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John Chrysostom (Bitesize Biographies) by Earl M Blackburn

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Eric Lui reads Earl M Blackburn’s short biography on John Chrysostom and gives us a snapshot of the life of this great preacher of the early church.

John Chrysostom lived in the 4th century AD in present-day Syria. He was born into a Christian family in Antioch in 349, and his father died when he was young. His mother followed the tradition of the day and never remarried, but devoted herself to raising her son and serving Christ in the church. His early education was standard Greek classical education, but at university, he came under the tutelage of a renown professor in philosophy and rhetoric called Libanius. He revelled and excelled in rhetoric, which was used by God to form him into a masterful preacher and expositor. 

Shortly after his graduation, he became disillusioned with Greek philosophy and became absorbed with the Scripture. It could be the verse in Colossian 2:8 that prompted him to realise the emptiness of philosophy in filling up his spiritual hunger for God in his soul. He was baptised by immersion in 368 and became an executive assistant doing mundane and menial tasks in a Greek Orthodox church in Antioch. His insatiable hunger to study the Holy Scripture drove him to enroll in a theological academy under a famous theologian named Diodore, from whom he became proficient in theology as a preacher. Seeing the worldliness around him, after leaving the academy, he desired and decided to practise the ascetic life. This idea came to him from reading Luke 9:23-26, where Jesus told His disciples to deny himself and take up His cross daily and follow Him. He lived in the Syrian deserts among a community of monks for four years, followed by three years of solitary existence, devoting himself to memorising the whole Bible and in meditation and prayer. His health started to fail him under such rigorous regimen and he returned to his church in Antioch. 

He was ordained into the priesthood in the Antioch cathedral in 386 and laboured contently for 12 years preaching the Holy Scripture to vast crowds eager to hear this ‘golden mouth’ preacher (‘Chrysostomos’ in Greek means ‘golden mouth’). It was during this period that he delivered his homilies on Genesis, Matthew, John, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Timothy and Titus. In 398, John was hijacked by the emperor in Constantinople to become the Archbishop of Constantinople. He had a tough time preaching in Constantinople as his congregants were worldly and most immersed themselves in the many luxuries of the metropolitan city. His uncompromising expositions on true Christian virtues angered many of the rich and powerful in the city, including the wife of the emperor. Eventually, the emperor sent him away in exile to Armenia in 404 and he died there in 407. 

John left behind large volumes of his writings, more than any other Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. His work includes not only his sermons, but also commentaries on the books of the Bible and writings on topics which are still relevant today. Some of these include: Contrition of Heart (which stresses the Christian’s continual need to maintain a humble and repentant heart, constantly warring against remaining sin, and always burning with a fervent love for Christ); To Stageirius (which addresses the problem of human suffering and God’s hand of providence in it); Single Marriage (where he praises the idea of remaining a widow and serving Christ the remainder of her days). One of the writings entitled A King and a Monk Compared is interesting to read, which is his defense of the ascetic/monastic life. “The king may command powerful armies, but the monk has access to the God who commands even kings. The king may have the riches of the world, but the monk has the greater riches of the world to come. This present, temporary world, temporary world that shall surely pass away, is not all that there is to life; there is an everlasting world to come, and it shall never end.” 

What made him so revered, not only in the Eastern branch of Christianity but also the Western branch as well, is his whole devotion to Christ in all that he did and as an exemplar of godly character to all his friends and enemies. This is evidenced by what a revered monk told the emperor who had asked him to intercede for Constantinople when it was hit by a number of earthquakes and the empress died in child-birth shortly after John was exiled from that city. “How can you expect Constantinople to be delivered from earthquakes and from fire after the thrice-blessed John, the Pillar of the Church, the Lamp of Truth, the Trumpet of Jesus Christ, has been driven from the city? How can I grant my prayers to a city smitten by the wrath of God, whose thunder is even now ready to fall upon her?” 

Even the great Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, esteemed him so highly that he published a book of selected sermons of John Chrysostom. He is one theologian who truly stands out when we read the early history of the Church.

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