The Man Who Loved Christ More Than All

by St. John Chrysostom

No man loved Christ more than Paul.

No man exhibited greater zeal, no man was counted worthy of more grace: nevertheless, after all these great advantages, he still has fears and tremblings concerning this government and those who were governed by him.

I fear, he says, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

And again,

I was with you in fear and in much trembling; (1 Corinthians 2:3)

and this was a man who had been caught up to the third Heaven, and made partaker of the unspeakable mysteries of God, (2 Corinthians 12:4) and had endured as many deaths as he had lived days after he became a believer— a man, moreover, who would not use the authority given him from Christ lest any of his converts should be offended.

On the Priesthood, Book 3:7