Chrysostom: Fight Against Unbelievers – not with violence, but words (Der Lutheraner 1846)

      Chrysostom is a well known Church Father and the Der Lutheraner editor included a short quote from him that gives the full picture of his greatness for the Church… especially for today.  From vol. 2 (April 18, 1846), p. 68, translation by DeepL (see also Pastor Joel Baseley's translated version here:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Fight Against Unbelievers. 

“We are led into the battlefield against the unbelievers, not to strike down those who are standing there, but to raise up those who are lying down. For this is the nature of the war we wage. He does not kill the living, but raises the dead and makes them alive, because He is full of gentleness and goodness. I do not persecute with violence but with words, not the heretic but the heresy. I do not abhor man, but I hate error; I seek to destroy it. I do not wage war with the creature, for the creature is a work of God, but I seek to amend the soul that the devil has corrupted. Thus a physician who heals a sick person does not attack the body, but the infirmity of the same, with the intention of healing it. So when I make war with the unbelievers, I do not make war with the persons, but I only want to expel the error and save them from the corruption. It is customary for me to suffer persecution, but not to persecute, to be oppressed, but not to oppress myself. Thus Christ overcame.” — Chrysostom in his Homily against the Anomœans of the year 404 according to Ch. G.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

     We see that Der Lutheraner picks the very best of the Church Fathers to showcase them, just as Martin Luther did. — And Chrysostom gives the perfect mindset for Christians today who may be tempted to pull out a sword, as the disciple Peter did (John 18:10), instead of fighting with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. (Eph. 6:17).