Unit 7 rem mid

This signifies that, just as the Lord called Matthew away from the tax office, He bestowed righteousness upon him; for the righteous increase whenever the wicked abandon their wickedness and become righteous along with those who are fervent in devotion. The righteous also groan and grieve, seeing the wicked standing in the place of wickedness, unrepentant. Indeed, a man who rebukes in the Lord’s discipline and instruction is better than one who urges in a hard heart, promising to share enjoyment with him in the burning; for when he is suddenly ignited in the desire of the passions, death that comes upon all arrives upon his fellow workers, and there is no healing for their souls. He did not say that healing would not exist after the fire is quenched, but that there is no healing while it burns, because it clearly has as fuel the substances of the passions—wood, grass, stubble—since, if it is true that health naturally grows after the burner for those who are being burned, then the same applies here. When the righteous are praised by the Lord on the day of judgment, the peoples of their share will rejoice; but those who are under the rulers and authorities, and the world-governors of this world, will then certainly groan. Here he speaks of the Father as God; but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing those who are called after Christ, following Him in deed and word and wisdom, and imitating Him, rejoices over them. And the good shepherd is a mind that possesses dispassionate thoughts; but if this is so, then a rash thought is a passionate thought, and a sheep is a dispassionate thought; therefore, the Lord sets those who are like goats on His left.

The sheep are on the right hand; he calls those who possess irrational souls goats, and in the same way he names those who have the tares among them tares, and those who possess the wheat, wheat, calling them by the name of their possession from the skilled and practiced habit of the hand; such also is what is said by Paul: Love does not boast, that is to say, the one who has love. Christ raises up the rational nature through his commandments, but the lawless Antichrist stirs up the human race toward destruction. In all things, judging is said to be teaching; for indeed, the one who judges between two or more concerning one thing teaches what is just and how to abstain from injustice; likewise, concerning virtues and every good thing, judging is said to teach; but a man here judging nations, he says, is Peter, who has taught the whole world the faith in Christ and godliness; and Paul, and the other teachers who came after; but a base man, those who follow Theodotus and Judas and the Samosatene and those of like mind with them; moreover, concerning the base man, David says: And they shall laugh at him, and they shall say: Behold the man who did not make God his helper. Men of blood are the demons, who have slain those living in Christ by shedding blood; but the upright will seek out his soul; these are those who wish to do and to understand what they themselves have practiced and conceived. Truly, the foolish man has an unrestrained temper; but this one is tempered in part, that is, becoming angry at things that are burning with passion. And toward the simpler ones, this must be said:

To those who are earnest, the one who through patience gradually consumes anger, bit by bit. To those who keep the law, the Lord will be an interpreter in the kingdom; but to those who break the law, there will not be an interpreter, but rather a punisher will be present. For no one is by nature hard-hearted; this is shown by the fact that, even if one understands, they do not obey. For the one who is by nature hard-hearted would never think anything correct at any time. I say this because of Pharaoh, who was hardened against Israel, and who was not instructed by words but by scourges. If indulgence leads to sin, and everyone who sins is a slave to sin, then everyone who indulges is a slave to sin. And on the last day, they will not grieve little over themselves. The Lord humbles the proud, but gives glory to the humble. —He says that pride is wickedness; and pride, along with the hunger it brings, causes destruction through wickedness to those who practice it, on the day of judgment. But to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the glory they gave God in hymns and by keeping His commandments will glory them. For glory is doing God’s commandments, as the Lord Himself says: “Those who glorify Me, I will glorify.” And wickedness begets pride in the rational soul. A thief is none other than the devil; but the one who divides himself — keeping part of God’s commandments and doing part of what is evil — hates his own soul. For a little