Chrysostom
Good and Faithful Servant
That cry for swift, crushing punishment upon another soul is a fire that burns you as it burns the one you curse. When the soul is weak, it most seeks vengeance and deliverance from evils on its own terms. Yet listen to what the Apostle shows as true comfort: the righteous judgment of God is a token, a sign, that when He crowns you for your endurance, He will also deal justly with those who have done wrong. And how does He propose to settle the matter? By placing your reward first. For though a person vehemently desires revenge, he first longs for his own crown. Seek that crown, then, and you will find your truest victory.
Consider what strict justice would demand. According to the rule of justice, we all should have perished immediately from the beginning. When anyone insults his benefactor, the God who gave him breath, the scale of justice is beyond our measure. Yet God, in His kindness, delays, mingles mercy with penalty. He commands us to show great consideration even while we suffer, teaching us to render something greater than the injury demands. If you summon a court of justice in heaven for the wrongs done to you, will you not stand condemned yourself for fighting so fiercely over what is only clay? Money is clay thrown out of the yard, not treasure to guard with your soul. The rich man is poor precisely in what he thinks is wealth.
Do not imagine that deliverance from earthly trouble is the highest gift. He does not promise to pull us from every danger; He grants us something far greater: the power to despise the danger itself. Those who were tortured long ago refused deliverance, not because they loved pain, but because their eyes were fixed on a better resurrection. They knew that to lose money, reputation, or even bodily comfort was nothing compared to the sonship that awaits. You have been bought out from under the curse precisely to receive the Spirit of adoption, crying “Abba, Father.” Is that not enough? Will you trade that dignity for a moment of revenge?
Even the Lord, when His soul was troubled and He felt the agony of approaching death, did not cling to His own will. He said, “Father, save Me from this hour,” yet added, “but for this cause came I unto this hour.” He allowed Himself to endure what He could have escaped, to show that the profit of obedience is greater than any release. Lay your cause before the righteous Judge, who needs no urging from you to act. Then, instead of demanding their shame, pray for your own heart to be freed from the poison of wrath. Entrust the timing and the manner of justice to Him whose right hand is full of righteousness. Strive instead for that success which no court can revoke: a soul so anchored in the hope of resurrection that no theft, no slander, no earthly loss can touch your true wealth. That is the victory that fights for you.
Consider what strict justice would demand. According to the rule of justice, we all should have perished immediately from the beginning. When anyone insults his benefactor, the God who gave him breath, the scale of justice is beyond our measure. Yet God, in His kindness, delays, mingles mercy with penalty. He commands us to show great consideration even while we suffer, teaching us to render something greater than the injury demands. If you summon a court of justice in heaven for the wrongs done to you, will you not stand condemned yourself for fighting so fiercely over what is only clay? Money is clay thrown out of the yard, not treasure to guard with your soul. The rich man is poor precisely in what he thinks is wealth.
Do not imagine that deliverance from earthly trouble is the highest gift. He does not promise to pull us from every danger; He grants us something far greater: the power to despise the danger itself. Those who were tortured long ago refused deliverance, not because they loved pain, but because their eyes were fixed on a better resurrection. They knew that to lose money, reputation, or even bodily comfort was nothing compared to the sonship that awaits. You have been bought out from under the curse precisely to receive the Spirit of adoption, crying “Abba, Father.” Is that not enough? Will you trade that dignity for a moment of revenge?
Even the Lord, when His soul was troubled and He felt the agony of approaching death, did not cling to His own will. He said, “Father, save Me from this hour,” yet added, “but for this cause came I unto this hour.” He allowed Himself to endure what He could have escaped, to show that the profit of obedience is greater than any release. Lay your cause before the righteous Judge, who needs no urging from you to act. Then, instead of demanding their shame, pray for your own heart to be freed from the poison of wrath. Entrust the timing and the manner of justice to Him whose right hand is full of righteousness. Strive instead for that success which no court can revoke: a soul so anchored in the hope of resurrection that no theft, no slander, no earthly loss can touch your true wealth. That is the victory that fights for you.
