Беседа 13

1 Timothy 4:11–14. Preach and teach this. Hold on; but be an example for the faithful in word, in life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Until I come, keep busy with reading, instruction, and teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the priesthood. Duties of a bishop. - Against the desire for pleasure. 1. When arranging human affairs, sometimes instructions are required, and sometimes orders. If, therefore, you began to command where you should teach, then you would be worthy of ridicule. And vice versa, if you began to teach where you need to command, then the same thing would happen to you. For example: what should not be evil should not be taught, but commanded and prohibited with special force; just as it should be ordered that one should not adhere to Jewish errors. If you intend to talk about how one should distribute property, how one should maintain virginity, or if you are thinking about talking about faith, then teaching becomes necessary. That is why Paul uses both of these expressions: “preach and teach.” For example, if someone wears pendants or something similar and does it, knowing that it is evil, then in that case only one order is necessary; and when, without knowing it, it is instruction. “Let no one despise your youth,” he says. Do you see that a priest must both command and speak with authority, and not teach everything? Since youth, as a result of general prejudice, has in some way become something easily despised, then (the apostle) says: “Let no one despise your youth.” The teacher should not be neglected. Where (will he discover) modesty, you say, where is meekness, if he never experiences disdain? In those things that concern him personally, let him be neglected and let him endure it - thus long-suffering contributes to the success of the teaching; but as far as others are concerned, no, because it will no longer be meekness, but indifference. When he takes revenge for insults inflicted on him, or for slander, or for slander, then you rightly accuse him. When it comes to saving others, then command and dispose with full authority. What is needed here is not meekness, but power, so that no harm to society occurs. Either this (the apostle) wants to say, or the following: let no one despise you because of your youth, that is, as long as you lead a life decent (to your rank), no one will despise you because of your age, but everyone will be even more surprised at you. Therefore, he adds the following words: “but be an example for the faithful in word, in life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity”; Set an example of good deeds in everything. That is, be the prototype in life, appearing before others as an image, as an animated law, as a rule, and a charter of a good life. This is what a teacher should be like. In a word, to enter into an interview without difficulty. “In life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” - chastity. “Until I come, keep busy with reading, instruction, teaching.” Timothy commands him to read. Let us all listen to this and learn not to neglect the study of the Divine Scriptures. Here he says again: “until I come.” Do you see how he consoles him? Probably he himself (Timofey), as an orphan, was looking for this. “Until I come,” he says, “keep busy reading” the Divine Scriptures, “instructing” each other, “teaching” (addressed) to everyone. “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy.” Here the title of teacher is called a prophecy. "With the laying on of hands of the priesthood". He is not talking about presbyters here, but about bishops, because it was not presbyters who ordained bishops. “Take care of this, abide in this” (1 Tim. 4:15). Look how often he instructs him in the same thing, wanting to show that the teacher should try most of all about this. “Pay attention to yourself,” he says, “and to your teaching; do this constantly” (1 Tim. 4:16). That is, be attentive to yourself and teach others. “By doing this, you will save yourself and those who listen to you.” Well said: “and myself.” He who feeds himself with the word of teaching first benefits from it himself, because by teaching others he brings himself into tenderness. However, this was said not to Timothy alone, but to everyone. And if (the apostle) gives such instructions to the one who raised the dead, then what do we say? But Christ also points to teachers when he says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man “a master who brings out of his treasury new and old” (Matthew 13:52). And again blessed Paul, commanding the same thing, said: “so that through patience and comfort from the Scriptures we may have hope” (Rom. 15:4). And more than anyone else, he himself fulfilled this, being instructed in the paternal law, at the feet of Gamaliel, so it is very likely that even after that he was engaged in reading, and the one who gave such instruction to others first encouraged himself to do this. Do you not see how he often brings evidence from the prophets and examines them? Therefore, if Paul is engaged in reading - and no small benefit comes from the Scriptures - then will we really be lazy and absent-mindedly listen to him? And what punishment will we not deserve? “So that your success,” he says, “may be obvious to everyone” (1 Tim. 4:15). 2. Do you see that (the apostle) wanted him (Timothy) to be great and worthy of wonder in this too? Therefore, he speaks in this way, showing that he still had a need for it. What does it mean: “So that your success is obvious to everyone”? Not only in life, he says, but also in the word of edification. “Do not rebuke an old man (πρεσβυτέρω)” (1 Tim. 5:1). Is he talking here about the rank (presbytery)? I don’t think so, but about any elderly person. Why not do this to him if he needs correction? “Do not reproach,” he says, “but talk to him as you would treat a father who sins. The younger as brothers, the older as mothers, the young as sisters, with all purity” (1 Tim. 5:2). By the very essence of the matter, this, that is, listening to comments, is painful, and especially when this happens to an elderly person; and if (comments are made) in addition as a youth, then this becomes three times more reckless. Therefore, it is necessary to soften (reproof) with meekness and friendliness. You can reprove without cruelty, if someone wants to practice this: only this requires great prudence, but this is possible. “The younger ones,” he says, “as brothers.” Why does he command this here? Again, for the purpose of remembering the insolence characteristic of this age. So, in this case, the reproof must be softened by the spirit of meekness. “The young ones,” he says, “like sisters, and adds: with all purity.” Not only, he says, should you recognize it as a sin, but even, he says, you should not give cause for suspicion. Since conversations with young women hardly avoid suspicion, and yet the bishop must do this too, he adds: “with all purity,” showing that one must speak with them with all purity. What are you saying, tell me? Do you really command this to Timothy? Yes, he answers, because through him I speak to the whole world. If Timothy commands this, then let all others think about what kind of person (a bishop) should be, so as not to give rise to suspicion, or even a shadow of justification for those who would want to slander. “Honor widows, true widows” (1 Tim. 5:3). Why doesn’t he say anything about virginity, why not say: honor virgins? That’s why it seems to me that they didn’t exist then, or there were some who fell. “For some,” he says, “have already turned aside after Satan” (1 Tim. 5:15). “Honor widows, true widows,” he says. Therefore, you can not have a husband and still not be a widow. Just as a virgin does not become a virgin because she was not married, but many other things are required - chastity, diligence, so it is not only the death of her husband that makes her a widow, but patience with chastity and complete solitude. He commands such widows to be honored, and rightly so, because they are worthy of great respect, living alone and without husbands to intercede for them. This condition seems shameful and reprehensible to many. Therefore, he wants her to enjoy great respect from the priest, and not only for this reason, but also because she is worthy (of respect). “If any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to honor their family and pay tribute to their parents” (1 Tim. 5:4). Note the prudence of Paul, how often he exhorts, appealing to human considerations. Here he did not mention anything great and sublime, but something that is understandable to everyone. “And pay tribute,” he says, “to parents.” For what? For education, for return. For example, you enjoyed great care; they died, and you could not pay them the debt - after all, in fact, it was not you who gave birth to them, it was not you who raised them. So, repay them through your grandchildren, repay the debt through your sons. “Let them learn,” he says, “to honor their family.” To put it simply, he is talking about good deeds here. Then, in order to further encourage this, he adds: “for this pleases God.” Since (the apostle) said: “true widows,” now he shows who the true widow is. “A true widow and lonely person trusts in God and remains in supplications and prayers day and night; but the lover of pleasure died alive” (1 Tim. 5:5, 6). If anyone, he says, being a widow, has not turned to worldly life, then she is a true widow; who trusts in God properly, practices prayer, spends day and night in it, that widow. He does not say that the one who has children is not a widow - he also praises her if she raises the children properly - but (says): if she does not have children, that is, she is alone. Further, he consoles her that she does not have children, saying that this is especially the advantage of a widow, that she is deprived not only of consolation from her husband, but also of the happiness that children bring: in return for everything she has God. She who has no children is no worse than others; but with this consolation she makes up for what she lacks due to the fact that she has no children. Therefore, what has been said has this meaning: do not grieve when you hear that you must raise children, and yet you do not have them, and do not think that this is humiliating your dignity. You are a true widow. The widow, “the voluptuous one, died alive.” 3. Since many women with children choose widowhood not in order to deprive themselves of the pleasures of life, but in order to become more attached to them, in order to do everything with greater independence and give themselves more to worldly lusts, he therefore says: “the voluptuous one died alive.” What are you saying? Shouldn't a widow woman seek pleasure? No, he says. So, if she, who by nature and by age is weaker, not only has no need for pleasure, but even becomes involved in death, and at that eternal death, then what will men who indulge in pleasure say to this? He rightly says: “the voluptuous one died alive.” But in order for you to know, let us carefully consider which actions are characteristic of the living and which of the dead, and where we should classify it. The living do what has to do with life, the future, the true life. And what has to do with the future life, which we must constantly care about, listen to Christ, who says: “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink” (Matthew 25:34, 35). The living differ from the dead not only in that they look at the sun and breathe air - not that, we say, but in that they do something good. If they don’t do this, they become no better than the dead. And so that you know this, listen to how the dead can live. “God,” they say, “is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). But this, you say, is again a riddle. Therefore, let us resolve both. Everyone, being alive, becomes dead when he spends his life in pleasure. Why? Because he lives for one belly, and for other feelings - not at all; for example, - does not see what he should see, does not hear what he should hear, does not say what he should say, does not do at all what the living do; but just as a person stretched out on his bed, with his eyes closed and his eyelids closed, does not feel at all what is around him, so this one, or rather, not so, but much worse, because the first is equally insensitive to good and evil, and the last feels only one thing, namely evil, and for good, like a lying (dead) man, is motionless. Therefore, in this way he becomes dead. He is not touched by any blessings of the future life: meanwhile, drunkenness, having enclosed him in its depths, as if in some dark and gloomy shelter and cave full of all uncleanness, constantly makes him spin in the darkness, like the dead. In fact, when he spends all his time either dining or drinking, is he really not in darkness? Isn't he dead? And even in the morning, when he is apparently sober, he is not completely sober, partly because the evening wine has not yet been exhausted and evaporated in him, partly because he is overcome by a strong desire for future (pleasures) and that he always spends the morning and afternoon at a feast, and the whole night and even most of the morning in deep sleep. Tell me: can we really count such a person among the living? Who is able to describe that cruel storm that arises as a result of satiety and rushes equally to the soul as to the body? Just as a continuous thick cloud does not allow the rays of the sun to shine, so the vapors that exude wine and satiety, like some kind of rock, hitting the brain and forming a thick fog there, do not allow the mind to gain more space and plunge the drunkard into great darkness. Think what a storm arises in the soul of the one who experiences this! What confusion! Just as during a flood, when the water begins to rise above the threshold of the workshops, we see that those living inside the house become confused, and (they use) scoops, amphoras, sponges, and many other means to scoop up (the water) so that it does not destroy the foundations (of the house) and make all the vessels useless - so in the soul, when it is filled with excessive pleasures, thoughts become confused, and when we are unable to remove what has accumulated, due to the fact that something new comes again, a cruel storm arises. Do not look, I beg you, at the bright, joyful face, but examine what is happening inside the soul - and you will see what great sorrow it is filled with. If it were possible, by moving the soul outward, to look at it with bodily eyes, then you would see the soul of the sensualist humiliated, mournful, saddened and exhausted. In fact, the more the body is nourished and fattened, the more the soul becomes exhausted and becomes weak. The more the former is pampered, the deeper the latter burrows into the ground. And just as in the apple of the eye, when the outer coverings surrounding it are thick, the object to be seen cannot be reflected, and it cannot be seen, because the ray is reflected from the thickness of the covering and, as a result, darkness often occurs, so the body, when it is constantly nourished, is obviously covered with excessive fatness. You may say that the dead rot, decay, and pus flows out of them profusely. But the same thing can be seen in sensualists: an accumulation of bad phlegm, phlegm, runny nose, shortness of breath, vomiting, belching - the rest, which is embarrassing to even talk about, I already ignore. Such is the power of voluptuousness - it forces us to do even what we do not dare to talk about. 4. Are you really going to ask how the body spreads out in all directions? Is it not because it eats and drinks? But this does not yet constitute a sign of human life, because the dumb also eat and drink. When the soul lies as if dead, what benefit does food and drink bring to it? Just as the body, when it lies dead, does not benefit in the least from the colored clothes covering it, so the dead soul does not receive the slightest benefit from being surrounded by a blooming body. Indeed, when she constantly talks about cooks, about table servants, about bakers, and never talks about piety, then is she really not dead? Let's see, however, what a person is. Outsiders say: man is a rational animal, mortal, gifted with intelligence and knowledge. But we won’t borrow the definition from them, but from where? From Divine Scripture. So where does Scripture define man? Listen to what it says. “This man was blameless, just and fearful of God, and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). This is the man. And again another says: “A man is great, and a merciful man is precious, but a truthful man is hard to find” (Prov. 20:6). Meanwhile, those who are not such, although they are endowed with reason and have infinite knowledge, Scripture does not call people, but dogs, horses, vipers, snakes, foxes, wolves, and everything that is the most despicable among animals. If therefore such a person must be, then, obviously, the sensualist is not a person. Indeed, how can someone be human who does not care about anything like that? It is impossible to combine voluptuousness and sobriety together - one of these properties is destroyed by the other. And those outside say the same thing - that a thick belly does not give birth to a subtle mind. In addition, Scripture sometimes calls (such) people soulless: “My Spirit will not forever be despised by men; because they are flesh” (Gen.6:3). Of course they have a soul; but since they have it dead, they are called flesh. Just as we say about the virtuous: all is soul, all is spirit, although they have a body, so we must say the opposite about the vicious. That is why Paul says: “But you do not live according to the flesh” (Rom. 8:9), since they did not do the works of the flesh. Consequently, sensualists have neither soul nor spirit. “The voluptuous one died alive,” he says. Listen, you who spend all your time feasting and drinking and who despise the poor, those who are languishing and dying of hunger, while you are constantly dying of pleasure. You become the cause of two deaths - one that befalls these unfortunates, and the other that kills you yourself, and both of them are a consequence of excess. On the contrary, if you filled their poverty with your abundance, you would save two lives. Why do you expand your belly with satiety? Why do you exhaust the poor with poverty? Do you fatten one thing beyond measure, and deplete another beyond measure? Think about what comes out of the dishes, what they turn into and what they become. But even hearing about this, you become indignant? So why do you care about accumulating more of it? After all, excess satiety is nothing more than multiplication of litter. Nature knows its limits, and what exceeds it is no longer food, but rather uncleanness and excrement. Nourish the body, do not kill it. That is why it is called food, so that we nourish the body and not destroy it. For this reason, I think, food undergoes such a transformation, so that we do not love satiety. And if this were not the case, if it did not lead to something that does not bring any benefit and would not become harmful to the body, then we would not stop devouring each other. If the womb, taking in as much as we wanted, digested everything and transferred it to the body, then you would see countless wars and disputes. In fact, if even now, when one part of food turns into droppings, and the other into useless and harmful blood and moisture, we indulge in voluptuousness and often spend our entire fortune on the table alone, then what would we not do if voluptuousness did not lead us to this? The more we indulge in voluptuousness, the more we are filled with stench, when the body, like bellows, swells on all sides, when the belching we experience upsets the brains of those nearby, when stinking vapors flow out of the body from all sides, as if from a furnace, due to the strong incandescence filled with the stench inside. If the external members become so disturbed, then what do you think the brain should experience inside, being constantly darkened by fumes? What is the position of streams of boiling blood when free circulation is blocked? What are the other viscera exposed to - the liver and spleen? What do the litter receptacles experience? And the worst thing is that we take care of the (real) containers of droppings so that they do not become clogged and spew droppings upward, for this we use all kinds of measures, and we push with poles and dig with shovels; Meanwhile, we not only do not clean the containers of our womb, but even litter and clutter it, and we do not pay any attention to the fact that the droppings rise upward, to where the king himself, that is, the brain, resides. We do all this because we look at him not as a venerable king, but as some unclean dog. This is why God placed these members away so that nothing would suffer harm from them. But we resist this, and we corrupt everything with immoderation. And who can count the other disasters that result from this? Shut up the drains of the containers (sewage) and you will see that infection will immediately appear. Consequently, if a stench encountered from the outside gives rise to infection, then does that which is located inside and is surrounded on all sides by the close boundaries of the body and has no outlet anywhere, does not cause countless diseases both to the soul and to the body? And the most terrible thing is that many are indignant at God, saying: what is this? He himself determined that we carry litter within us. Meanwhile, they themselves multiply the litter. But God arranged it this way, in order, at least, to turn us away from voluptuousness, so that, at least through this, to convince us that we should not cleave to worldly goods. And you, despite this, not only do not stop indulging in voluptuousness, but even to the very throat, even until the next dinner time, even longer than the pleasure itself continues, you continue to be satiated. Doesn't pleasure cease now, as soon as (food) passes through the tongue and larynx? The sensation consists of tasting, and after that it stops, and a state of great displeasure sets in, due to the fact that the stomach either does not digest the food taken in at all, or does it with great difficulty. Therefore, the apostle rightly said: “The voluptuous one died alive.” Indeed, a soul devoted to voluptuousness can neither hear nor speak anything. She becomes effeminate, sluggish, timid, unfree, fearful, full of cruelty, ignorance, flattery, rage, laziness - full of all vices, and alien to their opposite virtues. As a result of this, the apostle says: “And teach these things to them, that they may be blameless” (1 Tim. 5:7). Do you see that this instruction takes the form of a law? He does not present this to the freedom of everyone, but says: command that they not be satiated, because this is an obvious sin, so it is impossible and completely inappropriate for someone who leads a luxurious life to be a communicant of the sacraments. “And instill this in them,” he says, “so that they may be blameless.” Do you see that this is classified as a sin? Meanwhile, what is given to everyone’s freedom, even if not observed, does not in the least prevent one from being impeccable. Therefore, in obedience to Paul, we too will command that widows who are given over to voluptuousness should be excluded from the number of widows. Indeed, if a warrior who is engaged in baths, theaters and trade is condemned on the same basis as a fugitive, then all the more so should this be said about widows. Let us not seek peace here in order to find it there. Let us not indulge in pleasure here, so that there we can taste true pleasure, true pleasure, which does not cause any harm and contains countless blessings, which may we all be deemed worthy to receive in Christ Jesus, with whom to the Father with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. These conversations were delivered by the saint, probably in Antioch around 397. You might be interested in: