--G.B.S.
[1256] See Gen. xviii. 19; Deut. iv. 37, and x. 15.
[1257] For this use of the word, see 1 Tim. iii. 16.
[1258] Field reads logois "His words:" probably by a misprint.
[1259] A practical, not a theoretical unbelief. It might be clearer to use the word "unfaithful" throughout, but that apistein is treated as the exact negative of pisteuein: in fact we cannot translate idiomatically all that either St. Paul or St. Chrysostom has to say of pistis, without using the three words "faith" "trust" and "belief" for it and its correlatives.
[1260] Field thinks that St. Chrysostom wrote "Therefore if, because we did despite to Him......was shown to be clear, why am I to be punished," etc.? Heyse would have "Then, since through our despite and wrong God became victorious....why," etc.?