{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1912","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"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>Ambrosiaster</b>: Paul is saying here that we are oppressed by bodily sufferings and death.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: If, then, that seed [referred to] is here solidified and formed into a definite shape, it will possess the figure of a man, and not the form of the angels. How is it possible, therefore, that that seed should be after images of the angels, seeing it has obtained a form after the likeness of men? Why, again, since it was of a spiritual nature, had it any need of descending into flesh? For what is carnal stands in need of that which is spiritual, if indeed it is to be saved, that in it it may be sanctified and cleared from all impurity, and that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality; but that which is spiritual has no need whatever of those things which are here below. For it is not we who benefit it, but it that improves us.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book II</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Still further did He also make it manifest, that we ought, after our calling, to be also adorned with works of righteousness, so that the Spirit of God may rest upon us; for this is the wedding garment, of which also the apostle speaks, \"Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by immortality.\" But those who have indeed been called to God's supper, yet have not received the Holy Spirit, because of their wicked conduct \"shall be,\" He declares, \"cast into outer darkness.\" He thus clearly shows that the very same King who gathered from all quarters the faithful to the marriage of His Son, and who grants them the incorruptible banquet, [also] orders that man to be cast into outer darkness who has not on a wedding garment, that is, one who despises it.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book IV</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God; which also the apostle terms \"an earnest,\" that is, a part of the honour which has been promised us by God, where he says in the Epistle to the Ephesians, \"In which ye also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believing in which we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.\" This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality. \"For ye,\" he declares, \"are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.\" This, however does not take place by a casting away of the flesh, but by the impartation of the Spirit. For those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but they were those who had received the Spirit of God, \"by which we cry, Abba, Father.\" If therefore, at the present time, having the earnest, we do cry, \"Abba, Father,\" what shall it be when, on rising again, we behold Him face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying Him who raised them from the dead, and gave the gift of eternal life? For if the earnest, gathering man into itself, does even now cause him to cry, \"Abba, Father,\" what shall the complete grace of the Spirit effect, which shall be given to men by God? It will render us like unto Him, and accomplish the will of the Father; for it shall make man after the image and likeness of God.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Now its transformation [takes place thus], that while it is mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal and incorruptible, not after its own proper substance, but after the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with immortality, and the corruptible with incorruption. And therefore he says, \"that mortality may be swallowed up of life. He who has perfected us for this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.\" He uses these words most manifestly in reference to the flesh; for the soul is not mortal, neither is the spirit. Now, what is mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer, but remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of God, who has perfected us for this very thing. In order, therefore, that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to the Corinthians, \"Glorify God in your body.\" Now God is He who gives rise to immortality.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon.\" Here again he hath utterly and manifestly stopped the mouths of the heretics, showing that he is not speaking absolutely of a body differing in identity, but of corruption and incorruption: 'For we do not therefore groan,' saith he, 'that we may be delivered from the body: for of this we do not wish to be unclothed; but we hasten to be delivered from the corruption that is in it'. Wherefore he saith, 'we wish not to be unclothed of the body, but that it should be clothed upon with incorruption.' Then he also interprets it [thus,] \"That what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.\" For since putting off the body appeared to many a grievous thing; and he was contradicting the judgments of all, when he said, \"we groan,\" not wishing to be set free from it; ('for if,' says one, 'the soul in being separated from it so suffers and laments, how sayest thou that we groan because we are not separated from it?') lest then this should be urged against him, he says, 'Neither do I assert that we therefore groan, that we may put it off; (for no one putteth it off without pain, seeing that Christ says even of Peter, 'They shall \"carry thee,\" and lead thee \"whither thou wouldest not;\"') but that we may have it clothed upon with incorruption.' For it is in this respect that we are burdened by the body; not because it is a body, but because we are encompassed with a corruptible body and liable to suffering, for it is this that also causes us pain. But the life when it arriveth destroyeth and useth up the corruption; the corruption, I say, not the body. 'And how cometh this to pass?' saith one. Inquire not; God doeth it; be not too curious.<br/><i>— Homily 10 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: For what the Lord then called \"habitations,\" the apostle here calls \"clothing.\" And what He there calls \"friends\" \"of unrighteousness,\" the apostle here calls \"houses\" \"dissolved.\" As then, when the days of our present life shall fail, those good deeds of beneficence to which we have attained in this unrighteous life, and in this \"world\" which \"lieth in wickedness,\" will receive our souls; so when this perishable life shall be dissolved, we shall have the habitation which is before the resurrection—that is, our souls shall be with God, until we shall receive the new house which is prepared for us, and which shall never fall. Whence also \"we groan,\" \"not for that we would be unclothed,\" as to the body, \"but clothed upon\" by it in the other life.<br/><i>— Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And again he says: \"We that are in this tabernacle do groan, not as if we were oppressed with an unwillingness to be unclothed, but (we wish)to be clothed upon.\" He here says expressly, what he touched but lightly in his first epistle, where he wrote: ) \"The dead shall be raised Incorruptible (meaning those who had undergone mortality), \"and we shall be changed\" (whom God shall find to be yet in the flesh).<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It was accordingly not without good reason that he described them as \"not wishing indeed to be unclothed,\" but (rather as wanting) \"to be clothed upon; \" in other words, as wishing not to undergo death, but to be surprised into life, \"that this moral (body) might be swallowed up of life,\" by being rescued from death in the supervesture of its changed state.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Lastly, even if everything that is mortal in all the dead shall then be found decayed-at any rate consumed by death, by time, and through age,-is there nothing which will be \"swallowed up of life,\" nor by being covered over and arrayed in the vesture of immortality? Now, he who says that mortality is going to be swallowed up of life has already admitted that what is dead is not destroyed by those other before-mentioned devourers.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Then, again, questions very often are suggested by occasional and isolated terms, just as much as they are by connected sentences. Thus, because of the apostle's expression, \"that mortality may be swallowed up of life \" -in reference to the flesh-they wrest the word swallowed up into the sense of the actual destruction of the flesh; as if we might not speak of ourselves as swallowing bile, or swallowing grief, meaning that we conceal and hide it, and keep it within ourselves.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: To us continence has been pointed out by the Lord of salvation as an instrument for attaining eternity, and as a testimony of (our) faith; as a commendation of this flesh of ours, which is to be sustained for the \"garment of immortality,\" which is one day to supervene; for enduring, in fine, the will of God.<br/><i>— To His Wife Book I</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"2d3da8cf5449f22f1c761aa1859d1c515eba813a5dff035440c87ab2d2a662f7","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1912,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"738f79ab3d9daaef921f062bcabdfd324b4988d61556421e87f604c9b5fca1f8","translator":null,"work":null}