Unit 3 rem close

So do the Scriptures have contradictions, and must we both judge and not judge under the same sense of judgment? If those entrusted to judge those inside do not judge those inside, the church is about to become, instead of God’s church, a synagogue of evildoers. Then, with those inside being judged, how is “Do not judge, that you may not be judged” true?

We say, then: those entrusted to judge those inside are not so senseless that, when judging those inside, they claim, “We are judging God’s judgment.” Rather, they make the judgment with a view to the stewardship of what benefits the church. If it benefits that this person be put out of the assembly, having judged that, they do it. And again they will take their stand toward what benefits—not judging God’s judgment, but the judgment given them. For the judgment that God judges in Christ it is impossible for us to judge; we neither search hearts nor know with what reasonings each person’s deeds were done. The hidden things the judges according to the Gospel leave to the Lord God; the manifest things, as it is said, “to you and to your children.” Whatever has reached them and is known among them, these they judge.

So never anticipating God’s judgment let us say, “So-and-so is lost,” or, blessing, “So-and-so is saved.” For we do not know how to measure and compare deeds with deeds, or reasonings, or thoughts. So do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will also bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will disclose the purposes of the hearts.

Of two things named, there ought to be a difference between them: some he called hidden things of darkness, others purposes of hearts. See, then, whether our sins are hidden things of darkness, and our brave deeds purposes of the hearts. For whatever we do well we do with counsel; but whatever we sin, we sin being in darkness. Since, then, some have these or those, and a human being does not know them, let us not judge anything before the time until the Lord comes, who will also bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the purposes of the hearts. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, whether good or worthless.

I found a Gospel saying near this to expound: “Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, and nothing covered that will not be revealed.” You see the Savior giving a difference between hidden things made manifest and covered things revealed. What, then, are the hidden and made-manifest if not the good? And what the covered and revealed if not the bad?

Someone who investigates everything might ask: why did he not say, “And then praise or blame will come to each from God,” but only “the praise”? One will explain it this way: he attached the more favorable word to God, keeping silent about the rest as not fitting him. But I will dare to say that God praises and accepts the good, while our evils the father of evils—the devil—does; and praise from God comes to the saints, while blame for those who have done blameworthy things comes from the devil. Therefore it is said to you by the Apostle, so that the one from the opposite side may be put to shame, having nothing worthless to say about us.

1 Cor. 4:6–8: “These things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, so that in us you may learn the saying, ‘Not beyond what is written,’ that none of you may be puffed up for the one against the other. For who distinguishes you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have begun to reign! And would that you did reign, so that we might reign with you!”

Origen says: These things are written in a transfer shaped to the circumstances then—not so that we may know them only about Paul and Apollos, but so that in every generation, seeing what happens analogously to these things, we may take care lest we too fall into such things and, as in theaters that split over performances, we split over teachers.

But let us see the line, “So that in us you may learn, ‘Not beyond what is written.’” If someone with a lesser habit, before fulfilling what is written, wants to ascend to what is beyond what is written, he will not even understand what is written. For just as it is not possible to climb a ladder except by going the way from the lower steps according to one’s ability, so also with the divine lessons. Those from the heresies who did not understand this well