The sending of the Apostles for preaching
7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
The punishments of the divine justice
Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies at Genesis, homily XXV, II, in Church Fathers and Writers (1987), vol. 21, p. 305
Some sinners suffers punishments here on earth but they don`t escape of the punishment from afterlife; but the punishment from there is easier for them because the punishments from here ease the punishment from there. Listen to Christ that He considers Bethsaida beset with woe saying: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11, 21-22).
You see, my beloved, that by a milder word He warned them they were to be punished in afterlife as well those who were punished in this world with such a great punishment, suffering that unprecedented burning being alive, but they were to be punished with an easier punishment as they had suffered here on earth the anger of God.
Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies at Genesis, homily XXI, V, in Church Fathers and Writers (1987), vol. 21, p. 254
God did not create mankind to punish them but on the contrary to give them the delight of uncountable good things. That is why you see Him postponing all the time the punishments.
Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies at Genesis, homily XXV, III, in Church Fathers and Writers (1987), vol. 21, pp. 306-307
Look at the love for men of the Lord ! As a miraculous doctor He tries different medicine to heal their sickness. The sickness of the people from the times of Noah was hard to heal, that is why God gave them a long time with the intention to renounce at His angry decision if the men came to their senses in this while. This is what God always does! As He has a great care of our salvation He warns us about the punishment He wants to bring over us for not bringing it. If He wished to bring it, He wouldn`t even tell it to us, but He tells it so that we may hear about it and become sober due to the fear of His anger and change to fulfill without power His decision.
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