The Judgment and the Sword of God

A scholion: A mind having received an alien thought will meditate on evil logismoi (thoughts). But he who guards himself will inherit life (Prov 26:3).

And it will lie still, just as in the heart of a sea, and just as a pilot in a great swell, being tossed by every wind of instruction (Prov 26:4).

When will the dawn be, so that coming, I may seek with those with whom I will be gathered? The dawn of the soul is the recognition of sin (Prov 26:5).

After steering comes war, but help comes with a deliberative heart. Those shipwrecking regarding faith do not fight against the opposing spirits in war with steering (Prov 26:6).

It is also possible to say this regarding every virtue; for there is also shipwreck regarding temperance, and regarding love, and regarding freedom from greed; and regarding each doctrine, similarly, it becomes a shipwreck according to the catholic and apostolic church. If, however, one must fight against the adversaries after steering, life upon the earth is near to us as a naval battle (Prov 26:7).

Wisdom and good understanding in the gates of the wise (Prov 26:9). The gates of the wise are the practical virtues through which the wisdom of God enters.

Impurity will stain a man like a plague (Prov 26:10), in a day of evil and in a day of tribulation, until it fails away. If vice diminishes virtue, and showing that virtue corrupts vice; this indeed will happen in the age to come, until vice fails away. For it has been set to stain instead of corrupting; but impurity is corrupted, either by practical discipline or by the punishment of severity (Prov 26:11).

To rescue those being led unto death and those being driven out to be slain, let him not spare. This is the word for those being made worthy of knowledge and those neglecting instruction, many of whom are led by vice unto death (Prov 26:13).

Eat honey, O son, for it is a good thing, so that your throat may be sweetened (Prov 25:28). He who benefits from the divine writings eats honey; but he who casts out the words from those very things from which even the holy prophets and apostles have received, chews wax. And to eat honey is possible for everyone who wishes, but the wax is for the pure alone (Prov 24:15).

Do not bring near the impious thinking they are righteous, nor be deceived by the fullness of the belly. Do not betray God for the sake of pleasure; for this one is thought to be righteous and will never abandon you (Prov 24:17). If the man falls...

Do not rejoice over your enemy, nor exult in his stumbling, for the Lord will see and it will not please him, and he will turn his anger away from him. God indeed turns his anger away from the fallen one having had mercy on him, but he is angry with the one who has become proud over the fall of his enemy.

For everyone who rejoices over a perishing soul is like the devil, who does not want all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. It should be noted, however, that he spoke of a human being here, for whom the Lord has enjoined us to pray in the Gospels (1 Timothy 2:1).

Evil offspring will not be produced, but the light of the ungodly will be extinguished. Bad virtues and doctrines will not be produced—for these are the offspring of the soul—because they do not fear the Lord; but those who are in the fear of the Lord will have offspring all day long, and their hope will not fail.

Fear God, son, and the King, and do not disobey either of them, 'so that they may know you, the only true God, and whom you sent, Jesus Christ' (John 4:24). For the ungodly will be extinguished suddenly; and who will know the punishments of both? How then does the Savior say in the Gospels: 'The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son' (John 5:22)? Either punishment is one thing, and judgment is another. Punishment is indeed the deprivation of impassibility and the knowledge of God with bodily distress; but judgment is the distribution of an age according to each of the rational bodies.

The tongue of a king is a sword and not a flesh-wound; and whoever is delivered to it will be crushed, 'and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Ephesians 6:17). The 'not flesh-wound' refers to the 'not sensible'. If his anger is sharpened, he consumes men with nerves.

The sword of God consumes the old men who are being corrupted according to the desires of sickness, so that, having laid aside the old man, they may put on the new one created according to God. It rattles the bones of men and burns like a flame, 'for I came to cast fire upon the earth' (Luke 12:49). He is spotless for the pure, the one having been cleansed by the Lord and abstaining from all evil.