To Diognetus

Contents

1. 1.1The author answers Diognetus's questions about the Christians' God, worship, and love.
2. 2.1Look with your mind at what the gods really are.
3. 2.2The gods are stone, bronze, wood, silver, iron, and clay.
4. 2.3Idols are made by craftsmen from ordinary material.
5. 2.4Idols are deaf, blind, and lifeless.
6. 2.5Worshipers become like their idols.
7. 2.6Christians are hated for refusing these gods.
8. 2.7Pagans themselves insult their gods by guarding the precious ones.
9. 2.8Sacrifices either torment the gods or prove them senseless.
10. 2.9No human would endure what idols endure; this shows they are senseless.
11. 2.10Enough has been said about idols.
12. 3.1Why Christians do not worship as the Jews do.
13. 3.2The Jews rightly worship one God but err in offering sacrifice.
14. 3.3Sacrifice treats God as though he were in need.
15. 3.4The Creator needs nothing from us.
16. 3.5Sacrifices to God are no better than offerings to idols.
17. 4.1Jewish food laws, sabbaths, circumcision, and fasts are dismissed.
18. 4.2Rejecting some foods God made is wrong.
19. 4.3God does not forbid doing good on the Sabbath.
20. 4.4Circumcision is not a sign of special election.
21. 4.5The Jewish calendar is folly, not religion.
22. 4.6The mystery of Christian faith cannot be learned from a human being.
23. 5.1Christians are not set apart by country, language, or customs.
24. 5.2They have no cities, language, or dress of their own.
25. 5.3Their teaching is not a human invention.
26. 5.4Living everywhere, they show a remarkable citizenship.
27. 5.5Every homeland is foreign to them, and every foreign land their home.
28. 5.6They marry and have children, but do not abandon infants.
29. 5.7They share meals, but not beds.
30. 5.8In the flesh, but not living by the flesh.
31. 5.9On earth, but citizens of heaven.
32. 5.10They obey the laws and live above them.
33. 5.11They love all and are persecuted by all.
34. 5.12Condemned and killed, yet made alive.
35. 5.13Poor, yet making many rich.
36. 5.14Dishonored, yet glorified.
37. 5.15Reviled, they bless.
38. 5.16Punished for doing good, they rejoice.
39. 5.17Jews and Greeks oppose them without being able to say why.
40. 6.1Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body.
41. 6.2As the soul fills the body, Christians fill the cities.
42. 6.3In the world but not of it.
43. 6.4Their faith is invisible, like the soul.
44. 6.5As the flesh hates the soul, the world hates Christians.
45. 6.6Christians love those who hate them.
46. 6.7Christians hold the world together.
47. 6.8Sojourners among perishable things, awaiting the imperishable.
48. 6.9Persecuted, Christians multiply.
49. 6.10God has set Christians at a post they must not desert.
50. 7.1Christian faith is not a human discovery.
51. 7.2God sent not an angel but the Word himself, the Creator of all things.
52. 7.3Did God send him to rule by terror?
53. 7.4God sent his Son as God and as man, in gentleness, to save.
54. 7.5He sent him to call and to love, not to judge.
55. 7.6He will send him again as judge.
56. 7.7Martyrs thrown to the beasts do not deny the Lord.
57. 7.8The more are punished, the more believe.
58. 7.9This is the power of God, not of man.
59. 8.1No one knew God before Christ came.
60. 8.2The philosophers' ideas of God are empty.
61. 8.3By that logic anything created could be called God.
62. 8.4Such ideas are the deceit of charlatans.
63. 8.5No one has seen God; he revealed himself.
64. 8.6God is seen by faith alone.
65. 8.7The Creator is loving and patient toward mankind.
66. 8.8God is always kind, good, and true; he alone is good.
67. 8.9God shared his great plan with his Son alone.
68. 8.10While his plan was hidden, God seemed to neglect us.
69. 8.11Through his Son God revealed and gave everything.
70. 9.1God bore with our sins in the past to show we cannot save ourselves.
71. 9.2In love God gave his own Son as a ransom for us.
72. 9.3Only Christ's righteousness covers our sins.
73. 9.4We are justified in the Son of God alone.
74. 9.5The sweet exchange: our sin hidden in him, his righteousness justifying us.
75. 9.6God showed our helplessness and the Savior's power, so that we trust him in everything.
76. 10.1If you desire this faith, first come to know the Father.
77. 10.2God loved mankind, made the world for them, and sent his only Son.
78. 10.3How can we not love the God who first loved us?
79. 10.4Loving God, one becomes an imitator of his kindness.
80. 10.5Imitating God is not domination or wealth.
81. 10.6Whoever carries others' burdens and gives to the needy imitates God.
82. 10.7Then you will admire the martyrs and fear the real death.
83. 10.8You will call blessed those who endure the fire of martyrdom.
84. 11.1A disciple of the apostles becomes a teacher of the Gentiles.
85. 11.2The Word revealed the Father's mysteries to faithful disciples.
86. 11.3The Word was rejected by his people, preached by apostles, believed by Gentiles.
87. 11.4The eternal Word is ever new in the hearts of the saints.
88. 11.5Through the eternal Son the church is enriched with grace.
89. 11.6Law, prophets, gospels, and apostles are honored in the church.
90. 11.7Do not grieve grace, and the Word will speak to you.
91. 11.8Out of love we share what was revealed to us.
92. 12.1Those who love God become a paradise bearing every fruit.
93. 12.2Not knowledge but disobedience brings death.
94. 12.3God planted both trees; misuse of knowledge through the serpent's deceit led to the fall.
95. 12.4Life and knowledge belong together.
96. 12.5Paul: knowledge puffs up, love builds up.
97. 12.6True knowledge is shown by life; the one who seeks life plants in hope.
98. 12.7Let the heart be knowledge and the life the true word.
99. 12.8The fruit of this tree is untouched by the serpent; Eve is restored as a virgin.
100. 12.9Closing doxology: the Word teaches the saints and the Father is glorified.