You Cannot Serve God and Riches

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

SUMMARY: If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen. Do not be money-loving. If we desire to serve both God and mammon, it will be unprofitable for us. Those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches be cut down. We who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and share to every one in need. No man can serve two masters; and that is because it is necessary that he hate one of them and love the other, and honor one of them and despise the other. You cannot serve God and possessions. Mammon is a covetous man, and one who wishes to have more than he ought to have or one whose gullet is insatiable. Mammon is not simply money, but the resources arising from money bestowed on various pleasures. By mammon He meant money. Luxury and the short-lived joys of the world are ruining you, from which you will be tormented in hell for all time. We would rather despise riches than possess them. The two laws, the law of God and the law of mammon, are completely opposed to each other. Wealth must be avoided as an enemy. Luxury does not entertain the fear of God. They have shown themselves the servants of God, inasmuch as they have hated, trodden under foot, and despised money. Polycarp: “But the love of money is the root of all evils.” Knowing, therefore, that “as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out,” let us arm ourselves with the armor of righteousness and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. . . . Be far from all slandering, evil-speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altar of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.

POLYCARP: I exhort you, therefore, that you abstain from covetousness, and that you be chaste and truthful. “Abstain from every form of evil.” For if a man cannot govern himself in such matters, how shall he enjoin them on others? If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen.

THE DIDACHE: My child, do not be a liar, since a lie leads the way to theft; neither money-loving, nor vainglorious, for out of all these thefts are engendered.

SECOND CLEMENT: Now the Lord declares, “No servant can serve two masters.” If we desire, then, to serve both God and mammon, it will be unprofitable for us. “For what will it profit if a man gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” This world and the next are two enemies. The one urges to adultery and corruption, avarice and deceit; the other bids farewell to these things. We cannot, therefore, be the friends of both; and it behooves us, by renouncing the one, to make sure of the other. Let us reckon that it is better to hate the things present, since they are trifling, and transient, and corruptible; and to love those which are to come, as being good and incorruptible. For if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest; otherwise, nothing shall deliver us from eternal punishment, if we disobey His commandments. For thus also says the Scripture in Ezekiel, “If Noah, Job, and Daniel should rise up, they should not deliver their children in captivity.” Now, if men so eminently righteous are not able by their righteousness to deliver their children, how can we hope to enter into the royal residence of God unless we keep our baptism holy and undefiled? Or who shall be our advocate, unless we be found possessed of works of holiness and righteousness?

HERMAS: “But who are these, Lady, that are white and round, and yet do not fit into the building of the tower?” . . . “These are those who have faith indeed, but they have also the riches of this world. When, therefore, tribulation comes, on account of their riches and business they deny the Lord.” I answered and said to her, “When, then, will they be useful for the building, Lady?” “When the riches that now seduce them have been circumscribed, then they will be of use to God. For as a round stone cannot become square unless portions are cut off and cast away, so also those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches are cut down.”

HERMAS: Foremost of all is the evil desire after another’s wife or husband, and after extravagance, and many useless dainties and drinks, and many other foolish luxuries; for all luxury is foolish and empty in the servants of God. These, then, are the evil desires which slay the servants of God.

HERMAS: Refrain from much business, and you will never sin: for they who are occupied with much business commit also many sins, being distracted about their affairs, and not at all serving their Lord.

HERMAS: “He who indulges in luxury, and is deceived for one day, and who does what he wishes, is clothed with much foolishness, and does not understand the act which he does until the morrow; for he forgets what he did the day before. For luxury and deceit have no memories, on account of the folly with which they are clothed; but when punishment and torture cleave to a man for one day, he is punished and tortured for a year; for punishment and torture have powerful memories. While tortured and punished, therefore, for a whole year, he remembers at last his luxury and deceit, and knows that on their account he suffers evil. Every man, therefore, who is luxurious and deceived is thus tormented, because, although having life, they have given themselves over to death.” “What kinds of luxury, sir,” I asked, “are hurtful?” “Every act of a man which he performs with pleasure is an act of luxury; for the sharp-tempered man, when gratifying his tendency, indulges in luxury; and the adulterer, and the drunkard, and the back-biter, and the liar, and the covetous man, and the thief, and he who does things like these, gratifies his peculiar propensity, and in so doing indulges in luxury. All these acts of luxury are hurtful to the servants of God. On account of these deceits, therefore, do they suffer, who are punished and tortured. And there are also acts of luxury which save men; for many who do good indulge in luxury, being carried away by their own pleasure: this luxury, however, is beneficial to the servants of God, and gains life for such a man; but the injurious acts of luxury before enumerated bring tortures and punishment upon them; and if they continue in them and do not repent, they bring death upon themselves.”

HERMAS: These are they that are mixed up in business and do not cleave to the saints. Therefore the one half of them lives, but the other half is dead. Many, accordingly, who heard my commands repented, and those at least who repented had their dwelling in the tower. But some of them at last fell away: these, accordingly, do not have repentance, for on account of their business they blasphemed the Lord, and denied Him. They therefore lost their lives through the wickedness which they committed.

HERMAS: Some of them are wealthy and others are entangled in many business affairs. The briars are the wealthy, and the thorns are those that are mixed up in various business affairs. These then, that are mixed up in many and various business affairs, do not cleave to the servants of God, but go astray, being choked by their affairs, but the wealthy unwillingly cleave to the servants of God, fearing lest they may be asked for something by them. Such men therefore shall hardly enter into the kingdom of God. For as it is difficult to walk on briars with bare feet, so also it is difficult for such men to enter the kingdom of God.

HERMAS: Their riches had obscured and darkened them a little from the truth, although they never departed from God; nor did any evil word proceed out of their mouth, but all justice, virtue, and truth. When the Lord, therefore, saw the mind of these persons, that they were born good, and could be good, He ordered their riches to be cut down, not to be taken away forever, that they might be able to do some good with what was left them. . . . Now this age must be cut down in these things, and in the vanities of their riches, and then they will meet in the kingdom of God; for they must of necessity enter into the kingdom of God.

JUSTIN MARTYR: We who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and share to every one in need.

TATIAN: Wealth, when not properly governed, is a stronghold of evil, about which many casting their eyes, they will never reach the kingdom of heaven, sick for the things of the world, and living proudly through luxury. But those who are wholehearted about salvation must settle this beforehand in their mind, “that all that we possess is given to us for use, and use for sufficiency, which one may attain to by a few things.” For silly are they who, from greed, take delight in what they have hoarded up. “He that gathers wages,” it is said, “gathers into a bag with holes.” Such is he who gathers corn and shuts it up; and he who gives to no one, becomes poorer. . . . Love of money is found to be the stronghold of evil, which the apostle says “is the root of all evils, which, while some coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” . . . I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to be rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not contend for chaplets; I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise death; I am superior to every kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul. Am I a slave, I endure servitude. Am I free, I do not make a vaunt of my good birth. I see that the same sun is for all, and one death for all, whether they live in pleasure or destitution. The rich man sows, and the poor man partakes of the same sowing. The wealthiest die, and beggars have the same limits to their life. The rich lack many things, and are glorious only through the estimation they are held in; but the poor man and he who has very moderate desires, seeking as he does only the things suited to his lot, more easily obtains his purpose. How is it that you are fated to be sleepless through avarice? Why are you fated to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.

TATIAN: No man can serve two masters; and that is because it is necessary that he hate one of them and love the other, and honor one of them and despise the other. You cannot serve God and possessions.

IRENAEUS: “You cannot serve two masters,” He does Himself interpret, saying, “You cannot serve God and mammon;” acknowledging God indeed as God, but mentioning mammon, a thing also having an existence. He does not call mammon Lord when He says, “You cannot serve two masters;” but He teaches His disciples who serve God, not to be subject to mammon, nor to be ruled by it. For He says, “He that commits sin is the slave of sin.” Inasmuch, then, as He terms those “the slaves of sin” who serve sin, but does not certainly call sin itself God, thus also He terms those who serve mammon “the slaves of mammon,” not calling mammon God. For mammon is, according to the Jewish language, which the Samaritans do also use, a covetous man, and one who wishes to have more than he ought to have. But according to the Hebrew, it is by the addition of a syllable, adjunctive, called Mamuel, and signifies gulosum, that is, one whose gullet is insatiable. Therefore, according to both these things which are indicated, we cannot serve God and mammon.

IRENAEUS: The Lord Himself exhibits Abraham as having said to the rich man, with reference to all those who were still alive: “If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither, if any one were to rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him.” Now, He has not merely related to us a story respecting a poor man and a rich one; but He has taught us, in the first place, that no one should lead a luxurious life, nor, living in worldly pleasures and perpetual feastings, should be the slave of his lusts, and forget God. “For there was,” He says, “a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and delighted himself with splendid feasts.” Of such persons, too, the Spirit has spoken by Isaiah: “They drink wine with the accompaniment of harps, and tablets, and psalteries, and flutes; but they do not regard the works of God, neither do they consider the work of His hands.” Lest, therefore, we should incur the same punishment as these men, the Lord reveals to us their end.

IRENAEUS: For in some cases there follows us a small, and in others a large amount of property, which we have acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness. For from what source do we derive the houses in which we dwell, the garments in which we are clothed, the vessels which we use, and everything else ministering to our every-day life, unless it be from those things which, when we were Gentiles, we acquired by avarice, or received them from our heathen parents, relations, or friends who unrighteously obtained them? Not to mention that even now we acquire such things when we are in the faith. For who is there that sells, and does not wish to make a profit from him who buys? Or who purchases anything, and does not wish to obtain good value from the seller? Or who is there that carries on a trade, and does not do so that he may obtain a livelihood thereby? And as to those believing ones who are in the royal palace, do they not derive the utensils they employ from the property which belongs to Caesar; and to those who do not have, does not each one of these Christians give according to his ability? . . . God dwells in those who act uprightly, as the Lord says: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that they, when you shall be put to flight, may receive you into eternal tabernacles.” For whatsoever we acquired from unrighteousness when we were heathen, we are proved righteous, when we have become believers, by applying it to the Lord’s advantage.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The bastard, who is a son of perdition, is foredoomed to be the slave of mammon.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Wealth, when not properly governed, is a stronghold of evil, about which many casting their eyes, they will never reach the kingdom of heaven, sick for the things of the world, and living proudly through luxury. But those who are in earnest about salvation must settle this beforehand in their mind, “that all that we possess is given to us for use, and use for sufficiency, which one may attain to by a few things.” For silly are they who, from greed, take delight in what they have hoarded up. “He that gathers wages,” it is said, “gathers into a bag with holes.” Such is he who gathers corn and shuts it up; and he who gives to no one, becomes poorer. It is a farce, and a thing to make one laugh outright, for men to bring in silver urinals and crystal chamber pots, as they usher in their counselors, and for silly rich women to get gold receptacles for excrements made; so that being rich, they cannot even ease themselves except in superb way. I would that in their whole life they deemed gold fit for dung. But now love of money is found to be the stronghold of evil, which the apostle says “is the root of all evils, which, while some coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” But the best riches is poverty of desires; and the true generosity is not to be proud of wealth, but to despise it. Boasting about one’s plate is utterly shameful. For it is plainly wrong to care much about what any one who likes may buy from the market. But wisdom is not bought with coin of earth, nor is it sold in the marketplace, but in heaven. And it is sold for true coin, the immortal Word, the regal gold.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: What means the parable of Lazarus, by showing the image of the rich and poor? And what the saying, “No man can serve two masters, God and Mammon?”—the Lord so terming the love of money. For instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded not to the invitation to the supper, not because of their possessing property, but of their inordinate affection to what they possessed. “The foxes,” then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who are occupied about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground, foxes. Thus also, in reference to Herod: “Go, tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out devils, and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'” For He applied the name “birds of the air” to those who were distinct from the other birds—those really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honor, and marriage, and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them. And those cares He indicated in the parable of the fourfold seed, when He said that “the seed of the word which fell among the thorns” and hedges was choked by them, and could not bring forth fruit. It is therefore necessary to learn how to make use of every occurrence, so as by a good life, according to knowledge, to be trained for the state of eternal life.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: “For no one can serve two masters, God and Mammon,” it is said; meaning not simply money, but the resources arising from money bestowed on various pleasures. In reality, it is not possible for him who magnanimously and truly knows God, to serve antagonistic pleasures.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: For, as the Lord commanded, he did not wish to serve two masters, pleasure and God. It is said that Matthias the apostle also taught that one should fight the flesh and abuse it, never allowing it to give way to licentious pleasure, so that the soul might grow by faith and knowledge.

TERTULLIAN: How many other undoubted proofs we have had in the case of persons who, by keeping company with the devil in the shows, have fallen from the Lord! For no one can serve two masters. What fellowship has light with darkness, life with death?

TERTULLIAN: While the bounty of our most excellent emperors was dispensed in the camp, the soldiers, laurel-crowned, were approaching. One of them, more a soldier of God, more steadfast than the rest of his brothers and sisters, who had imagined that they could serve two masters, his head alone uncovered, the useless crown in his hand—already even by that peculiarity known to every one as a Christian—was nobly conspicuous. Accordingly, all began to mark him out, jeering him at a distance, gnashing on him near at hand. The murmur is wafted to the tribune, when the person had just left the ranks. The tribune at once puts the question to him, “Why are you so different in your attire?” He declared that he had no liberty to wear the crown with the rest. Being urgently asked for his reasons, he answered, “I am a Christian.” “O soldier! boasting yourself in God.” Then the case was considered and voted on; the matter was remitted to a higher tribunal; the offender was conducted to the prefects. At once he put away the heavy cloak, his disburdening commenced; he loosed from his foot the military shoe, beginning to stand upon holy ground; he gave up the sword, which was not necessary either for the protection of our Lord; from his hand likewise dropped the laurel crown; and now, purple-clad with the hope of his own blood, shod with the preparation of the gospel, gird with the sharper word of God, completely equipped in the apostles’ armor, and crowned more worthily with the white crown of martyrdom, he awaits in prison the generosity of Christ.

TERTULLIAN: But I first say a word also about the military crown itself. This laurel one is sacred to Apollo or Bacchus—to the former as the god of archery, to the latter as the god of triumphs. In like manner Claudius teaches, when he tells us that soldiers are accustomed too to be wreathed in myrtle. For the myrtle belongs to Venus, the mother of the Aeneadae, the mistress also of the god of war, who, through Ilia and the Romuli is Roman. But I do not believe that Venus is Roman as well as Mars, because of the vexation the concubine gave her. When military service again is crowned with olive, the idolatry has respect to Minerva, who is equally the goddess of arms—but got a crown of the tree referred to, because of the peace she made with Neptune. In these respects, the superstition of the military garland will be everywhere defiled and all-defiling. And it is further defiled, I should think, also in the grounds of it. Lo the yearly public pronouncing of vows, what does that bear on its face to be? It takes place first in the part of the camp where the general’s tent is, and then in the temples. In addition to the places, observe the words also: “We vow that you, O Jupiter, will then have an ox with gold-decorated horns.” What does the utterance mean? Without a doubt the denial of Christ. Albeit the Christian says nothing in these places with the mouth, he makes his response by having the crown on his head. The laurel is likewise commanded to be used at the distribution of the gifts. So you see idolatry is not without its gain, selling, as it does, Christ for pieces of gold, as Judas did for pieces of silver. Will it be “You cannot serve God and mammon” to devote your energies to mammon, and to depart from God? Will it be “Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and to God the things which are God’s,” not only not to render the human being to God, but even to take the denarius from Caesar? Is the laurel of the triumph made of leaves, or of corpses? Is it adorned with ribbons, or with tombs? Is it bedewed with ointments, or with the tears of wives and mothers?

TERTULLIAN: The endowing of a man indeed with riches, is not an incongruity to God, for by the help of riches even rich men are comforted and assisted; moreover, by them many a work of justice and charity is carried out. But yet there are serious faults which accompany riches; and it is because of these that woes are denounced on the rich, even in the Gospel. “You have received,” He says, “your consolation;” that is, of course, from their riches, in the pomps and vanities of the world which these purchase for them.

TERTULLIAN: What the two masters are who, He says, cannot be served, on the ground that while one is pleased the other must needs be displeased, He Himself makes clear, when He mentions God and mammon. Then, if you have no interpreter by you, you may learn again from Himself what He would have understood by mammon. For when advising us to provide for ourselves the help of friends in worldly affairs, after the example of that steward who, when removed from his office, relieves his lord’s debtors by lessening their debts with a view to their recompensing him with their help, He said, “And I say to you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,” that is to say, of money, even as the steward had done. Now we are all aware that money is the instigator of unrighteousness, and the lord of the whole world. Therefore, when he saw the covetousness of the Pharisees doing servile worship to it, He hurled this sentence against them, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Then the Pharisees, who were covetous of riches, derided Him, when they understood that by mammon He meant money. . . . Learn therefrom that one God was pointed out by Christ. For they were two masters whom He named, God and mammon— the Creator and money. You cannot indeed serve God—Him, of course whom they seemed to serve—and mammon to whom they preferred to devote themselves.

TERTULLIAN: A rich man is a difficult thing to find in the house of God.

TERTULLIAN: Blessed therefore are the poor, because, He says, the kingdom of heaven is theirs who have the soul only treasured up. If we cannot serve God and mammon, can we be redeemed both by God and by mammon? For who will serve mammon more than the man whom mammon has ransomed? Finally, of what example do you avail yourself to warrant your averting by money the giving of you up? When did the apostles, dealing with the matter, in any time of persecution trouble, extricate themselves by money?

COMMODIANUS: Luxury and the short-lived joys of the world are ruining you, from which you will be tormented in hell for all time.

MARK MINUCIUS FELIX: That many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but our glory; for as our mind is relaxed by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality. And yet who can be poor if he does not want, if he does not crave for the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God? He rather is poor, who, although he has much, desires more. Yet I will speak according as I feel. No one can be so poor as he is born. Birds live without any patrimony, and day by day the cattle are fed; and yet these creatures are born for us—all of which things, if we do not lust after, we possess. Therefore, as he who treads a road is the happier the lighter he walks, so happier is he in this journey of life who lifts himself along in poverty, and does not breathe heavily under the burden of riches. And yet even if we thought wealth useful to us, we should ask it of God. Assuredly He might be able to indulge us in some measure, whose is the whole; but we would rather despise riches than possess them.

ORIGEN: “No man can serve two masters,” and we “cannot serve God and mammon,” whether this name is applied to one or more. Moreover, if anyone “by transgressing the law dishonors the lawgiver,” it seems clear to us that if the two laws, the law of God and the law of mammon, are completely opposed to each other, it is better for us by transgressing the law of mammon to dishonor mammon, that we may honor God by keeping His law, than by transgressing the law of God to dishonor God, that by obeying the law of mammon we may honor mammon.

ORIGEN: The Spirit descended so clearly on those who receive baptism, after the water had prepared the way for him in those who properly approached the rite. Simon Magus, astonished at what he saw, desired to receive from Peter this gift, but though it was a good thing he desired, he thought to attain it by the mammon of unrighteousness.

ORIGEN: Whoever truly, and not falsely, confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in the heart would equally confess himself to be subjected to the lordship of wisdom, righteousness, truth, and to everything that Christ is. He confesses mammon not to be his lord any longer, that is to say, he is no longer to be under the lordship of greed, unrighteousness, unchastity, or lying. For, having confessed once and for all that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is declaring publicly that he is not a slave of any of these things.

ORIGEN: For it does not seem possible for someone to serve both Christ and the belly simultaneously, or to be equally a lover of pleasure and of God; just as no one can serve both God and mammon at the same time.

CYPRIAN: Wealth must be avoided as an enemy; must be fled from as a robber; must be dreaded by its possessors as a sword and as poison. To this end only so much as remains should be of service, that by it the crime and the fault may be redeemed. Let good works be done without delay, and largely; let all your estate be laid out for the healing of your wound; let us lend of our wealth and our means to the Lord, who shall judge concerning us. Thus faith flourished in the time of the apostles; thus the first people of believers kept Christ’s commands: they were prompt, they were liberal, they gave their all to be distributed by the apostles.

CYPRIAN: You are afraid lest perhaps your estate should fail, if you begin to act liberally from it; and you do not know, miserable man that you are, that while you are fearing lest your family property should fail you, life itself, and salvation, are failing; and while you are anxious lest any of your wealth should be diminished, you do not see that you yourself are being diminished, in that you are a lover of mammon more than of your own soul; and while you fear, lest for the sake of yourself, you should lose your patrimony, you yourself are perishing for the sake of your patrimony. And therefore the apostle well exclaims, and says: “We brought nothing into this world, neither indeed can we carry anything out. Therefore, having food and clothing, let us therewith be content. For they who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many and hurtful desires, which drown a man in perdition and in destruction. For covetousness is a root of all evils, which some desiring, have made shipwreck from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

CYPRIAN: The lust of possessing, and money, are not to be sought for. In Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus: “He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver.” Also in Proverbs: “He who holds back the corn is cursed among the people; but blessing is on the head of him that shares it.” Also in Isaiah: “Woe to them who join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may take away something from their neighbor. Will you dwell alone upon the earth?” Also in Zephaniah: “They shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them; and they shall appoint vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them, because the day of the Lord is near.” Also in the Gospel according to Luke: “For what does it profit a man to make a gain of the whole world, but that he should lose himself?” And again: “But the Lord said to him, 'You fool, this night your soul is required of you. Whose, then, will those things be which you have provided?'” And again: “Remember that you have received your good things in this life, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and you grieve.” And in the Acts of the Apostles: “But Peter said to him, 'Silver and gold indeed I have none; but what I have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' And, taking hold of his right hand, he lifted him up.” Also in the first to Timothy: “We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we take anything away. Therefore, having maintenance and clothing, let us with these be content. But they who will become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many and hurtful lusts, which drown man in perdition and destruction. For the root of all evils is covetousness, which some coveting, have made shipwreck from the faith, and have plunged themselves in many sorrows.”

NOV ATIAN: Moderation is always found to be approximate to religion, no, so to speak, rather related and akin to it; for luxury is hostile to holiness. For how shall religion be spared by it, when modesty is not spared? Luxury does not entertain the fear of God. . . . But from the fact that liberty of meats is granted to us, it does not of necessity follow that luxury is allowed us; nor because the Gospel has dealt with us very liberally, has it taken away self-restraint. . . . But nothing has so restrained intemperance as the Gospel; nor has any one given such strict laws against gluttony as Christ, who is said to have pronounced even the poor blessed, and the hungering and thirsting happy, the rich miserable; to whom, obeying the government of their belly and their palate, the material of their lusts could never be lacking, so that their servitude could not cease; who think it an argument of their happiness to desire as much as they can, except that they are thus able to attain less than they desire. For, moreover, preferring Lazarus in his very hunger and in his sores themselves, and with the rich man’s dogs, He restrained the destroyers of salvation, the belly and the palate, by examples. The apostle also, when he said, “Having food and raiment, we are to be content,” laid down the law of frugality and self-restraint; and thinking that it would be of little advantage that he had written, he also gave himself as an example of what he had written, adding not without reason, that “greed for wealth is the root of all evils;” for it follows in the footsteps of luxury.

PETER OF ALEXANDRIA: For they have sustained the loss and sacrifice of their goods that they might not hurt or destroy their soul, which others for the sake of filthy money have not done; and yet the Lord says, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” and again, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” In these things, then, they have shown themselves the servants of God, inasmuch as they have hated, trodden under foot, and despised money, and have thus fulfilled what is written: “The ransom of a man’s life are his riches.”