However, "this corruption" of the body "shall put on incorruption" (1 Cor. xv. 53.), but the other of the soul, never; for where incorruption is, there is no [504] corruption. Thus is it a corruption which is incorruptible, which hath no end, a deathless death; which would have been, had the body remained deathless. Now if we shall depart into the next world having not corruption, we have that corruption incorruptible and endless; for to be ever burning, and not burnt up, ever wasted by the worm, is corruption incorruptible; like as was the case with the blessed Job. He was corrupted, and died not, and that through a lengthened period, and "wasted continually, scraping the clods of dust from his sore." [505] Some such torment as this shall it undergo, when the worms surround and devour it, not for two years nor for three, nor for ten, nor for ten thousand, but for years without end; for "their worm," saith He, "dieth not."
Moral. Let us take the alarm then, I entreat you, let us dread the words, that we meet not with the realities. Covetousness is corruption, corruption more dangerous than any other, and leading on to idolatry. Let us shun the corruption, let us choose the incorruption. Hast thou in covetousness overreached and defrauded some one? The fruits of thy covetousness perish, but the covetousness remains; a corruption which is the foundation of incorruptible corruption. The enjoyment indeed passes away, but the sin remains imperishable. A fearful evil is it for us not to strip ourselves of everything in this present world; a great calamity to depart into the next with loads of sins about us. "For in Sheol," it is said "who shall give Thee thanks?" (Ps. vi. 5.) There is the place of judgment; then is there no longer season for repentance. How many things did the rich man bewail then? (Luke xvi. 23.) And yet it availed him nothing. How many things did they say who had neglected to feed Christ? (Matt. xxv. 41.) Yet were they led away notwithstanding into the everlasting fire. How many things had they then to say: "that had wrought iniquity"; "Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy Name, and by Thy Name cast out devils?" And yet notwithstanding, they were not owned. All these things therefore will take place then; but it will be of no avail, if they be not done now. Let us fear then, lest ever we should have to say then, "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee not?" (Matt. xxv. 44.) Let us feed Him now, not one day, nor two, nor three days. "For let not mercy and truth," saith the Wise Man, "forsake thee." (Prov. iii. 3.) He saith not "do it once, nor twice." The Virgins, we know, had oil, but not enough to last out. (Matt. xxv. 3, 8.) And thus we need much oil, and thus should we be "like a green olive tree in the house of God." (Ps. lii. 8.) Let us reflect then how many burdens of sins each of us has about him, and let us make our acts of mercy counterbalance them; nay rather, far exceed them, that not only the sins may be quenched, but that the acts of righteousness may be also accounted unto us for righteousness. For if the good deeds be not so many in number as to put aside the crimes laid against us, and out of the remainder to be counted unto us for righteousness, [506] then shall no one rescue us from that punishment, from which God grant that we may be all delivered, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, &c.
[489] ["Righteousness' here is Christian moral rectitude (Rom. vi. 13.), inasmuch as, justified by faith, we are dead to sin and live in newness of life (Rom. vi. 4.). As previously the intellectual' rectitude of the Christian was denoted by aletheia, so here his moral' rectitude by dikaiosune."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[490] ["This means readiness,' the ready mind; not, however, for the proclamation of the gospel, as Chrysostom and others,--since in fact Paul is addressing fellow-Christians, and not fellow-teachers,--but the readiness for the conflict in question which the gospel bestows. And it is the gospel of peace, for the gospel proclaims peace (Rom. v. 1; Philip. i. 20.), and thereby produces consecration of courageous readiness' for the conflict (Rom. viii. 31, 38, 39.)."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[491] [This interpretation does not suit the context. "Faith is here saving faith, bringing assurance of forgiveness and future blessedness."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[492] [It simply means the sword which "is furnished by the Holy Spirit," and this sword, as the apostle himself declares, is the word of God, the gospel, which the Holy Spirit brings vividly to the consciousness of the Christian.--Meyer and Ellicott.--G.A.]
[493] ["Ye also," as well as the Colossians (Col. iv. 8, 9.). Meyer's Introd. sec. 2. The kai, on supposition of priority of Colossians, admits of an easy and natural explanation.--Ellicott.--G.A.]
[494] [After having treated this part of the chapter, our author now returns to it, and supplements what he has already said.--G.A.]
[495] ["The aim of this predicate is to present in strong colors the hostile and destructive character of the Satanic assaults; but more special explanations of its import are inappropriate."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[496] [Faith is not the helmet. Chrysostom's exegesis of the parts of the armor is not clear. Salvation is the helmet; for tou soteriou is a genitive of apposition. Receive the helmet, which is salvation. "This salvation," says Ellicott, "is not any ideal possession, as Meyer holds. Salvation in Christ forms the subject of faith; in faith it is apprehended, and becomes in a certain sense a present possession."--G.A.]
[497] to hegemonikon.
[498] pannuchidas. St. Chrysostom often speaks of vigils, which were Church Services extending past midnight into the morning; vid. Hom. in Esai. i. 1, iv. 1, etc.; vid. Bingham, Antiqu. xiii. 9, § 4.
[499] philosophian.
[500] ["en here expresses the manner, and the expression means those who love our Lord in imperishableness,' i.e. so that their love does not pass away.' Comp. Tit. iii. 15."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[501] [Tit. ii. 7, where aphthoria is used, which, according to Meyer, does mean uncorruptedness, while aphtharsia in our passage means imperishableness.--G.A.]
[502] [phthora kataphtharese anupomoneto for Hebrew lbt lvn, Rev. Ver., "Thou wilt surely wear away."--G.A.]
[503] [Comp. Rom. v. 12: "As through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed unto all men."--G.A.]
[504] [Field's text has entha gar aphtharsia, phthora estin, which seems a contradiction, whereas Savile's text, with four mss., has ouk estin.--G.A.]
[505] [Job vii. 5, Sept.: phuretai de mou to soma en sapria skolekon, teko de bolakas ges apo ichoros xuon: "My flesh is mingled with the filth of worms, and I pine away, scraping clods (or crusts) of earth from my sore" (discharge, matter, pus). The Rev. Ver. has: "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust." So nearly Zöckler in Lange: "My flesh is clothed with worms and crusts of earth."--G.A.]
[506] [Such passages as this in the Fathers are used by Romanists and Tractarians for establishing their views, and it is no wonder the Tractarians were zealous in giving the Fathers to the English in English. But, as Jacob says (Eccl. Polity of N.T., pp. 28 and 29), "Our appeal is from the Nicene Fathers to the Apostles of Christ; from patristic literature to the New Testament; for it is not being near to the truth that makes men good and wise," but having the truth itself.--G.A.]
the homilies of St. john Chrysostom
archbishop of constantinople,
on the