Беседа 16

1 Timothy 5:21–23. Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the chosen Angels, I conjure you to preserve this without prejudice, doing nothing out of partiality. Do not lay your hands on anyone hastily, and do not become a participant in the sins of others. Keep yourself clean. From now on, drink more than just water, but use a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Moral instructions. 1. Having spoken about bishops, about deacons, husbands, wives, about widows, about presbyters and about everyone else, and showing over whom the authority of the bishop extends, (the apostle) when he began to talk about judgment, he added: “Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the chosen angels, I adjure you to preserve this without prejudice, doing nothing out of partiality.” Now, finally (he utters) a terrible admonition, because he was not ashamed (to say this) even out of respect for the fact that Timothy was his beloved child. The one who was not ashamed to say about himself: “so that, having preached to others, he himself would not remain unworthy” (1 Cor. 9:27), was much less ashamed and ashamed (to say so) of Timothy. However, he (acts) well, calling the Father and the Son as witnesses; but for what else - the chosen angels? Due to the great condescension, because Moses says in the same way: “I am testified to you today by heaven and earth” (Deut. 4:26), - due to the great condescension of the Lord. And again: “hear the wilds, the foundations of the earth; Hear, ye mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and ye solid foundations of the earth: for the Lord has judgment with his people, and with Israel he contendeth” (Micah 6:2). And he calls on the Father and the Son as Witnesses of what he said, so that on the coming day, if something happened contrary to duty, he would remain right before Them, that is, as if relieving himself of all (responsibility). “I conjure you to preserve this,” he says, “without prejudice, without doing anything out of partiality.” That is, you must be friendly and fair to those on trial and awaiting a verdict from you, and no one should predispose you in their favor and win you over to their side. But who are these chosen angels? Some, therefore, seemed not to be. That is why Jacob takes God and the hill as witnesses. In the same way, we often take both important and insignificant persons as witnesses. Testimony is of such great importance. He seemed to say this: I call God, and His Son, and His servants to be witnesses, that I have commanded you; Behold, before them I command you. He frightens Timothy. Then, having said this, he added what was most opportune, what primarily contributes to the structure of the Church - namely, about ordinations. “Do not lay your hands on anyone hastily, and do not become a participant in the sins of others.” What does “hastily” mean? Not according to the first, not the second, not the third test, but having repeatedly examined and carefully examined, since this is not a safe matter. For the sins he has committed, both past and future, you, who gave him power, will also be punished, because it was untimely Having forgiven him the previous sins, you will become guilty of those that he will commit later; you will be the cause of these latter because you entrusted him with the authorities, and the former because you did not allow him to mourn them and come to a state of contrition. You become an accomplice of both his good deeds and sins. wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments." If the apostle commands abstinence to a husband who observed fasts to such an extent and drank water for so long that he even began to suffer from illnesses and frequent ailments, and he is not upset, then all the more should we not be upset when we listen to someone’s instructions. Why didn't he heal his stomach? Not because he couldn’t, but because he wanted to extract some important instruction from here; and the one whose clothes raised the dead could no doubt do this too. So why didn't he do this? Then, so that we, when we now see great and virtuous people subject to illnesses, are not tempted by this. Thus, this was also beneficial. If he himself was given an angel of Satan so that he would not become proud, then how much more so did Timothy, because signs could easily lead him to pride. Therefore (the apostle) allowed him to use the rules of medical science, so that he himself would think less about himself, and others would not be tempted, and would understand that those holy men, being of the same nature as us, did what they did. In addition, it seems to me that he was susceptible to illnesses from other reasons; The apostle indicates this when he says: “for the sake of your frequent ailments,” both from the stomach and from other parts of the body. However, he did not allow him to get immoderately drunk on wine, but only as much as was necessary for health, and not for pleasure. “Some people’s sins are obvious and lead directly to condemnation, but some are revealed later” (1 Timothy 5:24). Since he was talking about ordinations, he said: “and do not become a participant in the sins of others.” But what if I don't know, you say? “The sins of some people are obvious and directly lead to condemnation, and some are revealed later.” For some, he says, they are obvious because they precede; but others do not, and they follow them. “In the same way, good deeds are evident; and even if they are not, they cannot hide” (1 Timothy 5:25). “Slaves who are under yokes must consider their masters worthy of all honor, so that there is no blasphemy against the name of God and the teaching” (1 Tim. 6:1). “All honor,” he says, “worthy.” Do not think that if you are faithful, then you are free: this freedom consists in being even more of a slave. An infidel, if he sees that through faith people fall into conceit, will often revile it as a teaching that leads to indignation, and if he notices that they are submissive, the sooner he himself will submit, the more attentive he will be to what is said. Thus, if the faithful are not obedient, both God and the message will be reproached. But what, you ask, if the gentlemen are unfaithful? And in this case, one must submit for the sake of the name of God. “Those who have faithful masters,” he says, “should not treat them carelessly, because they are brothers; but we ought to serve them all the more because they are faithful and beloved and do good to them" (1 Tim. 6:2). 2. He seemed to be saying this: if you have been honored with such an honor that you have your brothers as masters, you must therefore especially obey them. “Directly,” he says, “lead to condemnation,” that is, from bad deeds, some are hidden here, others are not; and there neither bad nor good can hide. What does it mean: “They lead directly to condemnation”! That is, when someone sins, his sins already condemn him, if he does not correct himself, or if he hopes to correct himself, but does not do so. But for what, and why was this said? Because even though some are hiding here, but they will not hide there: everything is open there. Meanwhile, for the righteous, this serves as the greatest consolation. Then, since he said: “doing nothing out of partiality,” he added for the necessary explanation: “Slaves who are under the yoke.” But what does this have to do with the bishop, you ask? slaves rather than masters, and showing them how to obey, and talking a lot about them. Namely, he exhorts the first to submit with great meekness, and inspires the last to reduce fear, saying: “moderating severity” (Eph. 6:9). But why does he command this? It is fair towards the unbelievers, because there is no reason to talk to those who do not listen. And in relation to the faithful, why? Because masters give more to slaves than slaves to masters; the first spend gold on them, and take care of supplying them with necessary things, clothing and everything else. Thus, the masters provide them with more services, as the apostle points out here, saying: “that they are faithful and beloved and do good to them.” They worry and work for your peace of mind - and should they not enjoy great honor from their servants? If he commanded the slaves to remain in such obedience, then think to what extent we should be disposed towards the Master, who brought us from non-existence into being, who feeds us, and clothes. Therefore, we strive to serve him - if not in some other way, then at least as much as our slaves serve us. Isn’t that what they dedicated their whole lives to, to bring peace to their masters? Isn’t this their occupation, isn’t this their life, to take care of the affairs of their masters? Don’t they spend the whole day worrying about their master’s affairs, while they often have a small part of the evening left to correct their own affairs? But we, on the contrary: we are constantly busy with our own affairs, and for what relates to the Lord, we do not have even a small part of the time, and moreover, we do this when He not only does not need our services, just as masters (need the services) of slaves, but also turns these very services to our benefit. There the servant's service benefits the master; and here the service of a slave means nothing to the Master, but is useful to the slave himself. “Good things,” they say, “You do not need mine” (Ps. 15:2). In fact, tell me, what will be the benefit to God if I am righteous, and what harm will be if I am unrighteous? Isn’t His nature without admixture? Isn’t it free from damage? Isn’t it above all suffering? Slaves have nothing of their own, everything belongs to the master, even if they were infinitely rich. On the contrary, we have much of our own, and it is not without reason that we have received such honor from the King of all. What master gave his son for a slave? No. On the contrary, everyone would rather give their slaves for their sons. But here, on the contrary: He did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for all of us - for the enemies who hated Him. Slaves, even if they were ordered to do something painful, are not annoyed, especially if they are well-behaved; and we become discouraged a thousand times over. The master does not promise anything to the slaves that God promised us. But what? Liberation from slavery in this world, which is often worse than slavery, because famine often happens, and then this freedom becomes worse than slavery; meanwhile, it constitutes the greatest gift. But with God there is nothing temporary, nothing perishable - but what? Do you want to know? Listen. “I no longer,” says (the Lord), “call you servants. You are My friends” (John 15:15, 14). Let us be ashamed, beloved, let us be afraid; Shall we really not serve the Master, at least as much as the slaves serve us, or, more correctly speaking, won’t we reveal our service even in the smallest part? They philosophize out of necessity, having only shelter and food; and we, having partly already received, partly expecting countless benefits, insult the Benefactor with excessive luxury. If not from any other source, then at least from them we will accept the rules of wisdom. Scripture usually refers people not to slaves, but even to dumb animals, for example, when it commands them to imitate either a bee or ants. And I urge you to imitate, at least, slaves. What they do out of fear of us, we will do, at least out of fear of God; and we do not find that you do this. Out of fear of us, they are insulted a thousand times and stand in silence more imperturbably than any philosopher; they receive insults fairly and unfairly, and do not contradict, but ask for forgiveness, often without even doing anything bad. Receiving nothing more than what is necessary, and often even less, they are content with this. Sleeping on a bed of straw, eating only bread and leading a meager life in all respects, they do not complain or be upset because of the fear that we instill in them. When money is entrusted to them, they return it in full (do not point me to the wicked slaves, but to those who are not very evil); when we threaten them, they immediately humble themselves. Isn't this what wisdom consists of? Don’t tell me that this happens due to necessity, because you too will have to fall into Gehenna, and, despite this, you do not come to your senses and do not give God the same honor that you receive from slaves. Each servant has his own specific home, and does not attack the home of his neighbor, and is not consumed by the desire to acquire more. And everyone sees that slaves observe this out of fear of their masters; and you rarely see one slave stealing or spoiling anything from another. But among free people the opposite of this happens. We gnaw, devour each other, we are not afraid of the Lord; and in His eyes we rob, steal, and beat our fellow servants. Meanwhile, the slave would not do this, and even if he hit someone, it would not be in the eyes of the master; even if he scolded someone, it would be so that the master would not hear. And we dare to do this before God, Who sees and hears everything. The fear of the master is always before their eyes; but we never have it. That is why everything has become disorganized with us, everything has merged and become corrupted; and our crimes do not even enter our minds, and when our slaves sin, we examine everything with precision, down to the smallest detail. I say this not with the aim of making slaves lazy, but to destroy our laziness and awaken us from carelessness, so that we serve God at least as slaves serve us, (serve) Him who created us in the same way as those who are of one essence with us and who have not received anything like that from us serve. By nature they too are free: “and have dominion over the fish” (Gen. v26), it was said to them. This slavery is not from nature, but arose from chance and circumstances and, despite this, they do us great honor. Meanwhile, we, demanding services from them, focus on them with all severity, and at the same time we do not devote the slightest part of the service to God, despite the fact that the benefit from this turns back to us. After all, the more diligently we serve God, the more benefit we will receive for ourselves, the greater the benefit for ourselves. Let us not deprive ourselves of such a great acquisition. God is self-sufficient and lacks nothing; reward and benefit returns to us again. So, I beg you, let us try to acquire such a disposition as if we were serving not God, but ourselves, and let us work for him with fear and trembling, so that we may be worthy of the promised blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, 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: