13:23: “If the Ethiopian can
change his skin or the panther his variations, then also you can do good even
though you learned evil.”
This testimony is used against
the church by those who assert that people have diverse natures and that the
blackness or variation of sinners is so great that they are incapable of
crossing over to the brightness and beauty of a single color; but those who
assert this are not paying attention to what follows: “You can do good even
though you learned evil.” For whatever can be learned does not come from nature
but from effort and the will of the individual, although a sinful will can, to
some extent, be changed into a sinful nature by the regular practice and
excessive love of sinning. But what is impossible for people is possible for
God: even if the Ethiopian and the panther appear unable to change their
nature, he who works in the Ethiopian and the panther is able to do so, as the
apostle says: “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” Also in
another passage he says, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I
but the grace of God that is in me.” And he also says, “It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me.” And again, we read that it is written: “What
have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as
if it were not a gift?” For these reasons, let not the wise person glory in his
wisdom or the mighty man in his might, or the rich person in his riches, or the
chaste person in his chastity, since he knows that in all these things the
virtue comes from Christ, not from those who would boast in their virtues.
(Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah [trans. Michael Graves; Ancient
Christian Texts; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2011], 86-87)
