If a man readily and joyfully accepts a loss for the sake of God, he is
inwardly pure. And if he does not look down upon any man because of his
defects, in very truth he is free. If a man is not pleased with someone
who honors him, nor displeased with someone who dishonors him, he is dead
to the world and to this life. The watchfulness of discernment is superior
to every discipline of men accomplished in any way to any degree.

Do not hate the sinner.
For we are all laden with guilt. If for the sake of God you are moved to
oppose him, weep over him. Why do you hate him? Hate his sins and pray for
him, that you may imitate Christ Who was not wroth with sinners, but interceded
for them. Do you not see how He wept over Jerusalem? We are mocked by the
devil in many instances, so why should we hate the man who is mocked by
him who mocks us also? Why, O man, do you hate the sinner? Could it be
because he is not so righteous as you? But where is your righteousness
when you have no love? Why do you not shed tears over him? But you persecute
him. In ignorance some are moved with anger, presuming themselves to be
discerners of the works of sinners.

Be a herald of God’s
goodness, for God rules over you, unworthy though you are; for although
your debt to Him is so great, yet He is not seen exacting payment from
you, and from the small works you do, He bestows great rewards upon you.
Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest in the things concerning
you. And if David calls Him just and upright (cf. Ps. 24:8, 144:17), His
Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. ‘He is good,’ He says, ‘to
the evil and to the impious’ (cf. Luke 6:35). How can you call God just
when you come across the Scriptural passage on the wage given to the workers?
‘Friend, I do thee no wrong: I will give unto this last even as unto thee.
Is thine eye evil because I am good?’ (Matt. 20:12-15). How can a man call
God just when he comes across the passage on the prodigal son who wasted
his wealth with riotous living, how for the compunction alone which he
showed, the father ran and fell upon his neck and gave him authority over
all his wealth? (Luke 15:11 ff.). None other but His very Son said these
things concerning Him, lest we doubt it; and thus He bare witness concerning
Him. Where, then, is God’s justice, for whilst we are sinners Christ died
for us! (cf. Rom. 5:8). But if here He is merciful, we may believe that
He will not change [re: the state after death, as St. Isaac
mentions below].

Far be it that we should
ever think such an iniquity that God could become unmerciful! For the property
of Divinity does not change as do mortals. God does not acquire something
which He does not have, nor lose what He has, nor supplement what He does
have, as do created beings. But what God has from the beginning, He will
have and has until the [unending] end, as the blest Cyril wrote in his
commentary on Genesis. Fear God, he says, out of love for Him, and not
for the austere name that He has been given. Love Him as you ought to love
Him; not for what He will give you in the future, but for what we have
received, and for this world alone which He has created for us. Who is
the man that can repay Him? Where is His repayment to be found in our works?
Who persuaded Him in the beginning to bring us into being Who intercedes
for us before Him, when we shall possess no [faculty of] memory, as though
we never existed? Who will awake this our body for that life? Again, whence descends the notion of knowledge into dust?
O the wondrous mercy of God! O the astonishment at the bounty of our God
and Creator! O might for which all is possible! O the immeasurable goodness
that brings our nature again, sinners though we be, to His regeneration
and rest! Who is sufficient to glorify Him? He raises up the transgressor
and blasphemer, he renews dust unendowed with reason, making it rational
and comprehending and the scattered and insensible dust and the scattered
senses He makes a rational nature worthy of thought. The sinner is unable
to comprehend the grace of His resurrection. Where is gehenna, that can
afflict us? Where is perdition, that terrifies us in many ways and quenches
the joy of His love? And what is gehenna as compared with the grace of
His resurrection, when He will raise us from Hades and cause our corruptible
nature to be clad in incorruption, and raise up in glory him that has fallen
into Hades?

Come, men of discernment,
and be filled with wonder! Whose mind is sufficiently wise and marvelous
to wonder worthily at the bounty of our Creator? His recompense of sinners
is, that instead of a just recompense, He rewards them with resurrection,
and instead of those bodies with which they trampled upon His law, He enrobes
them with perfect glory and incorruption. That grace whereby we are resurrected after we have sinned is greater than
the grace which brought us into being when we were not. Glory be to Thine
immeasurable grace, O Lord! Behold, Lord, the waves of Thy grace close
my mouth with silence, and there is not a thought left in me before the
face of Thy thanksgiving. What mouths can confess Thy praise, O good King,
Thou Who lovest our life? Glory be to Thee for the two worlds which Thou
hast created for our growth and delight, leading us by all things which
Thou didst fashion to the knowledge of Thy glory, from now and unto the
ages. Amen.

St. Isaac the Syrian,
Homily 60.