(383)S15E6 Simplicity: Tertullian's "Of Patience"
Welcome back to the Fourth Wave podcast. If you've been listening to this season in whole so far, you can probably already tell by this title that I am kind of deviating from what I had originally planned. I know I've been mentioning that, that I'd get to these works on patients from the early church fathers, that I'd get to it later in the season, because originally I was planning on doing this kind of like I did my first couple seasons where I would would lay out a case and then I put supplemental things at the end. But as I was organizing and reorganizing, I realized that I I think what would be most beneficial is to kind of lay out the case for simplicity sort of like I did with the propaganda season where, you know, I have this this main episode, this main argument that kind of summarizes the point. And then I put more, supplemental information and, you know, not rabbit trails, but, you know, supporting information right after that.
Derek:And so I think that's what I'm gonna do here in this season. That way you don't have to go hunt it down, but everything's organized really well. So we just did an episode on patients and now you're going to get some of that supplemental information over the next few episodes where you're able to, you know, hear from some other people on patients. I'll do this like I do all of the other, you know, works that I read from others where, for the next couple episodes, what I'll do is I will just basically go right into it, and then I will summarize them at the end. Obviously, I'm doing a short little introduction in this one just to kinda give you help you get your bearings.
Derek:But at the end of the episode is when I'll kind of comment on some things that stuck out to me. So in this episode, we are going to start with the first work on patience from the early church, and that is with Tertullians of Patience written sometime around February. You can easily find a link to this by a quick Google search. There are lots of different websites that, have this document available, and I will put those links in the show notes as well just in case you need them, as well as some other resources that apply. So, here it is, Tertullian's Of Patience.
Derek:Chapter one: Of Patience Generally and Tertullian's Own Unworthiness to Treat of It. I fully confess unto the Lord God that it has been rash enough, if not even impudent, in me to have dared compose a treatise on patience, for practicing which I am all unfit, being a man of no goodness, whereas it were becoming that such as have addressed themselves to the demonstration and commendation of some particular thing, should themselves first be conspicuous in the practice of that thing, and should regulate the constancy of their commissioning by the author of their personal conduct. For fear, their words blush at the deficiency of their deeds. And would that this blushing would bring a remedy, so that shame for not exhibiting that which we go to suggest to others should prove a tutorship into exhibiting it, except that the magnitude of some good things, just as of some ills too, is insupportable, so that only the grace of divine inspiration is effectual for attaining and practicing them. For what is most good rests most with God, nor does any other than he who possesses it dispense it, as he deems meat to each.
Derek:And so to discuss about that which it is not given one to enjoy will be, as it were, a solace, after the manner of invalids who, since they are without health, know not how to be silent about its blessings. So I most miserable, ever sick with the heats of impatience, must of necessity sigh after and invoke and persistently plead for that health of patience which I possess not. While I recall to mind, and in the contemplation of my own weakness, digest the truth that the good health of faith and the soundness of the Lord's discipline accrue not easily to any unless patience sit by His side. So is patience set over the things of God, that one can obey no precept, fulfill no work well pleasing to the Lord if estranged from it. The good of it, even they who live outside it, honor with the name of highest virtue.
Derek:Philosophers, indeed, who are accounted animals of some considerable wisdom, assign it so high a place that while they are mutually at discord with the various fancies of their sects and rivalries of their sentiments, yet having a community of regard for patience alone, to this one of their pursuits they have joined in granting peace. For it they conspire. For it they league. It in their affections of virtue, they unanimously pursue. Concerning patients they exhibit all their ostentation of wisdom.
Derek:Grand testimony this is to it, in that it incites even the vain schools of the world unto praise and glory. Or is it rather an injury, in that a thing divine is bandied among worldly sciences? But let them look to that who shall presently be ashamed of their wisdom, destroyed and disgraced together with the world it lives in. Chapter two, God Himself, an Example of Patience. To us, no human affection of canine equanimity, modeled by insensibility, furnishes the warrant for exercising patience, but the divine arrangement of a living and celestial discipline holding up before us God Himself in the very first place as an example of patience, who scatters equally over just and unjust the bloom of this light, who suffers the good offices of the seasons, the services of the elements, the tributes of entire nature, to accrue at once to worthy and unworthy, bearing with the most ungrateful nations, enduring as they do the toys of the arts and the works of their own hands, persecuting his name together with his family, bearing with luxury, avarice, iniquity, malignity, waxing insolent daily, so that by his own patience he disparages himself.
Derek:For the cause why many believe not in the Lord is that they are so long without knowing that he is angry with the world. Chapter three. Jesus Christ in his incarnation and work a more imitable example thereof. In this species of divine patience indeed being, as it were, at a distance may perhaps be esteemed as among things too high for us. But what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand, first John one one, among men, openly on the earth?
Derek:God suffers Himself to be conceived in a mother's womb and awaits the time for birth, and when born bears the delay of growing up, and when grown up is not eager to be recognized, but is furthermore contumelious to himself and is baptized by his own servant and repels with words alone the assaults of the tempter, while from being lord he becomes master, teaching man to escape death, having been trained to the exercise of the absolute forbearance of offended patients. He did not strive, he did not cry aloud, nor did any hear his voice in the streets. He did not break the bruised reed, the smoking flax he did not quench. For the prophet, nay, the attestation of God himself, placing His own spirit together with patience in its entirety in His Son, had not falsely spoken. There was none desirous of cleaving to Him whom He did not receive.
Derek:No one's table or roof did He despise. Indeed, Himself ministered to the washing of the disciples' feet. Not sinners, not publicans, did He repel. Not with that city even which had refused to receive Him was He angry, Luke nine fifty one through 56. When even the disciples had wished that the celestial fire should be immediately hurled on so contumelius a town.
Derek:He cared for the ungrateful. He yielded to His ensnarers. This were a small matter if he had not had in his company even his own betrayer and steadfastly abstained from pointing him out. Moreover, while he is being betrayed, while he is being led up as a sheep for a victim, for so he no more opens his mouth than a lamb under the power of the shearer, he to whom, had he willed it, legions of angels would at one word have presented themselves from the heavens, approved not the avenging sword of even one disciple. The patience of the Lord was wounded in the wound of Malchus, and so too He cursed for the time to come the works of the sword, and by the restoration of health made satisfaction to Him who Himself had not hurt, through patience, the Mother of Mercy.
Derek:I pass by in silence the fact that He is crucified, for this was the end for which he had come. Yet had the death, which must be undergone, need of contumeles likewise? Nay, but when about to depart, he wished to be sated with the pleasure of patience. He is spitted on, scourged, derided, clad foully, more foully crowned. Wondrous is the faith of equanimity.
Derek:He who had set before Him the concealing of Himself in man s shape imitated not of man s impatience. Hence, even more than from any other trait, ought you Pharisees to have recognized the Lord. Patience of this kind none of men would achieve. Such and so mighty evidences, the very magnitude of which proves to be among the nations indeed a cause for rejection of the faith. But among us its reason and rearing proves manifestly enough, not by the sermons only in enjoining, but likewise by the sufferings of the Lord in enduring to them to whom it is given to believe.
Derek:That as the effect and excellence of some inherent propriety, patience is God s nature. CHAPTER FOUR DUTY OF IMITATING OUR MASTER TAUGHT US BY SLAVES, even by beasts, obedient imitation is founded on patience. Therefore, if we see all servants of probity and right feeling shaping their conduct suitably to the disposition of their Lord, If that is the art of deserving favor is obedience, while the rule of obedience is a compliant subjection, how much more does it behoove us to be found with a character in accordance with our Lord, servants as we are of the living God, whose judgment on His servants turns not on a fetter or a cap of freedom, but on an eternity either of penalty or of salvation. For the shunning of which severity or the courting of which liberality there needs a diligence and obedience as great as are the commutations themselves which the severity utters or the promises which the liberality freely makes. And yet we exact obedience, not from men only who have the bond of their slavery under their chin or in any other legal way are debtors to obedience, but even from cattle, even from brutes, understanding that they have been provided and delivered for our uses by the Lord.
Derek:Shall then creatures which God makes subject to us be better than we in the discipline of obedience? Finally, the creatures which obey acknowledge their masters. Do we hesitate to listen diligently to Him to whom alone we are subjected? That is the Lord. But how unjust is it, how ungrateful likewise, not to repay from yourself the same which through the indulgence of your neighbor you obtain from others to Him through whom you obtain it.
Derek:Nor needs there more words on the exhibition of obedience due from us to the Lord God, for the acknowledgement of God understands what is incumbent on it. Lest, however, we seem to have inserted remarks on obedience as something irrelevant, let us remember that obedience itself is drawn from patience. Never does an impatient man render it or a patient fail to find pleasure in it. Who then could treat largely enough of the good of the patience, which the Lord God, the demonstrator and acceptor of all good things, carried about in his own self. To whom, again, would it be doubtful that every good thing ought, because it pertains to God, to be earnestly pursued with the whole mind by such as pertain to God, by means of which considerations, both commendation and exhortation on the subject of patience are briefly, and as it were in the compendium of a prescriptive rule, established.
Derek:Chapter five, as God is the author of patience, so the devil is of impatience. Nevertheless, the proceeding of a discussion on the necessaries of faith is not idle because it is not unfruitful. In edification, no loquacity is base, if it be base at any time. And so, if the discourse be concerning some particular good, the subject requires us to review also the contrary of that good. For you will throw more light on what is to be pursued if you first give a digest of what is to be avoided.
Derek:Let us therefore consider concerning impatience, whether just as patience in God, so its adversary quality have been born and detected in our adversary, that from this consideration may appear how primarily adverse it is to faith. For that which has been conceived by God's rival, of course, is not friendly to God's things. The discord of things is the same as the discord of their authors. Further, since God is best, the devil on the contrary worst of beings by their own very diversity, they testify that neither works for the other, so that anything of good can no more seem to be affected for us by the evil one than anything of evil by the good. Therefore, I detect the nativity of impatience in the devil himself at that very time when he impatiently bore that the Lord God subjected the universal works which he had made to his own image, that is to man.
Derek:For if he had endured that, he would not have grieved nor would he have envied man if he had not grieved. Accordingly, he deceived him because he had envied him, but he had envied because he had grieved and he had grieved because, of course, he had not patiently borne. What that angel of perdition first was, malicious or impatient? I scorn to inquire. Since manifest it is that either impatience took its rise together with malice or else malice from impatience, that subsequently they conspired between themselves and that they grew up indivisible in one paternal bosom.
Derek:But, however having been instructed by his own experiment, what an aid unto sinning was that which he had been the first to feel, and by means of which he had entered on his course of delinquency. He called the same to his assistance for the thrusting of man into crime. The woman, immediately on being met by him, I may say so without rashness, was through his very speech with her breathed on by a spirit infected with impatience. So certain is it that she would never have sinned at all if she had honored the divine edict by maintaining her patience to the end? What of the fact that she endured not to have been met alone, but in the presence of Adam, not yet her husband, not yet bound to lend her his ears.
Derek:She is impatient of keeping silence and makes him the transmitter of that which she had imbibed from the evil one. Therefore, another human being too perishes through the impatience of the one. Presently too perishes of himself through his own impatience committed in each respect both in regard to God's premonition and in regard to the devil's cheatery, not enduring to observe the former nor to refute the latter. Hence, whence the origin of delinquency arose the first origin of judgment. Hence, once man was induced to offend, God began to be angry.
Derek:Whence came the first indignation in God, thence came his first patience, who, content at that time with malediction only, refrained in the devil's case from the instant infliction of punishment. Else what crime before this guilt of impatience is imputed to man? Innocent he was in an intimate friendship with God and the husbandman of paradise. But when, once he succumbed to impatience, he quite ceased to be of sweet savor to God. He quite ceased to be able to endure things celestial.
Derek:Thenceforward, a creature given to earth and ejected from the sight of God, he begins to be easily turned by impatience unto every use offensive to God. For straightaway that impatience conceived of the devil's seed, produced in the fecundity of malice, anger as her son, and when brought forth, trained him in her own arts for that very thing which had immersed Adam and Eve in death taught their son too to begin with murder. It would be idle for me to ascribe this to impatience if Cain, the first homicide and first fratricide, had borne with equanimity and not impatiently the refusal by the Lord of his own oblations, if he is not angry with his own brother, if, finally, he took away no one's life. Since then, he could neither have killed unless he had been angry, nor have been angry unless he had been impatient. He demonstrates that what he did through wrath must be referred to that which by which wrath was suggested during the cradle time of impatience, then in a certain sense in her infancy.
Derek:But how great presently were her augmentations? And no wonder if she has been the first delinquent, it is a consequence that because she has been the first, therefore she is the only parent stem too, to every delinquency, pouring down from her own fount various veins of crimes. Of murder we have spoken. But being from the very beginning the outcome of anger, whatever causes besides it shortly found for itself, it lays collectively on the account of impatience as to its own origin. For whether from private enmities or for the sake of prey, anyone perpetrates that wickedness, the earlier step is his becoming impatient of either the hatred or the avarice.
Derek:Whatever compels a man, it is not possible that without impatience of itself, it can be perfected indeed. Whoever committed adultery without impatience of lust. Moreover, if in females the sale of their modesty is forced by the price, of course, it is by impatience of condemning gain that this sale is regulated. These I mentioned as the principal delinquencies in the sight of the Lord for to speak compendiously, every sin is ascribable to impatience. Evil is impatience of good.
Derek:None immodest is not impatient of modesty, dishonest of honesty, impious of piety, unquiet of quietness. In order that each individual may become evil, he will be unable to persevere in being good. How therefore can such a hydra of delinquencies fail to offend the Lord, the disapprover of evils? Is it not manifest that it was through impatience that Israel himself also always failed in his duty towards God? From that time when forgetful of the heavenly arm whereby he had been drawn out of the Egyptian affliction, he demands from Aaron gods as his guides when he pours down for an idol the contributions of his gold.
Derek:For the so necessary delays of Moses while he met with God, he had borne with impatience. After the edible rain of the manna, after the watery following of the rock, they despair of the Lord in not enduring a three days thirst. For this also is laid to their charge by the Lord as impatience. And not to rove through individual cases, there was no instance in which it was not by failing in duty through impatience that they perished. How moreover did they lay hands on the prophets except through impatience of hearing them?
Derek:On the Lord moreover Himself through impatience likewise of seeing Him. But had they entered the path of patience, they would have been set free. Chapter six. Patience, both antecedent and subsequent to faith. Accordingly, it is patience which is both subsequent and antecedent to faith.
Derek:In short, Abraham believed God and was accredited by him with righteousness. But it was patience which proved his faith when he was bidden to immolate his son with a view to, I would not say the temptation, but the typical attestation of his faith. But God knew whom he had accredited with righteousness. So heavy a precept, the perfect execution whereof was not even pleasing to the Lord, he patiently both heard and if God had willed, would have fulfilled. Deservedly then when he blessed because he was faithful, deservedly faithful because patient.
Derek:So faith illumined by patience when it was becoming propagated among the nations through Abraham's seed, which is Christ, Galatians three sixteen, and was super inducing grace over the law made patience her preeminent coadjutrix for amplifying the fulfilling the law. Because that alone had been lacking unto the doctrine of righteousness. For men were of old want to require eye for eye and tooth for tooth, and to repay with usury evil with evil. For as yet patience was not on earth, because faith was not either. Of course, meantime, impatience used to enjoy the opportunities which the law gave.
Derek:That was easy while the Lord and master of patience was absent. But after he had supervened and has united the grace of faith with patience, now it is no longer lawful to assail even with word, nor to say fool even without danger of judgment. Anger has been prohibited, our spirits retained, the petulance of the hand checked, the poison of the tongue extracted. The law has found more than it is lost, while Christ says love your personal enemies and bless your cursors and pray for your persecutors that you may be sons of your heavenly Father, Matthew five forty four through 45. Do you see whom patience gains for us as a father?
Derek:In this principle precept, the universal discipline of patience is succinctly comprised since evil doing is not conceited even when it is deserved. Chapter seven, the causes of impatience and their correspondent precepts. Now, however, while we run through the causes of impatience, all the other precepts also will answer in their own places. If our spirit is aroused by the loss of property, it is commonished by the Lord's scriptures in almost every place to a contempting of the world, nor is there any more powerful exhortation to contempt of money submitted to us than the fact the Lord Himself is found amid no riches. He always justifies the poor for condemns the rich.
Derek:So he for ministered to patience loss and to opulence contempt as portion, demonstrating by means of his own repudiation of riches that hurts done to them also are not to be much regarded. Of that, therefore, which we have not the smallest need to seek after because the Lord did not seek after it either. We ought to endure without heart sickness the cutting down or taking away. Covetousness, the spirit of the Lord, has through the apostle pronounced a root of all evils. Let us not interpret that covetousness as consisting merely in the concupiscence of what is another's.
Derek:For even what seems ours is another's, for nothing is ours since all things are God's, whose are we also ourselves. And so, if when suffering from a loss, we feel impatiently grieving for what is lost from what is not our own, we shall be detected as bordering on covetousness. We seek what is another's when we ill brook losing what is another's. He who is greatly stirred with impatience of loss does, by giving things earthly, the precedence over things heavenly, sin directly against God. For the spirit, which he has received from the Lord, he greatly shocks for the sake of the world matter.
Derek:Willingly, therefore, let us lose things earthly. Let us keep things heavenly. Perish the whole world so I may make patience my gain. In truth, I know not whether he who has not made up his mind to endure with constancy the loss of somewhat of his, either by theft or else by force, or else even by carelessness, would himself readily or heartily lay hand on his own property in the cause of almsgiving. For who that endures not at all to be cut by another himself draws the sword on his own body?
Derek:Patience and losing is an exercise in bestowing and communicating. Who fears not to lose, finds it not irksome to give? Else, how will one, when he has two coats, give the one of them to the naked? Luke three eleven. Unless he be a man likewise to offer to one who takes away his coat, his cloak as well.
Derek:How shall we fashion to us friends from mammon? Luke sixteen nine. If we love it so much as not to put up with its loss. We shall perish together with the lost mammon. Why do we find here where it is our business to lose?
Derek:To exhibit impatience at all losses is the Gentiles business who give money the precedence perhaps over their soul. For so they do when in their cupidities of lucre, they encounter the gainful perils of commerce on the sea. When for money's sake, even in the forum, there is nothing which damnation itself would fear which they hesitate to assay. When they hire themselves for sport and the camp, when after the manner of wild beasts, they play the bandit along the highway. But us, according to the diversity by which we are distinguished from them, it becomes to lay down not our soul for money, but money for our soul, whether spontaneously in bestowing or patiently in losing.
Derek:Chapter eight of Patience Under Personal Violence and Malediction. We who carry about our very soul, our very body, exposed in this world to injury from all and exhibit patience under that injury, shall we be hurt at the loss of less important things? Far from a servant of Christ be such a defilement as that the patience which has been prepared for greater temptations should forsake him and frivolous ones. If one attempts to provoke you by manual violence, the monition of the Lord is at hand. To him, he says, who smites you on the face, turn the other cheek likewise.
Derek:Matthew five thirty nine. Let outrageousness be wearied out by your patience. Whatever that blow may be conjoined with pain and condomly, it shall receive a heavier one from the Lord. You wound that outrageous one more by enduring, for he will be beaten by him for whose sake you endure. If the tongue's bitterness breaks out in malediction or reproach, look back at the saying, when they curse you, rejoice.
Derek:The Lord himself was cursed in the eye of the law, and yet he, the only blessed one. Let us servants therefore follow our Lord closely and be cursed patiently that we may be able to be blessed. If I hear with too little equanimity some wanton or wicked word uttered against me, I must of necessity either myself retaliate the bitterness or else I shall be racked with mute impatience. When then, on being cursed, I smite with my tongue, how shall I be found to have followed the doctrine of the Lord in which it has been delivered that a man is defiled not by the defilements of vessels, but of the things which are sent forth out of his mouth? Again, it is said that impeachment awaits us for every vain and needless word.
Derek:It follows that from whatever the Lord keeps us, the same he admonishes us to bear patiently from another. I will add, somewhat touching, the pleasure of patience. For every injury, whether inflicted by tongue or hand, when it has lighted upon patience, will be dismissed with the same fate as some weapon launched against and blunted on a rock of most steadfast hardness. For it will wholly fall then and there with bootless and fruitless labor, and sometimes will recoil and spend its rage on him who sent it out with retorted impetus. No doubt the reason why anyone hurts you is that you may be pained because the herder's enjoyment consists in the pain of the hurt.
Derek:When then you have upset his enjoyment by not being pained, he must needs be pained by the loss of his enjoyment. Then you not only go unhurt away, which even alone is enough for you, but be gratified in the bargain by your adversary's disappointment and revenged by his pain. This is the utility and the pleasure of patience. Chapter nine, of patience under bereavement. Not even that species of impatience under the loss of our dear ones is excused, where some assertion of a right to grief acts the patron to it.
Derek:For the consideration of the apostles declaration must be set before us who says, be not overwhelmed with sadness at the falling asleep of anyone, just as the nations are who are without hope. And justly, or believing the resurrection of Christ, we believe also in our own, for whose sake he both died and rose again. Since then, there's certainty as to the resurrection of the dead. Grief for death is needless, and impatience of grief is needless. For why should you grieve if you believe that your loved one has not perished?
Derek:Why should you bear impatiently the temporary withdraw of him whom you believe will return? That which you think to be death is departure. He who goes before us is not to be lamented, though by all means to be longed for. That longing also must be tempered with patience. For why should you bear without moderation the fact that one has gone away whom you will presently follow?
Derek:Besides, impatience in matters of this kind bodes ill for our hope and is a dealing insincerely with the faith. And we wound Christ when we accept not with equanimity the summoning out of this world of any by him as if they were to be pitied. I desire, says the apostle, to be now received and to be with Christ. How far better a desire does he exhibit? If then we grieve impatiently over such as have attained the desire of Christians, we show unwillingness ourselves to attain it.
Derek:Chapter 10, of revenge. There is too another chief spur of impatience, the lust of revenge dealing with the business either of glory or else of malice. But glory on the one hand is everywhere vain and malice on the other is always odious to the Lord. In this case, indeed, most of all, when being provoked by a neighbor's malice, it constitutes itself superior in following out revenge and by paying wickedness doubles that which has once been done. Revenge in the estimation of error seems a solace of pain.
Derek:In the estimation of truth, on the contrary, it is convicted of malignity. For what difference is there between provoker and provoked, except that the former is detected as prior in evil doing, but the latter as posterior? Yet each stands impeached of hurting a man in the eye of the Lord, who both prohibits and condemns every wickedness. In evil doing, there is no account taken of order nor does place separate what similarity conjoins. And the precept is absolute that evil is not to be repaid with evil, Romans twelve seventeen.
Derek:Like deed involves like merit. How shall we observe that principle if in our loathing we shall not loathe revenge? What honor moreover shall we be offering to the Lord if we arrogate to ourselves the arbitrament of vengeance? We are corrupt, Isaiah 60 four:six, earthen vessels. With our own servant boys, if they assumed themselves the right of vengeance on their fellow servants, we are gravely offended.
Derek:While such as make us the offering of their patience, we not only approve as mindful of humility, of servitude, affectionately jealous of the right of their Lord's honor, but we make them an ampuller satisfaction than they would have pre exacted for themselves. Is there any risk of a different result in the case of a Lord, so just in estimating, so potent in executing? Why then do we believe Him a judge, if not an avenger too? This he promises that he will be to us in return saying, vengeance belongs to me and I will avenge. That is, leave patience to me and I will reward patience.
Derek:For when he says judge not lest you be judged, does he not require patience? For who will refrain from judging another but he who shall be patient in not revenging himself? Who judges in order to pardon? And if he shall pardon, still he has taken care to indulge the impatience of a judger and has taken away the honor of the one judge that is God. How many mischances had impatience of this kind been wants to run into?
Derek:How often has it repented of its revenge? How often has its vehemence been found worse than the cause which led to it? And as much as nothing undertaken with impatience can be affected without impetuosity, nothing done with impetuosity fails either to stumble or else to fall altogether or else to vanish headlong. Moreover, if you avenge yourself too slightly, you will be mad. If too amply, you will have to bear the burden.
Derek:What have I to do with vengeance, the measure of which through impatience of pain I am unable to regulate? Whereas if I shall repose on patience, I shall not feel pain. If I shall not feel pain, I shall not desire to avenge myself. Chapter 11: Further Reasons for Practicing Patience Its Connection with the Beatitudes. After these principal material causes of impatience registered to the best of our ability, why should we wander out of our way amongst the rest?
Derek:What are found at home? What abroad? Wide and diffusive is the evil one's operation, hurling manifold irritations of our spirit and sometimes trifling ones, sometimes very great. But the trifling ones you may contend from this very littleness. To the very great ones you may yield in regard of their overpoweringness.
Derek:Where the injury is less, there is no necessity for impatience. But where the injury is greater, there more necessary is the remedy for the injury, patience. Let us strive therefore to endure the inflictions of the evil one, that the counter zeal of our equanimity may mock the zeal of the foe. If however, we ourselves either by imprudence or else voluntarily draw upon ourselves anything, let us meet with equal patience what we have to blame ourselves for. Moreover, if we believe that some inflictions are sent on us by the Lord, to whom should we more exhibit patience than to the Lord?
Derek:Nay, he teaches us to give thanks and rejoice over and above at being thought worthy of divine chastisement. Whom I love, he says, I chasten. O blessed servant, on whose amendment the Lord is intent, with whom he deigns to be angry, whom he does not deceive by disassembling his reproofs. On every side, therefore, we are bound to the duty of exercising patience from whatever quarter either by our own errors or else by the snares of the evil one, we incur the Lord's reproofs. Of that duty, great is the reward, namely happiness.
Derek:For whom but the patient has the Lord called happy and saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew five three. No one assuredly is poor in spirit except he be humble. Well, who is humble except he be patient? For no one can abase himself without patience, in the first instance, to bear the act of abasement.
Derek:Blessed, says he, are the weepers and mourners, Matthew five:four, who without patience is tolerant of such unhappiness. And so to such consolation and laughter are promised, blessed are the gentle, Matthew five five. Under this term, surely the impatient cannot possibly be classed. Again, when he marks the peacemakers, Matthew five nine, with the same title of felicity and names them sons of God, pray have the impatient any affinity with peace? Even a fool may perceive that.
Derek:When, however, he says rejoice and exalt as often as they shall curse and persecute you, for very great is your reward in heaven. Of course, it is not to the impatience of exaltation that he makes that promise because no one will exalt in adversities unless he have first learned to condemn them. No one will contend them unless he has learned to practice patience. Chapter 12. Certain other divine precepts, the apostolic description of charity, their connection with patience.
Derek:As regards the rule of peace, which is so pleasing to God, who in the world that is prone to impatience will even once forgive his brother, I will not say seven times or 77 times, Who that is contemplating a suit against his adversary will compose the matter by agreement unless he first begins by lopping off chagrin, hard heartedness, and bitterness which are in fact the poisonous outgrowths of impatience. How will you remit and remission be granted you if the absence of patience makes you tenacious of a wrong? No one who is at variance with his brother in his mind will finish offering his dudious gift at the altar unless he first, with intent to reconciliate his brother, return to patience. If the sun goes down over our wrath, we are in jeopardy. We are not allowed to remain one day without patience.
Derek:But, however, since patience takes the lead in every species of salutary discipline, what wonder that she likewise ministers to repentance, accustomed as repentance is to come to the rescue of such as have fallen, When on a disjunction of wedlock, for that cause I mean which makes it lawful whether for husband or wife to persist in the perpetual observance of widowhood, she waits for, she yearns for, she persuades by her entreaties, repentance, and all who are one day to enter salvation. How great a blessing she confers on each. The one she prevents from becoming an adulterer, the other she amends. So too she is found in those holy examples touching patience in the Lord's parables. The shepherd's patience seeks and finds the straying you.
Derek:For impatience would easily despise one you, but patience undertakes the labor of the quest, and the patient burden bearer carries home on his shoulders the forsaken sinner. That prodigal son also the father's patience receives and clothes and feeds and makes excuses for in the presence of the angry brother's impatience. He therefore who had perished is saved because he entered on the way of repentance. Repentance perishes not because it finds patience to welcome it. For by those teachings but those of patience as charity, the highest sacrament of the faith, the treasure house of the Christian name, which the apostle commends with the whole strength of the Holy Spirit.
Derek:Charity, he says, is long suffering. Thus she applies patience, is beneficent, patience does no evil, is not emulious, that certainly is a peculiar mark of patience, savors not violence. She has drawn herself restraint from patience, is not puffed up, is not violent, for that pertains not unto patience, nor does she seek her own, if she offers her own provided she may benefit her neighbors, nor is irritable, if she were, what would she have left to impatience? Accordingly, he says, charity endures all things, tolerates all things. Of course, because she is patient.
Derek:Justly then, will she never fail, for all other things will be canceled, will have their consummation, tongues, sciences, prophecies become exhausted. Faith, hope, charity are permanent. Faith, which Christ's patience introduced. Hope, which man's patience waits for. Charity, which patience accompanies with God as Master.
Derek:Chapter 13, Of Bodily Patience. Thus far, finally, of patience, simple and uniform, and as it exists merely in the mind, though in many forms likewise I labor after it in body for the purpose of winning the Lord in as much as it is a quality which has been exhibited by the Lord Himself in bodily virtue as well. If it is true that the ruling mind easily communicates the gifts of the spirit with its bodily habitation, what therefore is the business of patience in the body? In the first place, it is the affliction of the flesh, a victim able to appease the Lord by means of the sacrifice of humiliation, in making a libation to the Lord of sordid raiment together with scantiness of food, content with simple diet and pure drink of water in conjoining fasts to office, in inuring herself to sackcloth and ashes. This bodily patience adds a grace to our prayers for good, a strength to our prayers against evil.
Derek:This opens the ears of Christ our God, dissipates severity, elicits clemency. Thus that Babylonish king, after being exiled from human form in his seven years squalor and neglect because he had offended the Lord, By the bodily immolation of patience not only recovered his kingdom, but what is more to be desired by a man made satisfaction with God. Further, if we set down in order the higher and happier grades of bodily patience, we find that it is she who is entrusted by holiness with the care of continence of the flesh. She keeps the widow and sets on the Virgin the seal and raises the self made eunuch to the realms of heaven. That which springs from a virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh.
Derek:And finally, by the patience of the flesh, does battle under persecution. If flight press hard, the flesh wars with the inconvenience of flight. If imprisonment overtakes us, the flesh still was in bonds, the flesh in the guive, the flesh in solitude and in that want of light and in that patience of the world's misusage. When however, it is led forth unto the final proof of happiness, unto the occasion of the second baptism, unto the act of ascending the divine seat, no patience is more needed there than bodily patience. If the spirit is willing but the flesh without patience is weak, where, save in patience, is the safety of the spirit and of the flesh itself?
Derek:But when the Lord says this about the flesh pronouncing it weak, He shows what need there is of strengthening it, that is by patience, to meet every preparation for subverting or punishing faith, that it may bear with all constancy, stripes, fire, cross, beasts, sword, all which prophets and apostles by enduring conquered. CHAPTER 14. THE POWER OF THIS TWOFLD PATIENCE, THE SPIRITUAL AND THE BODILY, EXEMPLIFIED IN THE SAINTS OF OLD. With this strength of patience, Isaias is cut asunder and ceases not to speak concerning the Lord. Stephen is stoned and prays for pardon to his foes.
Derek:Oh, happy also he who met all the violence of the devil by the exertion of every species of patience, whom neither the driving away of his cattle, nor those riches of his sheep, nor the sweeping away of his children in one swoop of ruin, nor finally the agony of his own body in one universal wound, estranged from the patience and the faith which he had plighted to the Lord, whom the devil smote with all his might in vain. For by all his pains, he was not drawn away from his reverence for God. But he has been set up as an example and testimony to us for the thorough accomplishment of patience as well in spirit as in flesh, as well in mind as in body, in order that we succumb neither to damages of our worldly goods, nor to losses of those who are dearest, nor even to bodily afflictions. What a beer for the devil did God erect in the person of that hero. What a banner did he rear over the enemy of his glory when at every bitter message that man uttered nothing out of his mouth but thanks to God, while he denounced his wife, now quite wearied with ills and urging him to resort to crooked remedies.
Derek:How did God smile? How was the evil one cut asunder while Job with mighty equanimity kept scraping off the unclean overflow of his own ulcer while he sportively replaced the vermin that broke out thence in the same caves and feeding places of his pitted flesh. And so, when all the darts of temptations had blunted themselves against the coarslet and shield of his patience, that instrument of God's victory not only presently recovered from God the soundness of his body, but possessed in redoubled measure what he had lost. And if he had wished to have his children also restored, he might again have been called father, but he preferred to have them restored him in that day. Such joy is that, secure so entirely concerning the Lord, he deferred.
Derek:Meantime, he endured a voluntary bereavement that he might not live without some exercise of patience. Chapter 15, general summary of the virtues and effects of patience. So amply sufficient a depository of patience is God. If it be a wrong which you deposit in his care, he is an avenger. If a loss, he is a restorer.
Derek:If pain, he is a healer. If death, he is a reviver. What honor is granted to patients to have God as her debtor? And not without reason, for she keeps all his decrees. She has to do with all his mandates.
Derek:She fortifies faith, is the pilot of peace, assists charity, establishes humility, waits long for repentance, sets her seal on confession, rules the flesh, preserves the spirit, bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples temptations underfoot, drives away scandals, gives their crowning grace to martyrdoms, consoles the poor, teaches the rich moderation, over strains not the weak, exhausts not the strong, is the delight of the believer, invites the Gentile, commends the servant to his Lord, and his Lord to God, adorns the woman, makes the man approved, is loved in childhood, praised in youth, looked up to in age, is beauties in either sex, in every time of life. Come now. See whether we have a general idea of her mien and habit. Her countenance is tranquil and peaceful. Her brow serene, contracted by no wrinkle of sadness or of anger.
Derek:Her eyebrows evenly relaxed and gladsome wise, with eyes downcast in humility, not in unhappiness. Her mouth sealed with the honorable mark of silence. Her hues such as theirs who are without care and without guilt. The motion of her head frequent against the devil, and her laugh threatening. Her clothing moreover about her bosom white and well fitted to her person, as being neither inflated nor disturbed.
Derek:For patient sits on the throne of that calmest and gentlest spirit, who is not found in the roll of the whirlwind, nor in the leaden hue of the cloud, but is of soft serenity, open and simple, whom Elias saw at his third essay. For where God is, there too is his foster child, namely patience. When God's spirit descends, then patience accompanies him indivisibly. If we do not give admission to her together with the spirit, will he always tarry with us? Nay.
Derek:I know not whether he would remain any longer. Without his companion and handmaid, he must have necessity be straightened in every place and at every time. Whatever blow his enemy may inflict, he will be unable to endure alone, being without the instrumental means of enduring. Chapter 16. The patience of the heathen very different from Christian patience, theirs doomed to perdition, ours destined to salvation.
Derek:This is the rule, this the discipline, these the works of patience which is heavenly and true, that is of Christian patience, not false and disgraceful, like as is that patience of the nations of the earth. For an order that in this also the devil might rival the Lord, he has as it were quite on par, except that the very diversity of evil and good is exactly on par with their magnitude, taught his disciples also a patience of his own. That, I mean, which making husbands venal for dowry and teaching them to trade in panderings, makes them subject to the power of their wives, which with feigned affection undergoes every toil of forced complacence, with a view to ensnaring the childless, which makes the slaves of the belly submit to tumelious patronage in the subjection of their liberty to their gullet. Such pursuits of patience the Gentiles are acquainted with, and they eagerly seize a name of so great goodness to apply it to foul patient they live of rivals and of the rich, and of such as give them invitations, impatient of God alone. But let their own and their leader's patience look to itself, a patience which the subterraneous fire awaits.
Derek:Let us, on the other hand, love the patience of God, the patience of Christ. Let us repay to Him the patience which He has paid down for us. Let us offer to Him the patience of the spirit, the patience of the flesh, believing as we do in the resurrection of flesh and spirit. Whew, that was was a little bit of a doozy there. There were quite a number of words I don't know that I've ever seen before.
Derek:And some of the spellings and things were a little bit funky. But definitely recommend listening to that kind of slowly and certainly looking over the text as you do it. And you can find other iterations of this that probably have better language, different translations. So you might want to try those out as well. But this one, let's first of all, I want to say that it's important to note that in in Christianity, there are two poles, two extremes that you can fall into.
Derek:One would be the pit that we would most likely fall into here in the West would be the non tradition side. You know, having never read a church father before, having never read, you know, church mothers before, having not really not knowing anybody beyond Christians who've lived in the twenty and twenty first century is kind of problematic, right? To not know, all like the arguments, the ideas, the, you know, the testimonies, the cloud of witnesses that we have who've gone before us, like that's a really big problem. And so you may have never heard of Tertullian before, let alone read anything by him, right? And you might be like, What's the point?
Derek:On the other hand, you have, groups of people probably more like the Catholic and or Orthodox here who there are some of them who maybe, give the early church too much weight. Usually one of the problems with that is there's so many divergent voices in the early church. A lot of times when you give the early church a lot of weight, what that really means for a lot of people or for some people at least, is that they pick the early church, teacher that they like who agrees with them on some of the major things and they say, See, the early church is so important. The early church said this and, you know, that's what's true. And it's like, Well, but there are lots of other early church people who say different things.
Derek:You can't just point to the early church and pick one or two people that you like and then say that trumps everything, right? So there's kind of a balance. It's important to know history. It's important to know the arguments and the theology that's been hashed out before you and the lives of the people, the theologians who've gone before you. But at the same time, it's important to recognize that this is a piece of the theological puzzle and they are speaking wisdom.
Derek:And we have to compare that to other the whole cloud of witnesses, as well as the, you know, the Bible and our consciences with how the Spirit is speaking to us. So there's a lot that goes into this. But history and the early church are are extremely important. But they they don't just dictate what is true just because somebody said it two thousand years ago. Right?
Derek:So to start off with just two things that I'd pick out from Tertullian that maybe you picked up on. Number one, it seems in here and maybe because it is a complex text, maybe I'm misreading it, But some of the ways that he referred to women, particularly, I forget which chapter it was, but with his talking about Eve, he seems kind of disparaging to a certain extent. Like, it's at least implied. I don't know too much about Tertullian, but if my recollection serves me right, I think he, you know, he'd had some things about women that weren't too great. So that might be something where you would push back on here in some of his stuff.
Derek:Secondly, I think it was Tertullian who said something to the extent of like, we will I don't know if it's take joy in or be comforted by seeing people getting justice in hell. I think it was Tertullian. It was definitely somebody, but I think it was Tertullian where you've got this guy who's who says, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. We need peace. Patience is about not returning evil for evil and all that kind of stuff.
Derek:And you're like, Wow, yeah. Tertullian was nonviolent. That's right. He was a pacifist. And then part of his argumentation here is, Yeah, we don't return evil for evil because God's going to do that and He's going do it better than I could.
Derek:Right? So there are definitely some like, what do you call it, Repressions, I guess, in Tertullian. It seems like he's got this repressed violence where he wants all this violence to be done but he's going to do the right thing and not do it himself. But he's going to like fantasize about his enemies getting their vengeance on them from the Lord. So there are definitely aspects of Tertullian that you might not agree with and I'm sure that it doesn't stop there.
Derek:There are probably lots of other things. So just right off the bat, it's important to know that Tertullian isn't going to say everything that you're going to agree with and he will say things, in here or in some of his other works that we would almost everybody would not agree with. But what's important to know is that Tertullian here gives like the first extended look that we have preserved for us in the early church on a virtue and it's the virtue of patience. And starts this thing off by saying how very important it is. Like, patience is central to everything.
Derek:And Tertullian really hashes that out. I mean, saying it's central to love, saying it's central to faith, central to essentially evangelism, all kinds of things. So I'll try to go through this really quickly and just say some of the things that that stood out to me because we're already at an hour in here. So I like that Tertullian in in chapter one. He bemoaned his inadequacy.
Derek:It reminds me a lot of how I started this season off where it's kind of like, oh man, I feel like I should not be talking to you about this. And Tertullian felt the same way in here. He's like, man, this is the highest virtue. And even like all of the secular world agrees that patience like is a virtue that they want to add. They disagree on lots of things, but they agree on patience.
Derek:You can't obey or please God without it. And he's like, Who am I to tell you about this? But then he gives this beautiful analogy where he's like, You imagine somebody who's unhealthy if there's a day where they have health or if they do have health in some other way, so if they're whatever paraplegic or something, but they have really good health, right? I don't know. I imagine somebody playing like in the Special Olympics, like basketball or something.
Derek:They're in great aerobic shape and they like, man, they're living a healthier life than I am and they just feel great. But they can't walk, right? They're injured. They're unwell. And he's like, That person who is unhealthy in some way on a day if there's if sun breaks through the clouds and they're feeling healthy, a cancer victim if they one day, for whatever reason, their body just feels great and they have a release, a break from those feelings of chemotherapy and cancer, they glory in that health even more because of their sickness.
Derek:And so Tertullian says, Hey, I'm not worthy to talk to you guys about this, but let me tell you what, because I am so inadequate and such, like, so bad at patients, When I have tasted it, I know how sweet and beautiful and good it is and I want to tell you about that. I want to tell you about those days when the sun shines through. And so I thought that was a really good analogy. Chapter three, I thought that was beautiful. If you go back, I would definitely read over chapter three where Tertullian highlights Jesus in all the ways that Jesus endured patience.
Derek:He had to wait nine months in a womb, in a human womb. Now I don't know how that all worked out. Like what God put put down to the side, like, did he have consciousness like we have consciousness now? Did he have omniscience in the womb? I have no idea what happened.
Derek:But if he had awareness and he's just, like, chilling in a pitch black womb, you know, it reminds you of of, like, God hovering over the face of the deep, the darkness before creation. If Jesus is just hovering there in the womb with consciousness, I'm claustrophobic. That would freak me out. I would not like that. Like, I can't can you imagine going from angels singing glory and heaven and bright and you're in a womb just chilling there in this cramped space in utter blackness for nine months.
Derek:And then he's born out of the womb and he waits thirty years before he starts to get disciples. And as he gets disciples, he waits three more years. And in that time, he's got these disciples who just are not getting it. They're like little kids and they don't they don't understand things. And he's rejected.
Derek:He's constantly rejected by people as he's loving them and healing them and revealing himself. And then even in all of that, he for three years has his own betrayer in his midst and he doesn't turn him in, he doesn't call down legions of angels, he puts up with him. And then he has the, you know, the the pharisees who claim to worship God, who are now coming to kill God himself. And they come to kill him and he submits to a just absolute torturous death. Not not a, you know, a beheading, but He endures hours upon hours of agonizing death.
Derek:That is a God of patience. And not to mention, and even before He goes into the womb, God puts up with evil and wickedness and idolatry and for thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years before even sending Jesus. And so Tertullian in chapter three just really unpacks how patient God is and it's beautiful. And he says, If there was one thing, right? We look at all the miracles that Jesus did and we're like, How did the Pharisees not?
Derek:He raises Lazarus from the dead. There's more clear of a sign than Him raising Lazarus from the dead. Of course He's God. How did they not know? And Tertullian says, forget all that.
Derek:If for no other reason, the pharisees should have seen the patience of Jesus and said, this can only be from God. Right? Patience is the mark that most distinguishes Jesus as, being from God. Now maybe you disagree with that, but Tertullian went to great lengths in this, in this treatise to unpack the centrality of patience in, everything. And so the idea of enduring injustice and not taking people to court, which of course, in Western Christianity, we say, that's dumb.
Derek:That's that's not what the Bible meant, even though the first few hundred years of Christianity think that Jesus meant that. Tertullian is like, yeah, how do you endure all of those things unless you are from God? You have to be born from above to not do ill to your enemies, either, you know, through violence, through violence of your hands, physical violence, through violence of the law, through courts, through those means, and through the tongue. He's like, If you can't even not do violence to somebody with your tongue, how do you expect to restrain yourself from violence in any other form? And so this even goes down to the things that we say to each other.
Derek:In fact, Tertullian highlights how he says this is this is how people are being converted. The way that God reveals Himself to people is through the patience of His disciples, through the patience of the church. So Tertullian attributes the growth of the church, the elect of God coming to know Him, he attributes to the display of patience. That's really convicting, right? A lot of us in Western Christianity, especially Protestant, Christianity, it's all about going out and evangelizing.
Derek:And of course proclamation is what a big part of the gospel. Like you proclaim the truth of the kingdom, yes. But here in the West, that means an invitation to individualism. Like, hey, you come and pray and make a choice. And Okay, just pray that prayer and you're good to go.
Derek:And that's totally different from what we see in the early church and what Tertullian describes, which is they see a lifestyle, they are through proclamation invited to enter that lifestyle through discipleship. And through that discipleship, they come to not just proclaim, but they act in the same way. That's what discipleship is. They come to act like they're discipler. So patience is central to evangelism, not mere words.
Derek:So skipping to to a little bit later, maybe one of my favorite quotes from this treatise is, Tertullian says, Evil is the impatience of good. That summarizes, I think, the core thought, the core ideas of this whole podcast. This whole podcast for me started because I recognized, I think it was after reading, The Politics of Jesus, where I'm like, Oh my gosh, we're consequentialists. Like, the ends justify the means. If I can if I put that to the side and I say, What is good?
Derek:What is true? What is right? Apart from focusing on, Well, what ends is that going to produce? Or what ends do I think it's going to produce? If I can put that to the side and just say, what is good?
Derek:What is true? Then that is not at all what I and most Christians around me have been doing. We've been focusing on the ends. If I put the ends to the side and I just read Jesus, yeah, nonviolence is like, of course, it's just obvious, right? It's clear.
Derek:And that's the case with a lot of biblical teachings ways that we are supposed to act. So Tertullian goes to great lengths to say, You do evil when you have impatience of the good. So Jesus says to love enemies and Tertullian tells you all the ways, right? Don't do physical violence. Don't do violence through law.
Derek:Don't do violence through words. Well, but if I don't do physical violence, then X, right? Then this end is going to be produced. Tertullian's like, no. Right?
Derek:You need patience for faith. I he lists Abraham and, like, Job and other people as examples. But if God said this, then you patiently wait for Him to bring about the good. You wait for His vengeance. You wait for His provision.
Derek:Right? You do what He says, and you show patience in the good. And when you don't do that, when you are impatient, that's evil. Evil is impatience of the good. What is lust?
Derek:It is, so lust for sexual gratification. That is an unwillingness, that is an impatience to wait for whatever the proper situation, for consent, for marriage, for, you know, whatever, right? Lust, sexual lust is an unwillingness to patiently wait for the proper situation. What is lust of gluttony, right? Lust of food.
Derek:That is impatience to wait for proper fulfillment, right? You know what? It's, 10:00 at night. I don't need to open that ice cream and and eat it. Right?
Derek:Maybe it's not inherently bad, but you know what? I did that for like the past week, opened ice cream every night at 10PM. Maybe I shouldn't do that tonight. I'm gonna wait for the appropriate time. I'm gonna wait for a mealtime or I'm gonna wait until I'm actually hungry.
Derek:Because I'm not hungry. I'm just I'm just wanting to eat. I just want taste, good taste in my mouth. So gluttony is just impatience for proper timing or fulfilling appropriate needs. So evil is impatience of good.
Derek:It's when we say, Nope, you know what? I'm going to get the ends that I think I should get when I think I should get them. So moving on to, let's see, chapter six here. So in chapter six, this is one of several chapters where you kind of get the nonviolent aspect of of patience, right, not not returning evil for evil. I really like at the end Tertullian says, let's see, quote, in this principle precept, the universal discipline of patience is succinctly comprised since evil doing is not conceited even when it is deserved.
Derek:End quote. Evil doing is not conceited even when it's deserved. That's how he defines, you know, vengeance, human vengeance. It's, Hey, this guy killed somebody. We're going to kill him back.
Derek:Right? He deserves to die. So let's kill him. Right? What does Tertullian call that?
Derek:He says, evil doing is not conceited even when it's deserved. He would say, Yeah, sure. They deserve the death penalty. They deserve that. But that is doing evil to them.
Derek:You are doing evil to them. They deserve it. And Augustine says something very similar. We talked about this way back in season one where Augustine, I think it was is he talking about a robber coming into his house? I don't remember exactly what it was, but he's like, hey, it's it's just for for them to be killed or for, like, capital punishment, whatever it was that he was talking about.
Derek:It's like, it's just, but that doesn't mean it's good. And so he kind of was able to differentiate those, you know, those sorts of things. Like, yes, there are things that by law are just and are enacted by the the government and are just, but they're not Christian. They're not good. They're still evil.
Derek:Like, understand why they do it, but it's not good. It's not Christian. Which reminds me of another quote. I think it's Athenagoras, but I was I usually get that one kind of mixed up. But where he said something to the extent of, you know, Christians cannot bear to see anyone put to death, even justly.
Derek:So Christians back in the day when when public executions were they were a spectacle, people, you know, take out the family and get grab a picnic lunch and let's watch the executions. Athenagoras was like, no, we like Christians, we can't even stand to see somebody who we know is a murderer and deserves death. Like, we can't even watch that happen. So now Tertullian might disagree with that part. He might be like, I'm kinda looking forward to having some roasting some s'mores up in heaven and watching my enemies burn.
Derek:But Athenagoras is like, no, we we we can't even watch that. In chapter seven, I really like it because Tertullian talks about wealth in that part and that's definitely going to be a part of our season. We're going have an extended part of the season on wealth and riches and all that kind of stuff. So this is a really good chapter to go over, maybe come back to. I really liked his analogy where he said because here again, he's saying, right, you don't return evil for evil.
Derek:He's saying, right, you think this stuff is yours. You think all the stuff you have is yours. And somebody comes in and takes it. And through impatience, you're like, oh, I want my stuff back here. You mourn over it.
Derek:You go to law to try to get it. But like, all these things, you are just and he's he's like, you're impatient. It's like, that stuff's not even yours. It's God's stuff. Like, God gave it to you.
Derek:Just patiently wait to get it back if God so chooses to give it back to you. And if he doesn't, it's like, it's not even yours anyway. And then he kind of flips the tables and he's like, you're so freaked out over this stuff that you lost or that was stolen from you or that got destroyed and whatever, some environmental disaster. You're so upset over this stuff that got taken from you, right? And he likens it to somebody cut you with a sword, right?
Derek:Nature cut you with a sword or chance, you know, you lost something, accident, or somebody stole something from you, you got cut with a sword. You got injured. You were hurt. He's like, if you freak out over being cut by a sword, like, of having this pain, dealt to you by somebody else or some other circumstance, having this stuff that's not even yours taken away, it's like, how would you ever think or say that you're gonna put the sword to yourself and cut yourself? And in his example, he's talking about almsgiving.
Derek:He's like, if you freak out over losing stuff that's not even yours, it's like, that's an indication that you're not really generous. Like, you're not, you would not be willing to cut yourself. You would not be willing to part with stuff, that others would need. Like to you would not give your cloak to the one in need. You would not sell your house, and give all to the poor if Jesus called you to do it.
Derek:Because you're freaking out over somebody who just gave you a little cut with a sword. Right? There's no way you would do that. And he kind of pierces pierces the reader's heart in that in in chapter seven there. Alright.
Derek:Two other really quick really quick things here, and this is from chapter eight and chapter nine. And this is where you get a little bit of that that some of those things that you might disagree with Tertullian on. And chapter eight goes into the, you know, patience is going to heap coals on your enemies. And so that's true. Like, we talk to our kids about this all the time.
Derek:Like, they're just other people are looking and your siblings are looking to for you to show annoyance or pain or whatever because they feed off of that. Like you not reacting is important and that's going to bother them and take away their joy in that and it will give you peace. So there's a practical aspect to it. But in chapter eight, it feels a little bit like Tertullian kind of glories in that, a little bit much like, oh, yes, I'm gonna heap coals on my enemies. It feels that way.
Derek:Maybe maybe it's not. In chapter nine, Tertullian talks about not mourning, even for someone who dies. And he's like, you can feel longing, but, you know, don't don't go overboard. And that feels that feels a bit like that feels very wrong to me. I mean, Jesus wept when Lazarus died.
Derek:Jesus knew He's gonna raise him back to the dead, right, really soon. So how much more if you're gonna be apart from somebody for fifty years until you can you can be resurrected with them? So I I think that's a bit off. Like, I get what he's saying in extreme circumstances, like don't find your your identity in that, but like, yeah, mourn. That seems like it's a good normal human reaction.
Derek:Then lastly, chapter 11, that's another one of those ones that I would I would recommend. There was like like half of it. I'm like, oh, I could just read that again and again and again. So I would, I would encourage you to go look at, section 11. I think it was, yeah, that was a really good one.
Derek:That's all for Tertullians of patients. In the next episode, we will be going through Cyprians on patients and kind of doing the same thing that we did here and maybe making some comparisons or pulling some other aspects out. That's all for now. So peace and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost Network.
Derek:Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to nonviolence and Kingdom Living.
