Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Then in what evil, we may ask, is the man who has lied and shown himself faithless and gone over to the devil's army? He lies, then, to the Lord — or rather he has cheated himself of his own hope, this one who does not believe God. And the one who does not do what he was commanded does not believe. What then? Does not the one who denies the Lord deny himself? For a man who deprives himself of his kinship to his master does not thereby strip his master of his lordship. So the one who denies the Savior denies life, because the light was life. Such people he does not call "of little faith" but faithless and hypocrites, bearing the name inscribed on them while denying the reality of being faithful; and "faithful" is said also of a servant and a friend. So if someone truly loves himself, that same love reaches the Lord, and he professes salvation.
So that he may save his soul. And yet, even should you die on behalf of your neighbor out of love — and you should understand the Savior to be our neighbor (for God who saves was said to draw near to the one being saved) — you will die choosing death for the sake of life, and you will have suffered more for your own sake than for his; and it is not for this reason that he is called "brother": that the one who suffers out of love toward God suffers for the sake of his own salvation, while the one who dies for the sake of his own salvation endures it out of love for the Lord. For indeed he himself, being life, was willing to suffer for the sake of those for whom he suffered, so that by his suffering we might live. "Why do you address me as Lord, Lord," he asks, "yet fail to do as I say?" For the people who love with the lips while keeping the heart far from the Lord are other than they claim, persuaded by another, and have willingly sold themselves to that other; but as many as fulfill the commandments of the Savior bear witness by every action, doing what he wills and accordingly naming the Lord and by their deeds bearing witness to the one they are persuaded they belong to — those who have crucified the flesh together with its desires and passions. "If we live by the Spirit," he says, "let us also walk by the Spirit." "The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
To wretched men, death by bloody witness to the Lord seems the most violent of deaths, since they do not know that such a death is the very gate and beginning of the life that truly is. And they are unwilling to understand either the honors after death of those who have lived holily, or the punishments of those who have conducted themselves unjustly and licentiously — and I say this not only from our own Scriptures (for nearly all the commandments make this plain), but they are not even willing to listen to the words of their own authors. For Theano the Pythagorean writes: "Life would in truth be a feast for the wicked who behave badly and then simply die, were the soul not immortal — death would be a windfall." And Plato in the Phaedo: "For if death were release from everything altogether, it would be a windfall for the wicked" — and so on.
It is not, then, as in the Telephus of Aeschylus, right to imagine a single simple path leading to Hades; there are many roads that lead away, the many-wandering sins. It is these faithless men, it seems, that Aristophanes mocks when he says: "Come, you dim-lived men, like unto a generation of leaves, feeble creatures, figures molded of wax, shadow-like tribes, powerless, wingless, creatures of a day." And Epicharmus: "Such is the nature of men — bladders puffed up with wind." But to us the Savior has said: "the spirit indeed is eager, though the flesh grows faint"; hence the apostle explains that "the disposition of the flesh is hostility toward God, since it will not submit itself to God's law, nor indeed is it able; and those who live in the flesh are unable to please God." And, continuing his exposition, he adds — lest, as Marcion does, someone should ungratefully take creation to be evil — "yet if Christ dwells within you, the body is a corpse on account of sin, while the spirit lives on account of righteousness." And again: "For if you go on living by the flesh, you are bound to die"; "for I count the hardships of this present season as nothing worth setting beside the glory about to be unveiled in us, provided we truly share his sufferings, that we may likewise share his glory, as joint heirs with Christ."
"And we know that for those who love God everything works together toward good — for those summoned in accordance with his plan. Those he knew beforehand he also marked out in advance to bear the likeness of his Son, that the Son might be firstborn among a multitude of brothers; and those he marked out beforehand he likewise summoned; and those he summoned he likewise justified; and those he justified he likewise gave glory." You see witness taught through love. And if you should wish to bear witness for the sake of a reward of good things, you will hear again: "For it was in hope that we were rescued; but hope already visible is no longer hope, for who hopes for what he can already see? Yet if we hope for what remains unseen, we await it through patient endurance." "But even if we suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are we," says Peter. "And do not fear their fear, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, and be always ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence, possessing a clear conscience, so that whenever you are maligned, those who abuse your honorable conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better, if the will of God should so will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."
And should some quibbler say: "How is it even possible for weak flesh to withstand the powers and spirits of the authorities?" — let him know this, that trusting in the Almighty and the Lord we wage our counter-war against the rulers of darkness and against death. "While you are still speaking," he says, "he will say: Here I am." Behold the unconquerable helper, the one who shields us. "Do not be surprised, then," Peter says, "at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you, but insofar as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that at the revelation of his glory also you may rejoice exultingly. If you are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." As it is written: "For your sake we are put to death the whole day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter." "Yet in the midst of all this we emerge utterly victorious through him who loved us."
"What you desire to learn from my mind, neither burning me nor sinking dread saws from the crown of my head down to the soles of my feet could you learn, not even should you apply every kind of bondage" — so speaks, unafraid and playing the man, a woman in tragedy. And Antigone too, scorning the proclamation of Creon, says with courage: "For it was not Zeus who proclaimed these things to me." But God does proclaim to us, and he must be obeyed; "for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation." The Scripture accordingly says: "Everyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." Fittingly, then, Simonides writes: "There is a saying that Virtue dwells upon rocks hard to climb, and that a holy chorus of swift nymphs attends her, nor is she visible to the eyelids of all mortals, save to him within whom heart-gnawing sweat has come and who has reached the summit through manliness."
And Pindar: "The cares of young men, revolving amid their toils, discover glory, and deeds that have shone forth beneath the sky shine on through time." Taking up this same thought, Aeschylus too says: "To the one who toils, glory, the offspring of his toil, is owed by the gods." For "greater fates obtain greater portions," according to Heraclitus. "And who is a slave, being unconcerned about dying? For God has not given us a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not, then, be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner" — thus he writes to Timothy. Such a man would be the one who "cleaves to the good," according to the apostle, "abhorring what is evil, having love unfeigned; for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." And if the God of hope is he to whom we bear witness, as indeed he is, we confess our hope, hastening on toward the hope; "and those who are full of goodness," he says, "are filled with all knowledge."
The philosophers of the Indians say to Alexander of Macedon: "You may shift our bodies about from place to place, but you cannot force our souls into acting against their will. Fire, the harshest tool men use for torment, we simply hold in contempt." And on this account Heraclitus chose one thing above all — glory — while confessing that the many are content to be glutted like cattle. "For the sake of the body are the many toils; for its sake we have devised the roofed house, and dig white silver, and sow the earth, and all the other things that we know by their names."
To the many, then, this vain toil is a thing chosen; but to us the apostle says: "This we know, that our old man has been crucified together with him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin." Does not the apostle plainly go on to show the disgrace in which the faith is held among the many? For I think God has displayed us the apostles last, as men appointed to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. Even to this present hour we are hungry and thirsty and go naked and are buffeted and have no fixed home; being persecuted, we endure; being reviled, we entreat; we have become as the refuse of the world.
Such, too, is what Plato says in the Republic: even should the just man be racked, even should his eyes be gouged out, he will be happy. The gnostic, then, will never have his end placed upon fortune, but happiness and blessedness and being a friend of God, royal in nature, would lie in the man's own power; and even should someone surround him with dishonor, exile, confiscation, and, on top of all, death, he will never be torn away from freedom and from the most sovereign love toward God, which "bears all things and endures all things"; love is persuaded that divine providence rightly governs all things.
"I exhort you, then," he says, "become imitators of me." The first step of salvation, then, is the teaching that comes through fear, on account of which we abstain from wrongdoing; the second is hope, on account of which we reach after the best things; but it is love that brings to perfection, as is fitting, already instructing in a gnostic manner.
For the Greeks, somehow — I do not know how — having yielded to irrational necessity, admit that they are unwillingly persuaded by what befalls them. Euripides, at any rate, says: "Accept, then, these counsels of mine, woman: there is no mortal born who does not suffer, who does not bury children and beget other new ones, and himself dies; and at these things mortals grieve." Then he goes on: "These things one must bear, which by nature must be passed through; nothing is terrible among the things necessary for mortals."
For those pressing on toward perfection, rational knowledge stands ready before them, resting on the sacred triad of faith, hope, and love — and love is the greatest among these. Indeed, "everything is permitted, yet not everything proves useful; everything is permitted, yet not everything builds one up," the apostle says. "And let no one pursue merely his own advantage, but rather that of his neighbor," so as to be capable at once of doing and of teaching, edifying and building further still. That the whole earth, in its fullness, belongs to the Lord is granted; yet the conscience of the one who is weak carries a burden. And by conscience I do not mean one's own but that belonging to the other person. "For why should my liberty be measured by someone else's conscience? If I share in something through grace, why am I denounced over what I already give thanks for? Whatever, then, you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for God's glory. For although we walk about in flesh, we do not campaign according to flesh; the weapons we fight with are not of the flesh but carry divine power to tear down fortresses, demolishing arguments and every proud barrier raised against knowing the Lord."
Equipped in this fashion, the gnostic declares: "O Lord, grant me a trial and take the proof; let this dreadful thing come, I scorn dangers for love of you"; "since virtue alone among the things that are in men does not receive her wages from outside, but herself holds herself the prize of her toils." "Clothe yourselves, then, as ones chosen by God, consecrated and cherished, with tender compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and above everything else, love, the very tie that binds all into perfection. And let Christ's peace govern your hearts, the peace to which you were summoned as one body; and give thanks," you who still dwell within the body, just as the righteous of old did, harvesting a soul untroubled and free from disturbance.
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