Marriage and Virginity
specifically to the soul or to the body, but with the word "flesh" he was referring to the whole human person. The deeds that are said not to be God's are indeed deeds of the human person, because the person who does them in so doing is living in his or her own way and not in God's way. There are other deeds of human beings, however, that are better called God's deeds. For it is God, the apostle says, who brings about in you both the intentions and the actions of a good will (Phil
2:13). Then there is that other text: All those who are activated by God's spirit are God's children (Rom 8:14).
29. So when the human spirit clings to God's Spirit it has desires opposed to the flesh, that is, opposed to itself, though for its own good. Those inclinations, whether in the body or in the soul, toward acting in a human way and not in God's way, which are still present because of the infirmity previously contracted, are restrained by continence in order to achieve salvation.
As a result the human person who does not live in a human way can now say, It is not I who live now, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). When it is not I who live, then I live more happily.
Then when any recalcitrant human instinct stirs, to which those who serve the law of God with their mind do not consent, they may also say, It is not I who am doing that now (Rom
7:17). To them, too, those other words are addressed, that we should listen to as their companions and colleagues, If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; let your taste be for higher things, not for earthly things. For you have died, and your life is hidden in God with Christ; when Christ, your life, is revealed, then you too will be revealed with him in glory (Col 3:1-4). We must understand who is being spoken to here; rather we must listen more attentively. What could be clearer? What could be more open? Unmistakably he is speaking to those who have risen with Christ, not yet in the flesh, to be sure, but in the spirit, and he says they are dead but are thereby more alive; for your life, he says, is hidden in God with Christ. These are the words of those who are dead like that: It is not I who live now, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). He advises and exhorts those whose life was hidden in God to put to death their bodies, which are still on earth. That is what follows: Therefore put to death your bodies, which are still on earth (Col 3:4). And in case anyone is too dull, and thinks that it is their visible bodies that they have to put to death, he immediately makes explicit what he is talking about: Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desires and avarice, which is slavery to idols (Col 3:5). Are we to believe, then, that those persons, who had already died and whose lives were hidden in God with Christ, were still committing fornication, were still living and acting impurely, were still the slaves of passion, evil desires and avarice? Who would be so demented as to think this about persons like that? What, therefore, does he want them to put to death, as the work of continence, other than those impulses that are still alive and in their own way intruding, without any consent from our mind and without being put into effect by our bodies? And how are they put to death by the work of continence? It is only when the mind does not consent to them and the body does not offer itself to be their weapon. And more importantly, and with greater need for the care and vigilance of continence, it is when the mind, though affected to some extent by the whispers and suggestions of those desires, turns its thoughts away from their inducements, to meditate instead on the greater pleasures of heavenly things; and when attention is paid to those desires it is not to dwell on them but to shun them. This will happen if, aided by the one who gave us this commandment through his apostle, we listen and take notice: Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; let your taste be for higher things, not earthly things (Col 3:1-2).
Faith Requires Works of Continence
14, 30. After listing those evils, he went on to say: This is why God's anger came upon the children of disbelief (Col 3:6). He certainly gave the faithful a healthy fear of thinking that they could be saved by faith alone, even if they lived in these evils. The apostle James preached against that view in the clearest possible words, saying: If anyone claims to have the faith, but does not do its deeds, is it possible for faith to save that person (Jas 2:14)? Hence the Doctor of the Gentiles also said that God's anger came down on the children of unbelief because of those evils. When, however, he says, That was once your way of life too, when you lived in them (Col 3:7), he showed clearly enough that they are not living in them now. They had died to that life, in order to have a life hidden in God with Christ. Since, therefore, they were no longer living in them, they were now commanded to put such things to death. Indeed those evils lived on even in those persons who did not live in them. As I have shown just above, they, namely the vices that dwelt in their bodies, were also referred to as their bodies by the figure of speech that uses the container for the thing contained. It is like saying, "The whole market place is talking," when it is the people in the market place who are talking. The psalm uses the same figure of speech when it sings, Let all the earth adore you (Ps 66:4), meaning all the people on earth.