Letter 238: The one who commands rightly must first have learned to obey rightly.

To a soldier behaving disorderly. If the points of weapons, and the helmet, and the breastplate have been reckoned by you a security toward the good life, while you rob travelers and lay the highways waste, know that many who fortified themselves more impregnably than you have carried off a most pitiable death. Among us [in the Scriptures] there are recorded Oreb, and Zeb, and Zalmunna [Midianite princes slain in Judges], Abimelech and Goliath, and Absalom, and all who are like them. And among those outside [the pagans], the Hectors, and the Ajaxes, and even the Lacedaemonians [Spartans] themselves, who prided themselves greatly above all on their strength, since they did not have justice running alongside their power. If, then, you do not wish to be a soldier in vain, transfer yourself quickly to the spiritual war, and make war rather upon your own disorderliness. On the saying, "Unless your righteousness abound more than that of the Scribes," and that this is not opposed to the saying, "Woe to you, Scribes." We, most excellent one, are liable to the same judgment as the Scribes and Pharisees. For just as they supposed that the study of the Law was the doing of the Law, heedlessly reckoning that the mere recitation of the letter sufficed them for the accomplishment of the deed, so we, by the very act of touching the altars of God, imagine that we draw near to God. But the Lord, cutting off this conceit of ours, says, "Unless your righteousness abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Saying this in a manner befitting God: "Unless you work the appearance into a deed, you who reckon that being content with an outward show suffices for the service of God, the kingdom of God will not be opened to you. For since the kingdom is true, it is opened to those who truly seek it. And the abundance of the righteousness of the Law is the loftiness of the Gospel. For the one [the Law] punishes the deed, but the other [the Gospel] punishes even the bare intention, down to the depth of thoughts, displaying the exactness of its judgment."

Πρὸς στρατιώτην ἀτακτοῦντα. Εἰ ὅπλων αἰχμαὶ (77), καὶ κράνος, καὶ θώραξ, ἀσφάλειά σοι πρὸς εὐζωίαν νενομίσται, λωποδυτοῦντε καὶ τὰς λεωφόρους ἐρημοῦντι· ἴσθι ὡς πολλοὶ δυσ-ἀλωτότερόν σου φραξάμενοι, οἴκτιστον ἀπηνέγκαντο θάνατον. Παρ' ἡμῖν μὲν ἀνάγραπτοι, Ὠρήβ, καὶ Ζηβεέ, καὶ Σαλμανᾶ, Ἀδιμελὲχ καὶ Γολιάθ, καὶ Ἀθησαλών, καὶ ὅσοι κατ' ἐκείνους. Παρὰ δὲ τοῖς ἔξω, Ἕκτορες, καὶ Ἄιαντες, καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ μέγα πάντων φρονήσαντες Λακεδαιμόνιοι ἐπὶ ῥώμῃ, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἔσχον σύνδρομον τῇ δυνάμει τὸ δίκαιον. Εἰ οὖν μὴ μάταιας εἶναι βούλει ὁπλίτης, ὀξέως πρὸς τὸν νοητὸν μετάταξαι πόλεμον, καὶ μᾶλλον τῇ σαυτοῦ ἀταξίᾳ πολέμησον. Εἰς τὸ εἰρημένον, « Ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ἡ δικαιοσύνη ὑμῶν πλέον τῶν Γραμματέων, » καὶ ὅτι τοῦτο οὐκ ἐναντιοῦται τῷ, « Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, Γραμματεῖς. » (78) Ἡμεῖς, ὦ βέλτιστε, τῆς αὐτῆς τοῖς Γραμματεῦσι καὶ Φαρισαίοις ἐσμὲν ἔνοχοι κρίσεως. Ὥσπερ γὰρ αὐτοὶ τῇ τοῦ νόμου μελέτῃ τὸ πράττειν τὸν νόμον ᾠήθησαν, ᾀρκεῖν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἀπαγγελίαν τοῦ γράμματος πρὸς ἐργασίαν τὸ πράγματος ἀπροσέκως νομίσαντες· οὕτως ἡμεῖς, αὐτῷ τῷ ἅπτεσθαι θυσιαστηρίων θεοῦ, ἐγγίζειν θεῷ φανταζόμεθα. Ἀλλὰ ταύτην ἡμῶν ὁ Κύριος ἐκκόπτων τὴν οἴησιν, φησίν, « Ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πλέον τῶν Γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων, οὐ δύνησθε εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. » Τοῦτο λέγων θεοπρεπῶς· « Ἐὰν μὴ τὴν δόκησιν, πρᾶξιν ἐργάσησθε, οἱ προσχήματι ἀρκεῖσθαι πρὸς διακονίαν θεοῦ λογιζόμενοι, ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῖν βασιλεία οὐκ ἂν ἀνοιχθήσεται. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἀληθής ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία, τοῖς ἀληθῶς αὐτὴν ζητοῦσιν ἀνοίγεται. Περισσεία δὲ τῆς τοῦ νόμου δικαιοσύνης ἡ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου ἐστὶν ὑψηλότης. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ τὴν πρᾶξιν τιμωρεῖται, τὸ δὲ καὶ πρόθεσιν ψιλήν, μέχρι βάθους ἐννοιῶν, τὴν κριτικὴν ἀκρίβειαν ἐνδεικνύμενον.