I have spoken thus, because love of ornament is of itself a great evil, even were no other gendered by it, and it were possible to hold it without peril, (for it inciteth to vainglory and to pride,) but now many other evils are gendered by finery, evil suspicions, unseasonable expenses, evil speakings, occasions of rapacity. For why dost thou adorn thyself? Tell me. Is it that thou mayest please thy husband? Then do it at home. But here the reverse is the case. For if thou wouldest please thine own husband, please not others; but if thou please others, thou wilt not be able to please thine own. So that thou shouldest put away all thine ornaments, when thou goest to the forum or proceedest to the church. Besides, please not thy husband by those means which harlots use, but by those rather which wives that are free employ. For wherein, tell me, doth a wife differ from a harlot? In that the one regardeth one thing only, namely, that by the beauty of her person she may attract to herself him whom she loves; whilst the other both ruleth the house, and shareth in the children, and in all other things.
Hast thou a little daughter? look to it lest she inherit the mischief, for they are wont to form their manners according to their nurture, and to imitate their mothers' behavior. Be a pattern to thy daughter of modesty, deck thyself with that adorning, and see that thou despise the other; for that is in truth an ornament, the other a disfigurement. Enough has been said. Now God that made the world, and hath given to us the ornament [887] of the soul, adorn us, and clothe us with His own glory, that all shining brightly in good works, and living unto His glory, we may send up glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, &c.
[871] R. t. and E.V. "unto."
[872] [In these apparently hasty notes, perhaps composed by dictation, or more probably taken down in shorthand, we are not surprised to find a frequent lack of clear connection. Here, as often elsewhere, the altered text followed in most editions has inserted clauses to bring out the supposed meaning.--J.A.B.]
[873] He seems to class the Romans, Hebrews, Corinthians, and Galatians together, as needing doctrinal instruction before these particulars, and to consider the Thessalonians and Philippians as needing them less from their state of suffering.
[874] anekten. He seems to mean, "to be in an endurable position." [Downes suggested, and Field inclines to approve, that the reading should be aneton, "unrestrained," which in another passage is confused in a ms. with anekton.--J.A.B.]
[875] monois. One would expect monon, as he speaks to the masters afterwards. But he may either mean that they were chiefly addressed, or that this is the object even of what is addressed to them separately.
[876] [The correct text, as in Rev. Ver., is "fearing the Lord." Chrys. very often has an erroneous type of N.T. text, which spread from Constantinople, and became the so-called Textus Receptus.--J.A.B.]
[877] [Some documents for N.T. also give "your," but the correct N.T. text has simply "the," and omits "for."--J.A.B.]
[878] [Some documents for Chrys., and some for N.T., add "with God."--J.A.B.]
[879] The masters.
[880] akediosi, generally used of giving up caring for anything in despair. But the name "acedia" amongst the seven deadly sins is of this origin.
[881] proskartereite, "persevere."
[882] The Lord's Prayer.
[883] [Ironical.--J.A.B.]
[884] [Meaning the Empress, as king meant the Emperor.--J.A.B.]
[885] Downes would remove the negative; but the meaning is "not only when," &c., but "even when he was exposed by the loss of his garment."
[886] [The Greek has a word, lotos, not elsewhere found in this sense, but explained (Field's Annotations) by a similar word, lotax, employed and interpreted in another passage by Chrys. The correctors changed lotou into the familiar heilotos, a Helot.--J.A.B.]
[887] [The word kosmos denotes order and ornament, and so the world, as being orderly and beautiful.--J.A.B.]
Homily XI.
Colossians iv. 5, 6
"Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer each one."
What Christ said to His disciples, that doth Paul also now advise. And what did Christ say? "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Matt. x. 16.) That is, be upon your guard, giving them no handle against you. For therefore it is added, "towards them that are without," in order that we may know that against our own members we have no need of so much caution as against those without. For where brethren are, there are both many allowances and kindnesses. There is indeed need of caution even here; but much more without, for it is not the same to be amongst enemies and foes, and amongst friends.
Then because he had alarmed them, see how again he encourages them; "Redeeming," he saith, "the time": that is, the present time is short. Now this he said, not wishing them to be crafty, nor hypocrites, (for this is not a part of wisdom, but of senselessness,) but what? In matters wherein they harm you not, he means, give them no handle; as he says also, when writing to the Romans, "Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, honor to whom honor." (Rom. xiii. 7.) On account of the Preaching alone have thou war, he saith, let this war have none other origin. For though they were to become our foes for other causes besides, yet neither shall we have a reward, and they will become worse, and will seem to have just complaints against us. For instance, if we pay not the tribute, if we render not the honors that are due, if we be not lowly. Seest thou not Paul, how submissive he is, where he was not likely to harm the Preaching. For hear him saying to Agrippa, "I think myself happy, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews." (Acts xxvi. 2, 3.) But had he thought it his duty to insult the ruler, he would have spoiled everything. And hear too those of blessed Peter's company, how gently they answer the Jews, saying, "we must obey God rather than men." (Acts v. 29.) And yet men who had renounced their own lives, might both have insulted, and have done anything whatever; but for this object they had renounced their lives, not that they might win vainglory, (for that way had been vainglorious,) but that they might preach and speak all things with boldness. That other course marks want of moderation.
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt"; that is, that this graciousness may not lapse into indifferentism. For it is possible to be simply agreeable, it is possible also to be so with due seemliness. "That ye may know how ye ought to answer each one." So that one ought not to discourse alike to all, Greeks, I mean, and Brethren. By no means, for this were the very extreme of senselessness.
Ver. 7. "All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord."
Admirable! how great is the wisdom of Paul! Observe, he doth not put everything into his Epistles, but only things necessary and urgent. In the first place, being desirous of not drawing them out to a length; and secondly, to make his messenger more respected, by his having also somewhat to relate; thirdly, showing his own affection towards him; for he would not else have entrusted these communications to him. Then, there were things which ought not to be declared in writing. "The beloved brother," he saith. If beloved, he knew all, and he concealed nothing from him. "And faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord." If "faithful," he will speak no falsehood; if "a fellow-servant," he hath shared his trials, so that he has brought together from all sides the grounds of trustworthiness.
Ver. 8. "Whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose."
Here he shows his great love, seeing that for this purpose he sent him, and this was the cause of his journey; and so when writing to the Thessalonians, he said, "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother." (1 Thess. iii. 1, 2.) And to the Ephesians he sends this very same person, and for the very same cause, "That he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts." (Eph. vi. 21, 22.) See what he saith, not "that ye might know my estate," but "that I might know yours." So in no place doth he mention what is his own. He shows that they were in trials too, by the expression, "comfort your hearts."
Ver. 9. "With Onesimus, the beloved and faithful brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things that are done here."
Onesimus is the one about whom, writing to Philemon, he said, "Whom I would fain have kept with me, that in thy behalf he might minister unto me in the bonds of the Gospel: but without thy mind I would do nothing." (Philem. 13, 14.) And he adds too the praise of their city, that they might not only not [888] be ashamed, but even pride themselves on him. "Who is one of you," he saith. "They shall make known unto you all things that are done here."
Ver. 10. "Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you."
Nothing can surpass this praise. This is he that was brought up from Jerusalem with him. This man hath said a greater thing than the prophets; for they call themselves "strangers and foreigners," but this one calleth himself even a prisoner. Just like a prisoner of war he was dragged up and down, [889] and lay at every one's will to suffer evil of them, yea rather worse even than prisoners. For those indeed their enemies, after taking them, treat with much attention, having a care for them as their own property: but Paul, as though an enemy and a foe, all men dragged up and down, beating him, scourging, insulting, and maligning. This was a consolation to those also (to whom he wrote), when their master even is in such circumstances.
"And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas"; even this man he hath praised still from his relationship, for Barnabas was a great man; "touching whom ye received commandments; if he come unto you, receive him." Why? would they not have received him? Yes, but he means, with much attention; and this shows the man to be great. Whence they received these commandments, he does not say.
Ver. 11. "And Jesus which is called Justus."
This man was probably a Corinthian. Next, he bestows a common praise on all, having already spoken that of each one in particular; "who are of the circumcision: these only are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, men that have been a comfort unto me." After having said, "fellow-prisoner"; in order that he may not therewith depress the soul of his hearers, see how by this expression he rouseth them up. "Fellow-workers," he saith, "unto the kingdom of God." So that being partakers of the trials, they become partakers of the kingdom. "Who have been a comfort to me." He shows them to be great persons, seeing that to Paul they have been a comfort.
But [890] let us see the wisdom of Paul. "Walk in wisdom," he saith, "towards them that are without, redeeming the time." (Ver. 5.) That is, the time is not yours, but theirs. Do not then wish to have your own way, [891] but redeem the time. And he said not simply, "Buy," but "redeem," making it yours after another manner. For it were the part of excessive madness, to invent occasions of war and enmity. For over and above the undergoing of superfluous and profitless dangers, there is this additional harm, that the Greeks will not come over to us. For when thou art amongst the brethren, reason is thou shouldest be bold; but when without, thou oughtest not to be so.
Seest thou how everywhere he speaks of those without, the Greeks? Wherefore also when writing to Timothy, he said, "Moreover, he must have good testimony from them that are without." (1 Tim. iii. 7.) And again, "For what have I to do with judging them that are without." (1 Cor. v. 12.) "Walk in wisdom," he saith, "toward them that are without." For "without," they are, even though they live in the same world with us, seeing they are without the kingdom, and the paternal mansion. And he comforts them withal, by calling the others "without," as he said above, "Your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. iii. 3.)