Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

to perform an act of healing, besought him not to do so in the words, “Lord I am not worthy
that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be
healed,” 2069 and when Jesus had said to him “Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it
done unto thee,” 2070 his servant was healed from that hour. Learn then, brother, that it was
the faith of the suppliant, not the presence of Christ, which delivered the sick man. So too
now, if you pray, in whatever place you be, and the sick man believes that he will be aided
by your prayers, all will fall out as he desires.
3. You will not love your kinsfolk more than the Lord. “He that loveth,” He says,
“father, or mother, or brother, more than me, is not worthy of me.” 2071 What is the meaning
of the Lord’s commandment? “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me,
cannot be my disciple?” 2072 If, together with Christ, you died to your kinsfolk according
to the flesh, why do you wish to live with them again? If for your kinsfolk’s sake you are
building up again what you destroyed for Christ’s sake, you make yourself a transgressor.
Do not then for your kinsfolk’s sake abandon your place: if you abandon your place, perhaps
you will abandon your mode of life. Love not the crowd, nor the country, nor the town;
love the desert, ever abiding by yourself with no wandering mind, 2073 regarding prayer and
praise as your life’s work. Never neglect reading, especially of the New Testament, because
very frequently mischief comes of reading the Old; not because what is written is harmful,
but because the minds of the injured are weak. All bread is nutritious, but it may be injurious
to the sick. Just so all Scripture is God inspired and profitable, 2074 and there is nothing in
it unclean: only to him who thinks it is unclean, to him it is unclean. “Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” 2075 “All things are lawful but all
things are not expedient.” 2076 Among all, with whom you come in contact, be in all things
a giver of no offence, 2077 cheerful, “loving as a brother,” 2078 pleasant, humble-minded,
never missing the mark of hospitality through extravagance of meats, but always content
with what is at hand. Take no more from any one than the daily necessaries of the solitary
2069 Matt. viii. 8.
2070 Matt. viii. 13.
2071 Matt. x. 37, with ἀδελφούς added perhaps from Luke xiv. 26.
2072 Luke xiv. 27 and Matt. x. 38.
2073 For the contrary view of life, cf. Seneca, Ep. 61: “Omnia nobis mala solitudo persuadet; nemo est cui non
sanctius sit cum quolibet esse quam secum.”
2074 cf. 2 Tim. iii. 16.
2075 1 Thess. v. 21, R.V.
2076 1 Cor. vi. 12.
2077 cf. 1 Cor. x. 32.
2078 1 Pet. iii. 8.
To Chilo, his disciple.
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