Shame and the Universal Affirmation

If it has filth from elsewhere, even if someone touches it or handles it, it does not seem to have been defiled. But if it is immediately brought from a cooperage, and the touch of the fingers seems to be a flaw, it seems to make it something unclean. The entirely clean man considers even a brief thought a great sin. It is possible even to say that the mind is able to benefit all; regarding practical sin, that which is in thoughts is the shortest.

If someone saw a woman for desire and sustained the appetite until pre-passion, he has not committed the practical sin. If that pre-passion is removed, one is purged from a great sin; from practical sin he is cleansed. To such purity the one saying this has arrived, as if saying something certain: 'If I saw injustice in my heart, let the Lord not hear me' (Ps 140:3). Just as he brings upon himself a request and a punishment, if he has injustice in his heart. He says: 'For this reason God has heard me,' with the implication: 'For this reason God has heard me, because I did not see injustice in my heart.' If he saw injustice in his heart, let him not receive the prayer. Therefore, 'for this reason' means 'He heard me.'

They said this because the one having confidence in God makes all things right that are worthy of being made right; for I do not say that those things which God forbids are made right. They once took that: 'And let them be ashamed and perish' (Ps 106:45). But what follows being ashamed and perishing, except to know 'that the name is the Lord' (Ps 113:3)? For God indeed says to someone, after doing evils, to cease doing and thinking such things: 'Be ashamed and take your dishonor.' You have been cast into dishonor. You gave the pretext; for you did those things which bring dishonor upon you. Be ashamed therefore of what you have done, and take your dishonor, not saying: 'I have not sinned'; for he was saying to God: 'I have not sinned,' as if saying to God: 'Behold, I am judged against you in saying: I have not sinned.' And I am judged against you, not in order to condemn you, but in order to...

Having been shamed, let the dishonor cease. 2 Let my enemies not mock me. Then my enemies will mock me, when saying that having trusted in you, shameful things are being worked out. They are enemies to me, not I to them. For this reason also the Savior says: 'Love your enemies' (Matt 5:44). The addition seems to pass by; for it was necessary to say: 'Love the enemies'; but since the slaves of Christ ought not to have enemies, while others wish to be enemies, let them love those. That place by Aristotle, how it once seems to be well for civilization. Saying concerning the preceding and the following, he said: previously we want the just friends to be, even if they are far away. But by what has happened, we want the enemies to be just, so that they may not harm anything. For their own sake we also want this. But the apostles of Christ 51 do not pray for them so that they may not harm, but so that they might not be harmed. 3 For indeed all those waiting for you will not be shamed (Rom 10:11). The 'all' is often in the Scripture taken instead of the universal decision; for we do not even say this, that of those waiting, some are shamed and others are not, as the particular decision teaches, saying: not all men are just. Here therefore instead of 'no one': no one of those waiting for you is shamed. And continuously in the Scripture the universal decision is signified through the universal affirmation taken from transposition. And you know that the affirmation from transposition often follows the simple decision. 3 Let all those acting lawlessly be shamed for nothing. Hear 'to act lawlessly for nothing' thus: wickedness is worked out for nothing, not to bring glory, not for the promise. It is unstable, its being is in something else. If therefore the one having wickedness wishes to cast it away, it no longer exists. But some again, either through ignorance or more sophistically, say that virtue also is thus, that it too has its being in something else.