The Nobility of God's Servitude

Praise. It would be rightly called the praise of God and his praise. And 'praise of God' is possible, which he himself gives; for he himself praises those worthy of it. He says: 'and then praise shall be given to each from God' (Ps 18:9).

1–2 To the end; to the servant of the Lord, David. He says that the lawless one sins in himself. Much has been said about the end, that it is that end for the sake of which all other things happen, but it is not for the sake of anything else, which is called the last desirable thing. We desire certain things for the sake of something else. None of those is the end, but they are makers of the end. But the end is that which does not happen for the sake of something else, but for its own sake all other things happen.

Someone wants to learn grammar; he learns, he meditates, he listens to a teacher, and none of these is the end. But the very attainment of perfect knowledge is the end. Therefore, perfect virtue is the last desirable thing, with which there is no other thing to seek as a completion. We use laws for the sake of virtue; the giving of the laws is not the end. We are persuaded by exhortations, by teachings approaching moral training; but all these things happen for the sake of something else. But perfect virtue, the unsurpassed, established after all progress, is the end. Every servant of God pursues this end. Because of this: 'to the servant of the Lord, David'.

If it says 'to the servant', it is not only the end of this David, the son of Jesse, but of every one who has served God. If, indeed, we praise someone in grammar and say that he is able to write as is necessary, and to read as is fitting, and to explain as it is, the harmonies, we do not speak only about him, but about every grammarian. However, let us look at his service, so that we may thus see the others, the fellow-servants.

'I have found', he says, 'David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will' (Acts 13:22). The virtues according to species are the wills of God. But the general one is called one will; for he says: 'Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter, but he who does the will of my Father' (Matt 7:21). Here he named the general virtue as a singular will. And he performs the virtues according to species by doing all the wills of God, if anyone is a doer of the wills of God, if he...

If one turns his commandments into works, and if he does not cast away the things that are to be thought, then the truth of God has been shown. This one is a servant of God. And behold, he was a king saying these things, and he preferred the servitude of God to kingship; for to be a servant of God is a great nobility.

Indeed, it has been said many times that the saints position themselves in their prefaces thus: 'James, a servant of the Lord God Jesus Christ' (James 1:1), and 'Paul, a servant of Christ', and Jonah being asked, 'From what country and what people?', then he says, 'I am a servant of God' (Jonah 1:9). And just as those who are being promoted by virtue of their ranks claim their rank and dignity, these saints, as if professing a greatest nobility and surpassing fame and great rank, profess the servitude of God. The servant of God, knowing the will of God, knows also the things that are contrary to the will of God. For impiety, lawlessness, and every kind of evil oppose the will of God.

Therefore, the servant of the Lord, having known the end, which is virtue over all things, also knew lawlessness; for of the contrary things, there is the same knowledge. He who possesses medical skill knows not only the healthful things among the remedies, but also the harmful ones, so that he may use the former and reject the latter. Thus the servant of the Lord, being lifted up toward the end, says in the song: 'The lawless one says that he sins in himself' (Psalm 19:13).

The wording is ambiguous. It signifies one thing thus: 'The lawless one says in himself that he sins'. 'He says in himself that he sins'. First, he joins himself to lawlessness and sin, and thus comes to practicing it. It is impossible not to sin if one has not been pre-disposed toward sin. Thus 'he says' 'the lawless one that he sins in himself'. 'He says in himself'. For it is to be read thus: 'The lawless one says in himself that he sins'. But it is also possible to take the other part of the ambiguity thus: 'The lawless one says in himself that he sins'; for he knows that he has no boldness regarding sinning. Everyone who sins while following it hides the evil; for no one indeed makes himself manifest as he is. Even if he were a fornicator and wished to lie with someone, he does not want the one describing him to say he is a fornicator. Therefore, they are even more condemned, because they wish to hide what they are doing. No one...