Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
He holds no memory at all of anyone who has wronged him, but forgives instead. So he is right, too, when he prays, "Forgive us," since "we forgive as well"; this too belongs among the things God intends: craving nothing, holding hatred toward no single soul, since every human being is the product of one same will. Is it not so that our Savior, in willing his gnostic to be "perfect, even as the heavenly Father is," meaning as he himself is -- he who says, "Come, little ones, hear me, the fear of the Lord" -- wants such a person to stand in need no longer of aid mediated through angels, but instead to draw it from the Savior directly, once he has grown worthy, and to keep watch over himself by his own obedience? Such a man seeks this from the Lord, yet never merely begs for it. And in the case of brothers in poverty, the gnostic himself will not ask for an abundance of money to distribute, but will pray that a supply of what they need come to be for them. For thus the gnostic also gives prayer to those in need, and provides what comes through prayer both unknowingly and without vanity. Now poverty and disease and such trials are often brought for admonition, and for the correction of things past and for the conversion of things to come. Such a man, in asking relief from these for others, since he possesses the special excellence of knowledge, works the good deed himself, not for vainglory but simply because he is a gnostic, becoming an instrument of God's goodness.
They say in the traditions that the apostle Matthias used constantly to say that "if a neighbor of one of the elect sins, the elect one has sinned; for if he had conducted himself as the word prescribes, his neighbor too would have been so moved with reverence for his life as not to sin." What then should we say concerning the gnostic himself? "Do you not realize," the apostle asks, "that you yourselves are God's sanctuary?" The gnostic, then, is a divine being, holy already, carrying God within and carried by God in turn. And indeed, to show that sinning is a foreign matter, Scripture hands over to slavery among strangers those who have lapsed; and where it says, "do not covet your neighbor's wife," it is plainly naming sin as foreign and unnatural to God's sanctuary. This sanctuary is, in one sense, vast -- namely the church -- and in another sense small, namely each single person who keeps alive the seed of Abraham. So whoever houses God within will crave nothing further. Straightaway, casting off every hindrance and scorning all the matter that would drag him down, he pierces through heaven by way of knowledge, and moving past the spiritual powers and every principality and dominion, he seizes hold of the highest thrones, hastening toward that single thing which he alone has come to know. Blending together, in this way, the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of the dove, he lives a life at once complete and clean of conscience, joining hope to faith as he awaits what is coming. For he perceives the gift he has received, having become worthy to obtain it, and having been transferred from slavery into adoption as a son; and, acting in accordance with knowledge, he performs the deeds that follow from "having known God, or rather, having been known by him," displaying works worthy of the grace received. For works follow knowledge as the shadow follows the body.
He is therefore reasonably disturbed by none of the things that happen, nor does he suspect anything among the events of providence that occur for his benefit, nor is he ashamed to die, being of good conscience to be seen by the powers, having cleansed himself, one might say, of every stain of the soul, since he knows well that it will go better for him after his departure. Hence he never prefers the pleasant and the expedient to what providence appoints, training himself through the commandments, so that he may become well-pleasing to the Lord in all things and praised by the world. Since all things stand upon the one almighty God: "He came to his own," it says, "and his own did not receive him, the Son of God." Therefore, in his use of worldly things, he not only gives thanks and marvels at creation, but is also praised for using it as is fitting, since his end is brought, through gnostic activity carried out according to the commandments, to completion in contemplation. Even now, reaping through knowledge the provisions for contemplation, and greatly embracing the magnitude of knowledge, he advances toward the holy reward of his transformation. For he has heard the psalm saying, "Go about Zion, and encompass her, tell it out in her towers"; for it hints, I think, that those who have received the word in a lofty manner will themselves be lofty like towers, and will stand firm both in faith and in knowledge.
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