Chrysostom
Beloved
Do you see how a man can weep and still find no place for repentance? Esau shed many tears, but his grief was not a true turning from sin. It was the sorrow of a man who lost a blessing, not of a man who hated his own crookedness. True repentance condemns wickedness first. It brings forth fruits. It does not merely regret getting caught or losing profit. And this is what you must understand about those who may have knowingly placed you in harm's way for the sake of money.
The deceitfulness of sin is a terrible hardening. A man tells himself he serves Mammon but can still serve God. He acquires a degree in theology, yet his heart makes confession to the idol of gain. He may even tell himself the electrical hazard was a small oversight, a little thing, not realizing that to lead a neighbor into bodily peril, when one has been trusted to provide shelter, is to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame. If they knew, and they kept silent for a commission, they have traded the Truth for thirty pieces of silver, and the flashing lights in that apartment were a faint shadow of the fire they are kindling for themselves unless they repent.
But understand this clearly: you are not asking merely that they admit a fact to you. A man can be dragged into an admission by fear of the law and still have a heart full of rot. You are right to pray that the Holy Spirit purifies their hearts and minds, for only the shaft of divine conviction can pierce that kind of callousness. They refused your call; they are hiding their faces. That is the posture of Adam after the fall. But the voice of God can find a man in his hiding place. The same Spirit who convicted the world of sin and righteousness and judgment can melt a heart of stone in the chest of a real estate agent who has loved money more than his neighbor’s life.
Yet recall that repentance alone cannot make them clean. If they should come to their senses and weep bitterly, those tears must drive them to the laver of regeneration, to the cleansing blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Their silence toward you is a symptom of a deeper silence toward God. Pray, therefore, not with a spirit of vengeance, but with the sorrow of one who knows that the way of transgression is hard. For your own soul, do not let the root of bitterness spring up and defile you. You have suffered electric shocks and skin afflictions; these are real evils. But the shock to the soul from nursing a grudge is more deadly. Entrust yourself to Him who judges justly.
If they remain in their deceit, their folly will be manifest to all, even as Jannes and Jambres were exposed. They shall proceed no further in their deception forever. But oh, let your prayer be that they do not wait for the exposure that comes with final judgment. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let them forsake this soft and effeminate way of living, this lust for whatever brings them money. Let them run to the good confession, the confession Christ Himself made before Pilate, the confession of the Truth. And if they will not, you must still wash your hands in innocency and leave vengeance to the Lord. He has promised that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.
The deceitfulness of sin is a terrible hardening. A man tells himself he serves Mammon but can still serve God. He acquires a degree in theology, yet his heart makes confession to the idol of gain. He may even tell himself the electrical hazard was a small oversight, a little thing, not realizing that to lead a neighbor into bodily peril, when one has been trusted to provide shelter, is to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame. If they knew, and they kept silent for a commission, they have traded the Truth for thirty pieces of silver, and the flashing lights in that apartment were a faint shadow of the fire they are kindling for themselves unless they repent.
But understand this clearly: you are not asking merely that they admit a fact to you. A man can be dragged into an admission by fear of the law and still have a heart full of rot. You are right to pray that the Holy Spirit purifies their hearts and minds, for only the shaft of divine conviction can pierce that kind of callousness. They refused your call; they are hiding their faces. That is the posture of Adam after the fall. But the voice of God can find a man in his hiding place. The same Spirit who convicted the world of sin and righteousness and judgment can melt a heart of stone in the chest of a real estate agent who has loved money more than his neighbor’s life.
Yet recall that repentance alone cannot make them clean. If they should come to their senses and weep bitterly, those tears must drive them to the laver of regeneration, to the cleansing blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Their silence toward you is a symptom of a deeper silence toward God. Pray, therefore, not with a spirit of vengeance, but with the sorrow of one who knows that the way of transgression is hard. For your own soul, do not let the root of bitterness spring up and defile you. You have suffered electric shocks and skin afflictions; these are real evils. But the shock to the soul from nursing a grudge is more deadly. Entrust yourself to Him who judges justly.
If they remain in their deceit, their folly will be manifest to all, even as Jannes and Jambres were exposed. They shall proceed no further in their deception forever. But oh, let your prayer be that they do not wait for the exposure that comes with final judgment. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let them forsake this soft and effeminate way of living, this lust for whatever brings them money. Let them run to the good confession, the confession Christ Himself made before Pilate, the confession of the Truth. And if they will not, you must still wash your hands in innocency and leave vengeance to the Lord. He has promised that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.
