Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Here I find "the perfect" understood in many ways, according to a person achieving right conduct in each particular virtue. Thus one is perfected as reverent, another as steadfast, another as self-controlled, another as a worker, another as a martyr, another as a knower (gnostic); but perfect in all things together — I do not know if any human being, still being human, has been, except only him who for our sake put on humanity. And yet even according to the bare law someone might be perfect, one who professes abstinence from evils; and this is a road leading both to the gospel and to good works. But the perfecting of the man under the law is the knowing reception of the gospel, so that he who is perfect according to the law may come to be; for so Moses, who spoke according to the law, prophesied beforehand that we must hear, so that, in the apostle's own phrase, we could welcome Christ as the law's fulfillment. But in the gospel the knower already makes progress, not using the law merely as a stepping-stone, but grasping and understanding it just as the Lord, giver of the covenants, passed it down to the apostles. And if he should also conduct his life rightly — since it is impossible for knowledge to be followed by base conduct — and should become a martyr among these things, having most rightly confessed out of love, thereby receiving a greater worth as reckoned among men, not even so will he attain to being called perfect while still in the flesh, since this title has already been claimed by the completion of one's life, once the knowing martyr has already succeeded in demonstrating and properly presenting the perfect work through knowing love, his blood having been offered in thanksgiving and his spirit sent forth.
And blessed would he be from this point on, and rightly proclaimed perfect, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be God's and not from us, as the apostle says: let us only preserve our free choice and our love, being afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. For it is necessary, according to the same apostle, that those hastening toward completion give no occasion for stumbling in anything, but commend themselves in everything, not to men, but to God. And let obedience to men also follow as a consequence, for this too is reasonable on account of the slanders that assail us. And this commendation consists in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in disorders, in labors, in sleepless nights, in fastings, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power that belongs to God, so that we may be temples of God, cleansed from every defilement of flesh and spirit. And, as he puts it, I shall welcome you and become a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, declares the Lord Almighty. Let us therefore, he says, perfect holiness in the fear of God. For even if fear produces grief, I rejoice, he says, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved unto repentance; for you were grieved according to God, so that you might suffer loss in nothing on our account. For grief according to God produces repentance leading to salvation without regret, but the grief of the world produces death. For behold, this very thing, that you were grieved according to God, what earnestness it produced in you — nay, what defense, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In everything you have shown yourselves to be pure in the matter.
These are the preliminary exercises of the knowing discipline. But since the Almighty God himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until, together, we arrive at oneness of faith and at full knowledge of God's Son — at mature manhood, at a measure matching the fullness and stature of Christ — one must hasten to become fully mature and to be perfected in a knowing way, especially while still remaining in the flesh, having from that point trained oneself, out of perfect like-mindedness, to run together with the will of God toward the restoration of a truly perfect nobility and kinship, unto the fullness of Christ that is completely fitted together from this process of equipping. We can already see clearly in what respect and how and when the divine apostle speaks of the perfect man, and how he indicates distinctions among the perfect. Again, in turn, to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable. For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another workings of powers, to another the prophetic gift, to another the power of discerning spirits, to another kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues; yet one identical Spirit produces all of these, apportioning to each person individually according to its choosing.
This being so, the prophets are perfect in prophecy, the righteous in righteousness, and the martyrs in confession, and others in preaching — not without a share in the virtues held in common, but achieving right conduct in that to which they were assigned. For who in his right mind would say that the prophet is not righteous? What then? Did not the righteous, like Abraham, also prophesy? For to one man God gave deeds of war, to another dance, to another the lyre and song — as Homer says. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that; while the apostles were filled in all things.
You will find, then, if you wish, from their deeds and their writings, their knowledge, their manner of life, their preaching, their righteousness, their purity, their prophecy. One must know, however, that even though Paul is young in point of time, having come to his prime immediately after the Lord's ascension, nevertheless his scripture is derived from the old covenant, breathing and speaking from that source; since trust in Christ, joined to grasping the gospel, constitutes the law's own interpretation and completion. And for this reason it was said to the Hebrews: unless you trust, you will lack understanding — meaning that unless you trust what the law foretold and decreed, the old covenant will stay closed to your understanding, that covenant which he himself unlocked through his own coming.
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