We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.❤2
It is not slavery that injures us, beloved; the real slavery is slavery to sin. If you are not held in bondage to sin, rejoice and have no fear; no one can harm you, since you are made of such stuff that no one can enslave.
But if you are a slave of sin, I tell you that even if you are free ten thousand times over, it is of no advantage to you. Can you tell me what advantage a man has who, although not in bondage to another man, is in constant subjection to his own passions?
At least men are merciful from time to time, but the passions—they won’t be satisfied until they have destroyed you!
Are you another man’s slave? Well, your master is also enslaved to you: he has to provide you with food, take care of your health, and provide you with clothing, shoes, and every other need. You have to take care not to offend your master, but his cares for your material welfare are greater. - John Chrysostom, Homily 19, On 1 Corinthians 7, pg 38, On Marriage and Family Life#Patristics #Soteriology
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Salvation is far from sinners, for they have not sought out your ways of justice.
Who marks you out as different, you who say, Salvation is far from sinners?
Who marks you out as different from sinners, that you can claim that salvation is close to you though far away from them?
This is what makes you different, that you have done something they have not done, namely, sought God's ways of justice. But what have you that you did not receive? ( 1 Cor 4:7). Are you not the person who was saying just now, /have cried out with my whole heart? Hear me, O Lord. Let me seek your ways of justice (verse 145)?
Your prayer was answered, then. From God, to whom you cried out, you received the grace to seek those ways of justice. It is therefore he who marks you out as different from those others, from whom salvation is far off because they have not sought out God's ways of justice. - Augustine, Exposition 30 on Psalm 118#patristics #soteriology
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This is a fact; we know it, we remember it, we acknowledge it. The whole earth is reddened with the blood of martyrs; heaven is flowering with martyrs' garlands; our churches are adorned by the memorials of martyrs; our calendars are studded with martyrs' festivals; cures obtained through martyrs' merits grow ever more frequent. How could all of this have happened, had there not come to pass what was foretold and spread throughout the world about that one person: Those who persecute me and harass me are many, but I have not turned away from witnessing to you?
We recognize this, and we give thanks to the Lord our God. You, the speaker in this psalm, you yourself are the one who said in another psalm, If the Lord had not been among us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive. There you have the reason why you did not turn aside from witnessing to him, and why, at the hands of the many who persecuted and harassed you, you attained the palm of God's heavenly call. - Agustine, Exposition 30, Psalm 118❤1🙏1