Chapter XVI.
53. “Therefore be not anxious,” says He,” saying, What shall we eat?395
| 395 Edemus…vestiemur; Vulgate, manducabimus…operiemur.
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or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed?
396
| 396 Edemus…vestiemur; Vulgate, manducabimus…operiemur.
|
(For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But
seek ye first the
kingdom of
God and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
397
| 397 Apponentur; Vulgate, adjicientur.
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unto you.” Here He shows most manifestly that these things are not to be sought as if they were our blessings in such sort, that on account of them we ought to do well in all our actings, but yet that they are necessary. For what the difference is between a
blessing which is to be sought, and a necessary which is to be taken for use, He has made plain by this sentence, when He says, “
Seek ye first the
kingdom of
God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you.”
398
The
kingdom and the
righteousness of
God therefore are our good; and this is to be sought, and there the end is to be set up, on account of which we are to do everything which we do. But because we serve as
soldiers in this
life, in order that we may be able to reach that
kingdom, and because our
life cannot be spent without these necessaries, “These things shall be added unto you,” says He; “but
seek ye first the
kingdom of
God and His
righteousness.” For in using that word “first,” He has indicated that this is to be sought later, not in point of time, but in point of importance: the one as being our good, the other as being something necessary for us; but the necessary on account of that good.
54. For neither ought we, for example, to preach the gospel with this object, that we may eat; but to eat with this object, that we may preach the gospel: for if we preach the gospel for this cause, that we may eat, we reckon the gospel of less value than food; and in that case our good will be in eating, but that which is necessary for us in preaching the gospel. And this the apostle also forbids, when he says it is lawful for himself even, and permitted by the
Lord, that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, i.e. should have from the gospel the necessaries of this life; but yet that he has not made use of this power. For there were many who were desirous of having an occasion for getting and selling the gospel, from whom the apostle wished to cut off this occasion, and therefore he submitted to a way of living by his own hands.399
For concerning these parties he says in another passage, “That I may
cut off occasion from them which
seek400
| 400 Quærunt; Vulgate, volunt.
|
occasion.”
401
Although even if, like the
rest of the good
apostles, by the permission of the
Lord he should
live of the
gospel, he would not on that account place the end of
preaching the
gospel in that living, but would rather make the
gospel the end of his living;
i.e., as I have said above, he would not
preach the
gospel with this object, that he might get his
food and all other necessaries; but he would take such things for this purpose, in order that he might carry out that
other object, viz. that willingly, and not of necessity, he should
preach the
gospel. For this he disapproves of when he says, “Do ye not know, that they which
minister in the
temple402
| 402 Templo; Vulgate, sacrario.
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eat the things which are of the
temple? and they which wait at the
altar are partakers with the
altar? Even so hath the
Lord ordained that they which
preach the
gospel should
live of the
gospel. But I have used none of these things.” Hence he shows that it was permitted, not commanded; otherwise he will be held to have acted contrary to the
precept of the
Lord. Then he goes on to say: “Neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were
better for me to
die, than that any man should make my glorying
void.”
403
| 403 Inanem faciat; Vulgate, evacuet.
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This he said, as he had already
resolved, because of some who were seeking occasion, to
gain a living by his own
hands. “For if I
preach the
gospel,” says he, “I have nothing to
glory of:”
i.e., if I
preach the
gospel in order that such things may be done in my case, or, if I
preach with this object, in order that I may obtain those things, and if I thus place the end of the
gospel in
meat and drink and
clothing. But wherefore has he nothing to
glory of?
“Necessity,” says he,” is laid upon me;”
i.e. so that I should
preach the
gospel for this reason, because I have not the means of living, or so that I should acquire temporal fruit from the
preaching of
eternal things; for thus, consequently, the
preaching of the
gospel will be a matter of necessity, not of free choice. “For woe is unto me,” says he, “if I
preach not the
gospel!” But how ought he to
preach the
gospel? Evidently in such a way as to place the
reward in the
gospel itself, and in the
kingdom of
God: for thus he can
preach the
gospel, not of constraint, but willingly. “For if I do this thing willingly,” says he, “I have a
reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the
gospel is
committed unto me;”
404
if,
constrained by the want of those things which are necessary for temporal
life, I
preach the
gospel, others will have through me the
reward of the
gospel, who
love the
gospel itself when I
preach it; but I shall not have it, because it is not the
gospel itself I
love, but its
price lying in those temporal things. And this is something
sinful, that any one should
minister the
gospel not as a son, but as a
servant to whom a stewardship of it has been
committed; that he
should, as it were, pay out what
belongs to another, but should himself receive nothing from it except victuals, which are given not in consideration of his sharing in the
kingdom, but from without, for the support of a
miserable bondage. Although in another passage he calls himself also a
steward. For a
servant also, when
adopted into the number of the
children, is able faithfully to dispense to those who share with him that property in which he has acquired the lot of a fellow-heir. But in
the present case, where he says, “But if against my will, a dispensation (stewardship) is
committed unto me,” he wished such a
steward to be understood as dispenses what
belongs to another, and from it gets nothing himself.
55. Hence anything whatever that is sought for the sake of something else, is doubtless inferior to that for the sake of which it is sought; and therefore that is first for the sake of which you seek such a thing, not the thing which you seek for the sake of that other. And for this reason, if we seek the gospel and the kingdom of God for the sake of food, we place food first, and the kingdom of God last; so that if food were not to fail us, we would
not seek the kingdom of God: this is to seek food first, and then the kingdom of God. But if we seek food for this end, that we may gain the kingdom of God, we do what is said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”405
| 405 Nor is it said, “Seek…in order that all these things may be added:” simply, “and all,” etc., yet largely inclusive,—sanctity and comfort. The comfort follows naturally. The passage is a rebuke to those who condemn the amenities of life and art, and a caution to those who place these things before themselves as a chief end. The passage justifies the statement that religion (or godliness) is profitable for the life that now is. The
Psalmist never saw the righteous forsaken. A traditional saying of Jesus, quoted by Clement, Origen, and Eusebius, runs, “Ask great things, and little things shall be added; ask heavenly things, and earthly things shall be added.”
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