Caput XVIII
Faith Denied by Neglecting Neighbors
Those who persecute or neglect their neighbors deny the faith, as Scripture teaches that whoever fails to care for his kin has denied the faith.
And perhaps some such people won't even endure hearing this, because they've lost their faith. But surely those who persecute their neighbors can't be said to have faith?1 Since the teacher of the nations says: 'Whoever neglects care for his neighbors has denied the faith' (1 Tim.✦2 5:8).
The Judge and the Oppressor of the Poor
Oppressing the brothers is worse than neglecting them, and the Judge will condemn those who lavish care on animals while stealing the livelihood of the poor.
And surely it's worse to oppress the brothers than to neglect their care. How, then, will the Judge of all people condemn those who'd prepare food for dogs or horses but steal away the livelihood of the poor, earned through sweat? If he'll cast into eternal fire those who don't feed the hungry, what will he do to these?✦3
Love as the Test of True Faith
Augustine teaches that Christ came in the flesh for love alone, so whoever lacks love denies the Incarnation, and many within the Church are shown by their works to be faithless.
For Father Augustine also says in the Epistle of Saint John: Christ came in the flesh for love alone; therefore whoever doesn't have love denies that Christ came in the flesh.45 There are very many things that show certain people established in the Church to be faithless.
Denying Truth for the Favor of the Powerful
Many in positions of influence deny truth — which is Christ Himself — to curry favor with the powerful, citing Christ's declaration 'I am the Truth.'
Many people accept the position of a powerful person in such a way that for the sake of that person's favor they deny the truth in a case involving their neighbor. And what is truth, if not Christ, who says, "I am the Truth"?✦ (John 14:6.)
Silence Before Power as Denial of Christ
Just as John the Baptist died for truth, anyone who keeps silent about truth to avoid offending a powerful person denies Christ, appearing Christian before men but not before God.
John, questioned not about the confession of Christ but about the truth of justice, fell down dead. Whoever, therefore, denies the truth for the very purpose of not offending a powerful person — if John on that very account fell down dead because of Christ, since he clearly incurred death for the sake of truth — that person undoubtedly denies Christ, who keeps silent about the truth so as not to offend someone's position. Look — after all this, before the eyes of men he is a Christian, but if he is judged strictly before God, he is no longer one.
Church Ministers Imitating Balaam and Jezebel
The same book shows many Church ministers imitating Balaam and Jezebel and being joined to the members of the Antichrist.
In this same book, many things are said about the ministers of the Church as well, by which they are shown both to imitate Balaam and Jezebel and to be joined to the members of the Antichrist.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Quique tales forte non patientur audire, quod fidem perdiderunt. Sed nunquid fidem habere dicendi sunt, qui proximos persequuntur? cum doctor gentium dicat: Qui negligit curam proximorum, fidem negavit (I Tim. V, 8). Et certe pejus est fratres opprimere, quam eorum curam negligere. Judex quoque hominum quomodo reprobabit eos qui ut canibus vel equis cibos praepararent, victum pauperis per sudorem acquisitum auferunt; si illos in aeternum ignem projiciet, qui esurientem non cibant? Nam et pater Augustinus in Epistola sancti Joannis dicit: Christus propter solam charitatem in carne venit; qui ergo charitatem non habet, Christum negat in carne venisse. Sunt plurima quae quosdam in Ecclesia constitutos infideles esse demonstrant.
Personam potentis ita plerique accipiunt, ut pro ejus favore verum in causa proximi negent. Et quid est veritas, nisi Christus qui ait: Ego sum Veritas? (Joan. XIV, 6.) Joannes non de confessione Christi, sed de justitiae veritate requisitus occubuit. Quisquis ergo veritatem idcirco negat, ne personam potentis offendat, si Joannes eo ipso propter Christum occubuit, quia videlicet pro veritate mortem incurrit, iste procul dubio Christum negat, qui ne personam offendat veritatem tacet. Ecce post haec ante oculos hominum Christianus est, sed si districte judicetur ante Deum, jam non est. Quo videlicet libro multa de ministris etiam Ecclesiae dicuntur, per quae et Balaam et Jezabel imitari et Antichristi membris uniri comprobantur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Tim.5.8 — But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
- ↩Matt.25.41-Matt.25.46 — Then he will also say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' Matt.25.42 — For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, Matt.25.43 — I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Matt.25.44 — Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not serve you?' Matt.25.45 — Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly I tell you, as much as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.' Matt.25.46 — And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
- ↩1Kgs.16.31;2Kgs.9.22;Rev.2.20 — And was it a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat? He took as wife Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and bowed down to him. 2Kgs.9.22 — And it came to pass, when Jehoram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he said, "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her many sorceries are?" Rev.2.20 — But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet, and she teaches and leads my servants astray, to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
- ↩1John.2.18;2John.1.7 — Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come; from this we know that it is the last hour. 2John.1.7 — For many deceivers have gone out into the world — those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. Such a person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Notes
- 1 ↩nunquid introduces a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer; rendered as 'surely … cannot' to capture the force.
- 2 ↩Quotation from 1 Timothy 5:8 identified as candidate scripture; final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
- 3 ↩The sentence is a complex rhetorical question; the final clause 'qui esurientem non cibant' is rendered as a parallel conditional to preserve the argument's force, with the implied consequence left open as in the Latin.
- 4 ↩charitatem rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy default; the theological-virtue sense is primary here.
- 5 ↩Augustine's commentary on 1 John identified as candidate; final source resolution deferred.
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