Ambrosiaster : Paul's intention is to avoid fornication, not to put hindrances in the way of those seeking a higher way of life. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES Clement of Alexandria : "But each has his own proper gift of God"—one in one way, another in another. But the apostles were perfected in all. You will find, then, if you choose, in their acts and writings, knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. — The Stromata Book 4 Cyprian : And to return to the praise of martyrdom, there is a word of the blessed Paul, who says; "Know ye not that they who run in a race strive many, but one receiveth the prize? But do ye so run, that all of you may obtain." Moreover also elsewhere, that be may exhort us to martyrdom, he has called us fellow-heirs with Christ; nay, that he might omit nothing, he says, "If ye are dead with Christ, why, as if living in the world, do ye make distinctions? " Because, dearest brethren, we who bear the rewards of resurrection, who seek for the day of judgment, who, in fine, are trusting that we shall reign with Christ, ought to be dead to the world. For you can neither desire martyrdom till you have first hated the world, nor attain to God's reward unless you have loved Christ. And he who loves Christ does not love the world. For Christ was given up by the world, even as the world also was given up by Christ; as it is written, "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." The world has been an object of affection to none whom the Lord has not previously condemned; nor could he enjoy eternal salvation who has gloried in the life of the world. That is the very voice of Christ, who says: "He that loveth his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come; but he that hateth his life in this world, shall find it in the world to come." Moreover, also, the Apostle Paul says: "Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ." And the same elsewhere says: "I wish that all of you, if it were possible, should be imitators of me." — Pseudo-Cyprian On the Glory of Martyrdom Origen of Alexandria : Marriage is a spiritual gift, but not if it is contracted with unbelievers. The Spirit of God is not given to dwell in those who are not believers. — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.34.42-45 Tertullian : " A price! surely none at all was paid, since Christ was a phantom, nor had He any corporeal substance which He could pay for our bodies! But, in truth, Christ had wherewithal to redeem us; and since He has redeemed, at a great price, these bodies of ours, against which fornication must not be committed (because they are now members of Christ, and not our own), surely He will secure, on His own account, the safety of those whom He made His own at so much cost! Now, how shall we glorify, how shall we exalt, God in our body, which is doomed to perish? We must now encounter the subject of marriage, which Marcion, more continent than the apostle, prohibits. For the apostle, although preferring the grace of continence, yet permits the contraction of marriage and the enjoyment of it, and advises the continuance therein rather than the dissolution there of. — Against Marcion Book V Tertullian : " That "Holy Spirit," therefore, who prefers that widows and unmarried women should persevere in their integrity, who exhorts us to a copy of himself, prescribes no other manner of repeating marriage except "in the Lord: "to this condition alone does he concede the foregoing of continence. — To His Wife Book II Tertullian : "I will," he says, "that you all so be as I too (am)." And when he shows that (so to abide) is "better," what, pray, does he demonstrate himself to "will," but what he has premised is "better? "And thus, if he permits something other than what he has "willed"-permitted not voluntarily, but of necessity-he shows that what he has unwillingly granted as an indulgence is not absolutely good. — On Monogamy Theodoret of Cyrus : Paul comforts those who are married by saying that marriage is a gift of God. — COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 202