God’s wrath is discipline, not passion
We do, then, speak of the wrath of God; but we say that it is not a passion of his. It is something employed to discipline, by sterner methods, those who have committed sins so many and of such a kind. That what is called the wrath of God, and what is named his anger, disciplines, and that this is the teaching of the Word, is clear from what is said in the sixth Psalm: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath” (Psalm 6:1); and in Jeremiah: “Discipline us, Lord, but with judgment and not in anger, lest you make us few” (Jeremiah 10:24).
And anyone who reads in the second book of Samuel of the “wrath” of God that moved David to number the people (2 Samuel 24:1), and in the first book of Chronicles of “the devil” (1 Chronicles 21:1), and compares the texts with each other, will see to whom the wrath is to be assigned. Paul says that all human beings have become “children” of this wrath, in the words: “We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest” (Ephesians 2:3).
That wrath is not a passion of God, but that each person prepares it for himself through his sins, Paul will make plain where he says: “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is leading you to repentance? But by your hardness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:4–5). How then can each person “store up wrath for himself on the day of wrath” if “wrath” is understood as the passion? And how can a passion of wrath discipline? Moreover, the Word that teaches us never to be angry at all, and says in the thirty-sixth Psalm, “Cease from wrath, and forsake anger” (Psalm 37:8), and says also in Paul, “You too, put away all these: wrath, anger, malice, slander, foul talk” (Colossians 3:8), would not fasten on God himself the passion from which it wishes to free us entirely.
That what is said about the wrath of God is meant figuratively is clear also from the fact that sleep is recorded of him. As if waking him from it, the prophet says: “Rise up; why do you sleep, Lord?” (Psalm 44:23). And again he says: “And the Lord awoke like one who sleeps, like a mighty man reeling from wine” (Psalm 78:65). If, then, sleep means something else, and not what the obvious reading of the words shows, why should wrath not be understood in a similar way too?
The threats, moreover, are announcements of what will befall the wicked. It is as if someone were to call the words of a physician threats as well, when he says to his patients: “I will cut you and apply cauteries to you if you do not obey my rules and keep to this diet and conduct yourself in this way.”
We, then, do not attach human passions to God, nor do we hold impious opinions about him; nor do we go astray when we set out the accounts about him from the Scriptures themselves, compared with one another. And those among us who act with understanding as ambassadors of the Word have no other aim than to free their hearers from simple-mindedness as far as they can, and to make them wise.
Greek
Ὀργὴν μὲν οὖν ὀνομάζομεν θεοῦ, οὐ πάθος δ᾿ αὐτοῦ αὐτὴν εἶναί φαμεν ἀλλά τι παραλαμβανόμενον εἰς τὴν διὰ σκυθρωποτέρων ἀγωγῶν παίδευσιν τοῖς τὰ τοσάδε καὶ τοιάδε ἡμαρτηκόσιν. ὅτι γὰρ παιδεύει ἡ καλουμένη ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ ὀνομαζόμενος θυμὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῦτ᾿ ἀρέσκει τῷ λόγῳ, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ ἐν μὲν ἕκτῳ ψαλμῷ εἰρῆσθαι· „κύριε, μὴ τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐλέγξῃς με, μηδὲ τῇ ὀργῇ σου παιδεύσῃς με“ ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἱερεμίᾳ· „παίδευσον ἡμᾶς, κύριε, πλὴν ἐν κρίσει καὶ μὴ ἐν θυμῷ, ἵνα μὴ ὀλίγους ἡμᾶς ποιήσῃς.“ ἀναγνοὺς δέ τις ἐν μὲν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῶν βασιλειῶν „ὀργὴν“ θεοῦ, ἀναπείθουσαν τὸν Δαυὶδ ἀριθμῆσαι τὸν λαὸν, ἐν δὲ τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν Παραλειπομένων τὸν „διάβολον,“ καὶ συνεξετάζων ἀλλήλοις τὰ ῥητὰ ὄψεται ἐπὶ τίνος τάσσεται ἡ ὀργή· ἧς καὶ „τέκνα“ πάντας ἀνθρώπους γεγονέναι φησὶν ὁ Παῦλος λέγων· „ἤμεθα τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί.“ ὅτι δ᾿ οὐ πάθος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν ἡ ὀργὴ, ἀλλ᾿ ἕκαστος αὑτῷ ταύτην δι᾿ ὧν ἁμαρτάνει κατασκευάζει, δηλώσει ὁ Παῦλος ἐν τῷ· „ἢ τοῦ πλούτου τῆς χρηστότητος αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀνοχῆς καὶ τῆς μακροθυμίας καταφρονεῖς, ἀγνοῶν ὅτι τὸ χρηστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς μετάνοιάν σε ἄγει; κατὰ δὲ τὴν σκληρότητά σου καὶ ἀμετανόητον καρδίαν θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ θεοῦ.“ πῶς οὖν δύναται ἕκαστος „θησαυρίζειν ἑαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς,“ „ὀργῆς“ νοουμένης τοῦ πάθους; πῶς δὲ ὀργῆς πάθος παιδεύειν δύναται; ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐκ ἂν ὁ διδάσκων λόγος ἡμᾶς μηδαμῶς ὀργίζεσθαι καὶ φάσκων ἐν τριακοστῷ ἕκτῳ ψαλμῷ· „παῦσαι ἀπὸ ὀργῆς καὶ ἐγκατάλιπε θυμὸν,“ λέγων δὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ Παύλῳ· „ἀπόθεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ πάντα, ὀργὴν θυμὸν κακίαν βλασφημίαν αἰσχρολογίαν,“ αὐτῷ τῷ θεῷ περιῆπτεν τὸ πάθος, οὗ ἡμᾶς πάντῃ ἀπαλλάξαι βούλεται. δῆλον δὲ τὸ τροπολογεῖσθαι τὰ περὶ ὀργῆς θεοῦ ἐκ τοῦ καὶ ὕπνον αὐτοῦ ἀναγεγράφθαι, ἀφ᾿ οὗ ὥσπερ διϋπνίζων αὐτὸν ὁ προφήτης λέγει· „ἀνάστηθι, ἱνα τί ὑπνοῖς, κύριε“; καὶ πάλιν φησί· „καὶ ἐξηγέρθη ὡς ὁ ὑπνῶν κύριος, ὡς δυνατὸς κεκραιπαληκὼς ἐξ οἴνου.“ εἴπερ οὖν ὁ ὕπνος ἄλλο τι σημαίνει καὶ οὐχ ὅπερ ἡ πρόχειρος ἐκδοχὴ τῆς λέξεως δηλοῖ, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ ἡ ὀργὴ παραπλησίως νοηθήσεται; καὶ αἱ ἀπειλαὶ δὲ ἀπαγγελίαι εἰσὶ περὶ τῶν ἀπαντησομένων τοῖς φαύλοις, ὡς εἰ ἀπειλάς τις ἔφασκεν εἶναι καὶ τοὺς τοῦ ἰατροῦ λόγους, λέγοντος τοῖς κάμνουσι· τεμῶ σε καὶ καυστῆρας προσάξω σοι, ἐὰν μὴ πεισθῇς μου τοῖς νόμοις καὶ οὑτωσὶ μὲν διαιτήσῃ οὑτωσὶ δὲ σαυτὸν ἀγάγῃς. οὐκ ἀνθρώπινα οὖν πάθη προσάπτομεν τῷ θεῷ οὐδὲ δυσσεβεῖς δόξας ἔχομεν περὶ αὐτοῦ οὐδὲ πλανώμενοι τὰς περὶ τοῦτον διηγήσεις ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν γραμμάτων συνεξεταζομένων ἀλλήλοις παρίσταμεν· οὐδὲ τὸ προκείμενον τοῖς ἐν ἡμῖν συνετῶς πρεσβεύουσι τοῦ λόγου ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ εὐηθείας μὲν ἀπαλλάξαι κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν τοὺς ἀκούοντας ποιῆσαι δ᾿ αὐτοὺς φρονίμους.