{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3473","native_reference":{"book_number":580,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":5,"verse_to":5},"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>Athanasius of Alexandria</b>: But the saints, and they who truly practise virtue, \"mortify their members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passions, evil concupiscence;\" and, as the result of this, are pure and without spot, confiding in the promise of our Saviour, who said, \"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.\" These, having become dead to the world, and renounced the merchandise of the world, gain an honourable death; for, \"precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.\" They are also able, preserving the Apostolic likeness, to say, \"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.\" For that is the true life, which a man lives in Christ; for although they are dead to the world, yet they dwell as it were in heaven, minding those things which are above, as he who was a lover of such a habitation said, \"While we walk on earth, our dwelling is in heaven.\"<br/><i>— Letter 7 (For 335)</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Thus, in movements according to the spirit, the soul sometimes opposes other movements of itself according to the flesh. Conversely, in movements according to the flesh, it opposes others which it has according to the spirit, and this is why we say the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh. But this is also why \"it is being renewed day by day,\" for the soul does not fail to make progress in virtue as it gradually diminishes the carnal desires to which it does not consent. It is to those already baptized that the apostle says, \"Mortify your members, which are on the earth.\" .</p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Fornication in a woman is in the raising of the eyes. \"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, and concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience,\" cries the apostle. But we enkindle the passions, and are not ashamed.<br/><i>— The Instructor Book 3</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Now it is adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge, and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from, knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry, in following the prophet, who says: \"[My people] hath committed fornication with stock and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 6</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Neither let the new heretics flatter themselves in this, that they say that they do not communicate with idolaters; although among them there are both adulterers and fraudulent persons, who are held guilty of the crime of idolatry, according to the saying of the apostle: \"For know this with understanding, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, whose guilt is that of idolatry, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.\" And again: \"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; putting off fornication, uncleanness, and evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which are the service of idols: for which things' sake cometh the wrath of God.\" For as our bodies are members of Christ, and we are each a temple of God, whosoever violates the temple of God by adultery, violates God; and he who, in committing sins, does the will of the devil, serves demons and idols. For evil deeds do not come from the Holy Spirit, but from the prompting of the adversary, and lusts born of the unclean spirit constrain men to act against God and to obey the devil. Thus it happens that if they say that one is polluted by another's sin, and if they con tend, by their own asseveration, that the idolatry of the delinquent passes over to one who is not guilty according to their own word; they cannot be excused from the crime of idolatry, since from the apostolic proof it is evident that the adulterers and defrauders with whom they communicate are idolaters. But with us, according to our faith and the given rule of divine preaching, agrees the principle of truth, that every one is himself held fast in his own sin; nor can one become guilty for another, since the Lord forewarns us, saying, \"The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.\" And again: \"The fathers shall not die for the children, and the children shall not die for the fathers. Every one shall die in his own sin.\" Reading and observing this, we certainly think that no one is to be restrained from the fruit of satisfaction, and the hope of peace, since we know, according to the faith of the divine Scriptures, God Himself being their author, and exhorting in them, both that sinners are brought back to repentance, and that pardon and mercy are not denied to penitents.<br/><i>— Epistle LI</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: For it is not one thing which dies and another which is quickened, as neither is it one thing which is lost and another which is found, but the Lord came seeking for that same sheep which had been lost. What was it, then, which was dead? Undoubtedly it was the substance of the flesh; the same, too, which had lost the breath of life, and had become breathless and dead. This same, therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may all live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God's handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit; as the apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians: \"Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.\" And what these are he himself explains: \"Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and covetousness, which is idolatry.\" The laying aside of these is what the apostle preaches; and he declares that those who do such things, as being merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. For their soul, tending towards what is worse, and descending to earthly lusts, has become a partaker in the same designation which belongs to these [lusts, viz., \"earthly\"], which, when the apostle commands us to lay aside, he says in the same Epistle, \"Cast ye off the old man with his deeds.\" But when he said this, he does not remove away the ancient formation [of man]; for in that case it would be incumbent on us to rid ourselves of its company by committing suicide.<br/><i>— Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: In a general way all that is of the devil savors of enmity to God, and what is of the devil is idolatry, since all idols are subject to him. Yet Paul elsewhere lays down the law in express and unmistakable terms, saying: \"Mortify your members, which are upon the earth, laying aside fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which are idolatry, for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh.\" Idolatry is not confined to casting incense upon an altar with finger and thumb, or to pouring libations of wine out of a cup into a bowl. Covetousness is idolatry, or else the selling of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver was a righteous act. Lust involves profanation, or else men may defile with common harlots those members of Christ which should be \"a living sacrifice acceptable to God.\" Fraud is idolatry, or else they are worthy of imitation who, in the Acts of the Apostles, sold their inheritance, and because they kept back part of the price, perished by an instant doom.<br/><i>— Letter 14. To Heliodorus, Monk.</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Mortify therefore your members,\" he saith, \"which are upon the earth.\" What sayest thou? Was it not thou that saidst, \"Ye are buried; ye are buried together with Him; ye are circumcised: we have put off the body of the sins of the flesh\"; how then again sayest thou, \"Mortify\"? Art thou sporting? Dost thou thus discourse, as though those things were in us? There is no contradiction; but like as if one, who has clean scoured a statue that was filthy, or rather who has recast it, and displayed it bright afresh, should say that the rust was eaten off and destroyed, and yet should again recommend diligence in clearing away the rust, he doth not contradict himself, for it is not that rust which he scoured off that he recommends should be cleared away, but that which grew afterwards; so it is not that former putting to death he speaks of, nor those fornications, but those which do afterwards grow.</p><p>He said that this is not our life, but another, that which is in heaven. Tell me now. When he said, Mortify your members that are upon the earth, is then the earth also accused? or does he speak of the things upon the earth as themselves sins? \"Fornication, uncleanness,\" he saith. He has passed over the actions which it is not becoming even to mention, and by \"uncleanness\" has expressed all together.</p><p>\"Passion,\" he said, \"evil desire.\"</p><p>Lo! he has expressed the whole in the class. For envy, anger, sorrow, all are \"evil desire.\"</p><p>\"And covetousness,\" he saith, \"which is idolatry.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Colossians 8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: But why did he begin his list with fornication? For having said, \"Mortify your members which are upon the earth,\" he immediately says, \"fornication\"; and so he does almost everywhere. Because this passion hath the greatest sway. For even when writing his Epistle to the Thessalonians he did the same. And what wonder? since to Timothy even he saith, \"Keep thyself pure\"; and again elsewhere, \"Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification,\" without which \"no man shall see the Lord.\" \"Put to death,\" he says, \"your members.\" Ye know of what sort that is which is dead, namely, hated, loathed, dropping to decay. If thou put anything to death, it doth not when dead continue dead, but presently is corrupted, like the body. Extinguish then the heat; and nothing that is dead will continue. He shows one having the same thing in hand, which Christ wrought in the Laver; therefore also he calleth them \"members,\" as though introducing some champion, thus advancing his discourse to greater emphasis. And he well said, \"Which are upon the earth,\" for here they continue, and here they are corrupted, far rather than these our members. So that not so truly is the body of the earth, as sin is earthly, for the former indeed appears even beautiful at times, but those members never. And those members lust after all things that are upon the earth. If the eye be such, it seeth not the things in the heavens; if the ear, if the hand, if thou mention any other member whatsoever. The eye seeth bodies, and beauties, and riches; these are the things of earth, with these it is delighted: the ear with soft strains, and harp, and pipe, and filthy talking; these are things which are concerned with earth.</p><p>When therefore he has placed his hearers above, near the throne, he then says, \"Mortify your members which are upon the earth.\" For it is not possible to stand above with these members; for there is nothing there for them to work upon. And this clay is worse than that, for that clay indeed becometh gold, \"for this corruptible,\" he saith, \"must put on incorruption,\" but this clay can never be retempered more. So that these members are rather \"upon the earth\" than those. Therefore he said not, \"of the earth,\" but, \"which are upon the earth,\" for it is possible that these should not be upon the earth. For it is necessary that these should be \"upon the earth,\" but that those should, is not necessary. For when the ear hears nothing of what is here uttered, but only in the heavens, when the eye sees nothing of what is here, but only what is above, it is not \"upon the earth\"; when the mouth speaketh nothing of the things here, it is not \"upon the earth\"; when the hand doeth no evil thing-these are not of things \"upon the earth,\" but of those in the heavens.<br/><i>— Homily on Colossians 8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: So Christ also saith, \"If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble,\" that is, if thou lookest unchastely, \"cut it out,\" that is, thine evil thought. And he (Paul) seems to me to speak of \"fornication, uncleanness, passion, desire\" as the same, namely fornication: by means of all these expressions drawing us away from that thing. For in truth this is \"a passion\"; and like as the body is subject to any affection, either to fever or to wounds, so also is it with this. And he said not Restrain, but \"Mortify\" (put to death), so that they never rise up more, and \"put them away.\" That which is dead, we put away; for instance, if there be callosities in the body, their body is dead, and we put it away. Now, if thou cut into that which is quick, it produces pain, but if into that which is dead, we are not even sensible of it. So, in truth, is it with the passions; they make the soul unclean; they make the soul, which is immortal, passible.</p><p>How covetousness is said to be idolatry, we have oftentimes explained. For the things which do most of all lord it over the human race, are these, covetousness, and unchasteness, and evil desire.<br/><i>— Homily on Colossians 8</i></p><p><b>Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius</b>: But God has appointed fixed limits to all of these; and if they pass these limits and begin to be too great, they must necessarily pervert their nature, and be changed into diseases and vices. And it is a matter of no great labour to show what these limits are.</p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: Those who had possessions He freed from the bondage of senseless stuff, lest while they served it they should become servers of idols, concerning which it is written, \"They have no breath in their mouth, and although they have eyes, and ears, and hands, they see not, and hear not, and work not.\" And for this reason the Apostle Paul called the love of mammon \"idolatry,\" for as the heathen worship things which have no feeling, and in which there is neither life nor perception, even so do those who love riches worship the gold which is silent, and the silver which is dumb, together with all their possessions which have neither feeling nor knowledge.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 8 -- First Discourse on Poverty</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, \"a root of all evils,\" wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, \"have suffered shipwreck about faith.\" Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry. In the next place proceeding to mendacity, the minister of covetousness (of false swearing I am silent, since even swearing is not lawful )-is trade adapted for a servant of God? But, covetousness apart, what is the motive for acquiring? When the motive for acquiring ceases, there will be no necessity for trading.<br/><i>— On Idolatry</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: He demonstrates, too, to the Colossians what \"members\" they are to\"mortify\" upon earth: \"fornication, impurity, lust, evil concupiscence,\" and \"base talk.\" Yield up, by this time, to so many and such sentences, the one (passage) to which you cling.<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"d51094cc864522518e76e139527480877e63279de4f7a1551ca0a61488b2366a","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3473,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e6746d3154649fb70e6948c1477b7fb46782bdcf3a5ea678f74fe4f8241778b8","translator":null,"work":null}