The Forgiveness of Sins and the Divine Philanthropy

Having willed to pay the debts of the sins of the world, the Savior has suffered on our behalf. The fellow-servants who also report the one who used the master's servant without restraint are both angels and men entrusted with the administration, such as Paul was, who delivered the most shameful wrongdoer to the devil. And just as the one who has canceled the debt becomes free, so the one who suffered for those against whom he was wronged is set free toward salvation.

One must pay attention even to that, that he was conversing about the necessity of forgiving one another among men, and for this purpose, having used the parable, he began thus: 'For this reason the kingdom of heaven was made like...' (Mt 18:31). For our fellow-servants, not bearing our wickedness, accuse us before God, not as if He were ignorant, but as those indignant against those who strike the laws of philanthropy. And he speaks of angels appointed to the tortures. But 'until he pays all that is owed'—that is, he continuously delivered him over to be tortured—for he was never able to pay; here, indeed, God turns the man toward trials, diseases, and other tortures, but in the future, to be tortured unceasingly for eternity (Mt 18:35). And he did not say 'thus your Father will do to you,' but 'my Father'; for such are unworthy to be named sons of God. Therefore, the word traces in brief the unutterable philanthropy of God, which the one not imitating as much as possible will undergo punishment from the righteous judge. And even if it has been said: 'the gifts of God are unchangeable,' yet wickedness was so powerful as to overturn this word. Thus, the word requires two things of us: to remember a certain one of his own sins and to be unforgetful of kindness toward the one who falls.

The Savior has discussed this in a human manner according to the didactic form, not revealing himself to be the creative Word, nor indeed separating the created Son from the creating Father, but perhaps including the Word in the name of the Father, saying 'all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being' (John 1:3). He says that adultery is not living with one's own; but he who abandons his own is not living with his own. Therefore, 'he commits adultery against her'—that is, against the second, whom he joins to the one who is naturally conjoined to him, if he abandons his own. How then does the law not contradict the one saying 'you shall not commit adultery' (Ex 20:14)? We say that the law forbade the manifest adultery when another destroys the one living with him; but the Savior forbids even the one not living in agreement with all, nor even known by nature, nor...