Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. ChrysostomFor when under pretense of loving God they 1130 persecuted Him because He made Himselfequal with God, and He knew that they would not believe Him, lest any one should ask, “whyspeakest thou these words?” “I speak them,” He saith, “to convict you of this, that it is not for thelove of God that ye persecute Me, if it be so that He testifieth to Me both by works and by theScriptures. For as before this when ye deemed Me an enemy of God ye drove Me away, so now,since I have declared these things, ye ought to have hastened to Me, if ye had really loved. God.But ye love Him not. And therefore have I spoken these words, to show that you are possessed withexcessive pride, that you are vainly boasting and shading over 1131 your own enviousness.” And thesame He proveth not by these things only, but by those that should come to pass.Ver. 43 . “I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in hisown name, him will ye receive.”[2.] Seest thou that He everywhere declareth that He hath been “sent,” that judgment hath beencommitted to Him by the Father, that He can do nothing of Himself, in order that He may cut offall excuse for their unfairness? But who is it that He here saith shall come “in his own name”? Healludeth here to Antichrist, and putteth 1132 an incontrovertible proof of their unfairness. “For if asloving God ye persecute Me, much more ought this to have taken place 1133 in the case of Antichrist.For he will neither say that he is sent by the Father, nor that he cometh according to his will, butin everything contrariwise, seizing like a tyrant what belongeth not to him, and asserting that he isthe very God over all, as Paul saith, ‘Exalting himself above all that is called God, or that isworshiped, showing himself that he is God.’ ( 2 Thess. ii. 4 .) This is to ‘come in his own name.’I do not so, but am come in the Name of My Father.” That they received not One who said that Hewas sent of God, was a sufficient proof that they loved not God; but now from the contrary of thisfact, from their being about to receive Antichrist, He showeth their shamelessness. 1134 For whenthey received not One who asserteth that He was sent by God, and are about to worship one whoknoweth Him not, and who saith that he is God over all, it is clear that their persecution proceededfrom malice and from hating God. On this account He putteth two reasons for His words; and firstthe kinder one, 1135 “That ye may be saved”; and, “That ye may have life”: and when they wouldhave mocked at Him, He putteth the other which was more striking, showing that even althoughHis hearers should not believe, yet that God was wont always to do His own works. Now Paulspeaking concerning Antichrist said prophetically, that “God shall send them strong delusion,—thatthey all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” ( 2Thess. ii. 11, 12 .) Christ said not, “He shall come”; but, “if He come,” from tenderness for Hishearers; and because all their obstinacy 1136 was not yet complete. He was silent as to the reason ofHis coming; but Paul, for those who can understand, has particularly alluded to it. For it is he whotaketh away all excuse from them.Christ then putteth also the cause of their unbelief, saying,1130al. “ they often. ”1131al. “ veiling. ”1132al. “ whom also He putteth. ”1133al. “ ought ye to do this. ”1134al. “ enviousness. ”1135al. “ kindness, saying. ”1136al. “ wickedness. ”225