“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 2:1-3).
With these words, brethren, St. Paul charges his ward in the faith, and one of his spiritual successors—as the first bishop of Ephesus—St. Timothy, to remain true to the apostolic teaching. This is one of the many theological themes that the Apostle returns to, across his apostolic corpus: that of paradosis, “tradition, or, that which is ‘handed down.’” Elsewhere, in 2 Thessalonians, St. Paul will exhort: “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thess 2:15). And in the selfsame letter to Timothy, the Apostle will go on to say,
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:14-15, italics mine).
In summary, St. Paul in his Pastoral Epistles lays out the theological framework for the praxis of apostolic succession as a bulwark against heresy and immorality. “The Lord has instructed his disciples. I have instructed you. You instruct others [that is, in the paradosis, “the tradition,” with which you were first instructed].
Why is St. Paul so adamant about this structure, about the qualifications for bishops and deacons, about the role of paradosis in maintaining the apostolic doctrine? Do you remember what he says to the elders of Ephesus, as recounted in Acts, chapter 20? (As a side note, it is unclear as to whether or not St. Timothy would have been among those elders at this time. St. Paul likely wrote his Pastoral Epistles during or shortly after his Roman imprisonment, but this encounter with the Ephesian elders at Miletus is certainly before said imprisonment.) St. Paul admonishes them:
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31).
“… [A]fter I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.” It is a great spiritual travesty when a bishop, a priest, a deacon, a reader, even a lay leader of a local parish of the Church of Jesus Christ deviates from the apostolic teaching—in word, in deed, in character. It is a fearful thing for any clergyman to examine his own life and to realize that he does not measure up to the great and high calling that is the ordained ministry; to look in the mirror and discover that he is the wolf, that he is the one living a contradictory and faithless life! Often, upon introspection, there will be an amendment of teaching, of practice; there will be repentance. But sometimes, there is not. Sometimes there is continual, willful disobedience, which begets self-destructive habits, which begets aberrant teaching, which begets a totally spiritually depraved assembly. Heresy begets heresy. Immorality begets immorality. And so very often it happens from the top down. We imitate our instructors in the faith; whether they be good or bad, we imitate them.
Brethren, indulge this lengthy quotation from St. Basil, as he reflects upon the perniciousness of the Arian heresy—a novel teaching, but a teaching that gained traction, spreading like wildfire, from false teacher to student, … to false teacher to student… :
“It is not only one Church which is in peril, nor yet two or three which have fallen under this terrible storm. The mischief of this heresy spreads almost from the borders of Illyricum to the Thebaid [for context, that is, from the western Balkans to Egypt, i.e., ‘all over the Empire’). Its bad seeds were first sown by the infamous Arius; they then took deep root through the labors of many who vigorously cultivated the impiety between his time and ours. Now they have produced their deadly fruit. The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord’s flock with knowledge.
Ambitious men are constantly throwing away the provision for the poor on their own enjoyment and the distribution of gifts. There is no precise knowledge of canons. There is complete immunity in sinning; for when men have been placed in office by the favor of men, they are obliged to return the favor by continually showing indulgence to offenders. Just judgment is a thing of the past; and everyone walks according to his heart’s desire. Vice knows no bounds; the people know no restraint. Men in authority are afraid to speak, for those who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. And now the very vindication of orthodoxy is looked upon in some quarters as an opportunity for mutual attack; and men conceal their private ill-will and pretend that their hostility is all for the sake of the truth. Others, afraid of being convicted of disgraceful crimes, madden the people into fratricidal quarrels, that their own doings may be unnoticed in the general distress. Hence, the war admits of no truce, for the doers of ill deeds are afraid of a peace, as being likely to lift the veil from their secret infamy.
All the while unbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot; the better laity shun the churches as schools of impiety; and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. Even you must have heard what is going on in most of our cities, how our people with wives and children and even our old men stream out before the walls, and offer their prayers in the open air, … waiting for help from the Lord (St. Basil the Great, Letter 92, “To the Italians and Gauls”).
“… [U]nbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot.” Heresy begets immorality. Immorality begets faithlessness. Faithlessness begets ignorance. Ignorance begets carelessness. Carelessness begets heresy. Without faithful exponents of the apostolic paradosis, without faithful relay-men in the race which is the apostolic succession, the Church is left exposed and neglected; the Church is left in a state of spiritual ruin and moral immaturity, bereft of evangelical fervor, and totally socially irrelevant. Without True Faith, the Church is unable to speak truth to power. The Church is unable to combat the wiles of the demons which are at work in every civil and social institution. Without True Faith—Apostolic Faith—the Church becomes just another political machine, just another opportunity for ambition, just another opportunity for social posturing and power-grabbing.
But true, faithful, apostolic Christian leadership is unconcerned with such things; namely, power, ambition, privilege, popularity. True, faithful, apostolic Christian leadership is concerned with one thing and one thing only: fidelity to Christ, and fidelity to his Church and to her teaching, so preserved and received. Nicene Christianity is apostolic Christianity. Chalcedonian Christianity is apostolic Christianity. Iconodulic Christianity is apostolic Christianity. Palamite Christianity is apostolic Christianity.
Our Lord says in St. Matthew’s Gospel, brethren,
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them” (Matt 7:15-20).
“Beware of false prophets… . You will know them by their fruits.” I will repeat it here, brethren; it is a fearful thing for any clergyman to examine his own life and to realize that he does not measure up to the great and high calling that is the ordained ministry. It is fearful thing for a man to examine his life and to realize that, despite the many good fruits that fill the boughs, there are many rotten fruits also. For a bishop, priest, or deacon, this ought not to be. But sometimes it is. And we must act with great resolve and immediacy to cut the dead or diseased fruit from the limbs; or else, it will poison the consumer. You, brethren, are the consumers of the fruits of the heirs of the apostolic doctrine. So, for the sake of your own spiritual health, you must be in constant prayer for those of us who have been tasked with feeding you. Pray for your leaders; pray for your clergy (cf. Heb 13:7). Please, pray for us. And may God keep us from all error and in the Day of Judgment find us faithful.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!