Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XI.—Expression of grief on account of Valens. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XI.—Expression of grief on
account of Valens.
I am greatly grieved for Valens, who was once a
presbyter among you, because he so little understands the place that was
given him [in the Church]. I exhort you, therefore, that ye abstain from
covetousness,397
397 Some think
that incontinence on the part of the Valens and his wife is
referred to. [For many reasons I am glad the translators have preferred
the reading πλεονεξίας. The next
word, chaste, sufficiently rebukes the example of Valens. For once
I venture not to coincide with Jacobson’s comment.] | and
that ye be chaste and truthful. “Abstain from every form of evil.”398 For if a man cannot govern himself in such
matters, how shall he enjoin them on others? If a man does not keep
himself from covetousness,399
399 Some think that incontinence on the part of the
Valens and his wife is referred to. [For many reasons I am glad the
translators have preferred the reading πλεονεξίας. The next
word, chaste, sufficiently rebukes the example of Valens. For once
I venture not to coincide with Jacobson’s comment.] | he
shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen.
But who of us are ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? “Do we not
know that the saints shall judge the world?”400 as Paul teaches. But I have neither seen nor heard of any
such thing among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul laboured, and
who are commended401 in the beginning of his Epistle. For he boasts of you in all
those Churches which alone then knew the Lord; but we [of Smyrna] had not
yet known Him. I am deeply grieved, therefore, brethren, for him (Valens)
and his wife; to whom may the Lord grant true repentance! And be ye then
moderate in regard to this matter, and “do not count such as
enemies,”402 but call them back as
suffering and straying members, that ye may save your whole body. For by
so acting ye shall edify yourselves.403
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|