Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
What further need is there? Gaze upon the mysteries of love, and then you will behold with unveiled eyes the bosom of the Father, which the only-begotten God alone has declared. And God himself is love, and for love's sake he was seen by us. And that which is unutterable in him is Father, but that which has become sympathetic toward us is Mother. In loving, the Father took on a feminine nature. And of this the great sign is he whom he begot from himself; and the fruit brought forth from love is love. For this reason he himself came down. For this reason he put on man. For this reason he willingly suffered the things of men, that, having been measured against our weakness, he might in turn measure us, whom he loved, against his own power. And when about to be poured out as a libation, and giving himself as a ransom, he leaves us a new covenant: "My love I give to you." But what is this, and how great? For each one of us he laid down a life equal in worth to the whole world; this he demands back from us on behalf of one another. And if we owe our lives to the brothers, and have pledged such a covenant in return to the Savior, shall we still shut up and hoard the things of the world -- poor, alien, fleeting things -- shall we shut them off from one another, things which in a little while the fire will possess? Divinely and by inspiration John says, "He who does not love his brother is a murderer," seed of Cain, nursling of the devil. He has no bowels of God, no hope of better things. He is unsown, he is barren. He is not a branch of the ever-living vine above the heavens; he is cut off, and awaits the fire in a mass.
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