Chrysostom
Beloved Warrior
Hearing is not sufficient for salvation, and to suppose so is a grave error. You cry out for understanding, for the Word to be opened to you and your family, and this is good, but let no one imagine that simply reading or knowing the Scriptures will save, any more than a man who hears a physician's advice but does not take the medicine is healed. The seed that fell on the rock heard the word and received it with joy, yet it withered because it had no root. The seed among thorns heard, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked it. Do you see? Neither was saved by hearing alone. There is required a careful hearing, a continual recollection, fortitude, and deliverance from all worldly things. One part of virtue is not sufficient.
You pray for the salvation of your family, and that is a father's most solemn duty. For the blessed Paul says, if anyone provides not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. And this provision is not merely for their bodies, but for their souls. What advantage is it to a man if his children are well fed and clothed, yet famished in soul? To neglect the salvation of your own house is to deny the faith you profess. You must provide for them, just as you ask God to do, by godly conversation, by modeling what is right, and by unceasing prayer. Yet remember that even while God seems to delay, as He did with the Canaanite woman, perseverance makes the unworthy worthy to receive. Her daughter was healed not by her first cry, but by her continued knocking.
You ask also for finances and the mending of your body, for an operation and gymnasium, for swimming and exercise. The body needs care, and the Apostle does not forbid this. He even commands Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach's sake. Making provision for the flesh for health is not sin, but making provision to fulfill its lusts is another matter entirely. The soft and effeminate life, the pursuit of pleasure beyond necessity, this lights a furnace within. If you seek healing and strength, do so that you may serve, not that you may be wanton. Let your care for the body be the servant of your care for the soul, for the present life is a sleep and its dreams soon vanish. And do not think that a man living in the world with a wife and children has a lesser calling to this disciplined life than a solitary monk. In all things save the marriage bed, Paul commands you to do all things equally with the solitary. The world is no excuse for a relaxed and dissipated life.
You pray for a wall of fire around your region, for the conviction of neighbors and leaders, and this is a noble prayer. But know this: our own afflictions and our patient endurance of them work for the comfort and salvation of others, just as the Apostle's sufferings abounded for the faithful. Perhaps the very trials you now face in body and in purse are not merely for your own refining, but are bound up with the salvation of those around you. God often uses the faithful endurance of one to draw many. Do not pray against these things as if they were enemies to your hope; they may be the very tools God uses to answer your prayer for your city. For our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will be of the comfort.
You pray for the salvation of your family, and that is a father's most solemn duty. For the blessed Paul says, if anyone provides not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. And this provision is not merely for their bodies, but for their souls. What advantage is it to a man if his children are well fed and clothed, yet famished in soul? To neglect the salvation of your own house is to deny the faith you profess. You must provide for them, just as you ask God to do, by godly conversation, by modeling what is right, and by unceasing prayer. Yet remember that even while God seems to delay, as He did with the Canaanite woman, perseverance makes the unworthy worthy to receive. Her daughter was healed not by her first cry, but by her continued knocking.
You ask also for finances and the mending of your body, for an operation and gymnasium, for swimming and exercise. The body needs care, and the Apostle does not forbid this. He even commands Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach's sake. Making provision for the flesh for health is not sin, but making provision to fulfill its lusts is another matter entirely. The soft and effeminate life, the pursuit of pleasure beyond necessity, this lights a furnace within. If you seek healing and strength, do so that you may serve, not that you may be wanton. Let your care for the body be the servant of your care for the soul, for the present life is a sleep and its dreams soon vanish. And do not think that a man living in the world with a wife and children has a lesser calling to this disciplined life than a solitary monk. In all things save the marriage bed, Paul commands you to do all things equally with the solitary. The world is no excuse for a relaxed and dissipated life.
You pray for a wall of fire around your region, for the conviction of neighbors and leaders, and this is a noble prayer. But know this: our own afflictions and our patient endurance of them work for the comfort and salvation of others, just as the Apostle's sufferings abounded for the faithful. Perhaps the very trials you now face in body and in purse are not merely for your own refining, but are bound up with the salvation of those around you. God often uses the faithful endurance of one to draw many. Do not pray against these things as if they were enemies to your hope; they may be the very tools God uses to answer your prayer for your city. For our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will be of the comfort.
