XXVI. ON REVELATION CHAPTER II.

...sin, because they know not what they do.

A decorative initial M marks the beginning of a paragraph.Be mindful, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works: Or else I will come to you, and I will move your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.

Judgment must not be rushed against bishops and clerics.

Just as many testimonies of Holy Scripture teach us, so also this passage teaches that we must not rush to judgment upon the angels of the churches, that is, the bishops, and upon any ecclesiastical ranks whatsoever. For he did not say, "Because you have left your first love, therefore I am coming to you and will move your lampstand out of its place." Instead, he placed a great interval in his voice and a great bridle upon the rushing sentence by saying: "Be mindful, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works." Only then does he add: "But if not," which is to say: if, in addition to that which I already have against you—that you have left your first love—you also add contempt, then I come to you, and so on.

1 Samuel 13. Example of Saul not repenting correctly. 1 Samuel 15.

This order of God’s judgment shines widely in the scriptures, but for the sake of example, let only two men be set forward: namely, Saul and David. Saul was "a son of one year" original: "Filius unius anni" when he began to reign, and he reigned over Israel for two years. This is to say: he was humble, like a child of one year, and he was small in his own eyes when he was made king, and for two years he reigned over Israel with that same humility. Whence Samuel, speaking the Lord's word to him, said: "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel?" He fell from this humility when he offered a burnt offering holocaustum sacrificial offering against the law, since he was not a priest from the lineage of Aaron, but a man from the tribe of Benjamin. Likewise, because he had fallen from humility, he spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and the best of the flocks of sheep against the command of the Lord. Likewise, the scripture says: "He offered a burnt offering to the Lord from the first-fruits of the prey which he had brought from Amalek." Being rebuked for having left his first humility, he was not mindful of where he had fallen, nor did he repent. Indeed, by offering a burnt offering again, he increased his sin and repeated his presumption. He said, indeed, "I have sinned," as if he were mindful of where he fell, but he did not say or feel it humbly. For he added: "But now honor me before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and return with me." Therefore, by this confession, he wished to purchase not the honor or glory of God, but his own, by saying "I have sinned."

Example of David repenting correctly.

He was the just one of whom his father Jesse said to Samuel: "There remains yet a little one, and he feeds the sheep." And when he was already reigning, he was nonetheless still humble.

1 Samuel 16. 2 Samuel 6.

For of his humility it is written: "When the ark of the Lord entered the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul, looking through a window, saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord: and she despised him in her heart." But he said: "As the Lord lives, I will play and I will become more vile than I have been: and I will be humble in my own eyes."

2 Samuel 12.

He fell from this humility when he despised the word of the Lord by sinning with the wife of Uriah whom he took. For which reason it was said to him through the prophet: "Why therefore have you despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight?" and immediately: "For which cause the sword shall not depart from your house forever: because you have despised me." But he was immediately mindful of where he had fallen and that he had left his first love, and he said: "I have sinned against the Lord."

Psalm 50 Modern Psalm 51.

Likewise in the psalm: "For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me: To you alone have I sinned, and done evil before you." Therefore the Lord did not come to this man as he had come to Saul, to move his throne or his lampstand out of its place. For both his kingdom stood, and the prophetic grace remained with the authority of teaching. For having recovered that grace, he said: "I will teach the unjust your ways."

How one must act against clerics who sin.

Therefore, when the angel of any church, that is, the priest, leaves his first love, it is rightly not immediately the part of ecclesiastical law to move his lampstand out of its place—that is, to take away his priesthood or his church—but it is said to him: "Be mindful where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works."

Matthew 18.

If he listens to the one correcting him, he who corrected him has gained his brother. But if he does not correct himself after another is brought in, nor even after the public testimony of the assembled church, but rather despises listening, then finally his lampstand is rightly moved and given to another.

A decorative symbol marks a section break. It follows: But this you have: that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Nicolaitans.

I have that against you, he says, which I have already spoken. But this you have with me, and in this you agree with me: that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, for those I also hate. The Nicolaitans are named after Nicolas, a deacon of the church of Jerusalem, who was appointed by Peter along with Stephen and the others. Leaving his wife because of her beauty, he said he wished anyone to use her: and such a custom turned into debauchery, so that they exchanged marriages with one another. These the Lord disapproves of in this place.

The best way to rebuke those who sin.

And the arrangement of the speech should be noted, for it is skillful. Even before he sent forth the austerity of rebuke, he praised the things that were to be praised: "I know," he says, "your works, and labor, and your patience," etc. And afterwards, where he rebuked and intended threats, he again praised what was to be praised: "Because," he says, "you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." Thus he smeared over the bitterness of the rebuke with the sweetness of praise, lest he should too greatly offend and terrify him.

XXVII. BOOK II OF THE COMMENTARY.

...smeared over with the sweetness of praise.

John 4.

In this way, when speaking with the Samaritan woman, even before he said, "For you have had five husbands, and now he whom you have is not your husband," he first praised her, saying: "You have said well, I have no husband." And after he expressed to her that she had had so many husbands, he praised her again: "This," he said, "you have spoken truly." This is a great and worthy mastery of the Spirit of God to be imitated: to rebuke indeed those things which need correction, but in the midst of rebuking, both before and after, to praise whatever has been well said or done by that same person who is rebuked in other matters. Thus, as much as possible, the soul of the sinner is held in goodwill and does not flee away in confusion or terror, unable to endure hearing the rebuke.

¶ Likewise, it must be noted that nothing follows which has less power upon an understanding mind than a rebuking invective.

He who has an ear, let him hear. Matthew 13.

A decorative initial Q marks the beginning of a paragraph.He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. For this kind of speaking is like a most vehement shout, reaching all the way to the inner ear of the heart. Hence the Evangelist says: "Jesus, saying these things, cried out: He who has ears for hearing, let him hear." For by such an announcement he vehemently convicts a negligent mind, designating that man to be exceedingly deaf—even if he has open physical ears—who does not hear the force of such a great threat within, and who does not feel the necessity of such a great judgment internally.

What is said to one is said to all churches.

¶ Truly, when he does not say what the Spirit says to the church of Ephesus, but what the Spirit says to the churches, it should be known that what he writes to individuals, he says to all churches. Indeed, in all churches there are those who may worthily hear, whether those to whom things of fear ought to be said, or those to whom things of piety, or those to whom things of knowledge, or those to whom things of fortitude, or those to whom things of counsel, or those to whom things of understanding, or those to whom things of wisdom. For this reason also they are written to seven churches, or the church is called sevenfold, because whoever is in the church is established in some rank of these graces.

Refrain verse.

¶ Therefore this refrain verse is pronounced to each individual church concerning the individual spirits of God: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Another is added to this, which varies in each of the utterances of those spirits according to the quality of the worthy rewards.

A decorative initial V marks the beginning of a paragraph.To him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God. In this rank, that is, in the spirit of fear, to overcome is to comply with the one rebuking, to perform penance, and to do the first works.

Genesis 3.

Furthermore, because the first humans did not comply with God when he rebuked them, but rather increased their sin by protecting it with a proud defense, the tree of life which God had planted in the middle of paradise was closed off. For the Lord God said: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: Now therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever," the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, and placed before paradise the Cherubim and a flaming and turning sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Therefore, what was closed off to the first man who did not perform penance is beautifully promised again to this one who does perform penance, so that he may eat of the tree of life, which he says "is in the paradise of my God," and live forever once he has eaten from it.

"My God" was said regarding the humanity of Christ. † He defined. John 20. The tree of life is Christ. John 6.

¶ He said "my God" according to the nature of our flesh which he assumed. For according to the nature of his divinity it could be said, "which is in the paradise of my Father." He † defined both in the Gospel, saying now to his brothers, his apostles: "I ascend to my Father and your Father: to my God and your God." ¶ But must we eat of that material tree in order to rise again and live forever? Not at all, but "He who eats," he says, "my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." For Christ is the tree of life, by whose vision in the heavenly paradise and by whose body in the present church holy souls are refreshed. That material tree of life would not have given life to a man already dead by the death of the soul—namely, by sin—but it would have caused the flesh to live forever, which would have been most unhappy. For if a man dead in soul were to live in body forever, he would not be recovered forever, and would be eternally miserable as the demons are. But this tree of life, which is Christ, while he refreshes us with his body and blood, already now raises the soul from the death of sin, and will raise our flesh on the last day. Moreover, often he who has not yet overcome—that is, who has not performed penance—eats of this tree of life which is in the paradise of God, eating the body and drinking the blood of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11.

Christ does not give it to him, but he snatches it himself, and therefore eats and drinks judgment to himself.