Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You cry out for a hedge of thorns, and this is a right prayer drawn from the prophet. Yet understand what the thorn truly is. Wealth is a thorn, bearing no fruit, useful for nothing but to kindle the furnace and nourish the irrational passions, piercing and wounding the rational soul. So too is a sinful relationship, a deceitful desire that chokes the word and makes it unfruitful, just as the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches do. When you pray for a hedge, you ask God to break the outward supports of this sin, so that she finds no path to her lovers. This is mercy, for when we fall away from His hand, we are a bowing wall, a tottering fence, ready to be snatched by every beast.
But do not think the hedge alone is enough. What if the thorns are rooted out, yet the land remains unworked? A fence taken away leaves a prey for the boar and the wild beast, which is the Devil and all his host. The church must act, and you are right to summon the witnesses, to bring the word that is sharper than a two-edged sword. Yet be not dismayed that those willing have delayed. God’s delay is not negligence but a call to deeper repentance, lest we think the mere threat of others is what saves. Go to them again, not with a rebuke that hardens, but with the zeal that finishes the work, gently and firmly, lest she flee the church whose medicine she needs. Remember Eli: to honor a family tie above the clear command of God is to treasure up wrath not for them only, but for the silent pastor also.
The deepest rot is the one that mocks God, the secret thought that grace is a license, and this is the sin that denies the Master who bought us. You see it spreading, a sister’s child dancing in negligence, a household where the fear of God has grown cold. This is why the inner healing you seek is not a soft feeling but a radical excision. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness. The wound must be laid open to the light of confession before it can be bound up. Pray then for the conviction of the Spirit, who does not whisper comfort to the unrepentant but proves the world wrong concerning sin. That pain is the first rain upon the hard ground.
Do not let your own soul be choked by the care of this matter. You have asked for clarity and wisdom, and this is good, but wisdom begins when we leave the issue with God after we have obeyed. You have brought the matter to the church; you have rebuked sharply where it was required. Now stand still. The hedge is His to set, the heart is His to break, the rain is His to send or withhold. Your duty is to proceed in the grace given, to flee temptation yourself, and to trust that He who began this conviction will bring it to harvest. If she repents, who knows? The door stands open. For the delay that terrifies you is also the day of salvation for the one who will yet turn and be refreshed. Amen.
But do not think the hedge alone is enough. What if the thorns are rooted out, yet the land remains unworked? A fence taken away leaves a prey for the boar and the wild beast, which is the Devil and all his host. The church must act, and you are right to summon the witnesses, to bring the word that is sharper than a two-edged sword. Yet be not dismayed that those willing have delayed. God’s delay is not negligence but a call to deeper repentance, lest we think the mere threat of others is what saves. Go to them again, not with a rebuke that hardens, but with the zeal that finishes the work, gently and firmly, lest she flee the church whose medicine she needs. Remember Eli: to honor a family tie above the clear command of God is to treasure up wrath not for them only, but for the silent pastor also.
The deepest rot is the one that mocks God, the secret thought that grace is a license, and this is the sin that denies the Master who bought us. You see it spreading, a sister’s child dancing in negligence, a household where the fear of God has grown cold. This is why the inner healing you seek is not a soft feeling but a radical excision. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness. The wound must be laid open to the light of confession before it can be bound up. Pray then for the conviction of the Spirit, who does not whisper comfort to the unrepentant but proves the world wrong concerning sin. That pain is the first rain upon the hard ground.
Do not let your own soul be choked by the care of this matter. You have asked for clarity and wisdom, and this is good, but wisdom begins when we leave the issue with God after we have obeyed. You have brought the matter to the church; you have rebuked sharply where it was required. Now stand still. The hedge is His to set, the heart is His to break, the rain is His to send or withhold. Your duty is to proceed in the grace given, to flee temptation yourself, and to trust that He who began this conviction will bring it to harvest. If she repents, who knows? The door stands open. For the delay that terrifies you is also the day of salvation for the one who will yet turn and be refreshed. Amen.
