{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-136","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":12,"chapter_to":12,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":12,"verse_to":12},"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>Clement of Alexandria</b>: The divine apostle writes accordingly respecting us: \"For now we see as through a glass; \" knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simultaneously contemplating, as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, in us, is divine. For it is said, \"Having seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God: \" methinks that now the Saviour God is declared to us. But after the laying aside of the flesh, \"face to face,\"-then definitely and comprehensively, when the heart becomes pure. And by reflection and direct vision, those among the Greeks who have philosophized accurately, see God. For such, through our weakness, are our true views, as images are seen in the water, and as we see things through pellucid and transparent bodies.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 1</i></p><p><b>Clement of Rome</b>: The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small without the great. There is a kind of mixture in all things, and thence arises mutual advantage. Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head; yea, the very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body. But all work harmoniously together, and are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.<br/><i>— Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: After soothing them from the considerations that the thing given was of free favor; that they received all from \"one and the self-same Spirit;\" that it was given \"to profit withal,\" that even by the lesser gifts a manifestation was made; and withal having also stopped their mouth from the duty of yielding to the authority of the Spirit: (\"for all these,\" saith he, \"worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will;\" wherefore it is not right to be over-curious:) he proceeds now to soothe them in like manner from another common example, and betakes himself to nature itself, as was his use to do.</p><p>When he was discoursing about the hair of men and women, after all the rest he drew matter thence also to correct them, saying, \"Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a dishonor to him? but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her?\" And when he spake concerning the idol-sacrifices, forbidding to touch them, he drew an argument from the examples also of them that are without, both making mention of the Olympic games, where he saith, \"they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize:\" and confirming these views from shepherds and soldiers and husbandmen. Wherefore he brings forward here also a common example by which he presses on and fights hard to prove that no one was really put in a worse condition: a thing which was marvellous and surprising to be able to show, and calculated to refresh the weaker sort, I mean, the example of the body.</p><p>For nothing so consoles the person of small spirit and inferior gifts, or so persuades him not to grieve, as the being convinced that he is not left with less than his share. Wherefore also Paul making out this point, thus expresses himself: \"for as the body is one and hath many members.\"</p><p>Seest thou his exact consideration? He is pointing out the same thing to be both one and many. Wherefore also he adds, pressing the point more vigorously, \"and all the members of the one body, being many, are one body.\" He said not, \"being many, are of one body,\" but \"the one body itself is many:\" and those many members are this one thing. If therefore the one is many, and the many are one, where is the difference? where the superiority? where the disadvantage? For all, saith he, are one: and not simply one, but being strictly considered in respect of that even which is principal, i. e., their being a body, they are found all to be one: but when considered as to their particular natures, then the difference comes out, and the difference is in all alike. For none of them by itself can make a body, but each is alike deficient in the making a body, and there is need of a coming together since when the many become one, then and not till then is there one body. Wherefore also covertly intimating this very thing, he said, \"And all the members of the one body, being many, are one body.\" And he said not, \"the superior and the inferior,\" but \"being many,\" which is common to all.</p><p>And how is it possible that they should be one? When throwing out the difference of the members, thou considerest the body. For the same thing which the eye is, this also is the foot in regard of its being a member and constituting a body. For there is no difference in this respect. Nor canst thou say that one of the members makes a body of itself, but another does not. For they are all equal in this, for the very reason that they are all one body.</p><p>But having said this and having shown it clearly from the common judgment of all, he added, \"so also is Christ.\" And when he should have said, \"so also is the Church,\" for this was the natural consequent he doth not say it but instead of it places the name of Christ, carrying the discourse up on high and appealing more and more to the hearer's reverence. But his meaning is this: \"So also is the body of Christ, which is the Church.\" For as the body and the head are one man, so he said that the Church and Christ are one. Wherefore also he placed Christ instead of the Church, giving that name to His body. \"As then,\" saith he, \"our body is one thing though it be composed of many: so also in the Church we all are one thing. For though the Church be composed of many members, yet these many form one body.\"<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 30</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: This, too, I may confidently say: he who has likened the unity of our body throughout its manifold and divers members to the compacting together of the various gifts of the Spirit, shows also that there is but one Lord of the human body and of the Holy Spirit.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Paul is pointing out that just as the body has many members, some of which are more important than others, so it is with the church also. But every member is necessary and useful.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 246</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"601f5e77f325420d4273f1db76597fd2462670c65e1e4758bab937e3a91bf095","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":136,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b3b0f542470adfca9c2a3989498dbbe0353ccc006b862b662eb7a187eabb6a09","translator":null,"work":null}