Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/Origen on John/Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John/Book I/Chapter 31

31.&#160; Christ as Teacher and Master.

It is plain to all how our Lord is a teacher and an interpreter for those who are striving towards godliness, and on the other hand a master of those servants who have the spirit of bondage to fear, who make progress and hasten towards wisdom, and are found worthy to possess it.&#160; For &#8220;the servant knoweth not what the master wills,&#8221; since he is no longer his master, but has become his friend.&#160; The Lord Himself teaches this, for He says to hearers who were still servants: &#160; &#8220;You call Me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am,&#8221; but in another passage, &#8220;I call you no longer servants, for the servant knoweth not what is the will of his master, but I call you friends,&#8221; because &#8220;you have continued with Me in all My temptations.&#8221;&#160; They, then, who live according to fear, which God exacts from those who are not good servants, as we read in Malachi, &#8220;If I am a Master, where is My fear?&#8221; are servants of a master who is called their Saviour.