Wherefore I exhort all of you that ye obey the word of righteousness,
and exercise all patience; which ye have seen set forth before our eyes,
not only in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus, but in others
among ourselves; and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles.
Being confident of this, that all these have not run in vain, but in
faith and righteousness, and are gone to the place that was due to them
from the Lord, with whom they also suffered; for they loved not this
present world, but him who died, and was raised again by God for us.
Stand, therefore, in these things and follow the example of the Lord;
being firm and immutable in the faith, lovers of the brotherhood, lovers
of one another, companions together in the truth, being kind and gentle
toward each other, despising none. When it is in your power to do good,
defer it not, for charity delivered from death. Be all of you subject
one to another, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that
by your good works both ye yourselves may receive praise and the Lord
may not be blasphemed through you. But woe be to him by whom the name of
the Lord is blasphemed. Therefore teach all men sobriety; in which do ye
also exercise yourselves.
I am greatly afflicted for Valens, who was once a presbyter among you;
that he should so little understand the place that was given to him in
the Church. Wherefore I admonish you that ye abstain from covetousness,
and that ye be chaste, and true of speech. Keep yourselves from all
evil; for he that in these things cannot govern himself, how shall he be
able to prescribe them to another? If a man does not keep himself from
covetousness he shall be polluted with idolatry and be judged as if he
were a Gentile. But who of you are ignorant of the judgment of God? Do
we not know that the saints shall judge the world, as Paul teaches? But
I have neither perceived nor heard anything of this kind in you, among
whom the blessed Paul labored, and who are named in the beginning of his
epistle. For he glories of you in all the churches who then only knew
God; for we did not then know him. Wherefore, my brethren, I am
exceedingly sorry both for him and for his wife; to whom God grant a
true repentance.
And be ye also moderate upon this occasion, and look not upon such as
enemies, but call them back as suffering and erring members, that ye may
save your whole body; for by so doing ye shall edify your own selves.
For I trust that ye are well exercised in the Holy Scriptures, and that
nothing is hid from you; but at present it is not granted unto me to
practise that which is written, Be angry and sin not; and again, Let not
the sun go down upon your wrath. Blessed be he that believeth and
remembereth these things, which also I trust you do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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