Miscellanies 7.9.53

Whatever, then, is in his mind he also brings to his tongue for those worthy to hear, out of conviction, speaking and living from the heart at once. For he both thinks what is true and speaks the truth, unless at some time, by way of treatment, as a physician does with the sick for the recovery of his patients, he will lie or tell a falsehood, as the sophists put it. For instance, the noble apostle circumcised Timothy, though he cried aloud and wrote that circumcision made with hands profits nothing. But so that he might not, by tearing the Hebrew hearers all at once away from the law toward the circumcision of the heart that comes from faith, force them, still restive, to break away from the synagogue, he accommodated himself to the Jews and “became a Jew, to gain all.” So the one who condescends as far as mere accommodation for the salvation of those for whose sake he accommodates himself, taking no part in hypocrisy on account of the danger hanging over the righteous from those who are zealous, is in no way compelled; but for the benefit of his neighbors alone he will do some things which he would not do of his own choice, were he not doing them for their sake. He gives himself for the church, for the disciples whom he himself “has begotten” in faith, as an example to those who are able to take up the supreme stewardship of the teacher who loves humanity and loves God, to demonstrate the truth of his words, and to put into action his love for the Lord. He is unenslaved in fear, true in word, enduring in toil, never willing to lie even in spoken word, and in this too always maintaining sinlessness. For a lie itself, since it is spoken with some deceit, is not an idle word, but works toward vice.