Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Our God also is a consuming fire. God is therefore called by two names: spirit and fire — spirit to the just, fire to sinners. But angels too are called spirits and fire: for, it says, “he who makes his angels spirits and his ministers”
“…a burning fire”; to the saints angels are spirits, but to those who deserve punishments they administer fire and burning. In keeping with this sense our Lord and Savior too, since he is “spirit,” “came to send fire upon the earth”; he is “spirit” according to what is written: “but when you turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away,”
and: “the Lord is spirit.” But he “came to send” “fire,” not upon heaven, but “upon the earth,” as he himself shows, saying: “I came to send fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” For if you “turn to the Lord,” who is “spirit,” Christ will be “spirit” to you,
and not [came] to send fire upon [heaven]. But if you do not turn to him, but hold on to earth and its fruits, he “came to send fire” upon your “earth.” Something similar to this is also written of God: “a fire is kindled from my fury,” not up to heaven, but “down even to the depths of hell,”
and “it will devour,” not heaven, but “the earth and its produce.” Why have I recalled these things? Because the baptism with which Jesus baptizes is “in the Holy Spirit” and “in fire.” Of the things I have just spoken, the earlier explanation has not escaped my notice, but I want to bring forward something new as well. If you are holy, you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit; if you are a sinner, you will be plunged into fire; and one and the same baptism will be turned into condemnation and fire for the unworthy and for sinners, while for those who are holy and turn to the Lord with their whole faith, the grace and salvation of the Holy Spirit are to be granted. He, then, who is said to baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire,” has “a winnowing fan in his hand, and”
“he will clean his threshing floor, and will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” I want to find the reason why our Lord has “a winnowing fan,” and by the blowing of what wind the light chaff is carried this way and that, while the heavy wheat is brought together into one place; for wheat and chaff cannot be separated without wind. I judge
that trials are to be understood as the wind, which show, out of the mingled heap of believers, that some are chaff and others wheat. For when your soul has been overcome by some trial, it is not the trial that turns you into chaff, but since you were already chaff — that is, light and unbelieving — the trial reveals what you were hiding. On the other hand, when you bear trials bravely, the trial does not make you faithful,
...trial and the patient man, but it brings into the open the virtue of patience and fortitude that was in you, though hidden. For do you suppose, says the Lord, that I spoke to you for any other reason than that you might appear righteous? And elsewhere: I afflicted you and brought you into want, so that what was in your heart might be made manifest. In this same way also
...storm does not let a building stand on sand, but, if you wish to build, build on the rock — for when the storm has arisen, it will not overturn what is founded upon the rock, whereas what is unsteady, built upon sand, at once proves that it was not well founded. Therefore, before the storm arises, before the blasts of the winds rise up, before the rivers swell, while still
everything is quiet, let us turn all our effort toward the foundations of our building; let us build our house with the varied, firm stones of God's precepts, so that, when persecution rages fiercely and a savage whirlwind rises up against Christians, we may show that we have our building founded upon the rock, Christ Jesus. But if anyone — far be it from us — should deny him, let that person know that it was not at the moment when
he appeared to have denied that he denied Christ, but that he had already long possessed the seeds and roots of denial, and it was only then recognized what he had, and it was brought out into the open. Let us pray, then, to the Lord that we may be a firm building which no storm can overturn, founded upon the rock, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.