{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/108/1080143.htm","path":"chr/ecf/108/1080143.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/108/1080143.htm","text":"97. We have frequently admonished you, that love was to be understood by that praiseworthy breadth, by means of which, while we do the commandments of God, we feel no straitness. On this account also after saying above in this great Psalm, \u201cThy commandment is exceeding broad:\u201d 5266 in the following verse he showeth wherefore it is broad: \u201cwhat love have I unto Thy law, O Lord!\u201d (Psa. 119.97). Love is therefore the breadth of the commandment. For how can it be that what God commandeth to be loved, be loved, and yet the commandment itself be not loved? For this itself is the law; \u201cin all the day,\u201d he saith, \u201cis my study in it.\u201d Behold how I have loved it, that in the whole day my study is in it; or rather, as the Greek hath it, \u201call the day long,\u201d which more fully expresses the continuance of meditation. Now that is to be understood through all time; which is, for ever. By such love lust is driven out: lust, which repeatedly opposeth our performing the commandments of the law, when \u201cthe flesh lusteth against the spirit:\u201d 5267 against which the spirit lusting, ought so to love the law of God, that it be its study during the whole day.\u2026\n98. And he then addeth: \u201cThou hast made me to understand Thy commandment above mine enemies; for it is ever with me\u201d (Psa. 119.98). For \u201cthey have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,\u201d etc. 5268 But the Psalmist, who understandeth the commandment of God above these his enemies, wishes to be found with the Apostle, \u201cnot having\u201d his \u201cown righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God;\u201d 5269 not that the Law which his enemies read is not of God, but because they do not understand it, like him who understandeth it above his enemies, by clinging to the Stone upon which they stumbled. For \u201cChrist is the end of the law,\u201d etc., 5270 \u201cthat they may be justified freely through His grace;\u201d 5271 not like those who imagine that they obey the law of their own strength, and are therefore, though by God\u2019s law, yet still endeavouring to set up their own righteousness; but as the son of promise, who hungering and athirst after it, 5272 by seeking, by asking, by knocking, 5273 as it were begs it of the Father, that being adopted he may receive it through His only-begotten Son.\u2026His enemies sought from the same commandment temporal rewards; and therefore it was not unto them for ever, as it was unto this man. For they who have translated \u201cfor ever\u201d have rendered better than they who have written \u201cfor an age,\u201d since at the end of time there can be no longer a commandment of the law.\u2026\n99. But what meaneth the following verse, \u201cI have more understanding than my teachers\u201d? (Psa. 119.99). Who is he who had more understanding than all his teachers? Who, I ask, is he, who dareth to prefer himself in understanding above all the Prophets, who not only by speaking taught with so excellent authority those who lived with them, but also their posterity by writing?\u2026What is here said, could not have been spoken in Solomon\u2019s person.\u2026I recognise plainly Him who had more understanding than His teachers, since when He was a boy of twelve years of age, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and was found by His parents after three days\u2019 space, \u201csitting in the temple among the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions.\u201d 5274 The Son Himself hath said, \u201cAs My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.\u201d 5275 It is very difficult to understand this of the Person of the Word; unless we can comprehend that it is the same thing for the Son to be taught as to be begotten of the Father.\u2026\u201cHe took upon Himself the form of a servant;\u201d 5276 for when He had assumed this form, men of more advanced age might think Him fit to be taught as a boy; but He whom the Father taught, had more understanding than all His teachers. \u201cFor Thy testimonies,\u201d He saith, \u201care my study.\u201d For this reason He had more understanding than all His teachers, because He studied the testimonies of God, which, as concerning Himself, He knew better than they, when He spoke these words: \u201cYe sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man,\u201d etc. 5277\n100. But these teachers may be understood very reasonably to be those aged men, of whom he presently saith, \u201cI am wiser than mine elders\u201d (Psa. 119.100). And this seemeth to me to be repeated here thus, that that age of His which is well known to us in the Gospel might be called to our remembrance; the age of boyhood, during which He was sitting among the aged, understanding more than all His teachers. For the p. 577 smaller and the greater in age are wont to be termed younger and elder, although neither of them hath arrived at or approached old age; although if we are concerned to seek in the Gospel the express term, elders, more than whom He understood, we find it when the Scribes and Pharisees said unto Him, \u201cWhy do Thy disciples transgression the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.\u201d 5278 Behold the transgression of the tradition of the elders is objected to Him. But He who was wiser than His elders, let us hear what answer He made them. \u201cWhy do ye also, He asked, \u201ctransgress the commandment of God by your tradition?\u201d 5279 \u2026\n101. But what cometh next, doth not seem to apply to the Head, but to the Body: \u201cI have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy words\u201d (Psa. 119.101). For that Head of ours, the Saviour of the Body Himself, could not be borne by carnal lust into any evil way, so that it should be needful for Him to refrain His feet, as though they would go thither of their own accord; which we do, when we refrain our evil desires, which He had not, that they may not follow evil ways. For thus we are able to keep the word of God, if we \u201cgo not after our evil lusts,\u201d 5280 so that they attain unto the evils desired; but rather curb them with the spirit which lusteth against the flesh, 5281 that they may not drag us away, seduced and overthrown, through evil ways.\n102. \u201cI have not shrunk,\u201d he saith, \u201cfrom Thy judgments: for Thou hast laid down a law for me\u201d (Psa. 119.102). He hath stated what made him fear, so that he refrained his feet from every evil way.\u2026Thou, more inward than my inmost self, Thou hast laid down a law within my heart by Thy Spirit, as it were by Thy fingers, that I might not fear it as a slave without love, but might love it with a chaste fear as a son, and fear it with a chaste love.\n103. Consider then what followeth: \u201cO how sweet are Thy words unto my throat!\u201d (Psa. 119.103). Or, as it is more literally rendered from the Greek, \u201cThy utterances, above honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth.\u201d This is that sweetness which the Lord giveth, \u201cSo that the earth yield her increase:\u201d 5282 that we do good truly in a good spirit, that is, not from the dread of carnal evil, but from the gladness of spiritual good. Some copies indeed do not read \u201choneycomb:\u201d but the majority do. Now the open teaching of wisdom is like unto honey; but that is like the comb which is squeezed from the more recondite mysteries, as if from cells of wax, by the mouth of the teacher, as if he were chewing it: but it is sweet to the mouth of the heart, not to the mouth of the flesh.\n104. But what mean the words, \u201cThrough Thy commandments I get understanding\u201d? (Psa. 119.104). For the expressions, I have understood Thy commandments: and, \u201cI get understanding through Thy commandments;\u201d are different. Something else then he signifieth that he hath understood from the commandments of God: that is, as far as I can see, he saith, that by obeying God\u2019s commandments he hath arrived at the comprehension of those things which he had longed to know.\u2026These then are the words of the spiritual members of Christ, \u201cThrough Thy commandments I get understanding.\u201d For the body of Christ rightly saith these words in those, to whom, while they keep the commandments, a richer knowledge of wisdom is given on account of this very keeping of the commandments. \u201cTherefore,\u201d he addeth, \u201cI hate all evil ways.\u201d For it is needful that the love of righteousness should hate all iniquity: that love, which is so much the stronger, in proportion as the sweetness of a higher wisdom doth inspire it, a wisdom given unto him who obeyeth God, and getteth understanding from His commandments.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII: Expositions on...","type":"page"}