{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4285","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"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>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: Be of one mind, O you bishops, one with another, and be at peace with one another; sympathize with one another, love the brethren, and feed the people with care; with one consent teach those that are under you to be of the same sentiments and to be of the same opinions about the same matters, \"that there may be no schisms among you; that you may be one body and one spirit, perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment,\" [1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:4] according to the appointment of the Lord. And let the deacon refer all things to the bishop, as Christ does to His Father. But let him order such things as he is able by himself, receiving power from the bishop, as the Lord did from His Father the power of creation and of providence. But the weighty matters let the bishop judge; but let the deacon be the bishop's ear, and eye, and mouth, and heart, and soul, that the bishop may not be distracted with many cares, but with such only as are more considerable, as Jethro did appoint for Moses, and his counsel was received.<br/><i>— Apostolic Constitutions (Book II), Section 6, XLIV</i></p><p><b>Clement of Rome</b>: Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, \"Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy.\" And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, \"With a harmless man thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show thyself perverse.\" Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? [Ephesians 4:4-6] Why do we divide and tear to pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that \"we are members one of another?\" [Romans 12:5] Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, \"Woe to that man [by whom offences come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones.\" Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth.<br/><i>— Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 46</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the truth. The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, \"I say unto thee, that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.\" And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, \"Feed nay sheep.\" And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, \"As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins ye retain, they shall be retained; \" yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, \"My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.\" Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, \"There is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God? \"<br/><i>— Treatise I On the Unity of the Church</i></p><p><b>Ignatius of Antioch</b>: The more, therefore, you see the bishop silent, the more do you reverence him. For we ought to receive every one whom the Master of the house sends to be over His household, as we would do Him that sent him. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would look upon the Lord Himself, standing, as he does, before the Lord. For \"it behoves the man who looks carefully about him, and is active in his business, to stand before kings, and not to stand before slothful men.\" And indeed Onesimus himself greatly commends your good order in God, that ye all live according to the truth, and that no sect `has any dwelling-place among you. Nor indeed do ye hearken to any one rather than to Jesus Christ, the true Shepherd and Teacher. And ye are, as Paul wrote to you, \"one body and one spirit, because ye have also been called in one hope of the faith. Since also \"there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.\" Such, then, are ye, having been taught by such instructors, Paul the Christ-bearer, and Timothy the most faithful.<br/><i>— Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians</i></p><p><b>Ignatius of Antioch</b>: There is then one God and Father, and not two or three; One who is; and there is no other besides Him, the only true [God]. For \"the Lord thy God,\" saith [the Scripture], \"is one Lord.\" And again, \"Hath not one God created us? Have we not all one Father? And there is also one Son, God the Word. For \"the only-begotten Son,\" saith [the Scripture], \"who is in the bosom of the Father.\" And again, \"One Lord Jesus Christ.\" And in another place, \"What is His name, or what His Son's name, that we may know? \" And there is also one Paraclete. For \"there is also,\" saith [the Scripture], \"one Spirit,\" since \"we have been called in one hope of our calling.\" And again, \"We have drunk of one Spirit,\" with what follows. And it is manifest that all these gifts [possessed by believers] \"worketh one and the self-same Spirit.\" There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to \"baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,\" not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three [persons] who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal honour.<br/><i>— Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the Philippians</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: His words one body and one Spirit can be taken most simply to mean the one body of Christ, which is the church. Or it could refer to the humanity of the Lord, which he assumed from the Virgin.… Yet indeed the one body can also refer to life and the works that are called in Greek \"the practical life.\" These are distinguished from the oneness of the Spirit in the heart that finds its unity in contemplation.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 4:3-4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: If the Father's house has many mansions, how are we to say that we are called to one hope? One reply is that the one hope of the calling is the kingdom of God. It is as though we were to speak of the one house of God or say that in one house are many mansions. … Or again, this subtler meaning may be implied: at the end and consummation of all things everything is to be restored to its original condition, when we are all made one body and formed anew into a perfect man.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 4:3-4</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: When the blessed Paul exhorts us to anything of special importance, so truly wise and spiritual as he is, he grounds his exhortation upon things in Heaven: this itself being a lesson he had learned from the Lord. Thus he saith also elsewhere, \"Walk in love, even as Christ also hath loved us.\" And again, \"Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God.\" This is what he is doing here also, for whenever the examples he is setting before us are great, he is intense in his zeal and feeling. What then does he say, now he is inciting us to unity? \"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.\"</p><p>Now what is this one body? The faithful throughout the whole world, both which are, and which have been, and which shall be. And again, they that before Christ's coming pleased God, are \"one body.\" How so? Because they also knew Christ. Whence does this appear? \"Your father Abraham,\" saith He, \"rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.\" And again, \"If ye had believed Moses,\" He saith, \"ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me.\" And the prophets too would not have written of One, of whom they knew not what they said; whereas they both knew Him, and worshiped Him. Thus then were they also \"one body.\"</p><p>The body is not disjoined from the spirit, for then would it not be a body. Thus it is customary also with us, touching things which are united, and which have any great consistency or coherence, to say, they are one body. And thus again, touching union, we take that to be a body which is under one head. If there be one head, then is there one body. The body is composed of members both honorable and dishonorable. Only the greater is not to rise up even against the meanest, nor this latter to envy the other. They do not all indeed contribute the same share, but severally according to the proportion of need. And forasmuch as all are formed for necessary and for different purposes, all are of equal honor. Some indeed there are, which are more especially principal members, others less so: for example, the head is more a principal member than all the rest of the body, as containing within itself all the senses, and the governing principle of the soul. And to live without the head is impossible; whereas many persons have lived for a long time with their feet cut off. So that it is better than they, not only by its position, but also by its very vital energy and its function.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 10</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Now what is this one body? The faithful throughout the whole world, both which are, and which have been, and which shall be. And again, they that before Christ's coming pleased God, are \"one body.\" How so? Because they also knew Christ. Whence does this appear? \"Your father Abraham,\" saith He, \"rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.\" And again, \"If ye had believed Moses,\" He saith, \"ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me.\" And the prophets too would not have written of One, of whom they knew not what they said; whereas they both knew Him, and worshiped Him. Thus then were they also \"one body.\"</p><p>The body is not disjoined from the spirit, for then would it not be a body. Thus it is customary also with us, touching things which are united, and which have any great consistency or coherence, to say, they are one body. And thus again, touching union, we take that to be a body which is under one head. If there be one head, then is there one body. The body is composed of members both honorable and dishonorable. Only the greater is not to rise up even against the meanest, nor this latter to envy the other. They do not all indeed contribute the same share, but severally according to the proportion of need. And forasmuch as all are formed for necessary and for different purposes, all are of equal honor. Some indeed there are, which are more especially principal members, others less so: for example, the head is more a principal member than all the rest of the body, as containing within itself all the senses, and the governing principle of the soul. And to live without the head is impossible; whereas many persons have lived for a long time with their feet cut off. So that it is better than they, not only by its position, but also by its very vital energy and its function.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 10</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Now why am I saying this? There are great numbers in the Church; there are those who, like the head, are raised up to a height; who, like the eyes that are in the head, survey heavenly things, who stand far aloof from the earth, and have nothing in common with it, whilst others occupy the rank of feet, and tread upon the earth; of healthy feet indeed, for to tread upon the earth is no crime in feet, but to run to evil. \"Their feet,\" saith the Prophet, \"run to evil.\" Neither then let these, the head, saith he, be high-minded against the feet, nor the feet look with evil eye at them. For thus the peculiar beauty of each is destroyed, and the perfectness of its function impeded. And naturally enough; inasmuch as he who lays snares for his neighbor will be laying snares first of all for himself. And should the feet therefore not choose to convey the head anywhere upon its necessary journey, they will at the same time be injuring themselves by their inactivity and sloth. Or again, should the head not choose to take any care of the feet, itself will be the first to sustain the damage. However, those members do not rise up one against the other; it is not likely, for it has been so ordered by nature that they should not. But with man, how is it possible for him not to rise up against man? No one, we know, ever rises up against Angels; since neither do they rise against the Archangels. Nor, on the other hand, can the irrational creatures proudly exalt themselves over us; but where the nature is equal in dignity, and the gift one, and where one has no more than another, how shall this be prevented?</p><p>And yet surely these are the very reasons why thou oughtest not to rise up against thy neighbors. For if all things are common, and one has nothing more than another, whence this mad folly? We partake of the same nature, partake alike of soul and body, we breathe the same air, we use the same food. Whence this rebellious rising of one against another?<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 10</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: The love Paul requires of us is no common love, but that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb. For this is that love which produces great and glorious fruits. Hence he saith, there is \"one body\"; one, both by sympathy, and by not opposing the good of others, and by sharing their joy, having expressed all at once by this figure. He then beautifully adds, \"and one Spirit,\" showing that from the one body there will be one Spirit: or, that it is possible that there may be indeed one body, and yet not one Spirit; as, for instance, if any member of it should be a friend of heretics: or else he is, by this expression, shaming them into unanimity, saying, as it were, \"Ye who have received one Spirit, and have been made to drink at one fountain, ought not to be divided in mind\"; or else by spirit here he means their zeal. Then he adds, \"Even as ye were called in one hope of your calling,\" that is, God hath called you all on the same terms. He hath bestowed nothing upon one more than upon another. To all He hath freely given immortality, to all eternal life, to all immortal glory, to all brotherhood, to all inheritance. He is the common Head of all; \"He hath raised all\" up, \"and made them sit with Him.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 11</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: There is to us one, and but one, baptism; as well according to the Lord's gospel as according to the apostle's letters, inasmuch as he says, \"One God, and one baptism, and one church in the heavens.\" But it must be admitted that the question, \"What rules are to be observed with regard to heretics? \"is worthy of being treated.<br/><i>— On Baptism</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"4127aaae6f81aa2b09db8a9a8657ea024466bb9dc615cd0d3e51d7414a48bcef","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4285,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e622d879e610266bb8e4e7aea11121be65d793a86ae57765decf07cad6fb171d","translator":null,"work":null}