Section CCLXXXIX

And this same thing must be repeated concerning the other cause, καὶ ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ. For I ask that it be candidly explained to me what must be judged acceptable before God our Savior. I believe that it is what is consonant with duty, what agrees with the laws laid down by him, and what is signified by the very appellation τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ. But none of these things is limited and defined; rather, each is infinite and altogether universal. The duty which is called τὸ καλόν is universal, since it is honorable and worthy of praise to deprecate for all; the law, ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου, “you shall love your neighbor,” is universal, since it excludes absolutely no one; and finally, that which is contained in the appellation τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ is universal.

And this I. is established by the parallel words of Christ. For after proposing the law¹, προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων ὑμᾶς, καὶ διωκόντων ὑμᾶς, Christ immediately adds² this cause and reason for it: ὅπως γένησθε υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, “that you may be, and moreover may also appear, sons and μιμηταί, imitators³, of your heavenly Father”; ὅτι τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ ἀνατέλλει ἐπὶ πονηροὺς καὶ ἀγαθούς, “who”—but with an exegetical rather than a relative signification⁴—“causes his sun to rise,” for the verb ἀνατέλλω, intransitive of itself, is employed in a transitive sense⁵, “upon the evil and the good”; καὶ βρέχει ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους, “and causes it to rain⁶ upon the just and the unjust.” But this cause is plainly universal and is derived from God’s universal beneficence toward all men. Since, therefore, it is twin to that which Paul urges when he says, καὶ ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ, it follows that by the appellation τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ a universal cause is—

—exhibited, and one pertaining to this: that prayer be made for all. Certainly II. only in this way can that be attained⁷, ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι, ὥσπερ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς τέλειός ἐστι, “therefore you shall be perfect, and free from every fault and evil⁸, as your heavenly Father is perfect and holy”; and only in this way can σωζόμενοι, the saved, by which epithet the faithful are distinctively marked⁹, bear a will conformed to that which is proper to τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ.

But III. to what does this formula pertain, and what did Paul signify by naming τὸν σωτῆρα ἡμῶν θεόν? Just as σώζειν generally has the same force as to render someone safe and unharmed, whether this is done by averting and removing evils or by bestowing and conferring benefits, so every one generally is called σωτήρ who, by protecting, repelling evils, and imparting benefits, contributes so that someone may be safe and become unharmed. To the point is Cicero¹⁰: “He is σωτήρ who has given safety.” But among the Greeks σωτήρ and εὐεργέτης were words of honor bestowed upon all who had become illustrious by repelling evils and increasing goods¹¹. Therefore, when Paul calls God τὸν σωτῆρα, he exhibits him as one who brings safety and security, either negatively by vanquishing evils or positively by granting goods and ornaments. Yet it must not be dissimulated that God is called by Paul neither simply nor absolutely τὸν σωτῆρα, but, with the pronoun added, τὸν σωτῆρα ἡμῶν. Whence the question spontaneously arises: to what does the addition of this pronoun pertain? But I see that it can be answered that the force of this pronoun more than once¹² is such that it does not restrict the amplitude of the object, but embraces all who are of the same nature as we; it can be answered that a pronoun of this kind is not infrequently taken in a specific signification, by no means—

—circumscribed by some order of men. But the things which immediately precede, ἵνα ἤρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον διάγωμεν, are such as suggest and even persuade that the pronoun ἡμῶν is employed concerning a certain order of men, and concerning the faithful; and therefore that what is said, ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ, has the same force as acceptable before God the Savior of the faithful. But if such is the force of the formula, is not that which we defend endangered: that the second cause also employed to commend the office of prayers is universal? Would someone not deservedly gather that particular prayers are enjoined because God is exhibited as the particular Savior of the faithful? Lest anyone grant credibility to this consequence, keeping myself within the limits of the New Testament, I shall report those things which tear up the difficulty by the roots.