Against Celsus 8.6

Nor is it as though God were harmed, as a man seems to be harmed by one who serves another besides him, that we decline to serve anyone other than God through his Word and his truth, but so that we ourselves may not be harmed by separating ourselves from the portion of the God over all, since we live in a way that belongs to his blessedness by the special Spirit “of adoption.” This is to be among the sons of the Father in heaven, who cry out mightily in secret, not in mere words but in deeds, “Abba, Father.” The Spartan envoys did not bow down before the king of the Persians, although his bodyguards pressed them hard, because they feared their one master, the law of Lycurgus; and those who serve on the far greater and more divine embassy “for Christ” would not bow down before the ruler of the Persians, or of the Greeks, or of the Egyptians, or of any nation whatever, even if the demons, bodyguards of those rulers, and the angels of the devil, wish to force them to do so and try to persuade them to bid farewell to him who is higher than every law on earth. For the Lord of those who are ambassadors “for Christ” is Christ, for whom they are ambassadors, who is the Word, who was “in the beginning,” and was “with God,” and was “God.”