God Dwells in All the Saints

You say, then, that Christ should be called Theodochos, a form that received God; that is, that he should be revered not for his own sake, because he is God, but because he received God within him. In this way you make out that there is no difference between him and all other holy men, for all holy men have certainly had God within them. We know well that God was in the patriarchs and that he spoke in the prophets. In a word, we believe that all the saints and servants of God, and I do not mean only apostles and martyrs, have the Spirit of God within them, according to this: “You are the temple of the living God, as God said: For I will dwell in them.” And again: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” [a]

And so we are all receivers of God, Theodochoi; and in this way you say that all the saints are just like Christ, and equal to God. But away with such a wicked and abominable heresy, which compares the Creator to his creatures, the Lord to his servants, the God of things on earth and in heaven to earthly frailty, and wrongs him by his very kindnesses, so that he who honors man by dwelling in him is for that reason said to be only the same as a man!