2 Cor. vi. 4, 10, 11.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE MISCELLANIES. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER I. PREFACE—THE AUTHOR’S OBJECT—THE UTILITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS. · Original source
Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
2 Corinthians 6
1Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain.
2For he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you. In a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
3We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed,
4but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God: in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
5in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings,
6in pureness, in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love,
7in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true,
9as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold—we live, as punished and not killed,
10as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
11Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged.
12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
13Now in return—I speak as to my children—you also open your hearts.
14Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
15What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever?
16What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
18I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Early Christian texts and source notes
2 Cor. vi. 3–7.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK IV. / CHAPTER XXI. DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER IX. REASONS FOR VEILING THE TRUTH IN SYMBOLS. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER IX. REASONS FOR VEILING THE TRUTH IN SYMBOLS. · Original source
Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 9.
Editorial footnote · Epistle to Diognetus, The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers / THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. / THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. / Chap. v.—The manners of the Christians. · Original source
Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 10.
Editorial footnote · Epistle to Diognetus, The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers / THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. / THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. / Chap. v.—The manners of the Christians. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 7-10.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, / BOOK ELEVENTH. / ARGUMENT. / 18. Of the beauty of the universe, which becomes, by God's ordinance, more brilliant by the opposition of contraries. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 10.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTIETH. / ARGUMENT. / 7. What is written in the Revelation of John regarding the two resurrections, and the thousand years, and what may reasonably be held on these points. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 14.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTIETH. / ARGUMENT. / 9. What the reign of the saints with Christ for a thousand years is, and how it differs from the eternal kingdom. · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 7, 8.
Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK THIRD. / Chapter xii · Original source
Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Cor. vi. 14.
Editorial footnote · On Baptism, Against the Donatists, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK FOURTH. / Chapter xiii · Original source
2 Cor. vi. 16.
Editorial footnote · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK VIII. / Chapter XVIII. · Original source
For God would never have created any, I do not say angel, but even man, whose future wickedness He foreknew, unless He had equally known to what uses in behalf of the good He could turn him, thus embellishing the course of the ages, as it were an exquisite poem set off with antitheses. For what are called antitheses are among the most elegant of the ornaments of speech. They might be called in Latin "oppositions," or, to speak more accurately, "contrapositions;" but this word is not in common use among us, though the Latin, and indeed the languages of all nations, avail themselves of the same ornaments of style. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul also makes a graceful use of antithesis, in that place where he says, "By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." As, then, these oppositions of contraries lend beauty to the language, so the beauty of the course of this world is achieved by the opposition of contraries, arranged, as it were, by an eloquence not of words, but of things. This is quite plainly stated in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, in this way: "Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is the sinner against the godly. So look upon all the works of the Most High, and these are two and two, one against another."
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, / BOOK ELEVENTH. / ARGUMENT. / 18. Of the beauty of the universe, which becomes, by God's ordinance, more brilliant by the opposition of contraries. · Original source
As to the words following, "And if any have not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his inscription on their forehead, or on their hand," we must take them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the ungodly city itself, and the community of unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of God. "His image" seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from a true likeness, but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, "Be not yoked with unbelievers?" For such do not worship, i.e. do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice. They, then, who are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ even now, through this whole interval which is indicated by the thousand years, in a fashion suited to this time.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTIETH. / ARGUMENT. / 9. What the reign of the saints with Christ for a thousand years is, and how it differs from the eternal kingdom. · Original source
Chap. xiii.—19. There is therefore "no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness," not only without, but also within the Church; for "the Lord knoweth them that are His," and "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." There is also "no communion between light and darkness," not only without, but also within the Church; for "he that hateth his brother is still in darkness." And they at any rate hated Paul, who, preaching Christ of envy and malicious strife, supposed that they added affliction to his bonds; and yet the same Cyprian understands these still to have been within the Church. Since, therefore, "neither darkness can enlighten, nor unrighteousness justify," as Cyprian again says, I ask, how could those men baptize within the very Church herself? I ask, how could those vessels which the large house contains not to honour, but to dishonour, administer what is holy for the sanctifying of men within the great house itself, unless because that holiness of the sacrament cannot be polluted even by the unclean, either when it is given at their hands, or when it is received by those who in heart and life are not changed for the better? of whom, as situated within the Church, Cyprian himself says, "Renouncing the world in word only, and not in deed."
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On Baptism, Against the Donatists, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK FOURTH. / Chapter xiii · Original source
21. To him we answer: What, is God among the covetous? And yet baptism exists among them; and so also it exists among heretics. For they among whom God is, are the temple of God. "But what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" Further, Paul considers, and Cyprian agrees with him, that covetousness is idolatry; and Cyprian himself again associates with his colleagues, who were robbers, but yet baptized, with great reward of toleration.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On Baptism, Against the Donatists, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SEVENTH. / Chapter xi · Original source
Chap. xl.—95. Petilianus said: "Paul the apostle also bids us, 'Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND. / Chapter xl · Original source
They say, then, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, being guilty of writing the tenets of Pythagoras in plain language, was expelled from the school, and a pillar raised for him as if he had been dead. Wherefore also in the Barbarian philosophy they call those dead who have fallen away from the dogmas, and have placed the mind in subjection to carnal passions. “For what fellowship hath righteousness and iniquity?” according to the divine apostle. “Or what communion hath light with darkness? or what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath the believer with the unbeliever?” For the honours of the Olympians and of mortals lie apart. “Wherefore also go forth from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.”
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER IX. REASONS FOR VEILING THE TRUTH IN SYMBOLS. · Original source
And every one who imitates Him according to his ability, does by this very endeavour raise a statue according to the image of the Creator, for in the contemplation of God with a pure heart they become imitators of Him. And, in general, we see that all Christians strive to raise altars and statues as we have described them, and these not of a lifeless and senseless kind, and not to receive greedy spirits intent upon lifeless things, but to be filled with the Spirit of God who dwells in the images of virtue of which we have spoken, and takes His abode in the soul which is conformed to the image of the Creator. Thus the Spirit of Christ dwells in those who bear, so to say, a resemblance in form and feature to Himself. And the Word of God, wishing to set this clearly before us, represents God as promising to the righteous, “I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And the Saviour says, “If any man hear my words, and do them, I and my Father will come to him, and make our abode with him.” Let any one, therefore, who chooses compare the altars which I have described with those spoken of by Celsus, and the images in the souls of those who worship the Most High God with the statues of Pheidias, Polycleitus, and such like, and he will clearly perceive, that while the latter are lifeless things, and subject to the ravages of time, the former abide in the immortal spirit as long as the reasonable soul wishes to preserve them.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK VIII. / Chapter XVIII. · Original source