Miscellanies 7.14.88

For the one who lives like a gentile in the church, whether in deed, or in word, or in thought itself, commits fornication against the church and against “his own body.” The one who in this way “joins himself to the harlot,” by acting contrary to the covenant, becomes another body, not holy, “one flesh” with a gentile life and another hope; “but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit,” a “spiritual body,” a different kind of union. Such a one is wholly a son, a holy human being, free from passion, knowing, perfect, formed by the Lord's teaching, so that in deed and word and in spirit itself, close to the Lord, he may receive the dwelling due to one who has thus become fully a man. The example is enough for those who have ears. For one must not put the mystery on public display, but only indicate enough of it to remind those who have partaken of knowledge; they will also understand how the Lord's words were meant: “Be perfect as your Father,” perfectly forgiving sins, bearing no grudges, and living in the settled state of freedom from passion. For as we speak of a perfect physician and a perfect philosopher, so, I think, of a perfect one who knows; but none of these, great as it is, is taken as likeness to God. For we do not say, as the Stoics do, most impiously, that the virtue of a human being and of God is the same. Are we not, then, to become perfect as the Father wills? For it is impossible and inconceivable for anyone to become perfect as God is; but the Father wills that we, living in obedience to the gospel, become blamelessly perfect. If, then, since the saying is spoken elliptically, we supply what is lacking to complete the passage, leaving those able to understand to take up what has been left out, we will both know God's will and live, piously and nobly at once, in a manner worthy of the commandment.