Suffering for Discipline, Not Sin

To turn back toward virtue. 'For I will not endure even a single word from you.' This is courage; for many men, hearing words while in the midst of heavy burdens, often falter, so that they even weaken through them. But the holy man accepted neither the rebuke from friends nor the words regarding brevity, not at all receiving them as things capable of shaking him.

'Instead, you fall upon an orphan, but you strike at a friend.' Because of this, I do not accept the rebukes from you as being righteous, because just as you fall upon an orphan and a helpless person, not seeing that everyone is a helper, you also strike at a friend, not recognizing the duties of friendship. The saying is useful for not interfering in the misfortunes of others.

'But now, looking into your faces, I will not lie.' The saying is instructive for not bringing forward words of gossip concerning those who are absent, but for speaking what is necessary to one's face. For it has been said: 'Do not speak, nor listen easily to one gossiping.' And it is a matter of outspokenness to say: 'I will not lie,' just as Paul says: 'That I do not lie' (2 Cor 1:12).

'Sit down then, and let it not be unjust. And again, come together to the righteous.' These things are permissive and not harsh, teaching with leisure and attention, which is shown by the 'sit down,' and examining what is to be spoken. This is also said elsewhere: 'Before you examine, do not condemn.' And great is the command: 'Let it not be unjust.' For it is great not to act unjustly in speech, as it has been said: 'If anyone does not stumble in speech, he is able to bridle his whole body' (Jas 3:2).

'Again, come together to the righteous.' The 'again' is like their previous state, when he was teaching them to come together when he was not in a crisis, that they must not make their judgment out of the necessity of the afflicted, but looking toward the righteous. And he fulfills the promise reverently, saying: 'Looking into your faces, I will not lie,' advising them to occupy themselves with the pursuit of the righteous.

Since the friends thought that those in distress were as those who must encounter God concerning sin, as if this were the cause of their sufferings, he prays that he may make known to them why he set himself as a rod for himself, that it is through struggle and not through sin; for not everyone who encounters God suffers this because of sin. 'Am I a burden to you?' I think I am a burden.

It is upon me; for they weigh me down saying, 'You suffer because of sin.' And because of this, they impose a kind of burden upon me through me, as if punishing the innocent. But I say that you do not punish me, but you train me, even if they thoughtlessly consider that anyone receiving the trial unhappily suffers because of sin.

And why should I not make my iniquity a forgetfulness and a cleansing of sin? To seek those things according to Him is to teach friends and to reason, 'that,' even if I have sinned something, the good God, like the friends, overlooks the faults, provided they themselves did not suffer, so that from this they may understand that he suffers not because of sin, but through struggles. And these things lead them into understanding and are not a little of the righteous, as we have said, so that they may not observe him through his own goodness, but rather that cleansing for sin happens not through continuous punishment.

Now I shall depart to the earth, but I am no longer rising at dawn. He explains the disposition of those who do not correctly take this to mean: if these have taken me to be a sinner and suffering because of sin, they think that having me thus established with nothing after this, 'I have hoped most in this life alone,' and according to them, if I depart to the earth, I shall no longer be; and after days pass, I shall no longer be; for another age will not receive me at all according to them.

But it is a holy voice, upon which also the blessed one hoped, saying: 'I shall rise at dawn' (Ps 43:5), and again: 'Out of the night my spirit rises toward you, O God' (Ps 42:5), and: 'O God, my God, toward you I rise' (Ps 42:5); which also indicates the daily staying awake and the awakening from this age into the coming age. If anyone should say plausibly that: until I am in the shadows, I happen to be in night, but having risen and having become in the day, I am no longer in transitory things.

As we also previously noted, these things are not spoken of for a short time; for he would not have testified as righteous. But Baldad the Sachite, having supposed this, says: 'Until when will you speak these things? A spirit of many sorrows from your mouth (Job 7:9). Will the Lord not judge unjustly, or he who made all things trouble the righteous (Job 9:22)?' Being of the same grief as the one perishing, and he too—that because of sin the evil things certainly...