The Christian life in the early church

2 Clement 7.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Like athletes, let us compete for the crown.
2 Clement 7.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · What will happen to one who cheats in the contest for eternal life?
Epistle of the Apostles 43Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ interprets the parable of the ten virgins: the wise are faith, love, joy, peace, and hope; the foolish, virtues that slept in believers who did not keep his commandments.
Against Heresies 4.37.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The kingdom is won through struggle, and God permitted man’s apostasy so that man, schooled by contrast and contest, might grow to maturity and see God.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Miscellanies 7.14.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A church member who lives like a pagan commits fornication against the church, but whoever is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him; “be perfect as your Father” means blameless obedience to the gospel, not being equal to God, as the Stoics impiously claim.
Exhortation to Chastity 1Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian counsels a widowed brother that God wills our sanctification, which comes in three degrees: virginity from birth, continence from baptism, and “monogamy,” refusing a second marriage after a spouse's death.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 45Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The “old man” and “new man” are not flesh and soul but the former and the renewed way of life; Paul condemns sinful works, not the body.
On First Principles 3.2.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · No one fights all the hostile powers at once; God, the just umpire, measures each contest, and the saints prevail only by Christ's power, as Jacob's wrestling shows.
PG 12:1087 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Meditating on the law day and night means practicing it, so that the perfect man’s every action is prayer; Aquila’s “transplanted” tree is Christ, rooted in the Father, or the Savior’s soul taken to paradise.
PG 12:1115 (Ps 2 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Fear as servile dread or as reverence, and joy with trembling as joy kept from conceit; “laying hold of instruction” is perfection, and Origen discusses the word “righteous,” which only the Septuagint has in Ps 2:12.
Commentary on John 6.107Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the way for those progressing and the life for the perfect; on this way no provisions, staff, or sandals are needed.
Commentary on John 28.17Origen · ca. 230–248 · Nothing should come between Christ's command and our obedience.
Commentary on John 28.19Origen · ca. 230–248 · As creation obeyed God at once, so the faithful obey Christ at once; any delay is disobedience.
On Prayer 25.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We keep praying “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” because we grow toward perfection only by degrees, until God is all in all.
Homily on Luke 4Origen · ca. 233–250 · The angel’s promise of John shows true greatness to be greatness of soul before God, and the spirit and power of Elijah in John still go before Christ’s coming into every believer’s soul.
Homily on Luke 11Origen · ca. 233–250 · John’s growth “in spirit” is the spiritual growth God commands of all; his upbringing in the desert and his food were as new as his birth; and Christ’s enrolment in Augustus’s census signifies his enrolling believers in the book of life.
Homily on Luke 16Origen · ca. 233–250 · Simeon’s “fall and rising” answers those who reject the Creator as cruel, for the same is said of Christ; in each believer the evil must fall so that the good may rise.
Homily on Luke 18Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ, who had emptied himself, is “filled with wisdom” even as a child; he is found not among kinsfolk but in the temple among the teachers, and his calling the temple his Father’s refutes those who separate the Creator from the Father of Jesus.
Homilies on Exodus 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer can build the tabernacle within himself, with silver pillars of patience, an inner altar for sacrificing pride, anger, and lust, a lampstand of watchfulness, and a ruling mind that serves as high priest.
Homilies on Joshua 4.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The people enter the promised land on the tenth day of the first month, the day the Passover lamb was chosen, a sign that each virtue has its own perfection and all tend to one perfection.
Homilies on Joshua 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The forty thousand girded men are those girded with truth in God’s sight, and the battle they cross over to fight is waged within, against the evils that come from the heart.
Homilies on Leviticus 11.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As firstborn animals, sacred vessels, and priestly garments are 'holy' because set apart for God alone, so a person is holy who separates himself from worldly life and keeps his vows to God.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'great priest from among his brothers' is Jesus, great because sinless; spiritual greatness comes from virtue, and the strong must care for the little ones in faith.
Homilies on Leviticus 16.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'trees of the fields' are the virtues planted in the soul, such as righteousness, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and wisdom, the tree of life.
Homilies on Numbers 7.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Armed with Paul's spiritual armor and following Jesus, believers can overcome the demonic “giants,” who grow weaker as Christians grow in holiness.
Homilies on Numbers 9.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The rod's four stages figure the believer's growth from first confession to bearing fruit for others, and Christ, the rod from Jesse's root, comes as discipline to the sluggish and as a flower to the righteous.
Homilies on Numbers 17.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The good houses of Jacob and tents of Israel signify the completion of good works and the endless advance in wisdom, the law and the prophets read spiritually, or body and soul; the faithful must build their own tents after the heavenly pattern, as Paul did.
Homilies on Numbers 19.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen gathers the scriptural accounts of Amalek, whose name means “licking up” or “turning aside the people,” and reads him as the invisible opposing power that must be conquered, through holiness, prayer, and pressing forward, before one reaches the kingdom.
Homilies on Numbers 23.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The new moon, hidden when joined to the sun, figures the church or soul joined wholly to Christ, the sun of righteousness, renewed and hidden from human sight.
Homilies on Numbers 23.11Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God keeps the feast of Tabernacles over the soul that lives as a stranger on earth, hastening to its true homeland; in this life all festivals are kept only “in part,” and the perfect festival awaits the world to come, with Christ as its bridegroom.
Homilies on Numbers 25.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The five Midianite kings, whose names mean beastliness, emptiness, provocation, and the like, are vices reigning through the five senses, which the soldier of God must slay, as Christ commanded cutting off the eye or hand that causes stumbling; the spoils and their purification are then summarized.
Homilies on Numbers 27.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The list of stations is given twice to show the soul’s two ways, its advance in virtue in this life and its illumination through the dwellings after the resurrection; the “hand” of Moses and Aaron signifies the knowledge of the law joined with the works that please God.
Homilies on Numbers 27.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The first stations show the soul’s first advances: leaving the turbulence of Rameses for the tents of Succoth, fighting in the valley of Etham, beginning with moderate abstinence at Hiroth, and looking toward the watchtower and magnificence to come.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 4.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · From Moses “going aside” to see the burning bush, Origen teaches that one must pass beyond worldly things and each vice to see the “great sight” of God; the Lord directs our steps on the middle way, Christ, so that we turn neither to the left with literalist heretics nor to the right with those who abandon the apostolic rule of truth.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.13Origen · ca. 240 · Teachers must prepare their hearers' souls before sowing the doctrines of the faith, and every believer must plough his own soul, removing the thorns of worldly care, before receiving the seed of Scripture.
Homilies on Jeremiah 13.3Origen · ca. 240 · To “go backward” is to turn back to sin; like Lot, the believer must never look back or linger near Sodom, but press forward to the mountain, which is Christ.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.16Origen · ca. 240 · “I sat alone” describes a life so excellent that no one imitates it, which any believer, not only clergy, may aim at; such a life is filled with bitterness, the bitter herbs eaten with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
On the Singleness of Clerics 17Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Pastoral visits to women are commanded but must be conducted with severity and propriety; holiness requires that one's acts match one's vows completely.
Commentary on Matthew 12.13Origen · ca. 246–248 · Opposed to the gates of Hades, which are vices and hostile powers, are the gates of Zion, the virtues, at each of which the soul lifted from the gates of death declares a praise of God.
Commentary on Romans 5.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen teaches that only one who has first died to sin is truly buried with Christ in baptism, explains baptism “from above,” why Paul names Christ alone, and the daily renewal of the new life.
Commentary on Romans 6.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains that no condemnation remains for those wholly in Christ, a state reached gradually as each virtue claims its share, and that the Spirit of life and Christ set free with one freedom.
Commentary on Romans 6.14Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains that we owe nothing to the flesh beyond necessities and that the fruits of the Spirit gradually put to death the deeds of the flesh, ending Book 6.
Commentary on Romans 9.39Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · We take the pattern of dying to sin and of new life from Christ's death and resurrection; Christ rules all by power as Creator, but by his death he rules by persuasion those who freely die to sin and live the new life.
Commentary on Romans 10.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The Romans are 'full of knowledge' only in human measure, as Paul himself was perfect only relative to others and not to heavenly perfection; believers should instruct one another in love, deferring to the learned on deeper questions.
To Quirinus 3.11Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The believer, having put off the old self and renounced the world, should set his mind on heavenly things, as the Passover, the Sermon on the Mount, and Paul's letters teach.
Letter 58.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · In a greater contest than the games, God, his angels, and Christ watch; both the steadfast and the lapsed must put on the whole armor of God.
On the Dress of Virgins 2Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Our bodies, cleansed in baptism, are God's temples; having been healed, we must sin no more, and this applies to everyone of every age and sex.
On Jealousy and Envy 14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Those who died and rose with Christ in baptism must put to death the works of the flesh and bear the heavenly likeness of Christ.
On Free Will 20Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God did not destroy the devil at once, because that would have been no great deed and would have hidden his kindness; instead he trains men like wrestlers to conquer the devil themselves.
Res. 2.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul did not mean that he actually committed sins he hated, since he urged others to imitate him as he imitated Christ; he meant the unwanted thoughts that assail us and must be resisted like besieging enemies.
Divine Institutes 4.25.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Our great struggle is against the desires of the flesh.
Letter 1.5Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony describes how the Spirit teaches the mind to heal the soul's sicknesses, member by member, beginning with the eyes, the ears, and the tongue.
Demonstration 6.1Aphrahat · 337-345
Letter 6Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · The mysteries of God are revealed only to the pure and obedient; Ammonas prays that his disciples may reach this perfection and become examples to their generation.
Life of Antony 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · After his first victory Antony intensified his discipline with vigils, fasting, and hard bedding, treating each day as a new beginning, after the example of Paul and Elijah.
Life of Antony 20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Virtue is not far off but within us: it is the soul remaining straight, as God made it, and needs only our will.
Letters 292, 293Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil congratulates Palladius on his baptism and urges him to keep the garment of incorruption unstained; a second letter to Julianus asks after his health and teaches that a firm mind keeps life calm amid hardships.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.10Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:14 Basil teaches that turning from evil is the first step for beginners, and that the peace to be pursued is Christ's peace, the calm of a soul unshaken by passions and false doctrine.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 80Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's eightieth and last rule: what the word wants Christians, and those entrusted with preaching, to be, ending with his summary of the marks of a Christian.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those 'filled by day' are filled with Christ, the true light, so that no vice or worldly spirit finds room in them.
Commentary on Galatians 6.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · As one sows, so one reaps: those who place their hope in the flesh, as the Galatians did with Jewish observances, reap corruption, while those who sow in the Spirit reap eternal life.
Commentary on Philippians 1.27Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The sum of the Christian life is to live worthily of the gospel by Christ’s commands, standing firm in one spirit and striving with one soul for the faith of the gospel.
Commentary on Philippians 2.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Believers must obey God’s commands willingly, without grumbling or second thoughts, so as to be blameless sons of God shining like stars in a crooked world.
Commentary on Philippians 3.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The mature should hold this attitude of forgetting the past and pressing on by grace, and even if they think otherwise on some point, they must hold to and walk by what they have already attained.
Commentary on Philippians 3.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul urges the Philippians to imitate him and those many who already live as he does, of whom he has often spoken.
Oration 3.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges his flock to respect themselves and their faith, to prefer silence and good deeds to talk about God, and to walk the royal road.
Homilies 12.16Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Christians are merchants carrying the cargo of good works; without the skill of steering, years of virtue can be lost in one shipwreck of sin.
Homilies 12.17Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Steering by heaven: keep the eyes on God, the sun of righteousness and the commandments, and the Spirit will bring you to the harbor of God's will.
Homilies 13.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Like the Ethiopian eunuch, the hearer should be baptized without delay; the devil's trick is to say “today for me, tomorrow for God,” but the Christian life, though demanding, is easier than the toils of sin.
Commentary on Galatians 5:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law of God and the law of sin contend within a person; walking by the Spirit means obeying God's law, which conscience approves, and fleeing the flesh's suggestions.
Commentary on Philippians 3:13–14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul forgets what is behind and presses toward the heavenly prize; the 'perfect' are those who keep advancing, crediting their progress to God.
Letter 118.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the objection that he does not practice what he urges, holds up Jacob's ladder as a picture of rising and falling, and closes by commending Vera's example.
Letter 121.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that denying oneself means leaving one's former sinful self behind daily, not only in martyrdom, and being crucified with Christ.
Theological Oration 1 (Or. 27), Against the Eunomians 8Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · In a mock dialogue Gregory shows that there are many ways to God, so it is folly to reduce the Christian life to argument alone.
On the Beatitudes 1247Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The righteousness desired is God the Word himself; whoever tastes him is filled and yet always hungry, like Paul, and virtue makes the soul ever greater. Homily 5 opens with Jacob’s ladder as an image of the Beatitudes leading up to God.
Liber Orsiesii 34Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · As soldiers of Christ and sons of light, the monks must keep free of worldly affairs and walk in the light.
Catechetical Oration 40Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Baptism without a changed life is only water: the baptized must show the character of God who begot them, restoring what they have taken, since the goods and punishments to come, the unquenchable fire and undying worm, are beyond description.
On the Life of Moses 299Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Gregory accepts his friend’s request for an account of the perfect life and argues that virtue, like every good, has no limit except its opposite.
On the Life of Moses 301Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Since the divine Good is unlimited, participation in it can never come to rest, so human perfection lies in always growing in the good; Scripture offers examples, as Isaiah points to Abraham and Sarah.
On the Life of Moses 401Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · As a falling body accelerates, so the soul freed from earthly ties rises ever higher toward the good; Moses, after every ascent of his life, still longs to see God as he is, because the lover of beauty is always drawn from what he sees to what lies beyond.
On the Life of Moses 405Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The “place beside God” points to the infinite; standing on the rock means that firmness in the good is itself the means of ascent, as one cannot climb on sliding sand.
On the Life of Moses 425Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Returning to the prologue’s thesis that perfection is unending progress, Gregory recapitulates Moses’ whole life as a continual ascent, from his birth and education to the giving of the law and the zeal of Phinehas.
On the Life of Moses 427Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Moses ends his life on the mountain as “the servant of the Lord,” a living death that leaves no grave; Gregory sets out the whole journey as a programme for the reader, whose end is to become God’s servant.
On the Life of Moses 429Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Gregory concludes, addressing Caesarius: Moses, God’s servant and friend, is the pattern of perfection, and true perfection is to avoid vice not from fear of punishment nor to do good for reward, but to fear only the loss of God’s friendship.
On Jacob and the Happy Life 1.3Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · David's longing for the water of Bethlehem, which he poured out to the Lord, shows that desire precedes reason but reason can master it.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.2Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The honourable and the useful are one; perfect duty seeks the good of others, and the just never increase their own advantage at another’s loss.
Letter 32.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus addresses Licentius in prose and in elegiac verse, urging him to leave Rome and worldly ambition, take Christ's yoke, and follow Augustine and his kinsman Alypius.
Letter 127.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes Christians who love the world from those who despise it, citing the parable of the houses built on rock and on sand.
Letter 157.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ told the rich young man that keeping the commandments leads to life and that selling everything is the counsel of perfection, so the rich who keep the commandments can be saved.
On Order 2.25Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine sets out the moral rule of life for young students of wisdom: abstinence from pleasures and ambition, moderation in anger and punishment, the golden rule, friendship, and the worship of God in faith, hope, and love.
Homilies on Matthew 16.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The adversary is taken to be an earthly opponent and the threat of court and prison a deterrent from present things; virtue becomes light when done for Christ, who fights with us, as with the three youths in the furnace.
Homilies on Matthew 55.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Taking up the cross means being ready daily for a shameful death, and following Christ means suffering for his sake with every virtue; Christ demands this not from harshness but from love, as a father does not spare his son and a general does not keep his soldiers idle.
Homilies on Matthew 56.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Moses and Elijah also show Christ’s lordship over the dead and the living, speak of his passion as glory, and model the boldness, poverty and self-sacrifice the apostles must surpass; Peter, still afraid of the passion, wishes to stay on the safe mountain.
On Fleeing the World 17Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · To flee the world is to abstain from sin and imitate God; we must flee lust, avarice, and faithlessness.
On Fleeing the World 25Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · Flee the empty world: pass by like David and Moses, loosing earthly bonds, turning from evil to seek heavenly peace.
On Elijah and Fasting 79Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Christians, enrolled for Christ's contest, must train like athletes in sobriety and chastity, watched by angels, to win the crown.
Hexameron (Exameron) 3.52Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The ripening grape warns us not to meet death with unripe works; the church's virtues are like clusters on the vine.
Hexameron (Exameron) 3.71Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Like the evergreen palm, the Christian should keep the greenness of innocence and flourish in the church.
Hexameron (Exameron) 4.31Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The moon's waning teaches the instability of earthly things; the fool, not the wise man, changes like the moon, and creation waits on our conversion.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.50Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Knowing oneself as God's image means guarding thoughts, eyes, and speech, using one's powers to save others, and seeking repentance when wounded.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 1.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine applies the six days to the spiritual growth of each believer, from the light of faith to the ordering of the soul under reason, after which comes the rest God gives.
On True Religion 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine traces the ages of the ‘old man’ from infancy to old age and the seven spiritual ages of the ‘new man’ reborn inwardly, ending in eternal rest.
Homily 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 4:10–15 Gregory reads the bridegroom's praises of the bride's breasts, garments, lips, locked garden, sealed fountain, and spices as stages of the soul's ascent, ending with the bride as a well of living water, that is, a soul made like the divine fountain.
Sermon 30.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every honest person feels the war of flesh and spirit; Augustine wants not merely to resist but to be wholly healed, flesh included, since one Creator made both, and the conflict is the penalty of the soul’s desertion of God.
Sermon 45.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only the fear of God perfects sanctification: fear of men may restrain the body from adultery, but the fear of God cleanses the heart, and a clean heart keeps the body clean.
Sermon 64.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The serpent’s shrewdness is to be imitated in shedding its old skin through a narrow hole, as we put off the old man, and in guarding its head, as we guard Christ, our life.
Sermon 104.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martha and Mary figure two lives, the present laborious one and the future restful one, both innocent; hearers who leave their cares to listen to Christ’s word are already like Mary.
Sermon 128.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Life is a wrestling between flesh and spirit; the right order is the soul subject to God and the flesh to the soul; Paul tells us not to “fulfill” the desires of the flesh, a phrase Augustine undertakes to explain.
Sermon 128.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “So that you do not do what you will” means that the saints, who want no evil desire at all, cannot yet be rid of such desires; full victory comes only in the resurrection.
Sermon 142.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter became perfect only after the ascension; we follow Christ by imitating his meekness through the Gospel in which he is with us, and all, Augustine included, must confess imperfection and grow in love.
Sermon 151.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The righteous man’s life is still a war, as Rom 7 shows, and its triumph will come with the resurrection; meanwhile Gal 5 tells the baptized not to “fulfil” the desires of the flesh but to follow the Spirit.
Sermon 163.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As a converted pagan site has its idols destroyed and other parts put to better use, so the works of the flesh must be destroyed in us; the temple, dedicated in Christ's resurrection, is being built throughout the whole earth.
Sermon 169.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul, conformed to Christ's death by baptism, confessed that he was not yet perfect: the one thing he lacked was to dwell in the Lord's house and contemplate his delight.
Sermon 169.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul calls himself and others “perfect” as travelers, not as possessors; Christians must always press on, never stopping, turning back, or straying, for a lame man on the way is better than a runner off it.
Sermon 170.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul calls himself both imperfect and perfect because human perfection is to know one is not perfect; reading Scripture should show us our guilt and turn our desire toward the future righteousness.
Sermon 216.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who renounce the world will see God; they must put off the old man and offer their members to God as weapons of righteousness.
Sermon 223.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized, once darkness, are now light and day; they must cling to the good among the faithful and not imitate bad Christians.
Sermon 228.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · During Easter week the newly baptized watch the older faithful; Augustine warns that bad examples among the baptized will be answerable for those they lead astray.
Sermon 231.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everyone wants happiness, but seeking it in gold, honor, or any earthly thing is “loving vanity and seeking a lie.”
Sermon 255.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martha’s life of necessity stretches us apart, Mary’s one thing stretches us out toward God; in the end that one thing, God himself, will be all things to us, and the ungodly will not see his glory.
Against Jovinianus 1.37Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers Paul's sayings on the flesh and the spirit (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians) and applies them to the superiority of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.38Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues with texts from Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the Pastoral Letters urging a life of the spirit and of continence.
Against Jovinianus 2.6Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the argument from the uses of animals: many creatures serve medicine or the needs of laborers, but the Christian seeking perfection may abstain from meat and wine.
On Christian Doctrine 2.7Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Augustine sets out seven steps toward wisdom: fear, piety, knowledge (the study of Scripture), fortitude, counsel, purity of heart, and wisdom.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine interprets Leah as the laborious active life and Rachel as the contemplation of truth, explaining why Jacob had to take Leah first and serve seven more years for Rachel.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine teaches that understanding must follow faith and righteous living, as Rachel was married after Leah, and that in this life contemplation always coexists with labour.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that the active life bears more spiritual children through simple preaching of Christ crucified, while contemplation, like barren Rachel, must use bodily images, as Rachel used her maidservant Bilhah.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · God sanctified only the day of his rest, not any day of work, which suggests that rest counts for more than work, as with Mary and Martha.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · How the Word sees cannot be explained; understanding follows a way of life, and only those who live according to the spirit and grow in holy desire can approach the vision.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Like a patient with healing eyes dazzled by the light, the soul glimpses the Word and falls back; it must accept the stinging salve of righteous living, or, loving darkness, be cast into outer darkness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In this life we strive with others and within ourselves, flesh against spirit; following Christ in hope leads to the perfect peace of immortality.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Sin must not be allowed to reign in our members, though desire remains; we cannot yet fulfill “You shall not covet,” but we can refuse to follow our desires.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 63.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God is sought both in order to be found and, once found, because he is immeasurable; so the seeking never ends in this life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 108.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "Sanctify them in the truth" asks for growth in holiness by grace; the truth is Christ himself, of whom the old sanctifications were shadows.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Our righteousness has begun by faith and confession and will be perfected only at the end; we conquer the devil not by ourselves but with God, as Job did where Adam failed.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Christian life is holy longing, by which God enlarges the soul to receive what is promised, as Paul stretched toward the prize; we must empty ourselves of evil to be filled with God.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Christ, who is love, is the 'end' of all things in the sense of perfection, not consumption; money, health, honour, and praise are to be passed by on the way to cleaving to God.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.70Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Baptism removes the guilt of concupiscence, not concupiscence itself, which remains for the baptized to fight; the question whether anyone lives without sin is left for the next book.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Believers are children of God in part and children of the world in part, so both statements of 1 John hold: the one born of God does not sin, and whoever claims to have no sin deceives himself.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · God's praise of Job as blameless and righteous does not mean he was sinless; it could be said also of the man of Romans 7, who still needs deliverance by grace.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.20Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Zechariah and Elizabeth were blameless in the law as Paul had been, yet Paul counted that righteousness loss and confessed that even as an apostle he was not yet perfect but still pressing on.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.22Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The command “Be perfect” shows that sinlessness is possible, not that anyone achieves it; Scripture calls people perfect in some respect or for their great progress, not as wholly sinless.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.24Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Paul's “I have finished the course” was spoken in hope before his martyrdom; his thorn in the flesh, left to keep him humble, shows that even he was not free from all sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.25Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were corrected by God for sin; only Christ was scourged without sin; and even Augustine's upright opponents do not claim to be sinless.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.57Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Only Christ was without sin; believers must swerve neither to the right, by claiming sinlessness, nor to the left, by careless sinning, like the Israelites of twenty years who entered the promised land.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.23Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Sinlessness is to be desired, sought, and prayed for, but no one should believe it achieved; all need the Lord's Prayer, and God leaves death and some weakness to keep the righteous humble.
On the Christian Life 1Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · "Christ" means "anointed"; all the baptized share his anointing, and only those who imitate Christ truly bear the name Christian.
On the Christian Life 6Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · As every name comes from a deed, only one who imitates Christ in holiness, kindness and love of enemies is truly a Christian.
On the Christian Life 9Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · To love God is to keep his commands and live so holily that his name is glorified, not blasphemed, among the gentiles.
On the Spirit and the Letter 64Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The command to love God with all one's heart will be fulfilled only in the vision of God; in this life, the one who progresses most is the one who knows how far he is from perfection.
City of God 21.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The trials of this life teach that all the grace of the New Testament looks to the world to come; the present war of spirit against flesh is better than surrender to vice.
City of God 22.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Besides the common evils, the righteous must fight constantly against their own vices by God's grace, and still pray for forgiveness, until in the kingdom there will be neither battles nor debts.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Israel's journey through the wilderness figures the Christian's ascent through this life; perfection belongs to the end of the way, not to this life, against the “new heresy”.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.48Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The prophet's trembling before God shows that no one has perfect righteousness, against those who teach it; the land's barrenness from adultery and perjury figures the church's barrenness; polluted prophets and priests walk a slippery path in darkness (Jer 23:9–12).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.29Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome rejects the millenarian reading of the rebuilt city's boundaries as a future earthly Jerusalem and expounds the place names as stages of the church's pilgrimage, whose corners, ruins, and region of death show that no one is sinless in this life (Jer 31:38–40).
On Nature and Grace 72Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers the passages of Hilary cited by Pelagius, distinguishing the struggle against concupiscence, which is doing righteousness, from its perfection, which is having no adversary at all.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous run perfectly but are not yet perfect; the command to love God wholly shows the goal, reached only when desire is gone in the life to come.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius's texts commanding perfection either urge us to run well or name the goal; one walks “without spot” who runs blamelessly, cleansing daily sins by almsgiving and prayer.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 55Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The boast about “ease” contradicts Pelagius's own talk of labor and omits grace; the synod left open whether sinlessness is attainable in this life or only in the resurrection.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Concupiscence stirs evil desires even without consent; we must not obey them and should wish them gone, as Paul shows in Romans 7.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the saints, though righteous by faith, confessed that they were not yet perfect, and that their one hope was Christ the advocate.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that present righteousness is 'perfect' only in knowing and confessing its imperfection, as Paul does in Philippians 3.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine reads Philippians 3 as directed against those who trust in the righteousness of the law, and shows that Paul, still on the way, pressed on toward a perfection he had not yet reached.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Ambrose to show that no one is perfectly sinless in this life and that full purity and the vision of God belong to the life to come.
Retractations 1.18Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Augustine qualifies statements on perfection in this life, the law, anger, hating relatives, the Lordly man, and daily food, and leaves open what kind of fornication permits putting away a wife.
The Conferences 1.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moses teaches that the end of the monk's life is the kingdom of God, but its immediate goal, by which every effort is measured, is purity of heart.
The Conferences 1.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Like archers who need a visible target, monks need purity of heart always before their eyes as the goal by which everything is judged, with eternal life as the end.
The Conferences 1.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Martha and Mary show that the highest good is contemplation of God, to which all other virtues, however good, are secondary, and which alone will never be taken away.
The Conferences 2.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · At a night-long gathering of elders, Antony concludes that discernment, the eye of the soul that keeps the royal road between extremes, is the virtue that most surely leads to God.
The Conferences 2.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Scripture calls discernment the sun, governance, and counsel, and the conference of Antony concluded that it is the mother, guardian, and governor of all the virtues.
The Conferences 4.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Our lukewarm will wants virtue without pain; the opposing pulls of flesh and spirit check each other, forcing us into the laborious middle way of real virtue, as the confusion of tongues at Babel checked a harmful unity.
The Conferences 4.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Daniel describes three states, fleshly, soulish, and spiritual; the lukewarm monk who has left open sins but not his other passions is worse than a worldly person or pagan, and is rarely converted.
The Conferences 5.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each monk should find his dominant vice and fight it first with fasting, prayer, and tears, relying on God, then move to the next, like a beast-fighter who kills the strongest first.
The Conferences 6.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The outcome does not excuse the intent, as with Judas; for those who love God all things, prosperity and adversity alike, become weapons of righteousness, and prosperity is the more dangerous.
The Conferences 6.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The perfect are “ambidextrous” like Ehud, using both prosperity and adversity as a right hand, as Job, Joseph, and Paul did; the bride of the Song holds the left hand beneath her head and longs for the embrace of the right.
The Conferences 6.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The mind cannot stand still: like a boat rowing upstream, it either progresses or is carried back, for only God is unchangeable.
The Conferences 6.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · No one falls suddenly; like a house ruined by neglected leaks, the soul collapses through small neglected faults. The visitors leave consoled and instructed.
The Conferences 7.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian and Germanus complain that years in the desert have taught them only what they cannot be: their minds slip away from contemplation like eels, and they begin to think the fault lies in human nature.
The Conferences 7.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Serenus answers that the mind is naturally always moving, but by long practice it can be trained to dwell on spiritual things; wandering thoughts are our fault, not nature's, for we will be judged for them.
The Conferences 7.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The perfect mind is like the centurion who commands soldiers to come and go; armed with faith, love, hope, and the word of God, and strong in weakness and patience, the monk can rule his thoughts.
The Conferences 7.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Clinging to God is possible for those who die to worldly desires; the labor must not be abandoned, for the kingdom suffers violence, and only those who taste God's being all in all now will possess it fully hereafter.
The Conferences 9.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each of the four kinds can produce fervent prayer and suits a different stage of progress, but a purified mind may combine them all in one flaming, wordless prayer, and even a beginner’s compunction can be as fervent as a saint’s joy.
The Conferences 14.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Practical knowledge means first understanding and curing the vices, then being formed by the virtues; uprooting vices takes twice the labor of planting virtues, as Jeremiah’s commission shows.
The Conferences 21.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Christians are called beyond tithes to the Gospel’s counsel of perfection, which Christ offers to free will rather than imposing as a law with curses, so that the great may be crowned and the lesser still spared.
The Conferences 23.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · To understand Paul one must share his disposition; though he had every virtue, these are like gems compared with the one pearl he still lacked.
The Conferences 24.24John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The yoke seems heavy only because monks keep wealth and self-will, by which the devil torments them; those who leave the royal road for crooked paths are torn by thorns, while the humble who bear Christ’s yoke stand firm.
The Conferences 24.25John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Temptation brings greater reward, and the Lord’s road, though it seems hard, gives rest to those who take his yoke humbly; it is our own worldly ways that make it heavy, as a comparison of monastic peace with worldly cares shows.
Letter to Valerian, paragraph 1Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 432 · Eucherius writes to his kinsman Valerian, bound to him by blood and love, to call him from worldly honours to the heavenly wisdom and eternal blessedness of the Christian life.
Letter to Valerian, paragraph 12Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 432 · The number of careless people is no excuse, since each is judged by his own deeds; the reader should follow the fewer but abundant examples of the noble and learned who have taken up Christ's yoke.