{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1597","native_reference":{"book_number":590,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":23,"verse_to":23},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: On this subject the Lord says, \"When you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the food of the land, you shall present an offering to the Lord. When you separate the firstfruits of your barn floors, you shall also give the firstfruits of your dough to the Lord.\" We are a composite of diverse elements mixed together, cold with hot, and moist with dry. This mixture is the source of many pleasures and manifold delights of the flesh. But these are not the firstfruits of this body of ours. Since we are composed of soul and body and spirit, the first place is held by that mixture in which the apostle desires that we find sanctification. \"And may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound, blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"<br/><i>— On Cain and Abel, Book 2, Chapter 1</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: This, therefore, is perfection in the Christian life in my judgment, namely, the participation of one's soul and speech and activities in all of the names by which Christ is signified, so that the perfect holiness, according to the eulogy of Paul, is taken upon oneself in \"the whole body and soul and spirit,\" continuously safeguarded against being mixed with evil.<br/><i>— ON PERFECTION</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare, \"We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,\" terming those persons \"perfect\" who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms \"spiritual,\" they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away, and because they have become purely spiritual. For if any one take away the substance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God's] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate), but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, \"Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.\" Now what was his object in praying that these three-that is, soul, body, and spirit-might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this cause also he declares that those are \"the perfect\" who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] without offence. Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"</p><p>Observe the affection of the Teacher. After the admonition he adds a prayer; not only that, but even introduces it in his letter. For we need both counsel and prayer. \"Sanctify you wholly,\" he says, and may \"your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" What does he here call the spirit? The gift of grace. For if we depart hence having our lamps bright, we shall enter into the bridechamber. But if they are quenched, it will not be so. For this reason he says \"your spirit.\" For if that remains pure, the other remains also. \"And soul and body,\" he says. For neither the one nor the other then admits anything evil.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Thessalonians 11</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: Hence it is necessary that the perfect man offer up all, both the things of the soul and those of the flesh, so that he may be complete and not lacking. Therefore also God commands Abraham,<br/><i>— Methodius Discourse V. Thallousa</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: In the wicked sin reigns over the soul, being settled as on its own throne in the mortal body, so that the soul obeys its lusts … but in the case of those who have become perfected, the spirit has gained the mastery and put to death the deeds of the body. It imparts to the body of its own life and there arises a concord of the two, body and spirit, on the earth.… But still more blessed is it if the three [i.e., body, soul and spirit] be gathered together in the name of Jesus, that this may be fulfilled, \"May God sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Matthew 14.3</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: From the Holy Scriptures we are taught that man is a composite being. And the Apostle confirms it: \"May God sanctify your spirit and soul and body,\" and: \"may He sanctify you wholly, and may your whole being, spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" … And so our Lord and Savior, desiring the salvation of man, wished … to save the body, just as He wished to save also the soul and the remaining part of man — the spirit. Man would not be saved entirely if he were not taken up entirely. … These three parts were divided at the time of the sufferings. These three parts were reunited at the time of the resurrection. At the time of the sufferings they were divided. In what way? The body in the tomb, the soul in hell, the spirit was given up to the Father.<br/><i>— DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Come now, you who deny the salvation of the flesh, and who, whenever there occurs the specific mention of body in a case of this sort, interpret it as meaning anything rather than the substance of the flesh, (tell me) how is it that the apostle has given certain distinct names to all (our faculties), and has comprised them all in one prayer for their safety, desiring that our \"spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour (Jesus) Christ? \" Now he has here pro-pounded the soul and the body as two several and distinct things.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And as if this were not plain enough, it goes on to say: \"And may your whole body, and soul, and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.\" Here you have the entire substance of man destined to salvation, and that at no other time than at the coming of the Lord, which is the key of the resurrection.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: I believe (He does so) for fear the heads of some should be seen! And oh that in \"that day\" of Christian exultation, I, most miserable (as I am), may elevate my head, even though below (the level of) your heels! I shall (then) see whether you will rise with (your) ceruse and rouge and saffron, and in all that parade of headgear: whether it will be women thus tricked out whom the angels carry up to meet Christ in the air If these (decorations) are now good, and of God, they will then also present themselves to the rising bodies, and will recognise their several places. But nothing can rise except flesh and spirit sole and pure. Whatever, therefore, does not rise in (the form of) spirit and flesh is condemned, because it is not of God.<br/><i>— On the Apparel of Women Book II</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"6c86af30712b6bd9f1defca0ffcebb550f185424ec6325ce529d1fb04ebcc14d","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1597,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"69707258cb6760fdebfdd9dcf6f0428c162001a7efab5e3a49c1b27f47f53443","translator":null,"work":null}