Caput XIII
The Peril of Scandal and the Duty to Speak Truth
Those who reject admonition place themselves in grave danger, and though silence may seem prudent, Scripture warns that failing to warn the wicked brings divine judgment; therefore, when truth provokes scandal, it must not be abandoned, as Christ Himself exemplified.
There are some who not only despise the words of admonition, but are even vehemently scandalized against those who admonish them. And because scandal is very dangerous, good men frequently choose to remain silent rather than scandalize the wicked by speaking. Yet even they are not safe in remaining silent, because of that word: If you do not announce to the wicked one his wickedness, I will require his blood at your hand (Ezek.✦ III, 18). From this we must understand that, as far as we can without sinning, we should avoid giving scandal to those around us; but if scandal arises from the truth, it is better to let scandal arise than to abandon the truth.1 The master of truth proves this by his own example: to prevent scandal from arising in some hearts, he paid a tribute he didn't owe; and again, seeing that scandal was being raised against the truth in certain people's hearts, he let them remain in their scandal, saying: Leave them alone — they are blind, leaders of the blind (Matt.✦✦2 XV, 14). This is in the seventh book of Ezekiel.3
Fearing God Rather Than the Wicked
Drawing on Ezekiel, the text teaches that those who fear God need not fear the wicked, for true humanity consists in the fear of God, and those who are members of God share in His authority to reprove sin.
Likewise, in book ten: Do not be afraid, he says, because the Lord is one you dare not provoke (Ezek.✦ II, 6); for a man ought to have been feared, if he had feared the author of all things as a man.✦ For, as we said above, whoever does not fear God is not truly human. For whoever has not had the sense of reason directed toward the fear of God is that much less to be feared, inasmuch as it is not what it ought to be. But those who are members of almighty God ought to be held in fear, and if they themselves are grieved, the God who dwells in them is offended, and they on earth are accustomed to reprove what God reproves from heaven. But the wicked, as we said, are not to be feared. Hence it is said again to the same prophet: Do not be afraid of them, and because such people are accustomed to detract, it is added, nor of their words (Ibid.)✦ , because they are unbelieving and subversives together with you.✦
Holy Indifference to the Hatred of the Wicked
Since no one can please both God and His enemies, holy men rightly disregard the slanders of the wicked, whose detraction actually testifies to the good they possess; yet detractors must sometimes be restrained to protect the innocent.
Those who detract from us are not to be feared in proportion to their slanders, but rather in proportion to their failure to please God. It is completely foolish to seek the approval of people we know do not please God. No one can please both God and His enemies in the same matter at the same time. So whoever pleases God's enemy is denying that he is God's friend. That is why holy people are not afraid to provoke the hatred of those they know do not love God. So their slander is proof of our life, because if we did not possess something good, we would not displease the wicked. Now this must be understood: just as we should not provoke the tongues of those who speak against us — lest they perish by their own malice — so when those tongues are stirred up by that same malice, we should endure them calmly, so that merit may grow in us. But sometimes we must even restrain them, lest while they spread evil reports about us, they corrupt the hearts of the innocent who could have been moved to good by hearing us.
Truth, Enmity, and the Priority of God's Approval
Following John's rebuke of Diotrephes and Jerome's counsel, the chapter concludes that while we should avoid needlessly provoking enmity, when truth makes us enemies of the wicked, we must remember that God opposes those who oppose His servants—and when pleasing people conflicts with pleasing God, God must take precedence.
This is why John rebuked the tongue of his detractor, saying: 'Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us.' For this reason, if I come, I will call to mind the things he does — prating against us with malicious words. So far as it depends on us — as Jerome says in his letter to the Galatians — we ought to stir up no one's enmity. But if by speaking the truth we have earned some people as enemies, we are nevertheless not their enemies — since they are the enemies of truth. And so Truth itself says to Abraham: 'I will be an enemy to your enemies' (Exod.✦ XXIII, 22). And this certainly would not be the case if Abraham had earned their enmity through his own fault. Likewise, Jerome himself in the same letter to the Galatians says: 'If it is possible that we may please both God and men at the same time, then we must please men.' But if we cannot please people without displeasing God, then we ought to please God more than people.
Read the original Latin
Quidam vero non solum admonitionis verba contemnunt, sed etiam contra admonitores vehementer scandalizantur. Et quia scandalum valde periculosum est, idcirco boni viri frequenter malunt tacere, quam malos loquendo scandalizare. Qui tamen nec tacendo securi sunt propter illud: Si non annuntiaveris iniquo iniquitatem suam, sanguinem ejus de manu tua requiram (Ezech. III, 18). Ex qua re nobis considerandum est, quia in quantum sine peccato possumus, vitare proximorum scandalum debemus; si autem de veritate scandalum sumitur, utilius permittitur nasci scandalum, quam veritas relinquatur. Quod veritatis magister suo facto probat, qui in quorumdam cordibus scandalum ne gigneretur, tributum quod non debuit dedit: et rursum generari scandalum contra veritatem in quorumdam cordibus videns, eos in suo scandalo remanere permiserit dicens: Sinite illos, caeci sunt, duces caecorum (Matth. XV, 14). Hoc in libro VII Ezechielis.
Item in libro X: Ne timeas, inquit, quia Dominus exasperans est (Ezech. II, 6); timeri enim homo debuerat, si ipse auctorem omnium ut homo timuisset. Qui enim ut supra diximus, Deum non timet, homo non est. Nam qui rationis sensum ad timorem Dei non habuit, tanto minus timendus est, quanto hoc quod esse debuit non est. Debent autem in metu haberi isti qui membra sunt omnipotentis Dei, et si ipsi contristantur, Deus qui in ipsis habitat offenditur, et ipsi in terra reprehendere solent quod Deus redarguit e coelo. Mali vero, ut diximus, timendi non sunt. Unde rursus eidem prophetae dicitur: Ne timeas eos, et quia tales derogare solent, adjunctum est, neque sermones eorum (Ibid.) , quia increduli et subversores sunt tecum.
Qui tanto in suis derogationibus timendi non sunt, quanto non placere Deo probantur. Stultum enim valde est, si illis placere quaerimus, quos non placere Deo scimus. Nemo enim potest in una eademque re Deo simul et ejus hostibus gratus existere. Amicum ergo Dei se denegat, qui ejus inimico placet. Unde et sancti viri eos ad sua odia excitare non metuunt, quos Deum non diligere cognoscunt. Horum itaque derogatio vitae nostrae probatio est, quia nisi aliquid boni haberemus, malis non displiceremus. Sciendum vero est, quia linguas detrahentium sicut nostro studio non debemus excitare ne ipsi pereant, ita per suam malitiam excitatas debemus aequanimiter tolerare, ut nobis meritum crescat. Aliquando autem etiam compescere, ne, dum de nobis mala disseminant, eorum qui audire nos ad bona poterant, corda innocentum corrumpant.
Hinc est enim quod Joannes obtrectatoris sui linguam redarguit, dicens: Is qui amat primatum gerere in eis diotrepes non recipit nos. Propter hoc si venero commoneam ejus opera quae facit verbis malignis, garriens in nos. Quantum ergo ex nobis est, ut Hieronymus ad Galatas dicit, nullius inimicitiam commovere debemus. Quod si loquentes veritatem aliquos meruerimus inimicos, non tamen nos inimici sumus eorum, quoniam illi inimici sunt veritatis. Unde et ipsa Veritas dicit ad Abraham: Inimicus ero inimicis tuis (Exod. XXIII, 22). Quod utique non fieret si Abraham per culpam suam inimicitias eorum meruisset. Item ipse Hieronymus in eadem epistola ad Galatas: Si fieri potest ut pariter et Deo et hominibus placeamus, placendum est hominibus.
Si autem aliter non placeamus hominibus nisi Deo displiceamus, Deo magis quam hominibus placere debemus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ezek.3.18 — When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life—that wicked person shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from your hand.
- ↩Matt.15.14 — Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. But if a blind person guides a blind person, both will fall into a pit.
- ↩Matt.17.24-Matt.17.27 — When they had come to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, 'Your teacher—does he not pay the two-drachma tax?' Matt.17.25 — "Yes," he said. And when he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or tribute—from their own sons or from others?" Matt.17.26 — "From outsiders," he said. Jesus said to him, "Then the children are free." Matt.17.27 — But so that we do not cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. When you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for me and you.
- ↩Ezek.10.6 — And it came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, "Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim," that he went in and stood beside the wheel.
- ↩Ezek.2.6 — And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or afraid of their words, even though briers and thorns are all around you and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words, and do not be terrified by them, for they are a rebellious house.
- ↩Ezek.2.6 — And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or afraid of their words, even though briers and thorns are all around you and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words, and do not be terrified by them, for they are a rebellious house.
- ↩Ezek.2.6 — And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or afraid of their words, even though briers and thorns are all around you and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words, and do not be terrified by them, for they are a rebellious house.
- ↩Exod.23.22 — But if you truly listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin utilius permittitur nasci scandalum, quam veritas relinquatur presents a striking principle: when truth itself causes offense, the scandal is permitted to stand rather than the truth being surrendered. This is a key pastoral discernment point.
- 2 ↩The passage refers to Christ paying the temple tax (Matt. 17:24–27) to avoid scandal, and to his words in Matt. 15:14 about the Pharisees. The author weaves these two episodes together to illustrate the principle that scandal may sometimes be avoided through accommodation, but when it arises from truth itself, it must be permitted.
- 3 ↩The reference to 'book VII of Ezekiel' is unclear — the canonical Book of Ezekiel does not have seven books. This may refer to a section division in a particular edition or commentary tradition, or may be a textual corruption. Flagged for review.
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