Ambrosiaster : The body, being dedicated to God, will be rewarded with a spiritual reward for the merit of its ruler, which is the rational soul. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES Clement of Alexandria : "Desire not," says the Scripture, "rich men's dainties;" for they belong to a false and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go to the dunghill. But we who seek the heavenly bread must rule the belly, which is beneath heaven, and much more the things which are agreeable to it, which "God shall destroy," says the apostle, justly execrating gluttonous desires. For "meats are for the belly," for on them depends this truly carnal and destructive life... — The Instructor Book 2 Clement of Alexandria : With milk, then, the Lord's nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are regenerated, we are honoured by receiving the good news of the hope of rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of the sacred food. "For meats are done away with," as the apostle himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens, rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs. — The Instructor Book 1 Gregory the Dialogist : Wherefore, lest either gluttonous appetite throw the one sort off their guard, or the afflicted flesh trip up the other by elation, let the former hear this from the mouth of the Truth, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged in surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this world." And in the same place there is added a profitable fear; "And so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." Let the latter hear, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." Let the former hear, "Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them." And again, "Not in rioting and drunkenness." And again, "Meat commendeth us not to God." Let the latter hear, "To the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure." Let the former hear, "Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their own confusion." Let the latter hear, "Some shall depart from the faith;" and a little after, "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." Let those hear, "It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." Let these hear, "Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." Thus both the former may learn not to desire inordinately the food of the flesh, and the latter not dare to condemn the creature of God, which they lust not after. — THE BOOK OF PASTORAL RULE, Part 3, Chapter XIX Irenaeus : Whence also he says, that this handiwork is "the temple of God," thus declaring: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are." Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however," it is said, "of the temple of His body." And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?" He speaks these things, not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares "our body," that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to be "the members of Christ;" but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, "If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own substance, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own power." — Against Heresies Book V John Chrysostom : "Meats for the belly." By "the belly" here he means not the stomach, but the stomach's voraciousness. As when he says, "Whose God is their belly:" not speaking about that part of the body, but about greediness. To prove that so it is, hear what follows: "And the belly for meats; but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." And yet "the belly" also is of "the body." But he puts down two pairs of things, "meats" and gluttony, (which he terms "the belly;") "Christ," and "the body." What then is the meaning of, "Meats for the belly?" "Meats," he says, are on good terms with gluttony, and it with them. It cannot therefore lead us unto Christ, but drags towards these. For it is a strong and brutal passion, and makes us slaves, and puts us upon ministering to the belly. Why then art thou excited and gaping after food, O man? For the end of that service is this, and nothing further shall be seen of it: but as one was waiting on some mistress, it abides keeping up this slavery, and advances no further, and has no other employment but this same fruitless one. And the two are connected together and destroyed together; "the belly" with "the meats," and "the meats" with "the belly;" winding out a sort of interminable course; just as from a corrupt body worms may be produced, and again by worms the body consumed; or as it were a wave swoln high and breaking, and having no further effect. But these things he says not concerning food and the body, but it is the passion of greediness and excess in eatables which he is censuring: and what follows shews it. For he proceeds: "But God shall bring to nought both it and them:" speaking not of the stomach, but of immoderate desire: not of food but of high feeding. For with the former he is not angry, but even lays down rules about them, saying, "Having food and covering we shall be therewith content." However, thus he stigmatizes the whole thing; its amendment (after advice given) being left by him to prayer. But some say that the words are a prophecy, declaring the state which shall be in the life to come, and that there is no eating or drinking there. Now if that which is moderate shall have an end, much more ought we to abstain from excess. Then lest any one should suppose that the body is the object of his censure, and suspect that from a part he is blaming the whole, and say that the nature of the body was the cause of gluttony or of fornication, hear what follows. "I blame not," he says, "the nature of the body, but the immoderate license of the mind." And therefore he subjoins, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord;" for it was not formed for this purpose, to live riotously and commit fornication, as neither was the belly to be greedy; but that it might follow Christ as a Head, and that the Lord might be set over the body. Let us be overcome with shame, let us be horror-struck, that after we have been counted worthy of such great honor as to become members of Him that sitteth on high, we defile ourselves with so great evils. — Homily on 1 Corinthians 17 Novatian : One who worships God through food is almost like one who has God for his belly. — JEWISH FOODS 5.9 Philoxenus of Mabbug : And again, when the Apostle Paul is read, and he heareth from him, "Everything which was created by God is holy, and nothing is to be rejected if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer;" or another verse, "The belly for meats, and meats for the belly;" or that also which he spake, "Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth." And in the other things like unto these which are written in the doctrine of Paul, the fool rejoiceth, and receiveth them gladly, without understanding the reason of the words. And the glutton is not pleased to hear the other things which have been written by Paul upon fortitude and asceticism, either when he recounteth his numerous fastings, or when he crieth out to his disciples, saying, "Ye are dead unto the world," or when he writeth, "It is good for a man not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine," or his exhortation, "Through many tribulations it is meet for a man to enter into the kingdom of God," or his saying, "God shall bring both the belly and the food to nought;" and the reading of these and such like passages the glutton considereth unnecessary, and he is not pleased even to hear them. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony Philoxenus of Mabbug : Let us say unto each other that which hath been said unto us by the Apostle, "The belly for meats, and meats for the belly, but God will bring them both to nought." The body then is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, to Whom be glory from us all for ever. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony Philoxenus of Mabbug : And that thou mayest learn that it is thus with all other things, and especially in the matter of eating and not eating, he maketh known the power of his freedom and saith immediately after these words, "Meats of the belly, and the belly of meats, but God will bring both of them to nought." Preserve then, O disciple, the habit of abstinence, that thou mayest also arrive at the power of freedom, and wean thyself, and eat not, that thou mayest draw nigh unto the state of eating without perceiving it; abstain from food by the power of thy soul, in order that the lusts which are mingled in thy members may be destroyed. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence Tertullian : But why is Christ our passover, if the passover be not a type of Christ, in the similitude of the blood which saves, and of the Lamb, which is Christ? Why does (the apostle) clothe us and Christ with symbols of the Creator's solemn rites, unless they had relation to ourselves? When, again, he warns us against fornication, he reveals the resurrection of the flesh. "The body," says he, "is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body," just as the temple is for God, and God for the temple. — Against Marcion Book V