{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-815","native_reference":{"book_number":670,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":11,"verse_to":11},"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>Andreas of Caesarea</b>: As always, the apostle turns to ethical matters after he has dealt with doctrine. After saying what good things are available because of Christ, he now calls us to lead the right kind of life.<br/><i>— CATENA</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: God's people occupy the middle ground. They are to be compared neither with those who think that the only good is to enjoy earthly delights nor with those sublime inhabitants of heaven, whose sole delight is in the heavenly bread by which they were created. Between the people of heaven and those of earth, the apostle was suspended in the middle, heading toward heaven, though he was not yet there, but at the same time separated from others here below.<br/><i>— SERMONS 400.2</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Dearest ones, I beseech you as sojourners and travelers, etc. Thus far, blessed Peter has generally instructed the Church, explaining both the benefits by which divine mercy has called us to salvation and the gifts by which, at times the Jews, but now also us, have been deemed worthy of honor. Hence, he earnestly exhorts the diverse persons of the faithful, lest by living carnally, they render themselves unworthy of such great grace of the Holy Spirit. Lest those who are distinguished by the royal and priestly title, subjugated by the malice of vices, degenerate from the glory of the nobility once promised to them. Therefore, first, he addresses servants and free persons, then women and men specifically, and after the general exhortation, he also shows how the elders and young people should conduct themselves. He suitably teaches the free persons to abstain from carnal desires, because the freedom of a more relaxed life tends to endure greater dangers of titillating temptations, which wage war against the soul. For while the flesh, dulled by concupiscence, is being delicately subdued, indeed, the army of vices is being more firmly armed against the soul. He appropriately calls them sojourners and travelers, so that the less they subject their soul to earthly things, the more they remember they have a home in the heavens. For this is what customarily distinguishes the elect from the reprobates in this life; that the elect, now travelers and exiles, expect their homeland in the future, and thus enjoy the fleeting pleasures of the present less, as they hope to receive joys without end in the future and to reign eternally with Christ. But indeed the reprobates have their homeland here, whose soil they know how to long for with the desires of life, and therefore they will be relegated to eternal exile after this life, where, deprived of all pleasures, they will suffer adversities in torment alone.<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: So also the admirable Peter says: \"Beloved, I exhort you as strangers and pilgrims, to abstain from carnal lusts, which war against the soul, and conduct yourselves well among the heathen; for this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the activity of foolish men, as free and not using your freedom as a covering for evil, but as God's slaves.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 3</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: ...as it is written, the Lord Himself forewarning and saying, \"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.\" And Paul the apostle says, \"Shine as lights in the world.\" And similarly Peter exhorts: \"As strangers,\" says he, \"and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify the Lord.\" This, indeed, the greatest part of you, I rejoice to say, are careful for; and, made better by the honour of your confession itself, guard and preserve its glory by tranquil and virtuous lives.<br/><i>— Epistle 6</i></p><p><b>Didache</b>: Abstain thou from fleshly and worldly lusts.<br/><i>— The Didache, Chapter 1</i></p><p><b>Didymus the Blind</b>: Those who are worthy of love because of their godliness are called \"beloved\" not because they are that way by nature but because they have received love. The writer of this letter urges such people to abstain from carnal desires which attack the soul. The flesh and the soul have different natures. A soul which is uncorrupted and immortal will desire that kind of thing, whereas the flesh, which is both corrupt and dissolute, desires things which are wicked and vile. But when the two are joined together, the soul naturally feels the passions of the flesh. When it distances itself from bodily passions, it is preserved pure and glorious, with a saving understanding of the way it should act, with a will to behave in that way, with a love for God and with a desire to know him.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER</i></p><p><b>Hilary of Arles</b>: Evil desires are called \"carnal\" because they operate through the flesh, but in reality they are spiritual, because they come from the soul.<br/><i>— INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Beloved, I beg you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul: have your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that in that which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.<br/>\"Beloved, I beg you.\" This part must be taken in this way: Beloved, I beg you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. It is customary for teachers to introduce moral conduct after the discourse of doctrine: this blessed one also does so now, calling them ἀγαπητοί, that is, beloved or rather lovable and friends, and not ἀγαπωμένοι, that is, somewhat beloved: for all are desirable for everything; for those who are desirable for one thing are called ἀγαπώμενοι, not άγάπητοί.<br/>Indeed, he says that fleshly lusts wage war against the soul, since according to the blessed Paul, the flesh lusts against the spirit. (Gal. 5:17) For the desires of the flesh, concerning the enjoyment of the senses, confuse reason and make the soul servile.<br/>I beg you, he says, to have your conversation honest among the Gentiles. However, the term ἔχειν, that is, \"to have\", is taken for ἔχοντες, that is, \"having\". Peter introduces the Gentiles as slanderers against us. But if anyone wishes to learn this, from what has been written by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in Gaul, about the martyrs Sanctus and Blandina, it will be possible to know precisely. And as they are proposed briefly in the middle, these are: When the Greeks had apprehended the servants of these Christians, educated in divine mysteries, they then inflicted violence, so that they might learn something secret about the Christians from them: since these servants had no way to speak to those inflicting violence for pleasure and grace, except what they had heard from their masters, that divine communion is the blood and body of Christ, believing themselves that it was truly blood and flesh, they responded to those inquiring. They, taking this as if it were actually being done by Christians, also revealed it to others among the Greeks: and the martyrs Sanctus and Blandina were compelled to confess this under torture. To whom Blandina spoke freely and wisely, saying: How could they bear this who, for the sake of divine study and meditation, do not even partake of permitted meats? Furthermore, she calls the day of visitation an inquiry of worldly matters. For when the inquiry about our life comes from them, where things are found to be contrary to what their suspicion was, they not only become ashamed, but they themselves are corrected, and God is glorified.<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 Peter</i></p><p><b>Polycarp of Smyrna</b>: In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in, as with a bridle, from every kind of evil. For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since \"every lust warreth against the spirit;\" and \"neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God,\" nor those who do things inconsistent and unbecoming. Wherefore, it is needful to abstain from all these things, being subject to the presbyters and deacons, as unto God and Christ. The virgins also must walk in a blameless and pure conscience.<br/><i>— Epistle to the Philippians 5</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"6a79d99c1be1bb65f8c0fb26caa6c5203fbc7047a5501c66495a43232bd0bd97","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":815,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"9c3babe786e29f17f95b4b58615be005fe77802535df2d1a3333fbd15941281a","translator":null,"work":null}