The Great Letter

III.1 Accordingly, in proportion as each person believes, strives, and in bodily and spiritual conflict gives himself to every form of obedience to the commandments, in that same proportion he acquires participation in the Spirit for spiritual growth and the renewal of the mind. [Rom. 12:2] Salvation is acquired by the grace and gift of God, while advancement and growth toward the measure of perfect spiritual maturity are appropriated through faith, love, and the struggle of free choice. Thus a person becomes an heir of eternal life both by grace and in righteousness. For just as it is impossible to acquire growth in perfection through the power and grace of God alone without the cooperation and diligence of the human person, so it is impossible to attain the perfect will of God and come to the full measure of freedom and purity by one's own power, diligence, and persistence without the cooperation and help of the Holy Spirit. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps vigil in vain." [Ps. 126:1 LXX] And again: "They did not inherit the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them"—though they indeed fight with sword and arm—"but your right hand and your arm and the light of your countenance." [Ps. 43:4 LXX] This speaks of the power of God cooperating with their own struggle. At the same time the prophet teaches those who hope to obtain salvation by faith and love and with the aid of grace to cut away pride in a few virtues and reliance upon themselves alone.

III.2 What, then, is this will of God which the Apostle urges everyone diligently to attain? Is it not the blessedness of those of whom the Lord says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" [Matt. 5:8], and, "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"? [Matt. 5:48] These words proclaim perfect cleansing from sin, complete deliverance from the passions of dishonor, and the perfect possession of the highest virtue—that is, the purification and sanctification of the heart through participation in the perfect Spirit of God, accomplished in full assurance through the faith and love of a soul wholly offered to God. The Spirit reveals this perfect goal of truth through David. He teaches us to seek it from God and to believe that those who thirst for it are proclaimed sons of light and become heirs of life. For he says: "Let my heart be blameless in your ordinances, that I may not be put to shame." [Ps. 118:80 LXX] These words show that shame and disgrace cover those who have not yet acquired a blameless heart, cleansed from every stain and defilement of vice. Again he says: "Then I shall not be put to shame when I look upon all your commandments." [Ps. 118:6 LXX] Here the Holy Spirit teaches that all the commandments must be fulfilled, every transgression avoided, and perfect boldness before God acquired. [1 John 3:21-22] The prophet, praying, indicates the same goal: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me and uphold me with a governing Spirit." [Ps. 50:12, 14 LXX] He also asks, "Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?" [Ps. 23:3 LXX], and answers: "He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart." [Ps. 23:4 LXX] Therefore, as the Spirit reveals by his own operation, we must cut off completely every sin committed in deed, word, thought, or inner reasoning and, praying earnestly and hoping in faith, hasten each day toward the perfect purity of God.

III.3 The Apostle, clearly teaching what souls ought to be who have withdrawn from marriage and been freed from the bonds of this world and who desire to strive in virginity, says: "The unmarried woman is concerned for the things of the Lord... that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." [1 Cor. 7:34] He commands such a person to be free from every transgression, both those committed in deed and those committed in thought—that is, from sins manifest and hidden—since she has desired to become the bride of Christ and to be joined in marriage to the spotless and pure heavenly King. For the soul that longs to be joined to him and desires to become "one spirit" with him [1 Cor. 6:17] must be made like his blameless and pure beauty, according to the blessed John: "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, as he is pure." [1 John 3:3] Paul likewise says: "Become imitators of me, as I am of Christ." [1 Cor. 11:1] The soul that has renounced bodily intercourse, withdrawn from the world, and strives in virginity so as to be espoused to the incorruptible Bridegroom must be purified not only from manifest transgressions—sexual immorality, theft, murder, gluttony, slander, falsehood, idle speech, shouting, laughter, jesting, love of money, and greed—but still more from the passions and secret sins that violate the soul: desire, vainglory, people-pleasing, hypocrisy, lust for authority, deceit, malice, hatred, unbelief, envy, self-exaltation, rivalry, self-satisfaction, self-love, conceit, and the other invisible passions of dishonor like them. Scripture, if we truly believe the words of the Spirit, knows these hidden sins of the soul and counts them equal and akin to manifest sins, since both spring from the same root. For it says, "The Lord has scattered the bones of those who please men" [Ps. 52:6 LXX], and, "The Lord abhors a man of blood and deceit" [Ps. 5:7 LXX], placing deceit and murder under the same condemnation. Again: "They speak peace with their neighbors, while evils are in their hearts. Give to them, Lord, according to their works." [Ps. 27:3-4 LXX] And again: "For in your heart you work lawlessness upon the earth." [Ps. 57:3 LXX] The Lord, reproaching those who seek to please men, says: "They do all their works in order to be seen by men." [Matt. 23:5] Therefore he commands: "Take heed that you do not perform your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven." [Matt. 6:1] That is, one must not seek praise or glory from men for one's good conduct, but from God alone, from whom come true and eternal glory—and also eternal dishonor. Hence it is said: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." [Luke 6:26] This concerns the desire to hear only good things from men and to rejoice in their praises and commendations.

III.4 But is it possible for those who do good not to become manifest to everyone? For the Lord himself says: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." [Matt. 5:16] The meaning is this: while doing every good work, strive for the glory of God and not for your own glory. Do not seek the praise of mortal men or rejoice in it, but receive praise and glory from God alone, as blessed David says: "From you is my praise" [Ps. 21:26 LXX], and, "My soul shall boast in the Lord." [Ps. 33:3 LXX] The Apostle commands that everything be done for the glory of God, even eating and drinking: "Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all to the glory of God." [1 Cor. 10:31] But the Lord declares those who seek glory and praise from men to be unbelieving, saying: "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the only God?" [John 5:44]

III.5 John compares hatred with murder: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." [1 John 3:15] Thus he equates secret hatred of a brother with murder. Paul likewise, speaking of those who were handed over to shameful passions because of their senseless and disobedient heart, includes hidden and manifest sins together under the work of perdition. He says: "Since they did not see fit to have God in knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do what is improper; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, boastful, proud, inventors of evils, disobedient to parents, without understanding, faithless, without natural affection, implacable, without mercy. They know the righteous judgment of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death." [Rom. 1:28-32] You see that he condemns not only men's manifest sins but numbers with them the hidden passions of the soul: deceit, pride, hostility, malice, boasting, hatred, and senselessness. Again the Lord says: "What is exalted among men is an abomination before God" [Luke 16:15], and, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." [Luke 14:11] Wisdom likewise says: "Everyone proud in heart is unclean before God." [Prov. 16:5 LXX] Many other sayings of holy Scripture could be gathered against the passions of dishonor concealed in the soul.

III.6 The Holy Spirit knows that the hidden sinful passions are especially tormenting to the soul and deeply rooted within it. Through David he teaches us how we may be delivered from them: "Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and from strangers spare your servant." [Ps. 18:13-14 LXX] These words mean that, by the power of the Spirit, we can overcome the hidden sinful passions through much prayer, fervent faith, and a good and perfect inclination toward God. For just as we strive to preserve the outer man—that is, the body—as a temple of God from manifest sins, according to the Apostle, "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him" [1 Cor. 3:17], so we must also strive to preserve the inner man, that is the soul, from every defilement of impure thoughts, according to the saying: "With all vigilance guard your heart"—as the bride of Christ—"for from it are the issues of life." [Prov. 4:23]

III.7 We must attain this by continually fighting against and contradicting evil thoughts—thoughts of vainglory, hatred, conceit, deceit, lust, unbelief, envy, and ambition. We must also examine ourselves with all diligence, keeping the mind from friendship and harmony with the secret passions of the soul, while giving ourselves wholly to every good work. Such works must be accomplished with effort, labor, and struggle, because the adversary opposes us.

III.8 Blessed Moses hints figuratively at the single and undivided righteousness of life, showing that the soul must not obey two deliberate inclinations, one good and one evil, but must turn toward the good alone. We must not cultivate two kinds of fruit, bad and useful; rather, producing useful fruit in a single manner, we must turn wholly away from what is bad. "You shall not work your field by yoking together animals of different kinds, an ox and an ass; but by yoking animals of one kind you shall thresh your harvest." [Deut. 22:10, interpreted figuratively] By these words we are exhorted to labor in the field of our heart, not yoking vice together with virtue, but virtue alone. "Do not weave linen into a woolen garment, or wool into a linen garment" [Deut. 22:11], and "Do not sow in your field two different kinds of seed." [Deut. 22:9] Finally: "Do not mate animals of different kinds for generation, but join only those of one kind." [Lev. 19:19]

III.9 Through all these sayings Scripture mystically indicates that we must not cultivate both vice and virtue within ourselves, but by the divine birth bring forth from ourselves one kind of fruit—the fruits of virtue alone. The soul must not commune and unite with two spirits, the spirit of this world and the Spirit of God. It has been commanded to be united and cleave to the Spirit of God alone, and therefore to bear only the sacred shoots and fruits of the Spirit. Nor must free choice be brought into harmony with two forms, the worse and the better. Rather, giving itself to the good alone and wholly separating itself from evil, it must cultivate within the soul the single fruit of the virtues, according to the Scripture: "Therefore I directed myself toward all your commandments; every unrighteous way I hated" [Ps. 118:128 LXX], and, "I hated and abhorred unrighteousness, but I loved your law." [Ps. 118:163 LXX] Then the Lord, seeing the soul's struggle, may in his love for mankind work in us by the power of the Spirit a great and complete healing from the hidden passions and defend us from our spiritual enemies.

III.10 The Lord himself, in telling of the widow who was oppressed by her adversary and went to seek vindication from an unjust judge, and who at last obtained it through her persistent expectation, teaches that we must not grow weary in prayer. "He also told them a parable that they ought always to pray and not lose heart." [Luke 18:1] He shows that we must not become fainthearted or relax the intense expectation of prayer. Afterward he says: "Hear what the unjust judge says. And will not your heavenly Father much more vindicate those who cry to him day and night? I tell you that he will vindicate them speedily." [Luke 18:6-8]

III.11 How the Apostle contended for his disciples and labored in inward prayer for them, that they might come to the measure of spiritual maturity! At the same time he reveals the highest goal of Christianity to all who desire, without reluctance and with love of truth, to hasten toward it. He makes known the apostolic measure of the new creation for those zealous for spiritual progress, "admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, for which I also labor." [Col. 1:28-29] He also prays for those who have been deemed worthy to be sealed through baptism with the promised Spirit, desiring that they grow in spiritual progress: "Therefore I also, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love toward all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, enlightening the eyes of your heart, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe." [Eph. 1:15-19]

III.12 By these words the Apostle precisely indicates the manner of participation in the Spirit, which takes place in full assurance. He continues: "according to the operation of his might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead." [Eph. 1:19-20] That is, according to the operation of the Spirit, so that we too may receive full assurance. A little later in the same epistle, desiring his disciples to attain a still higher measure of growth and progress in spiritual perfection, he prays: "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that, rooted and grounded in love, you may be able with all the saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." [Eph. 3:14-19]

III.13 In another epistle the Apostle teaches the same thing, revealing to his disciples the abundance of spiritual riches and urging them to hasten toward the perfect measure: "Be zealous for the spiritual gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my possessions and hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." [1 Cor. 12:31-13:3] Showing the fruits of love and how those who possess it are wholly freed from the evil passions, he says: "Love does not envy; love does not boast, is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not seek its own ... does not reckon evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it covers all things, endures all things, believes all things, hopes all things." [1 Cor. 13:4-7] And again he says that "love never fails." [1 Cor. 13:8] These last words mean that those who possess the spiritual gifts named above but have not yet been delivered from the passions through the abundant and effective love of the Spirit are still in danger, struggle, and fear, because they wage war with the spirits of wickedness although they have received spiritual gifts. To those who desire to walk the way of grace, that is the way of Christianity, the Apostle points out the great measure of spiritual maturity which is no longer subject to the danger of moral fall and destruction through unclean passion. Therefore the tongues of angels and men, prophecy, faith, all knowledge, and gifts of healings are nothing in comparison with the highest virtue—the fullness and perfection of love—even though those gifts too are operations of the same Spirit.

III.14 If someone has been deemed worthy of such gifts, the Apostle nevertheless sets before him the goal of perfection, lest through a new operation of grace he suppose that he has already reached perfection and needs nothing further, and thus abandon the dispassion proper to the measure of the perfect while remaining content with lesser gifts. He sets before each person the goal of perfection so that each may continually recognize himself as poor before such immense riches, contend unwaveringly in the good struggle, and so run the spiritual race as to receive the prize, according to the saying: "Run in such a way that you may obtain it." [1 Cor. 9:24]