{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-343","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":15,"verse_to":15},"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>Ambrosiaster</b>: Paul is telling the Corinthians that nobody else will ever love them the way he does.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: A eunuch, then, does not mean a man who has been castrated, nor even an unmarried man, but a man who is unproductive of truth. Formerly he was \"dry wood,\" but if he obeys the word and observes the sabbaths by abstaining from sins and keeps the commandments, he will be in higher honour that those who are educated in word alone and fail to do what is right. \"Little children,\" says our teacher, \"a little while longer I am with you.\" That is why Paul also instructs the Galatians in these words: \"My little children, with whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.\" And again he writes to the Corinthians: \"For though you may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers. For in Christ I have begotten you through the gospel.\" On this account a eunuch shall not enter into God's assembly, that is, the man who is unproductive and unfruitful both in conduct and in word; but blessed are those who have made themselves eunuchs, free from all sin, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven by their abstinence from the world.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 3</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For though,\" saith he, \"ye have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers.\" He is not here setting forth his dignity, but the exceeding greatness of his love. Thus neither did he wound the other teachers: since he adds the clause, \"in Christ:\" but rather soothed them, designating not as parasites but as tutors those among them who were zealous and patient of labor: and also manifested his own anxious care of them. On this account he said not, \"Yet not many masters,\" but, \"not many fathers.\" So little was it his object to set down any name of dignity, or to argue that of him they had received the greater benefit: but granting to the others the great pains they had taken for the Corinthians, (for that is the force of the word Tutor,) the superiority in love he reserves for his own portion: for that again is the force of the word Father.</p><p>And he saith not merely, No one loves you so much; a statement which admired not of being called in question; but he also brings forward a real fact. What then is this? \"For in Christ Jesus I begat you through the Gospel. In Christ Jesus.\" Not unto myself do I impute this. Again, he strikes at those who gave their own names to their teaching. For \"ye,\" saith he, \"are the seal of mine Apostleship.\" And again, \"I planted:\" and in this place, \"I begat.\" He said not, \"I preached the word,\" but, \"I begat;\" using the words of natural relationship. For his one care at the moment was, to shew forth the love which he had for them. \"For they indeed received you from me, and led you on; but that you are believers at all came to pass through me.\" Thus, because he had said, \"as children;\" lest you should suppose that the expression was flattery he produces also the matter of fact.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 13</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: Now we should consider the case of the renowned Paul, that when he was not yet perfect in Christ, he was first born and suckled, Ananias preaching to him, and renewing him in baptism, as the history in the Acts relates. But when he was grown to a man, and was built up, then being moulded to spiritual perfection, he was made the help-meet and bride of the Word; and receiving and conceiving the seeds of life, he who was before a child, becomes a church and a mother, himself labouring in birth of those who, through him, believed in the Lord, until Christ was formed and born in them also. For he says, \"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you;\" and again, \"In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.\"<br/><i>— Discourse III.-Thaleia</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: The father is the one who has sown the seed of the gospel in their souls. The guides are those who have taken the child later on and helped him develop.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.21.9-11</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: He says specifically \"sons of men,\" and not men promiscuously; thus exhibiting to us those who were the children of men truly so called, choice men, apostles. \"For,\" says he, \"I have begotten you through the gospel; \" and \"Ye are my children, of whom I travail again in birth.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Grant, now, that Abraham is our father; grant, too, that Paul is. \"In the Gospel,\" says he, \"I have begotten you.\" Show yourself a son even of Abraham.<br/><i>— On Monogamy</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a872713438770cf46543b69318993283224c5770266b2759b7bb52cbd9a00486","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":343,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"beac19d1d0ea09e6cc838d361e2099ccebf00e29213ef8ac6f98734ed8f6a4fd","translator":null,"work":null}