Truthfulness and the Gates of Judgment

Since a prophet is at hand, named Malachi; and his word has it thus: 'The lips of a priest shall guard knowledge, and they shall seek law from his mouth,' Malachi 2:7 desiring to learn from a divine teacher what must be known: orthodox doctrines and mysteries of the kingdom, and a law forbidding injustices and protecting the teachings of virtues.

3.12 Having learned what kind of words become practical for those to whom they belong, let us understand what kind of words possess knowledge and truth. 3.13 Moses teaching that 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,' Genesis 1:1 said this word so that we might truly know the creation and its Creator; and whatever other words of the Cosmogeny were written, they were said not so that we might do them, but so that we might contemplate them; and upon every inspired scripture this instruction has prevailed. 3.14 And the Savior himself, in the Gospels, in some places commands those things which must be done, and in others hands down those which it is proper to know and contemplate. For that which is said by him: 'Learn from me, for gentle I am and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls' Matthew 11:29; and again: 'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me each day' Matthew 16:24, are said for the sake of doing, as also that: 'Have mercy, and you shall be shown mercy' Luke 6:36, and as many other commands of his same power. 3.15 But that: 'I am in the Father, and the Father is in me' John 14:10, and that: 'I and the Father are one' John 10:30, and also: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' John 14:9, and as many other things which are theologized in both Testaments, were spoken and written so as to be contemplated and to have true and pious knowledge. 3.16 The Holy Spirit showed which words must be done, and each one declares this individually and according to its kind. For that: 'Let each one speak truth to his neighbor' Ephesians 4:25, is written so that it may be practiced in this way. Paul in Christ, clarifying this, exhorts the believers to the keeping of the commandment, saying most clearly: 'Having put away falsehood, let each one speak truth to his neighbor' Ephesians 4:25. 3.17 And before the Apostle, the Savior also handed down the speaking without law, saying: 'But I say to you, do not at all swear, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no' Matthew 5:34-37.

This is most strictly guarded by each person speaking the truth to their neighbor; for in this way every false word and oath will destroy that most precise and perfect brotherly love.

If each person speaks the truth to his neighbor, a peaceful judgment will occur, without those striving to covet and do wrong still causing dissension. For how can they think that conflicts and injustices are still being raised, if each one announces the truth to his neighbor? The peaceful judgment is the same as the righteous judgment, concerning which much discussion has occurred previously.

Such a judgment is spoken of not only here, but also in other writings, to be fulfilled in the gates of the Hebrews. For it was said by another prophet: 'They hated me in the gates while rebuking, and they detested a holy word,' (Ps 5:5) as the ungodly make manifest. For regarding them, the proverbial ordinance forbids: 'Do not rebuke the evil, lest they hate you' (Prov 9:8). For they detest the holy word, and the one who performs this first offering does not have wisdom; rather, he loves the one who rebukes and the one who makes known what must not be practiced, so that the one hastening to be righteous may do so.

And since they always hate those who have believed in rebuking in the gates, the word promises to restore in the gates a judgment for the good and the useful, through a change occurring. If anyone were to seek for what reason the judgments and rebukes were performed not in some other place or part of the city, but in its gates, it is because what is to be spoken honorably and convincingly—since through the gate is the exit from the city and the entrance into it—it is fitting that the judges sit there to examine the lives of the citizens, so that they might easily cast out those being rebuked for what they are accused of, while those having a pure citizenship, once their state has been made manifest by the rebukes, remain within, and the city becomes even more inward.

Raised to the intellect, those having received from Jesus 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven' (Matt 16:19) are worthy of the presidency and the seat of judging, so that they might cast out those who have fallen worthy of being bound, but those not gripped by the bonds of sin, but being strengthened in them, they might lead in. Then most especially the peaceful judgment is fulfilled, when 'each one does not count the evil of his neighbor' (Rom 13:10), through an absolute forgetting of wrongs.