Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14–21)

The apostle expresses the sort of prayers he has for the Ephesians: that God give you—he says—the riches of His glory. He also discloses what these riches of the glory of God are: the power to be strengthened by His Spirit in order that they be strong against the flesh and the desires of the flesh, and against the most evil powers of the world. This comes about and is produced by the Spirit of God. But how are they strengthened—that is, rendered strong—by the Spirit of God? In the interior person for Christ to dwell, says he. For when Christ begins to dwell in the interior person, i.e., in the soul, people are rendered strong in power by the Spirit, all adversities are expelled. Now Paul adds how Christ dwells in the interior person: by faith in your hearts, he says. So it is a simple and fine thing—simple, in that faith alone provides so great a service, so great a benefit. What? That Christ would dwell in our hearts. What do we acquire with Him indwelling? That we would be stronger through the Spirit and thus have the riches of the glory of God; and that having been rendered strong we might sustain no harm, might despise the world, and conquer all the most evil powers. These are the riches of God. We look forward even to glory and the promise, rooted and grounded in love. This most important precept has been laid down everywhere by Paul and has been presented by me quite frequently by way of admonition: for the stability and foundation, the whole status of the soul with respect to eternity, is in love. This love, I have often said, is love for God, for Christ, and toward men. This love makes our faith rooted and grounded.

Marius Victorinus, Commentary on Ephesians 1.3.16–17

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11–22)

Through His Mystery, surely, we have been reconciled to God and are no longer aliens nor adversaries. For when we were worshiping other gods and serving idols, it was as if we were at war with the Father, that is, with God. But a middleman, Christ, reconciled us in Himself by His Mystery and passion.… Christ, says Paul, is our peace, whom elsewhere he calls mediator. For Christ has put Himself between the separated realms: because souls born from the fount of God are held in this world—or were being held; and a middle wall, a kind of barrier and partition, was intruding through the allures of the flesh and worldly desires. Christ, by His Mystery, passion, cross, and teaching, broke down the middle wall. That is, conquering the flesh (and teaching that it is to be conquered) and breaking down the desires of the world (and teaching that they are to be broken down), Christ razed the middle wall. But it is in the flesh, Paul is saying, that Christ is certainly breaking down the hostilities. Therefore it is not of our labor (as I have pointed out) that we break them down; rather, faith alone in Christ is salvation for us. For He has broken down all the hostilities in His flesh. So too He broke down the law of commandments, nullifying it in its decrees—as He did not nullify it as far as works or sabbaths are concerned (for these have been decreed in the law and are themselves commandments). Christ did not nullify the law, I say, as far as precepts regarding such observances understood in a fleshly sense are concerned. Once the [other decrees] were nullified, the middle which had intruded was razed; and souls are no longer hindered by the world as if by a barrier (that is, by worldly, i.e., fleshly, cravings, thoughts, and desires) from seeing, recognizing, and following God, and even being joined to God.

This deed is the Mystery of the cross: that all things inimical to souls and to our spirit (i.e., worldly desires, cravings of the flesh, and the flesh itself which is somehow corrupted and weak) might be carried off to their punishment. Through the cross, then Christ eliminated the hostilities—that is, everything opposing souls. And where did He eliminate them? In His own self. For this reason Christ assumed flesh: that He might overcome the flesh in His own self; and that in this way, He might through the flesh be of use to the flesh by eliminating its corruption, by assuming pure and eternal flesh, and the whole body of Deity through the resurrection—since all things are made spirit, as Paul teaches in many places and is self-evident.

Marius Victorinus, Commentary on Ephesians 1.2.14–16

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.… And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Eph 4:20–24, 30)

He is calling us to live as one whose thoughts come from the Spirit, who is himself once again becoming the spiritual man created by God. We are to live in the likeness of God, just as God intended when He said: “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.” Admittedly God has no face or physical aspect. God is Spirit. So we too have been created according to God, to think according to the Spirit and thus to allow nothing to drag us down to worldly and unworthy thoughts.

Marius Victorinus, Epistle to the Ephesians 2.4.23–24

When we behave well, the Holy Spirit given to us rejoices in us, seeing that His promptings are bearing fruit in our lives, just as it is said of the Lord: So there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. The Holy Spirit rejoices at our salvation, not for His own sake, because there is no lack of happiness in Him, but rather because if we were not obedient to Him He would be upset about not having any effect on us because He wants us to be part of life. He is not upset because He is suffering, since He cannot suffer, but when Paul says that He grieves, He means that this is for our sake. He deserts us because we hurt Him by ignoring his commands. His grief is our unworthiness which prevents us from being called children of God. He is the Holy Spirit, who makes us children of God by dwelling in us.

Ambrosiaster, Epistle to the Ephesians 4.30

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Eph 2:14–18)

For we are, in the mystery of having been reconciled to God, now no longer repugnant or opposed to Him. We worshiped and served their idols, and with that, He crucified, as it were, the enmity we had this day with our Father, that is, with God. Christ, in mystery, at the center of His passion reconciled us to Himself. Christ, he says, “is our peace.” Elsewhere Paul calls Him mediator. He interposed Himself of His own accord between divided realms. Souls born of God's fountain of goodness were being detained in the world. There was a wall in their midst, a sort of fence, a partition made by the deceits of the flesh and worldly lusts. Christ by His own mystery, His cross, His passion, and His way of life destroyed this wall. He overcame sin and taught that it could be overcome. He destroyed the lusts of the world and taught that they ought to be destroyed. He took away the wall in the midst. It was in His own flesh that He overcame the enmity. The work is not ours. We are not called to set ourselves free. Faith in Christ is our only salvation. . . .

Their souls have thus been reconciled to the eternal and the spiritual, to all things above. The Savior, through the Spirit, indeed the Holy Spirit, descended into souls. He thereby joined what had been separated, spiritual things and souls, so as to make the souls themselves spiritual. He has established them in Himself, as he says, “in a new person.” What is this new person? The spiritual person, as distinguished from the old person, who was soul struggling against flesh. . . .

He distinguishes “those who are far off” from “those who are near.” This refers to the Gentiles and Jews. For the Jews are obviously close and the Gentiles far off. Yet the Savior Himself has brought the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul here mentions first that Christ by his advent has truly preached peace also to those who are far off, that is, the Gentiles, as is shown by many evidences, for those who come to belief from Gentile backgrounds ironically have a greater claim to be called sons than those from Jewish backgrounds. And yet, so that it may not be denied to the latter, he adds “and those who are near.” Both Jews and Gentiles “have access to the Father” through Christ Himself. But how? “In one Spirit.” For the Spirit, who is one with Christ, enters into us when we believe in Christ. We then feel God's presence, know God, and worship God. Thus we come to the Father in that same Spirit through Christ. No one, whether Jew or Gentile, comes to the Father except through Christ.

Marius Victorinus, Epistle to the Ephesians 2.14–15, 17–18

Patristic Wisdom for the First Sunday after Christmas

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Gal 4:4–7)

“The fullness of time” is the completed time which had been foreordained by God the Father for the sending of his Son, so that, made from a virgin, He might be born like a man, subjecting Himself to the law up to the time of his baptism, so that He might provide a way by which sinners, washed and snatched away from the yoke of the law, might be adopted as God's sons by His condescension, as He had promised to those redeemed by the blood of His Son. It was necessary, indeed, that the Savior should be made subject to the law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh, so that, having been circumcised, He could be seen as the one promised to Abraham, who had come to justify the Gentiles through faith since he bore the sign of the one to whom the promise had been made.

Ambrosiaster, Epistle to the Galatians 4.5.1

Behold the whole array of those three powers through one power and one Godhead. For God, he says, who is the Father, sent His own Son, who is Christ, and again Christ, who himself being the power of God is God, … sent the spirit of His Son, who is the Holy Spirit.

Marius Victorinus, Epistle to the Galatians 2.4.6.

Christ, Our Only Mediator

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. (Ga 3:19–20)

The Law was interposed, he says, until Christ came—that is, until the seed came to whom was promised the inheritance. What had been entrusted to angels, therefore, was entrusted to the hand of the one who is a mediator, a mediator—clearly—between two realities. I have said ‘two,’ but God is one; therefore there cannot be a mediator of God alone, because God is one. Thus there is no way the Law justifies, there is no way the Law of works obtains the inheritance, because the heirs are those who originate from there and receive the Spirit from there, whence their inheritance will come. All this happens, clearly, by Christ’s joining the things which are separated, by His liberating the part of the church which is held here through the errors of the world, and by bringing it back to the heavenly church. For Christ Himself is the only mediator. But there cannot be a mediator of one party, as we have taught.

Now, God alone is one; the rest, beings coming after God, are not one. So whatever is outside of God is—are—many. These can be joined together because they are from there, or have been separated from there, because the Mystery was and is even now so disposed that they be joined, because some things are far apart, at enmity, and perishing. Therefore, because God’s existence is singular, the mediator is a mediator of more than God, a mediator which is nonetheless not a mediator of one. Those other realities, however, which have been diversified by a certain Mystery, the mediator Himself reconciles and conjoins—again, by a certain Mystery.

Now, we ourselves are those who have been separated by our more eminent predecessors, and who have been again joined, indeed by more eminent predecessors but according to Christ—that is, according to faith. From this it is apparent that we cannot be liberated without a mediator. If this is the case, it is a vain hope to believe that justification and salvation come from the Law of works, which, as we have said, is not a mediator. For Christ alone, who joins together what He mediates, is the mediator. So justification and liberation come about through Christ, and not through the Law of works.

Marius Victorinus, Commentary on Galatians

The Wall Is Down

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.  (Eph 2:14)

Souls born of God's fountain of goodness were detained in the world.  There was a wall in their midst, a sort of fence, a partition made by the deceits of the flesh and worldly lusts.  Christ by his own mystery, his passion, and his way of life destroyed this wall.  He overcame sin and taught that it could be overcome.  He destroyed the lusts of the world and taught that they ought to be destroyed.  He took away the wall in the midst.  It was in his own flesh that he overcame the enmity.  The work is not ours; we are not called to set ourselves free.  Faith in Christ is our only salvation.

Marius Victorinus, Commentary on Ephesians