The Beneficial Shame and Divine Strength

Regarding the good being abandoned to the bad, it is not to provide help or to have a supporter so as to be left alone; rather, in some way they were left abandoned, having become helpers to others, not so that they might be destroyed, but so that they might be useful and not allow the sins of the condemned to increase.

'I will send away' therefore 'us now' (Ps 118:7). And the 'I will send away' does not carry much mockery; 'Cain went out from the presence of the Lord the God' (Gen 4:16). God did not send him away, but with a eagerly he embraced the evil, he rushed toward the wickedness.

Concerning Adam, it has been said regarding not falling entirely that: 'God expelled Adam' (Gen 3:24), acting in opposition, making it clear that those within did not want to go out. He was cast out of paradise because of Eve the woman; for because of her he transgressed the rule. For when God asks, 'Who told you?' (Gen 3:11) he says, 'The woman whom you gave with me' (Gen 3:12). He did not say, 'Whom you gave,' but 'with me you gave her.' And this is the purpose; and I also thought that, since she, having been deceived by the devil, as she herself confessed, is cast out of paradise, I thought to do the same to her, so that I too might be cast out of paradise; for if Adam had not been cast out together, the woman would not have entered into paradise.

Not everyone of the people was saying, 'God, in our ears we have heard, our fathers announced to us' (Ps 78:7). And with a few, 'But your right hand and your arm... and the light of your face' (Ps 44:3). Not all the people said this. I recall... what was said toward the Corinthians: 'I thank you, that in everything you have been enriched, in all speech and in all knowledge' (1 Cor 1:5). Then again: 'Fornication is heard among you' (1 Cor 5:1). It was not, therefore, concerning one person... among this people, some in their own way. These, therefore, did not stretch out hands toward a foreign god. 'Now I will send away and shame us' (Ps 118:7). No one sinning is shamed by God.

But by himself. And God is shamed in a certain way when the one not sinning is with the sinners; and the shame is beneficial and brings glory to the one being shamed.

He does not have a 'hidden shame' which must not be revealed according to the philosophy of the one saying: 'We do not reveal the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness.' The one saying: 'To the lawless I have become lawless' (1 Cor 6:9), was not shamed by himself, but the word of Christ, exhorting, persuaded him. Furthermore, does the one saying: 'I have become lawless,' not feel shame? As far as it reached human understanding, no one wanted to imitate the evil ones.

'And you will not go out in our powers.' Formerly you used to go out in our powers; you used to run ahead of us into the wars, and we were surrounded by those attacking. But this thing of not going out in the powers, he says: you help, but you do not help. You help us so that we may be shown to be athletes through being left behind and we may benefit others; for he did not say: 'You destroyed our powers,' but 'you will not go out in our powers.' You turned us back to the rear before our enemies. The enemies were behind them.

But they say praises of themselves: 'Upon my back' for 'the sinners have given birth' (Ps 69:6). In another way the enemies give these births; they will not be weak and they only persecute those who are about to surround them. The Savior therefore drives all the enemies and has hands upon their backs striking them, pursuing them. These therefore say: 'You turned us back to the rear before our enemies,' not strictly to be said concerning the one turning away according to a sect and imitating the enemies: 'God turned us.' But the good thing happening through God is indeed praiseworthy. Behold, those concerning Daniel and the other saints who were in Babylon.