The distinction between blamelessness and faultlessness

The children of Job loved one another, being trained in concord from their youth, practicing peace and being educated in harmony, eating and drinking together. He says that they also took the three sisters to eat and drink with them. What is the benefit of this to the listener? And why did he add the sisters to the fellowship? It was so that it might be shown to what extent temperance governed their banquet, and that it was not a riotous and spilled laughter, nor an intemperance insulting the table; for this reason he introduces the well-mannered virgins, to show that the occasion of the banquet was not being insulted by drunkenness, but was being crowned by harmony.

There was a certain man in the land of Ausiti: a dove among hawks, a sheep among wolves, a star among the clouds, a cypress among thorns, the plant of righteousness in the village of unrighteousness. And that man was blameless.

Pay close attention. Those from the outside set the definition: 'What is man?' 'Man is,' he says, 'a rational, mortal animal.' Such are the definitions the philosophers desire; but the Scripture does not give such definitions, but rather what? A blameless, righteous, true man. If anyone asks you and demands a definition, 'What is man?' say to him, 'Blameless, righteous, true, abstaining from every evil thing'; for as one has not been testified to regarding such accomplishments, no man exists. For if he possesses the character of nature, but insults it with the wickedness of his will, he hears from the prophet: 'Being a man in honor, he did not understand; he was cast down with the mindless cattle, and was made like them.' And that man was blameless.

The praise is not small. Test the word so that you may marvel at the intention. An accusation is one thing, and a reproach is another; for an accusation is brought against the heaviest of sins, but a reproach occurs regarding the lightest of faults. Therefore the writer wished to show that the righteous man was not only far from accusations, but also from reproaches. No one called him out as one who had done great things, just as no one reproached him as one who had done small things. This is a great proof: that he, whose life was in the middle, was beyond reproach. For if you do not have an accusation to bring concerning adultery or murder, such a man is beyond reproach; but with a reproach, you bring insult, slander, or invective.

Such a person is outside of blame, yet he flees from reproach as if from a drunken stupor. He wished to show that he was far from even the smallest of stings, saying: He was blameless, righteous, truthful, and God-fearing, abstaining from every evil thing. Therefore, God, intending to show Abraham that the first thing in virtue is the blameless, says to him: You are well-pleasing before me, and become blameless. The term 'blameless' is understood as an extremity of manner.

But the apostle Paul, since he had among the Gentiles those drawn away from polytheism, those gathered from wickedness, and those gathered from fornication and adultery, did not add the extremity of virtue. Rather, as he came into the inhabited world filled with fornication and adultery, he wished also to establish shepherds for the world, since at that time the beautiful things of virtue were scarce, appointing bishops, saying to Titus: Appoint bishops, as I commanded you, if anyone is faultless. 'Blameless' had no place then, since, as I said, the peak of piety was scarce. Blamelessness is great, but faultlessness is the middle; and blamelessness is great among evils, while the good is small.

For this reason he said: A man of one woman. Not because this is now observed in the Church—for the priest must be crowned with perfect purity and holiness—but because then, in regard to those in fornication, the matter was great, he says: Appoint bishops, as I commanded you, if anyone is faultless, a man of one woman; not because he laid down this law, but because he recognized the plan. For he knew that when the word of piety is blooming, nature itself will possess the good as a pleasant thing, and the selection will be of the better ones.

Blameless, righteous. Therefore, it is not possible to become righteous without having first become blameless. Truthful. What does the truthful man intend? He who does not shape his appearance differently from his actual state, who does not shape himself in temperance while being clothed in intemperance, who does not show justice in outward form while bearing injustice in the heart. This man is truthful, and immediately God-fearing. For when there is blamelessness, when there is righteousness, and when there is truth, then true God-fearingness is composed. Abstaining from every evil thing. Since many abstain from many sins, but they do not abstain from all...