Conscience, Endurance, and the Martyrs

“We know that we all have knowledge” — the knowledge everybody shares about ordinary things, and the knowledge that there is one God. He was writing to believers, and so he adds, “but this knowledge is not in everyone,” since it is passed on to only a few. And there are people who say that the knowledge about food sacrificed to idols is not published to everyone, “so that our freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For by your knowledge the weak man is destroyed.” Some take the words “Should a man buy whatever is sold in the meat market?” and then tack on “asking no questions” as though that too were part of the question, as if it meant “asking questions.” That is a ridiculous way to read it. What the apostle says is: buy everything else out of the meat market without asking questions — everything except the things named in the general letter of all the apostles, sent out “with the agreement of the Holy Spirit,” which is written down in the Acts of the Apostles and was carried to the believers by Paul’s own hand. What they made clear was “that they must keep away from what has been offered to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality; and if they keep themselves from these, they will do well.” [a]

So the apostle is talking about something else when he says: “Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take a sister along as a wife, as the rest of the apostles do, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? But we have not used this right; we put up with everything, so that we may not put any obstacle in the way of the good news of Christ.” He means the obstacle of hauling burdens about when a man needed to be free for everything; or else he means being an example to people who want to practice self-control — so that we do not urge one another to eat greedily whatever is set in front of us, and do not keep company with a woman thoughtlessly. It is above all the men entrusted with such a charge who have to show their pupils a clean example. “Though I am free from all,” it says, “I made myself a slave to everyone, so that I might win everyone. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in everything.”

“But the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” So it is for conscience’ sake that we keep away from what we ought to keep away from. “Conscience, I mean, not your own” — that one has knowledge already — “but the other man’s”: so that he is not badly trained, and does not, by copying in ignorance what he does not understand, turn into a man who despises rather than a man who is strong. “For why is my freedom judged by somebody else’s conscience? If I take my share with thanks, why am I spoken against for what I give thanks for? Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” — that is, whatever the rule of the faith commands you to do.

“With the heart a man has faith, and so comes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made, and so comes salvation. That is why the Scripture says, Everyone who has faith in him will not be put to shame. This is the word of faith that we preach: if you confess with your mouth the word that Jesus is Lord, and have faith in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There you have a plain description of complete righteousness, carried out both in practice and in contemplation. That is why we are “to bless those who persecute us. Bless, and do not curse.” “For this is our boast: the witness of a good conscience, that in holiness and sincerity we knew God” — and by that slight example he shows the work of love, that “not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we lived our lives in the world.” So much from the apostle about knowledge. In the second letter to the Corinthians he calls the ordinary “teaching of faith” the fragrance of knowledge. “For to this day the same veil stays over many at the reading of the old covenant” — it is not lifted, because they do not turn to the Lord. That is also why, to those able to see it, he pointed out a resurrection: the resurrection of the life that is still in the flesh, crawling on its belly. And that is why he gave the name “brood of vipers” to people given over to pleasure, who serve the belly and the genitals and cut off one another’s heads for the sake of the pleasures of this world. [h]

“Little children, let us not love in word or with the tongue,” says John, teaching them to be complete, “but in deed and in truth; by this we will know that we belong to the truth.” And if “God is love,” then reverence for God is love as well: “There is no fear in love; perfect love throws fear out.” “This is the love of God, that we keep his commands.” And again, to the man who wants to become one who truly knows, it is written: “Be an example to the believers in speech, in your way of life, in love, in faith, in purity.” For perfection in faith is, I think, a different thing from ordinary faith. And the divine apostle lays down the rule for the one who truly knows in these words: “I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to have more than enough. Everywhere and in all things I have been initiated — into being full and into being hungry, into having plenty and into going without. I can do all things through the one who gives me strength.”

And when he is arguing with people in order to shame them, he does not shrink from saying: “But remember the earlier days, when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard contest of sufferings — sometimes made a public spectacle by insults and afflictions, and sometimes standing beside those who were treated that way. For you suffered along with me in my chains, and you accepted the seizing of your property with joy, knowing that you have a better and lasting possession. So do not throw away your confidence, which carries a great reward. You need endurance, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised. For in a very little while the one who is coming will come, and will not delay. But the righteous man will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul takes no pleasure in him. But we are not men who shrink back and are destroyed; we are men of faith, and our souls are kept safe.” Then he brings on a whole swarm of divine examples. Was it not “by faith” — by this endurance, that is — that they acted nobly, the men who “had to face mockery and flogging, and chains and prison besides? They were stoned, they were tested, they were killed with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, badly treated — men the world was not worthy of. They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all of them, though they had a good report through faith, did not receive God’s promise.” (The word passed over in silence is left for the reader to supply: “alone.”) And so he adds: “God had provided something better for us” — for he was good — “so that they would not be made complete apart from us. And so, since we have such a cloud of witnesses surrounding us” — holy and clear as light — “let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set in front of us, looking to Jesus, the founder and completer of our faith.”

So he speaks of one salvation in Christ, the salvation of the righteous men of long ago and of ourselves. He has said the first of these plainly; and, saying nothing less about Moses, he adds: “He counted the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not afraid of the king’s anger, for he held out as one who sees the invisible God.”

The divine Wisdom says this about the martyrs: “In the eyes of fools they seemed to have died; their departure was counted a disaster and their going away from us a ruin. But they are at peace. For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope was full of immortality.” Then, teaching that a martyr’s death is a glorious cleansing, she adds, “After being disciplined a little they will be greatly benefited, because God tested them” — that is, he let them be tried, to put them to the proof and to shame the one who tried them — “and found them worthy of himself,” plainly, worthy to be called sons. “He tested them like gold in a furnace, and accepted them as a whole burnt offering. In the time of their visitation they will shine out, and run like sparks through stubble. They will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.”

In the letter to the Corinthians, Clement the apostle also draws a portrait of the one who truly knows. He says: “Who that has stayed among you has not tested your faith and found it complete and firm? Who has not admired your sober and considerate reverence for God? Who has not announced the generous style of your hospitality? Who has not called you happy for your full and certain knowledge? For you did everything without showing favor, and you walked in the ordinances of God” — and so on. [r]

Then, more plainly: “Let us fix our eyes on those who have given perfect service to his magnificent glory. Let us take Enoch, who was found righteous by his obedience and was carried away; and Noah, who had faith and was rescued; and Abraham, who for his faith and his hospitality was called the friend of God and was the father of Isaac.” “For his hospitality and his reverence for God, Lot was rescued out of Sodom.” “For her faith and her hospitality, Rahab the prostitute was rescued.” “Out of endurance and faith they went about in goatskins and sheepskins and rolls of camel hair, announcing the kingdom of Christ. We mean his prophets: Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, John.” “Abraham, who because of the faith he gave freely was called the friend of God, was not lifted up by the honor, but said modestly, ‘I am dust and ashes.’ And about Job it is written this way: ‘Job was righteous and blameless, truthful, reverent, and kept away from every evil thing.’” It was Job who beat the tempter by his endurance, who both bore witness and had witness borne to him by God, who keeps his hold on humility and says, “No one is clean of filth, not even if his life lasts a single day.” “Moses, ‘the servant who was faithful in all his house,’ said to the one who spoke the oracles out of the bush, ‘Who am I, that you are sending me? I am slow of speech and have a stammering tongue’ — he, the man who was to carry the voice of God in human words. And again: ‘I am smoke from a pot.’” “For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

“And David, about whom the Lord bears witness and says, ‘I found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse; with my holy oil I anointed him.’ But David himself says to God, ‘Pity me, God, according to your mercy, and according to the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Wash me thoroughly from my lawlessness, and make me clean from my sin. For I know my offense, and my sin is always in front of me.’” Then, pointing at the sin that no law calls to account, and keeping the restraint that true knowledge gives, he adds, “Against you only have I sinned, and I have done what is evil in your sight.” For the Scripture says somewhere, “The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching the inner rooms of the belly.” And the more a man becomes one who truly knows by doing what is right, the nearer the Spirit that gives light comes to him. “So the Lord comes near to the righteous, and none of the thoughts or the reasonings we ourselves produce escape him” — I mean the Lord Jesus, who searches our heart by his all-powerful will — “whose blood was made holy for us. So let us respect those set over us, and show reverence to the elders; let us honor the young, and let us teach the discipline of God.” For the man who does and teaches the Lord’s commands as they deserve is blessed; his mind is great-hearted, and it contemplates truth.

“Let us guide our wives toward what is good. Let them show,” he says, “the lovable character of purity; let them display the innocent will of their gentleness; let them make the considerateness of their tongue plain by their silence; let them give their love not by favorites, but equally and in holiness to all who fear God. Let our children share in the discipline that is in Christ: let them learn how much humility is worth before God, what the power of holy love before God can do, how lovely and great the fear of the Lord is, saving everyone who lives in it in holiness with a clean heart. For he is the searcher of thoughts and intentions; his breath is in us, and when he wants to he will take it away.”

“Now all these things are made firm by the faith that is in Christ. ‘Come, children,’ says the Lord, ‘listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who wants life and loves to see good days?’” Then he adds the hidden meaning of the numbers seven and eight, which belongs to true knowledge. “‘Stop your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Look for peace and chase after it.’” In these words he is pointing at knowledge, together with keeping clear of evil and doing what is good, and teaching that it is brought to completion by word and by deed. “‘The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of God is set against those who do evil, to root out the memory of them from the earth. The righteous man cried out, and the Lord heard him and rescued him out of all his troubles.’ ‘Many are the lashes the sinner gets; but mercy will surround those who hope in the Lord.’” “A great deal of mercy,” he says finely, “surrounds the man who trusts in the Lord.”

For it is written in the letter to the Corinthians: “Through Jesus Christ our foolish and darkened mind springs up into the light. Through him the Master wanted us to taste the knowledge that never dies.” And, showing still more exactly what belongs to knowledge alone, he added: “Since all this is clear to us, and we have looked into the depths of the divine knowledge, we ought to do in order everything the Master commanded us to carry out at the appointed times. So let the wise man show his wisdom not in words but in good deeds. Let the humble man not bear witness to himself, but let the witness be borne by someone else. Let the man who is pure in the flesh not boast, since he knows that it is another who supplies him with his self-control. You see, brothers, that the more danger we are put under, the more knowledge we are counted worthy of.”