A Word about the Apostle Peter and the Prophet Elijah

Why should priests resist major sins? – Peter is allowed to fall into sin so that he will be lenient towards others. – God allowed Elijah to fall into sin so that he would be more merciful to others. – Why did God choose people over angels? - Deception of the pagan priests. 1. Few of us present today: what is the reason for this? We commemorate the martyrs, but no one came to us. Was it not the remoteness of the journey that was the reason for their carelessness? But, rather, it was not the remoteness of the journey, but negligence that prevented them. And just as nothing can hinder a zealous and vigorous-willed person, so anything can hinder a careless and lazy person. The martyrs shed their blood for the truth, and you don’t want to endure the shortcut? They laid down their lives for Christ, and you don’t even want to go outside the city for the Master? The Lord died for you, and you show negligence towards Him? Today is the memory of the martyrs, and you indulge in laziness and carelessness? You were to come and see how the devil was overcome, the martyr was victorious, God was glorified, and the church was crowned. But here is their excuse; I am a sinner, they say, and I cannot come. Yes, come precisely because you are a sinner, so that you do not lose righteousness. Who is without sin, tell me? But this is why sacrifice and the church exist, why prayers and fasting exist, because there are many spiritual wounds: that is why many medical remedies have been found against them, and appropriate medicine has been prepared for each mental wound. You have a church that offers sacrifices, the prayers of the fathers, the help of the Holy Spirit, services in memory of the martyrs, a host of saints and much that can call you from sin to righteousness; but you did not resort to the prayer of the martyrs: what excuse do you have? You have no misfortune, and yet you have found obstacles to showing like-mindedness (with us) towards the martyrs. Were it not the cares of life that held you back? This is even more to blame. Have you not devoted a short hour to God, so that you can use it the whole day? I am a sinner, you say, and I cannot do this. But come because you are a sinner; or do you not know that those who stand before the altar themselves are subject to sins, since they too are clothed with flesh, partakers of blood and made up of bones - that we ourselves, who sit on the seat and teach, are subject to sins, although we do not despair of God’s love for mankind and do not attribute inhumanity to Him, since we are all people made up of the same thing. And yet we do not cease to teach, looking at the abyss of God’s love for mankind. You who have sinned are not even so guilty if you come here, because you are studying, and the more we have advantages in rank, the more we are subject to accusation: it is another thing for a student to sin, and another for a student to sin. And yet we do not refuse this, lest, under the pretext of humility, we indulge in carelessness. And this happened by order of God - that the priests themselves were subject to sins. How is this, listen. If the teachers and priests themselves did not sin and were not involved in the passions of life, then they would be inhuman and unmerciful in relation to others: therefore, God arranged that the priests and leaders themselves are slaves of the passions, so that in what they themselves suffer, they would show leniency to others. And always, not only now, but also in ancient times, God arranged it in such a way that those to whom He was pleased to entrust the church and the people, He allowed to be subject to sins, so that from their falls they would become philanthropic towards others. If they themselves had not sinned, they would not have shown any leniency towards sinners, but, having become inhuman, they would have excommunicated everyone from the church. And that this is really so, and I am not saying this by guesswork, I will try to explain with a clear example. Peter was entrusted with the keys of heaven, and a multitude of people were entrusted. What did the Lord tell him? “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). Peter was sometimes too strict; and if he were sinless, then what kind of leniency could those taught by him receive from him? Therefore, divine grace allowed him to fall into sin, so that in what he himself suffered, he would be lenient towards others. And look who she allows to fall into sin: this Peter, the supreme of the apostles, the unshakable foundation, the indestructible stone, the first in the church, the storm-proof pier, the unshakable pillar. The same Peter who said to Christ: “even though I should die with You, I will not deny You” (Matthew 26:35), Peter who, by divine revelation, confessed the truth: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), on the night on which Christ was betrayed, when he entered and stood by the fire to warm himself, and when, the evangelist says, “come one servant girl came to him, saying, “You were also” (“a certain maid came up to him and said, “You too were with this man yesterday”) - this Peter answered: “I do not know this Man.” Oh, Peter, is this what you promised? You have not yet seen either torture or scourges, but only heard the words of an insignificant slave, and resorted to denial. Are you, Peter, in denial? There have yet been no torments, no scourges, no blows, no fury, no rulers, no sophisticated swords, no decrees issued, no threatening kings, no approaching death, no prisons, no abysses, no sea and nothing like that, and you denied: I don’t know a man? Again the slave says to him: yesterday you were with this man, and he answers her: I don’t know the person you’re talking about. Who is it that says to you: renounce? Not someone important, but a woman, moreover, a gatekeeper, an outcast, a captive, not deserving of any attention - she says: renounce. Oh, extraordinary things! The slave forced Peter to recant; the harlot who approached Peter confused his faith; Peter, this pillar, could not withstand the threat (of the slave), but as soon as she spoke, this pillar shook and this stronghold shook. Who do you see, Peter, that you are denying? An insignificant slave and a despicable gatekeeper; do you see her and deny her? And a third time they said to him: yesterday you were with this man; he also renounced for the third time. Then at last Jesus looked and reminded him of what he had said; and he, realizing, began to cry and repent of sin. So the humane Lord allowed him to fall into sin, knowing that he, as a man, was subjected to human things; but, as I said above, this was arranged because a multitude of people were entrusted to him, so that he, while remaining strict and sinless, would not be unmerciful to his brothers. He fell into sin so that, thinking about his own sin and the forgiveness of the Master, he would show others the mercy of philanthropy, according to the divine dispensation, in accordance with the will of God. Thus, the one to whom the church, the pillar of the churches, the refuge of faith, was entrusted was allowed to sin: Peter, the teacher of the universe, was allowed to sin, so that this allowance would serve as a reason for philanthropy towards others. But why did I say this? To explain that we, the priests, who sit on the seat and teach, are bound by sins. That is why the priesthood is not entrusted to either an angel or an archangel, since they are sinless, so that, out of severity, they would not suddenly strike sinners among the people with lightning; but man, born of man, is entrusted with this seat, and he himself is subject to lust and sin, so that, having met some sinner, he, as a result of his own sins, would be more philanthropic towards this sinner. Truly, if the priest were an angel, then, having met some adulterer, he would immediately kill him, not being himself involved in such passion. Therefore, if an angel received the power of the priesthood, he would not teach, but would immediately kill, since, not being one himself, he would be inflamed with anger against such a person. But for this reason it is entrusted to man, so that he, aware of his sins and having experience, would be lenient towards sinners and not be irritated by anger, and so that the church would not become impoverished through such a course of action. 2. But why am I limiting myself to Peter when presenting this subject, and not making a transition to another person with a single word? Let us now imagine another, namely Elijah, a prophet, an earthly angel and a heavenly man, who walked the earth and drove a heavenly chariot, who was three cubits tall and reached a great height, who rose to the very vaults of heaven, the lord of the waters, whose tongue was the repository of the waters and the key of heaven; he was both poor and rich, both simple and wise: poor because he acquired nothing, rich because he contained rain clouds in his mouth. And he was so strict towards sinners that he once prayed that God would not give rain. And what did he say? “As the Lord lives...,” he says, “in these years there will be no... rain, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). What are you doing, Elijah? What are you announcing? Pray to the Lord, and thus fulfill the words: “As the Lord lives... if there is... rain, the word will come from my mouth.” Where are the heretics who argue that the Son of God prays? Unhappy, pathetic and shameless! Here Elijah defines; and the Son prays? The slave commands; and the Lord asks? Really, won't you give Him the same honor as Elijah? Don't you really want to give the Master the same dignity as a slave? Elijah does not pray or ask, but spoke the word of truth and closed heaven. Pray first, Elijah. But what about Elijah? I know, he says, that my Lord will listen to me, because I do this out of jealousy. Oh, extraordinary and wondrous things! Do you see the Lord overcome by the good will of the servant? Elijah did this out of great jealousy. He saw many obscene deeds, saw fornication reigning along with great wickedness. The night embraced the entire universe; a thick cloud covered everything; everyone was mired in evil; there was a general shipwreck, not from water, but from debauchery; chastity was banished, and debauchery triumphed; virtue was persecuted and vice flourished; hills, mountains, forested valleys, roads, reservoirs and air were desecrated; the sun was darkened by smoke, the earth became unclean, the sky was humiliated, all creatures suffered from idolatry; everyone wandered as if in darkness, not delving into the essence of creatures: they saw a stone and worshiped it as God; they saw a tree and also revered it as God. The thickest darkness enveloped the people: they saw the Creator and worshiped creatures. Elijah alone possessed the lamp of virtue, rising in wisdom, as if sitting on the top of a mountain, and practicing it; he alone had the lamp of piety, although his light did not benefit anyone, because people were in an insensitive state and indulged in idolatry. Therefore, Elijah lost his temper, was tormented, complained, made speeches, but no one listened; he exhorted, but no one stopped; finally, prompted by jealousy, he wants to attract them and enlighten them, so that, although exhausted by hunger, they turn with prayer to the Creator, so that hunger becomes for them an incentive to piety. Nothing can reason with them, he said, except hunger; Only in this way, oppressed on all sides, will they resort to the Creator of all. So what about Elijah? “As the Lord lives,” he says, “even if it rains, then from the mouth of my word.” The word of the prophet was pronounced, and immediately the air changed; the sky became copper, not changing its nature, but being delayed in its activity; the elements were immediately transformed. The word of the prophet fell like fire into the bowels of the earth, and suddenly everything began to dry up, everything was empty, everything was disappearing; immediately they saw how the grass began to to dry up, plants and trees, fruitful and barren, located both in the fields and by the sea: everything dried up, animate creatures of all ages died - and there was crying of children, weeping of mothers and great despair. One word of the prophet was spoken, and look how much it did. Thus, everything died - wild animals, livestock, children, adults, animals and all birds, there was a general shipwreck, and disaster suddenly engulfed the whole earth; no one could escape, but everyone died from drought, plants, springs, rivers, lakes dried up, and everything generally perished; a general shipwreck engulfed the entire earth, not from water, but from drought; the sky was at first bound, and finally completely enclosed and completely changed its properties. So, everything died and perished from the wrath that descended from above; and Elijah did not care about anything, because he was filled with jealousy. Then every immature age perished. What are you doing, Elijah? Let the young men sin: why are children punished? Let people sin: why do animals die along with them? Have you really clothed yourself with such unmercifulness? You don't care about any people; you have neither a wife nor children; you pay no attention to those who are perishing. What does God mean to him? “Go...,” He says, “and hide yourself by the brook Cherith... and I commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:3-4). Again, I would be happy to talk to a Jew, calling him to the middle to show him that the law destroyed what was written in the law and did not contain in itself either constancy or righteousness, since it was not the truth, but a shadow: there was a shadow, and here the truth; there is a prototype, but here is the real thing. Elijah, whom you revere, whose coming you look forward to, about whom you talk a lot, whom you call a prophet - how did he take food from the raven? The raven is legally unclean; so the law declared that the raven was unclean. How did the prophet accept food from the unclean raven? If the law called the raven unclean, then, of course, the one who took food from the raven also became unclean. However, this was not the case; no, it couldn’t be; and Elijah accepted food from the raven, not considering any of the Lord's creatures unclean. Then, after some time has passed, when the stream has finally dried up, God sends a prophet to obtain food. “Go,” He says, “to Zarephath of Sidon... I commanded a widow woman there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9). God did this with a special intention. Since Elijah did not know what was happening (he sat in one place and did not see the general disaster, how everything dried up, lakes, springs, rivers, plants, and trees, young and old, fruitful and barren, located at springs and lake waters, how birds and all other animals died, children died, mothers wept, did not see this general disaster), then God raises him up and commands him to cross a huge expanse of earth. from there to Sidon, so that Elijah, seeing what was happening, turned to the Lord with a prayer for the granting of rain. Thus, God sends him on a long journey, not because He could not feed him there, but wanting to show Elijah the disaster so that he would pray for rain. Of course, God could have done this without him, but He did not want to offend His slave by revealing him to be the author of evils, and Himself the author of good things, and waited for the slave’s prayer. However, he did not soften even this, but fell into some kind of madness and made his way, clothed in cruelty and not paying attention to anyone, because he was, as I said, filled with jealousy. Why are you mad, Elijah? Why have you clothed yourself with such inhumanity? Wait a little, and you yourself will be convicted of sin. For the sins of the inhabitants, you called a drought, closed the sky, put a bridle on the earth, stopped the flow of nature, and do not want to pray for an end to this? After a little time, you yourself will be convicted of sin and will receive pardon from your Master, so that you can become more philanthropic towards slaves like you. 3. I began to talk about this today in order to show that it was not an angel who was appointed priest, but a man born of man, so that sinners would not be destroyed by the sinless. If the priest were a sinless angel, he would immediately punish those who sin; That is why man was appointed so that he would be lenient towards the servile, receiving from his own passions a reminder of the accomplices of his nature. Then we stated that God allowed great men, to whom he entrusted large numbers of people, to fall into sin and granted them forgiveness, so that they, having come to their senses by this, themselves would be more philanthropic. I also cited the example of Peter the Apostle, who was allowed to fall into sin, but who through repentance blotted out this sin according to God’s love for mankind. Now we will return to Elijah and show the abyss of his great deeds, and how God wanted to show love for mankind, but Elijah did not show love for mankind; God wanted to send rain, but he was waiting for a prayer from a slave. So what? Elijah walked all the way, came to Zarephath of Sidon and saw a widow gathering firewood. However, note the wisdom and faith of Elijah. Again another abyss of his virtues opened up. He did not say to God: to whom are You sending me? Why do you force me to endure such dangers and send me to the widow for extreme hunger? Aren't there other richer people who can alleviate my poverty? And I take such a long journey to meet a widow in the very center of disasters, and not only a widow, but also a poor one? Notice how the servant of God did not say anything like that, because he trusted in his Master, who makes the possible out of the impossible. “Go,” He said, “to Zarephath of Sidon... And... behold, there a widow woman is gathering wood” (1 Kings 17:9-10). Why are you going further, Elijah? Why are you resorting to the widow? You see the threshold of poverty, - do not ask about the degree of poverty; you see the entrance (to the abode) of poverty, - do not ask about what is inside. Where Do you come in, Elijah? You see her gathering wood and ask her for food? However, having the word of the Lord as a guarantee, he went and entered into a conversation with the widow. “Give me a little water... to drink” (1 Kings 17:10). Do you see the wisdom of Elijah, how he did not suddenly start with more, but first with what was less expensive? He did not say: give me bread, but: bring me water. First he asks for water, believing that if she has water, she can have bread. Bring me, he says, some water. The widow went and brought it to him, and he drank. And, thus receiving hope, he says: “Take me a piece of bread to eat” (1 Kings 17:11). She answers him: “As the Lord your God lives! I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in a tub and a little oil in a jug; ...and I will prepare it for myself and for my son; Let us eat this and die” (1 Kings 17:12). What about Elijah? “Go...,” he says, “first... make a little unleavened bread for me and bring it to me, and then you will make it for yourself and for your son after” (1 Kings 17:13). What are you doing, Elijah? Let it be so, you want bread; why do you make special demands for yourself before? Shouldn’t you be grateful if you eat with the children? Do you want to be alone and starve the children? I want, he says, not to kill, but to bless. I know the generosity of my Lord. The widow was not embarrassed, did not think anything obscene and did not say: you caused this famine, and do you want to eat from me with the remains of your hunger? Didn’t she say: you traveled through so many countries and came to me to starve my children, being the culprit of the famine yourself? But this woman, worthy of Abraham, went and did according to the word of the prophet; and one could see how the widow turned out to be much more hospitable than Abraham himself. He, being rich, treated the angels; and this one, expecting death from hunger, treated the prophet. One could see how nature was despised and hospitality revered; one could see how the womb was rejected and the prophet was accepted; She put the entire host of children in the coffin, because, as much as depended on the will of the widow, they were already dead, but by God’s love for mankind they continue to live and grow stronger. I don’t know how I can praise this widow: how she despised the children and showed hospitality, how her very nature did not become numb, how her womb was not perverted, how her insides were not torn apart at the sight of a whole host of children who were about to die of hunger. But she was above all this and showed hospitality to the prophet. When the prophet received the bread and ate it, he then gave the reward; the widow sowed hospitality, and immediately reaped the ear of this hospitality. What does Elijah tell her? As the Lord lives, “the jar of flour will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail” (1 Kings 17:14). And the widow’s right hand became a grindstone, and her left a threshing floor and sheaves, bearing fruit in need and, according to the word of the prophet, feeding the widow. The widow's house became a grindstone and a threshing floor; not dew, not rain, not spring, not autumn, not summer, not heat. It is not the power of the winds, not the change of times, but only one word spoken by the prophet and, moreover, spoken by his own decision, that brings abundance to the widow. Then from here, I will say briefly, the prophet went to King Achaav. I am now speaking about his great deeds so that when you see him sin, you will know the grace of God, filled with love for mankind. So what does Achaab tell him? “Is it you who troubles Israel?” The prophet answers him: “Not I..., but you and your father’s house” (1 Kings 18:17–18). Do you see the boldness of the prophet, how he denounced the king? Then, when he was sitting on the mountain and a Pentecostal man came to him and said: “Man of God! the king calls you: come down,” the prophet answers him: “if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fiftieth” (2 Kings 1:9-10). Then another time another Pentecostal said: “man of God... come down..., the king has need of you” (2 Kings 1:11). And what does Elijah have to do with him? “If I am a man of God, then let him come down.” fire from heaven will consume you and your fifty” (2 Kings 1:12). After this, when he came to the appointed prayer, he called the wicked priests of Baal and said to them: let us pray, and added: build a special altar, and choose two oxen and put one on the wood, and do not add fire, I will do the same; “And you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God. The God who gives the answer through fire is the true God (1 Kings 18:23–24). Then the wicked priests built an altar and began to call upon Baal, saying: “Baal, hear us!” . Their prayer continued for a long time, but no one listened to them, for “there was neither voice nor answer” (1 Kings 18:26); meanwhile Elijah waited patiently while they prayed. When he saw that, despite their great efforts, no one listened to them, then, laughing at them, he said, “Shout with a loud voice... perhaps... your God is sleeping” (1 Kings 18:27). Finally, when it was already noon and time was running out, he said to them: “Now retreat and I will make my sacrifice” (1 Kings 18:29), - and he built an altar, put wood on it and said: “Bring ... water” around the altar, and they brought: “Repeat.” And they repeated ... do it... for the third time. And they did it a third time” (1 Kings 18:34). But notice why Elijah does this too. Because deception usually appropriates to itself what is inherent in the truth, as, for example, dissolute women do, warning and calling honest women harlots so that they do not have anything to reproach them with. 4. However, Elijah acts wisely in this case too. Why? But I want to say what I myself was an eyewitness. In idol altars there are holes in the lower part of the altar, and an inconspicuous pit is built under it; in this pit the perpetrators of deception hide and through those holes they spew fire from the bottom up onto the victim, so that many are deceived and consider this fire to be heavenly. Therefore, Elijah, so that they would not suspect him of doing something similar, poured water so that the water would discover if there were holes, since where the water finds a hole, there it certainly does not stop, but leaves. So, he filled the altar with water and began to pray, saying: “Listen to me, Lord... with fire this day.” You listened to me with water, “Listen to me with fire” 1 (1 Kings 18:37). And so, when he called on Him, fire suddenly descended from heaven and burned the sacrifice, and the stones, and the water was consumed by the fire (1 Kings 18:38). What does he say? people? “Seize the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them escapes. And they seize” and kill them, (1 Kings 18:40) numbering four hundred and fifty priests of Baal and four hundred of the groves. Jezebel, the wife of Achaab, heard about what had happened, “and she sent to Elijah to say: Let the gods do this and that to me, and even more, if by this time tomorrow I do not do to your soul what has been done to the soul of each of them” (1 Kings 19:2). Elijah, hearing this, fled. Where is Elijah, so tall and great? My goal is to show that he too fell into sin; I say: into sin, not condemning the righteous, but wanting to show a saving lesson, so that when you see the righteous who have sinned and yet do not despair of themselves, but are honored by God’s love for mankind, then, even if you yourself sin, you will have greater hope for salvation. When Jezebel said: “Let the gods do this to me, and let this be added to me, as... morning I will lay down your life, as if only the life of one of them,” then Elijah, hearing this, turned to flight and fled for forty days. Oh, excessive cowardice! He heard the word of a woman - and fled, being on the road for forty days - not one day, not two or three, but as soon as the word of this woman reached the prophet, out of cowardice he did not know what he was doing, having turned to such flight. What's wrong with you, Elijah? You closed the sky and stopped the rain, showed power over the air, called down fire from above, slaughtered the priests, said to King Ahaav: “You are the one who corrupts Israel... and your father’s house”; you said: “As the Lord lives... there will be no rain, except at my word”; you made the widow’s house a threshing floor and sheaves, you commanded the elements, and when you heard the words of the harlot, you turned to flight, and one woman took you captive? Two the strongholds were shaken by a woman: Peter was afraid of the servant, and this one was afraid of Jezebel, and both fell into the same sins. And Elijah fled for forty days. Where is your zeal, Elijah, when you said: “As the Lord lives... there will be no rain, except at my word,” when you denounced King Ahab, when you called on fire, and did not bear the words of one woman? of yours, so that He would send rain to the earth? He spoke to you with clear signs: pray to Me, who, although I can give rain without you, I do not want it, so that, just as you were the author of evil, you would also become the beginning of the bestowal of blessings. Truly you, Elijah, have done a deed full of cruelty; God took pity on the disaster, because He is the Creator of everything and the Creator of all, as well as the Provider of everything; He wanted to soften your inhumanity, but you remained with him. He told you: I know the disaster that is happening, I hear the cries of mothers, I see the sobs of children, I see the destruction of the earth that I created, and I want to have mercy; but I don’t want to offend you and send rain without your decision, so that you, who were the culprit of evil, would not remain alien to good things; I do you the honor. Oh, the Lord’s love for mankind, overcome by favor towards the slave! However, he thought a lot about himself as sinless; and now he himself found himself fallen into sin, since God allowed this with the intention that he, having received leniency himself, would not be cruel to others. And Elijah fled, the Scripture says, “forty days” (1 Kings 19:8). Where are the words that he spoke to the Pentecostals, and with which he brought down fire and burned them? So God wanted to show that even at the time when Elijah performed miracles, it was not he himself who acted, but the power of God; and therefore, look what happens. When God acted, then kings, rulers, and people fell; and when God retreated, the woman also seemed terrible; God retreated and human nature was put to shame. Meanwhile, after forty days of flight, Elijah came and slept in one place; God comes to him, a caring and man-loving Lord to the servant, and what does he say to him? Although He knew why he came here, he asks: “Why are you here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9) - hinting at his flight, and as if saying: you ran away; where is your former boldness? Learn not to rely on yourself. “Why are you here, Elijah?” . Elijah answers, but having one thing in mind and expressing the other in words. What does Elijah say? Lord, “they killed your prophets”, “they destroyed your altars... I am left alone, but they are also looking for my soul to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). What does God mean to him? He immediately denounces him. That is not why you ran away, Elijah, He says, since you were not the only one who did not worship Baal; and then, denouncing him, he continues: “I left... seven thousand [men]... whose knees did not bow to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). So, God convicted him that this was not why he ran away, but because he was afraid of the woman. One woman made such a high and great man an exile and fugitive, so that you, Elijah, might learn, when you do something wondrous, to attribute it not to yourself, but to the power of God. Do you see how nature was put to shame when grace retreated? Elijah ran for fourty days. Oh, the power of fear! Oh, the excess of cowardice! He ran not one day, not two, not three, but forty days, and retired to the most deserted places, without food, without stocking up on food supplies, because, filled with fear, he did not think about it, but strove for uninhabited places. The woman’s word reached the prophet, and just as the wind, striking the sail strongly, quickly carries the ship, so this woman’s word, reaching the prophet, with great swiftness carried him into the desert. Where, Elijah, is your former boldness? Where are the terrifying lips? Where is the tongue that controlled the rains? Where is the one who commanded both elements, who either enclosed the sky, or called upon fire for sacrifice? But, as I said above, he did all this by the action of grace: therefore he is convicted by God. Do you see how he was allowed to fall into a small sin in order to put on the whole robe of love for mankind? So, Elijah, you are finally brought to your senses; Be philanthropic, like your Master, after you have been admonished and taught by your Master. Do you see how God allowed pillars, strongholds and strongholds to fall into minor sin? This is so that, in the event of their own sinlessness, they do not excommunicate everyone from the church, so that when they see some sinner and want to show no mercy towards him, they will remember their own sinfulness and show him the same kindness that they themselves have received from the Master. We said this not to condemn the righteous, but wanting to prepare the way for you to salvation, so that when you sin, you would not despair of your salvation, remembering the righteous who sinned, but through repentance did not experience a decrease in their honor. We spoke in advance about their virtues, and then mentioned their sins. Likewise, if you are a sinner, do not leave the church; and if you are righteous, do not forsake it either, so that, having always in your memory the knowledge of the scriptures, you remain righteous, remembering the kingdom of heaven and the good things that God has prepared for those who love Him: to Him belongs the glory, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Quote according to glory Bible – I.I. The word belongs to St. John Chrysostom is questioned on the basis mainly of syllable characteristics. In Minh's edition it belongs to the Dubia department.