Revenge (1)

Paul warns us to avoid anger, especially because anger so often is the chief cause of sin. Someone who is motivated by wrath will demand more than the cause of the sin merits or will put himself out to do more harm while seeking revenge. In the end he will destroy someone when he could have corrected and restored him instead.

–Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

The Most Characteristic of God

It is known that there is nothing more characteristic of God than to be, because that itself which is does not belong to things which will one day end or to those which had a beginning. But that which combines eternity with the power of unending happiness could never not have been, nor is it possible that one day it will not be, because what is divine is not liable to destruction, nor does it have a beginning.

–Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 1.5

Confessing Jesus

[When Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah, he] had learned that Christ is the Son of God. But he had not learned of the mystery of the cross and the resurrection. Do you see how correct Jesus was in forbidding [the disciples] not to declare his identity publicly? For if it confounded the disciples, who were being made aware of it, who knows what the response of others might have been?

–John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 54.5-6