Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Let all the various names of crimes go their way into the particular character of their own deeds; let idolatry remain what it itself is. Sufficient to itself is a name so hostile to God, so wealthy a substance of crime, stretching out so many branches, spreading so many veins, that now that this very subject has been taken up, we must ask in how many ways the breadth of idolatry must be guarded against by us, since in manifold fashion it overturns the servants of God—not only when unrecognized, but even when deliberately disguised. Most people reckon idolatry should be understood only in these terms: if someone burns incense, or sacrifices, or makes an offering, or binds himself to certain rites or priesthoods—just as if someone supposed adultery were to be judged only in kisses and embraces and the actual union of flesh, or murder reckoned only in the shedding of blood and the taking of a life. But we are certain how much more broadly the Lord extends these matters, since he marks adultery even in desire, if a man has cast a lustful eye and stirred his soul shamelessly, and he counts as murder even a spoken curse or insult, along with any surge of rage, and any failure of affection owed a brother. So John instructs us that a man who hates his brother has committed murder. Otherwise the enemy's craft in wickedness, and God's rule expressed in the training whereby he arms us against the adversary's concealed advances, would count for little, if we were to be judged only in those offenses which even the nations have decreed punishable. How shall our righteousness abound beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, as the Lord prescribed, unless we have taken the full measure of the abundance of its adversary—that is, of unrighteousness? And if the head of unrighteousness is idolatry, then it follows that we must first fortify ourselves against the full range of idolatry, so long as we recognize it not only in its plain and open forms.
III.