Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
"Now hear me," he said, "on the subject of faith. Every person has two angels at his side, one belonging to uprightness, the other to wrongdoing." "But sir," I said, "how am I to tell their doings apart, seeing that both dwell with me together?" "Pay attention," he said, "and you will grasp it. The guide who belongs to uprightness is delicate and modest, gentle and quiet in manner; the moment he climbs up into your heart, he begins at once to speak of righteous conduct, of purity, of reverence, of contentment, and of every noble deed and splendid virtue there is. Once such things start rising in your heart, you may be sure he has taken up residence there. Such, in short, is how this spirit operates, and on that basis put your confidence in him and in what he brings about. Turn now, though, to the doings of the other, the one who serves wrongdoing. Before anything else he is quick-tempered, sour, and thoughtless, and everything he does is corrupt and brings ruin on God's servants; so whenever he climbs into your heart, you will identify him by his conduct." "But sir," I said, "how would I ever notice him? I have no idea." "Pay attention," he said. "The instant a burst of anger or bitterness strikes you, be sure it is he inside you. Next comes a hunger for endless activity, lavish spending on food, drunkenness, riotous parties, strange dishes one has no business eating, lust for women, greed, no small measure of conceit and bragging, and everything else akin to and resembling all this. Once such urges rise in your heart, you may be certain the corrupting spirit has taken hold of you. Having identified his conduct in this manner, stay clear of him and give him no confidence whatsoever, since everything he produces is corrupt and intolerable for those who serve God. So there you have how both spirits operate: grasp the difference, place your confidence in the angel of righteousness, and steer away from the angel of wickedness, since his instruction is rotten through every deed it touches. Now even a faithful man, should this spirit's suggestion climb into his heart, is bound to slip into some wrongdoing; and conversely, should the promptings of the upright spirit climb into the heart of a thoroughly wicked man or woman, that person is bound to do some good deed. So you can see," he said, "why it is right to walk alongside uprightness and turn one's back on wrongdoing. This is what the present precept teaches concerning faith: put your confidence in what uprightness produces, and by carrying it out you will have life before God; and be convinced that wrongdoing's produce is bitter, so that by refusing to carry it out you will likewise have life before God."
"Fear," he said, "the Lord, and keep his commandments. By keeping the commandments of God you will be powerful in every undertaking, and your undertaking will be beyond compare. For by fearing the Lord you will do everything well. This is the fear that you must have, in order to be saved. But do not fear the devil, for by fearing the Lord you will master the devil, since there is no power in him. And where there is no power, there is no fear either; but where the power is glorious, there is fear in it too. For everyone who has power has fear, while whoever lacks power is despised by everyone. Fear, then, the works of the devil, because they are wicked. So by fearing the Lord you will not do them, but will hold back from them. There are, then, two kinds of fear: if you want to do what is wicked, fear the Lord, and you will not do it; but if you want, on the other hand, to do what is good, fear the Lord, and you will do it. So the fear of the Lord is strong and great and glorious. Fear, then, the Lord, and you will live for him; and as many as fear him and keep his commandments will live for God." "Why, sir," I said, "did you say concerning those who keep his commandments, 'They will live for God'?" "Because," he said, "all creation fears the Lord, but does not keep his commandments. So life with God belongs to those who fear him and keep his commandments, while for those who do not keep his commandments there is no life in him."
"I already told you," he said, "that whatever God has made comes in a pair, and self-mastery is no exception — it too comes in a pair. Over some matters a person must exercise it, and over others he must not." "Then explain to me, sir," I said, "which matters call for self-mastery and which do not." "Pay attention," he said. "Hold yourself back from what is wicked and never do it; but where something good is concerned, do not hold back — carry it out instead. Holding yourself back from doing good is itself a grave sin, whereas holding yourself back from doing wickedness is a great act of righteousness. So exercise mastery over yourself against every form of wickedness while pursuing what is good." "What kinds of wickedness, sir," I said, "call for such self-mastery?" "Pay attention," he said: "adultery and fornication, drunken lawlessness, corrupt indulgence, gluttony and extravagant riches, boasting, arrogance, and haughty pride, lying, slander, and hypocrisy, holding grudges, and blasphemy of every kind. Of all the deeds found in human life, these rank among the very worst. It is from such conduct that a servant of God must hold himself back, since whoever fails to do so has no life before God. Now hear what comes after these." "Are there still more such wicked deeds, sir?" I asked. "Plenty more," he replied, "from which God's servant must hold back: stealing, deceit, cheating, perjury, avarice, evil craving, fraud, empty pride, boasting, and whatever else falls into this same category. Doesn't all of this strike you as wicked?" "Extremely so," I said, "especially for God's servants." "So it is from every one of these that anyone who serves God must hold himself back — hold back from the whole list, so that you may have life before God and be counted among those who do so. That, then, covers what you must hold yourself back from. Now hear what you must not hold back from, but rather must actively do," he said. "Never withhold yourself from what is good — carry it out." "And regarding the good things, sir," I said, "explain their force to me, so that I might set myself to practicing and pursuing them, and by carrying them out find the way to salvation." "Pay attention," he said, "to the good deeds that call for action rather than restraint. Above everything else: faith, reverence toward the Lord, love, unity, honest speech, truthfulness, patient endurance — human life holds nothing more valuable than these. Whoever keeps them without holding back finds blessing throughout his life. Then hear what follows: caring for widows, looking after orphans and the destitute, buying back God's servants from their hardships, showing hospitality — since acts of kindness are sometimes discovered precisely through welcoming strangers — resisting no one, staying calm, ranking yourself beneath everyone else, honoring the aged, practicing justice, preserving brotherly bonds, bearing insult, staying patient, holding no grudge, cheering those who are sick at heart, never abandoning those who have stumbled away from faith but instead winning them back and lifting their spirits, correcting sinners, and never crushing debtors or the needy — along with anything else in this same vein. Does this strike you as good?" he said. "What, sir," I answered, "could possibly surpass it?" "Walk in it, then," he said, "never holding back, and you will have life before God. Keep, then, this precept: doing good without holding back brings life before God to everyone who lives this way; and likewise, refusing wickedness while holding yourself back from it brings life before God to all who keep these precepts and walk according to them."
He tells me: "Strip yourself of two-mindedness, and never hesitate at all in asking anything of God, telling yourself, 'How could I possibly ask the Lord for something and get it, given how much I have sinned against him?' Put that reasoning out of your head — instead turn to the Lord with your whole heart and make your request without hesitating, and you will discover just how deep his compassion runs: he will not desert you but will bring your soul's request to completion. God is nothing like men who nurse grudges; rather, he bears none himself and feels compassion toward what he has made. So scrub your heart clean of every vanity belonging to this present age, along with everything already mentioned to you, and make your request of the Lord — you will get everything, lacking nothing you ask for, provided you ask the Lord without hesitating. But hesitate in your heart, and you will get nothing at all of what you request. Those who hesitate toward God are exactly the two-minded, and such people never obtain a single one of their requests. Those, however, who are wholehearted in faith ask for everything trusting the Lord, and they do receive, precisely because they ask without hesitation, harboring no split mind at all. Every two-minded man, unless he changes course, will only barely reach salvation. So scrub two-mindedness out of your heart; put on faith instead, since it is powerful, and trust God to grant everything you request. And should your request from the Lord arrive somewhat late, do not turn two-minded just because your soul's plea wasn't answered right away — some trial or hidden fault of your own, unknown even to you, is surely the reason it comes more slowly. Do not, then, give up making your soul's request, and you will obtain it. But should you tire and turn two-minded partway through asking, blame yourself, never the one who grants the gift. Be wary of this two-mindedness — it is corrupt and foolish, and it tears even strong and thoroughly faithful people away from their faith by the score. This two-mindedness is nothing less than a child of the devil, and it does tremendous harm to God's servants. So hold two-mindedness in contempt and dominate it in every circumstance, putting on faith, which is strong and mighty. Faith, after all, promises everything and brings everything to completion, while two-mindedness, trusting nothing in itself, comes up empty in every task it attempts. You can see, then," he said, "that faith descends from above, from the Lord, and carries enormous power, whereas two-mindedness is an earthbound spirit from the devil, carrying no power whatsoever. So devote yourself to faith, which carries power, and keep away from two-mindedness, which carries none, and you will have life before God, along with everyone else who holds to this outlook."
"Strip away from yourself," he said, "gloom, since it is kin to two-mindedness and to a hot temper." "But sir," I said, "how is it kin to those? Hot temper strikes me as one thing, two-mindedness another, and gloom something else again." "You lack understanding," he said, "and fail to see that gloom outdoes every other spirit in wickedness, proving most dreadful of all for those who serve God — worse than any other spirit, it destroys a man, wearing down the Holy Spirit within him, and yet, on the other hand, it can also save." "Sir," I said, "I lack understanding and cannot follow these comparisons at all. How the same thing wears down and yet saves is beyond me." "Pay attention," he said: "take those who never bothered to search out the truth or inquire into divine matters, who merely believed, tangled up instead in commerce, riches, friendships with unbelievers, and the countless other concerns of this present age — everyone absorbed in such things fails to grasp the comparisons concerning the divine, since these pursuits cast a shadow over them, ruining them until they turn barren, like untended ground. Just as good vineyards, once neglected, get choked over with brambles and every sort of weed, so people who believed but then fell into these many distractions just described wander away in their thinking and grasp nothing whatsoever about righteousness; even hearing about divine matters and the truth, their attention stays fixed on their own affairs, and they take in nothing at all. But those who hold reverence for God, who search into divine matters and the truth, keeping their heart set toward the Lord, take in and grasp whatever is told them far more readily, because they carry reverence for the Lord within — for wherever the Lord makes his home, there abundant understanding follows too. Stay close, then, to the Lord, and you will grasp and take in everything."
"Listen, then," he said, "foolish man, how grief wears down the Holy Spirit, and yet again saves. Whenever the double-minded man undertakes some action and fails at it on account of his double-mindedness, this grief enters into the person and grieves the Holy Spirit and wears it down. Then again, whenever quick temper clings to a person over some matter, and he becomes quite embittered, grief again enters into the heart of the man who lost his temper, and he grieves over the deed he did and repents, because he did something wicked. This grief, then, seems to bring salvation, because having done what was wicked he repented. So both actions grieve the Spirit: double-mindedness, because it did not succeed in its undertaking, and quick temper grieves the Spirit because it did what was wicked. Both, then, are grievous to the Holy Spirit — double-mindedness and quick temper. Take away, then, grief from yourself, and do not oppress the Holy Spirit that dwells in you, lest it plead with God and depart from you. For the spirit of God that has been given into this flesh endures neither grief nor distress.
Clothe yourself, then, with cheerfulness, which always has favor with God and is acceptable to him, and delight in it. For every cheerful man does good deeds and thinks good thoughts and despises grief. But the grieving man is always acting wickedly. First, he acts wickedly because he grieves the Holy Spirit which was given to man cheerful; and second, by grieving the Holy Spirit he commits lawlessness, in that he does not plead with the Lord nor make confession to him. For the pleading of a man who is always grieving has no power to rise up to the altar of God." "Why, sir," I said, "does the pleading of one who grieves not rise up to the altar?" "Because," he said, "grief is seated in his heart. So grief, mingled with his pleading, does not allow the pleading to rise up pure to the altar. For just as vinegar and wine mixed together in the same vessel do not have the same pleasant taste, so too grief mixed with the Holy Spirit does not produce the same effective pleading. Cleanse yourself, then, from this wicked grief, and you will live for God; and all will live for God who cast grief away from themselves and clothe themselves instead with all cheerfulness."
← All of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others: The Apostolic Fathers