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| Eating with Unwashed Heart Defiles the Man.
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15. Eating with Unwashed Heart Defiles the Man.
Next to this let us see how the things which proceed out
and defile the man do not defile the man because of their proceeding
out of the mouth, but have the cause of their defilement in the heart,
when there come forth out of it, before those things which proceed
through the mouth, evil thoughts, of which the species
are—murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
railings.5479
For these are
the things which defile the man, when they come forth out of the heart,
and going out from it proceed through the mouth; so that, if they did
not come out of the heart, but were retained there somewhere about the
heart, and were not allowed to be spoken through the mouth,
they would very quickly disappear,
and a man would be no more defiled. The spring and source, then,
of every sin are evil thoughts; for, unless these gained the mastery,
neither murders nor adulteries nor any other such thing would
exist. Therefore, each man must keep his own heart with all
watchfulness;5480
for when the Lord
comes in the day of judgment, “He will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts,”5481
“all the
thoughts of men meanwhile accusing or else excusing
them,”5482
“when their
own devices have beset them about.”5483
But of such a nature are the evil
thoughts that sometimes they make worthy of censure even those things
which seem good, and which, so far as the judgment of the masses is
concerned, are worthy of praise. Accordingly, if we do alms
before men, having in our thoughts the design of appearing to men
philanthropic, and of being honoured because of philanthropy, we
receive the reward from men;5484
and, universally,
everything that is done with the consciousness in the doer that he will
be glorified by men, has no reward from Him who beholds in secret, and
renders the reward to those who are pure, in secret. So, too,
therefore, is it with apparent purity if it is influenced by
considerations of vain glory or love of gain; and the teaching which is
thought to be the teaching of the Church, if it becomes servile through
the word of flattery, either when it is made the excuse for
covetousness, or when any one seeks glory from men because of his
teaching, is not reckoned to be the teaching of those “who have
been set by God in the Church: first, apostles; secondly,
prophets; and thirdly, teachers.”5485
And you will say the like in the case
of him who seeks the office of a bishop for the sake of glory with men,
or of flattery from men, or for the sake of the gain received from
those who, coming over to the word, give in the name of piety; for a
bishop of this kind at any rate does not “desire a good
work,”5486
nor can he be
without reproach, nor temperate, nor sober-minded, as he is intoxicated
with glory and intemperately satiated with it. And the same also
you will say about the elders and deacons. And if we seem to some
to have made a digression in speaking of these things, consider if it
were not necessary that they should be said, because that evil thoughts
are the spring of all sins, and can pollute even those actions which,
if they were done apart from evil thoughts, would have justified the
man who did them. We have thus investigated according to our
ability what are the things which defile; but to eat with unwashed
hands does not defile the man; but if we must say it with boldness,
with unwashed heart to eat anything whatsoever which is the natural
food of our reason, defileth the man.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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