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Translated by Allan Menzies.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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128 Pages
Page 85
In the same way every "living" will be justified, only not before God, when it is compared with those who are below and who are in the power of darkness. To them the light of the saints will shine. Here, perhaps, we have the key to the meaning of that verse: [4708] "Let your light shine before men." He does not say, Let your light shine before God; had he said so he would have given a commandment impossible of fulfilment, as if he had bidden those lights which have souls to let their light shine before the sun. It is not only, therefore, the ordinary mass of the living who will not be justified before God, but even those among the living who are distinguished above the rest, or, to put it more truly, the whole righteousness of the living will not be justified before God, as compared with the righteousness of God, as if I were to call together all the lights which shine on the earth by night, and to say that they could not give light in comparison with the rays of the sun. We rise from these considerations to a higher level when we take the words before our minds, "I live, saith the Lord." Life, in the full sense of the word, especially after what we have been saying on the subject, belongs perhaps to God and none but Him. Is this the reason why the Apostle, after speaking of the supreme excellency of the life of God and being led to the highest expression about it, says about God (showing in this a true understanding of that saying, "I live, saith the Lord"); "who only hath immortality." [4709] No living being besides God has life free from change and variation. Why should we be in further doubt? Even Christ did not share the Father's immortality; for He "tasted death for every man."
[4708] Matt. v. 16.
[4709] 1 Tim. iv. 16.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/Elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary.asp?pg=85
