Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The dignity of the Gnostic is heightened and increased still further in the one who takes up the charge of teaching others, who assumes in word and deed the stewardship of the greatest good on earth, through which he mediates conjunction and communion with the divine. Just as those who worship earthly things pray to their statues as though they could hear, placing firm confidence in them, so too in the case of living statues — that is, human beings — the true magnificence of the Word is received from the trustworthy teacher, and the benefit done to these is referred back to the Lord himself, in whose image the man who is truly a man, by instructing, forms and reshapes, renewing unto salvation the man who is being catechized. For just as the Greeks call iron "Ares" and wine "Dionysus" by a certain figure of reference, so too the Gnostic, reckoning the benefit of his neighbors to be his own salvation, might fittingly be called a living statue of the Lord — not with respect to the peculiarity of outward form, but with respect to the symbol of his power and the likeness of his proclamation.
Whatever, then, he has in mind, this he also carries on his tongue to those worthy to hear it, speaking from assent, out of conviction, both speaking and living at once. For he thinks what is true and speaks truly at the same time, except perhaps when, as part of a course of treatment — as a physician does toward the sick, for the safety of those who suffer — he will tell a falsehood or utter an untruth, in the manner the sophists mean it. So, for instance, the noble apostle circumcised Timothy, even while crying out and writing that circumcision made by hand profits nothing; but in order that he might not, by abruptly tearing them away from the law toward the circumcision that comes from faith of the heart, force those Hebrew hearers who were still restive to break away from the synagogue, accommodating himself to the Jews he "became as a Jew, that he might gain all." The one, then, who condescends this far in accommodation — for the sake of the salvation of his neighbors — merely for the sake of the salvation of those for whom he accommodates himself, sharing in no hypocrisy on account of the danger hanging over the righteous from the zealous, this man is in no way compelled to it; rather, for the benefit of those near him alone he will do certain things which would not, in the first instance, have been done by him, were it not for their sake that he does them. This man gives himself up on behalf of the church, on behalf of those acquaintances whom he himself "begot" in faith, as a pattern for those capable of inheriting to the fullest degree the stewardship of a teacher who loves humanity and loves God — so as to display how genuine his words are, and to show love toward the Lord in action. This man is unenslaved in fear, truthful in speech, steadfast in toil, never willing even in spoken word to lie, and in this too always achieving sinlessness. For a lie, being uttered along with some measure of trickery, counts as no mere careless remark, but tends toward wrongdoing.
From every side, then, the Gnostic alone bears witness to the truth, both in deed and in word; for he always acts rightly in all things without exception, both in word and in deed and in thought itself.
This, then, to put it briefly, is the piety of the Christian. If he indeed acts fittingly and in accordance with sound reasoning, he acts with reverence and with justice. And granted this, the Gnostic alone would in truth be reverent, just, and God-fearing. The Christian, then, holds no atheism (for this was precisely the matter we set out to prove against the philosophers), such that never, under any circumstance, will he commit anything wicked or disgraceful — that is, anything unjust. It follows, therefore, that he is not impious either, but he alone genuinely worships God in holiness and in a fitting manner, bowing in devout reverence, according to true piety, before the God who truly exists, ruler over all, king over all, and almighty.
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