The Instructor 1.9.83

“But if you do evil, be afraid,” as the apostle says. That is why the apostle himself, in the image of the Lord, is severe with the churches at every point; and, conscious of his own boldness and of the weakness of his hearers, he says to the Galatians, “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” As the healthy do not need a physician, so far as they are well, while the sick require his art, so we too, who in this life are sick with shameful desires, blameworthy incontinence, and the other inflammations of the passions, need the Savior. He applies not only soothing medicines but astringent ones too. The bitter roots of fear check the spreading of sins; so fear is saving, even if bitter. Rightly, then, we who are sick need a Savior, those who have gone astray a guide, the blind someone to give them light, the thirsty the spring of life, from which those who partake will thirst no more; the dead need life, the sheep the shepherd, and the children the Instructor; indeed all humanity needs Jesus, so that we may not, untrained and sinful, fall at last into condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff and gathered into the Father's granary. For the winnowing fan is in the Lord's hand, by which the chaff is separated from the wheat,