In his first "Homily on the Statues," John Chrysostom preached on Paul's instruction to Timothy, "Drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy often infirmities." One of the issues he felt necessary to address was this: why would God let Timothy have such "infirmities" at all? So he answers this question with "eight reasons for afflictions."
A historical note: this sermon, preached to the people of Antioch, preceded the catastrophic riots in the city which resulted in the destruction of the statues of the emperor and his wife, which destruction was viewed in that day as tantamount to treason and punishable against the city by summary executions. This sermon was preached in the lull before that storm, in which the fate of the city lay in the hands of the emperor, Theodosius I (the Great). The date was Sunday, 21 of February, A.D. 387.
Here are his "Eight Reasons" why God permits afflictions in the lives of the saints:
1. "...that they may not too easily be exalted into presumption..." i.e., to humble them.
2. "...that others may not have a greater opinion of them than belongs to human nature, and take them to be gods and not men."
3. "...that the power of God may be made manifest..."
4. "...that the endurance of these themselves may become more striking, serving God, as they do, not for a reward; but showing even such right-mindedness as to give proof of their undiminished good will towards Him after so many evils." (Wow.)
5. "...that our minds may be wise concerning the doctrine of a resurrection." His point is that the suffering of the righteous demands that God be just by raising them from the dead and rewarding them.
6. "...that all who fall into adversity may have a sufficient consolation and alleviation, by looking at such persons, and remembering what sufferings have befallen them."
7. "...that when we exhort you to the virtue of such persons...you may not, on account of the surpassing character of their good works, slothfully shrink from such an imitation of them, as deeming them to have been partakers of a different nature."
8. "...that when it is necessary to call any blessed, or the reverse, we may learn whom we ought to account happy, and whom unhappy and wretched." I don't get this one.
A historical note: this sermon, preached to the people of Antioch, preceded the catastrophic riots in the city which resulted in the destruction of the statues of the emperor and his wife, which destruction was viewed in that day as tantamount to treason and punishable against the city by summary executions. This sermon was preached in the lull before that storm, in which the fate of the city lay in the hands of the emperor, Theodosius I (the Great). The date was Sunday, 21 of February, A.D. 387.
Here are his "Eight Reasons" why God permits afflictions in the lives of the saints:
1. "...that they may not too easily be exalted into presumption..." i.e., to humble them.
2. "...that others may not have a greater opinion of them than belongs to human nature, and take them to be gods and not men."
3. "...that the power of God may be made manifest..."
4. "...that the endurance of these themselves may become more striking, serving God, as they do, not for a reward; but showing even such right-mindedness as to give proof of their undiminished good will towards Him after so many evils." (Wow.)
5. "...that our minds may be wise concerning the doctrine of a resurrection." His point is that the suffering of the righteous demands that God be just by raising them from the dead and rewarding them.
6. "...that all who fall into adversity may have a sufficient consolation and alleviation, by looking at such persons, and remembering what sufferings have befallen them."
7. "...that when we exhort you to the virtue of such persons...you may not, on account of the surpassing character of their good works, slothfully shrink from such an imitation of them, as deeming them to have been partakers of a different nature."
8. "...that when it is necessary to call any blessed, or the reverse, we may learn whom we ought to account happy, and whom unhappy and wretched." I don't get this one.
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