The Great Letter

IV.1 You see, then, how by many exhortations the Apostle makes manifest to all the limit, goal, and rule of piety and perfection, praying for his disciples that they may hasten toward this goal. In another epistle, showing to the faithful who love the Lord the renewal and transformation that have taken place in Christ, he says: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." [Gal. 6:15-16] And again: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away." [2 Cor. 5:17] By the single expression "new creation" he has established and made manifest the apostolic rule. And what is this new creation except what he says elsewhere: "that he might present the Church to himself glorious, having neither spot nor blemish nor any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless"? [Eph. 5:27] He teaches that the new creation in Christ is perfect purification from shame, complete deliverance from the passions, and the fullness of ineffable and mystical communion with the divine power of the Spirit, accomplished through sanctification in the hearts of the saints who, by means of the virtues, have been deemed worthy of a new spiritual tasting of grace beyond nature. The Apostle sets this same goal before believers when he says: "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump" [1 Cor. 5:7], and, "Let us keep the feast not with old leaven but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." [1 Cor. 5:8]

IV.2 Because our resistance and warfare "against principalities, against powers, and against the spirits of wickedness" [Eph. 6:12] are not sufficient in themselves, the Apostle exhorts us to take up the whole armor of God. He tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to shod our feet with readiness for the gospel of peace, to gird our loins with truth, and above all to take the shield of faith, "with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one." [Eph. 6:14-16] The arrows of the evil one are the operations of the unclean passions. "Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." [Eph. 6:17] He shows that by these forms of spiritual armor we are able to stand against the dangerous schemes of the devil [Eph. 6:11], possessing a power beyond our nature.

IV.3 The manner in which we may acquire all these things he indicates in the words: "With every prayer and supplication pray at all times in the Spirit, and for this very purpose keep watch with all perseverance and supplication." [Eph. 6:18] Therefore he himself prays for all: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." [2 Cor. 13:13] And again: "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved whole and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thess. 5:23] Thus in many ways he plainly indicates the straight path of righteousness and the highest goal of Christianity, exhorting all and desiring that all hasten toward them. Those who truly love righteousness fix their gaze on this goal and strive toward it in every way with mature faith and hope; praying in a peaceful and virtuous disposition of soul, they thirst to attain it. Those who strive in this manner will be able, having been delivered from every evil, to fulfill purely, perfectly, and blamelessly the great commandments on which the Law and the Prophets depend: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength," and, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matt. 22:37-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-37]