Christ Fulfilled the Law

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

SUMMARY: The contrast is between "destroy the law" and "fulfill" or "complete." It is not between "destroy the law" and "keep the law going." The Ebionites, however, were a heretical group who kept following the law of Moses. But the early church understood that the new covenant canceled the old covenant, and that Jesus Christ gave a new law, an eternal and final law, namely Christ, has been given to us. Christ fulfilled the law. Therefore, the law and the prophets were with the Jews until John the Baptist. On the other hand, a leading heretical teacher of the 2nd century, Marcion, taught many Gnostic beliefs. These included the belief that the God of the Old Testament was a different God from the Father of Jesus. The early Christians understood that Christ came as the promised Messiah. He came to fulfill God's promises from the Old Testament, not to destroy the message of the Old Testament. Christ did not come to destroy the law; He came to fulfill it, extend it, and give it a wider scope. By His coming, Christ fulfilled all things. He still fulfills in the church the new covenant that the law foretold. By keeping the commandments, Christ fulfilled the law. All the Scriptures will be fulfilled because the Holy Spirit has spoken these things by the mouth of the Lord. We must obey and do what Christ did and what He commanded. We work not only with words but also with deeds. The things you teach cannot have any weight unless you are the first to practice them. We are urged to live better than the Pharisees lived in order to be saved. For a longer discussion, see Justin Martyr. Justin Martyr: "We do not trust through Moses or through the law, for then we would do the same as you. But now, for I have read that there shall be a final law and a covenant, the greatest of all, which it is now required of all people to obey, as many as are seeking after the inheritance of God. For the law announced on Horeb is now old and belongs to you alone, but this is for everyone. Now law set against law has canceled the one that came before it, and a covenant that comes after has in the same way ended the earlier one, and an eternal and final law, namely Christ, has been given to us."

JUSTIN MARTYR: Addressed to the Jews: Therefore wash, be clean, and put away sin from your souls, just as God tells you to be washed in this bath and to be circumcised with the true circumcision. Because of this, we also would keep the physical circumcision and the Sabbaths, and in short, all the feasts, if we did not know why these were commanded to you. They were commanded because of your sins and the hardness of your hearts. For if we patiently endure everything planned against us by wicked men and demons, so that even in the middle of cruelties too terrible to describe, and even in death and torture, we pray for mercy for those who do these things to us, and we do not want to give even the smallest reply back to anyone, just as the new lawgiver commanded us, then how could it be that we would not keep those practices that do not harm us? I mean, physical circumcision, and Sabbaths, and feasts.

JUSTIN MARTYR: Circumcision began with Abraham. The Sabbath, sacrifices, offerings, feasts, and festivals began with Moses. It has been proved that these were commanded because of the hardness of your people's hearts. So, in keeping with the Father's will, it was necessary that these things should come to an end in Him who was born of a virgin. He was from the family of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, and from David. This is Christ, the Son of God. He was proclaimed as the one who was about to come to the whole world, to be the everlasting law and the everlasting covenant, just as the prophecies mentioned earlier show. And we who have come near to God through Him have received circumcision that is not physical but spiritual. Enoch and those like him kept this kind of circumcision. We have received it through baptism since we were sinners by God's mercy. And all people may receive it equally.

IRENAEUS: Therefore, our calling is by the newness of the Spirit, not by the oldness of the letter. It is just as Jeremiah prophesied: "Look, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will complete for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant, the testament which I made with their fathers. It was in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not continue in the covenant, I did not regard them," says the Lord. For this is the covenant of the testament that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them in their hearts. I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. They will not teach anymore each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord." For all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will pardon and be merciful to the sins of their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And these promises were meant for the calling from among the Gentiles to inherit. The New Testament was also open to them. Isaiah says it this way: "These things says the God of Israel: In that day a man will trust in his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. They will not trust in altars, nor in the work of their own hands, which their fingers have made." For this was very clearly said about those who have turned away from idols and believed in God our Maker through the Holy One of Israel. And the Holy One of Israel is Christ. He became visible to men. We look eagerly to Him and see Him. We do not trust in altars, nor in the works of our hands. And that He would become visible among us is true, because the Son of God became Son of Man. He was found by us who before had no knowledge of Him. The Word Himself says this in Isaiah: "I became known to those who did not seek me. I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said, 'Look, here am I,' to a race that did not call on my name." And that this race was to become a holy people was declared in the twelve prophets by Hosea. "I will call that which was not my people my people, and her that was not beloved, beloved." It will come to pass that in the place where it was called "not my people," there they will be called sons of the living God. This is also what John the Baptist said: that God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. For our hearts are pulled away and taken away from stony worship by faith. We see God, and we become sons of Abraham, who was made right by faith. Therefore, God says through Ezekiel the prophet: "And I will give them another heart, and I will give them a new spirit. I will pull out and take away the stony heart from their flesh, and I will give them another heart of flesh. So they will walk in my precepts, and they will keep my ordinances and do them. They will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God." So then, by the new calling, a change of hearts in the Gentiles happened through the Word of God when He was made flesh and lived among men. His disciple John also says: "And His Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Therefore, the church bears much fruit from the redeemed. This is because it is no longer Moses as mediator, nor Elijah as messenger, but the Lord Himself who has redeemed us. He has given many more children to the church than to the first synagogue. Isaiah declared this saying: "Rejoice, you barren one, who did not bear." The barren one is the church, which in earlier times did not present sons to God at all. Cry out and call, you who did not labor in childbirth. For the children of the desolate are more than the children of her who has a husband. Now the first synagogue had the law as her husband. Also, Moses says in Deuteronomy that the Gentiles would be the head and the unbelieving people the tail. And again he says: "You provoked me to jealousy with those that are no gods, and angered me with your idols. And I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, and with a foolish nation I will anger you." This happened because they forsook the God who is, and they worshipped and served gods who are not. They killed the prophets of God. They prophesied for Baal, who was the idol of the Canaanites. And the Son of God, who is, they despised and condemned. But they chose Barabbas the robber, who had been arrested for murder. They rejected the eternal King. They accepted the temporary Caesar as their King. So it pleased God to give their inheritance to the foolish Gentiles, even to those who were not part of the commonwealth of God and did not know what God is. Since then, by this calling, life has been given to us, and God has gathered up again in us the faith of Abraham. We should not turn back anymore. I mean, we should not turn back to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God. By faith in Him, we learn to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Now, love for God is far from all sin. And love for the neighbor does no harm to the neighbor. Therefore, we do not need the law of Moses as a tutor. Look, we speak with the Father, and we stand in His presence. We are children in malice, and we have grown strong in all righteousness and self-control. For the law will no longer need to say, "Do not commit adultery" to someone who has no desire at all for another man's wife. And it will not need to say, "Do not kill" to someone who has put away all anger and hatred. And it will not need to say, "Do not covet your neighbor's field or ox or donkey" to those who do not care at all for earthly things, but store up heavenly fruits. And it will not need to say, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" to someone who counts no man as his enemy, but counts all men as his neighbors, and therefore cannot even reach out his hand for revenge. It will not require tithes from someone who dedicates all his possessions to God, leaving father and mother and all his relatives and following the Word of God. And there will be no command to stay idle for one day of rest for someone who keeps Sabbath all the time. That is someone who, in the temple of God, which is a man's body, serves God, and in every hour does what is right. The demonstration of the apostolic preaching.

IRENAEUS: Since the law began with Moses, it ended with John as a necessary result. Christ had come to fulfill it. Therefore, the law and the prophets were with them until John. And therefore, Jerusalem, which began with David and completed its own time, must have an end to its lawmaking when the new covenant was revealed. For God does all things with measure and in order. Nothing is without measure with Him, because nothing is out of order.

IRENAEUS: he said, "Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will not pass from the law and the prophets until all comes to pass. For by his coming, he himself fulfilled all things; he still fulfills in the church the new covenant that was foretold by the law, continuing on to the completion of all things." In the same way, Paul, his apostle, says in the epistle to the Romans, "But now, without the law, the righteousness of God has been shown, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, for the just will live by faith." But this fact, that the just will live by faith, had already been announced by the prophets.

TATIAN: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to complete. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one point or one letter of the Law will pass away until all of it is accomplished. Everyone who violates even one of these small commandments and teaches people to do the same will be called lacking in the kingdom of heaven. Everyone who does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I say to you now, unless your righteousness is greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: But the apostles were made complete in every way, so if you choose, you will find in their actions and writings knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. We must know this: even if Paul was young in terms of time, since he became well-known right after the Lord's ascension, his writings still depend on the Old Testament. They breathe and speak the Old Testament's message. Faith in Christ and knowledge of the Gospel explain and fulfill the Law. Therefore, it was said to the Hebrews, "If you do not believe, neither shall you understand." That means this: unless you believe what is prophesied in the Law and delivered by the Law like an oracle, you will not understand the Old Testament. He explained it by His coming.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The Lord has not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. To fulfill does not mean the law was defective; it means that, by His coming, the prophecies of the law are completed. This is because, even before the law, the Logos proclaimed the demand for right conduct to those who also lived good lives.

TERTULLIAN: He is the subject of the prophecy. It shows that at the very start of his ministry he came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. Marcion, the heretic, has erased the passage, calling it an interpellation. But it will be useless for him to deny that Christ said in words what he immediately did, even if only in part.

TERTULLIAN: I can now see why Marcion's God was hidden for so long. I suppose he was waiting until he had learned all these things from the Creator. He stayed a student up to the time of John. Then he immediately went out to announce the kingdom of God, saying, "The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed." It is as if we also did not recognize that John is a kind of boundary between the old arrangement and the new. At that point, Judaism ended, and Christianity began. But we do not suppose that it was by the power of another God that the law and the prophets stopped, and that the gospel began. In that gospel is the kingdom of God, Christ himself. For although, as we have shown, the Creator foretold that the old state of things would pass away and a new state would follow, John is shown to be both the forerunner and the one who prepares the ways of that Lord. That Lord was going to bring in the gospel and announce the kingdom of God. So, from the very fact that John has come, it follows that Christ must be that very being who was to come after his messenger John. So, if the old way has ended and the new has begun, with John standing between them, there is nothing strange about it. It happens according to the plan of the Creator. So you could get a better proof for the kingdom of God from any place at all, even if it seems unusual, than from the idea that the law and the prophets ended in John and that a new state of things began after him. More easily, therefore, may heaven and earth pass away, as also the law and the prophets, than that one tittle of the Lord's words should fail. For, as Isaiah says, "The word of our God shall stand forever." Even then, through Isaiah, it was Christ, the Word and Spirit of the Creator, who prophetically described John as the voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. He also described John as about to come for the purpose of ending from now on the course of the law and the prophets. This would happen by their fulfillment, not by their destruction. It was so that the kingdom of God might be announced by Christ. Therefore, Christ purposely added the assurance that the elements would more easily pass away than his words would fail. He was also affirming this further fact: what he had said about John had not fallen to the ground.

TERTULLIAN: A certain man asked him, "Good Master, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asked whether he knew, that is, in other words, whether he kept the commandments of the Creator. He did this to show that eternal life is gained by the Creator's commands. Then, when the man said that from his youth he had kept all the main commandments, Jesus said to him, "One thing you still lack: sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me." Now then, Marcion, and all you who are his companions in misery and partners in hatred with that heretic, what will you dare to say to this? Did Christ cancel the commandments just mentioned: "Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother"? Or did he keep them, and then add what was missing from them? This command, about giving to the poor, was spread widely through the pages of the Law and the Prophets. This proud keeper of the commandments was therefore shown to value money much more than love for others. So this truth of the Gospel still stands unchanged. "I have not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but rather to fulfill them." He also cleared up other doubts when he said that the name of God and the name of the Good belong to one and the same Being. This same Being also had control of everlasting life, the treasure in heaven, and Christ himself too. These are the commandments Christ both kept and strengthened by adding his own extra commands.

TERTULLIAN: The letter that we also accept as the strongest one against Judaism is the one in which the Apostle teaches the Galatians. We fully admit that the old law has been done away with. We also hold that this really comes from the plan of the Creator. We have already talked about this many times in our discussion. We showed that the change was predicted by the prophets of our God. Now, if the Creator truly promised that "the old things should pass away and be replaced by a new order of things that would arise," then consider this: Christ points out the time of separation when He says, "The law and the prophets were until John." In this way, He makes John the Baptist the boundary between two stages: the old things ending and the new things beginning. So the Apostle, since he comes in Christ, who was revealed after John, cannot do anything else. He must set aside the old things and confirm the new. Yet by doing this, he is promoting faith in no other God than the Creator. It was at the Creator's direction that it was predicted that the old things would pass away. Therefore, both the ending of the law and the establishing of the gospel support my argument even in this letter. In it, both points address the mistaken assumption of the Galatians. That assumption led them to think that faith in Christ, meaning the Creator's Christ, of course, was required, but that the law did not have to be set aside. This was because it still seemed unbelievable to them that the law would be put aside by its own author.

TERTULLIAN: the law and the prophets were until John, according to the Lord. Even if we are only now beginning with the law to explain what adultery is, it is right to begin with that part of the law that Christ has not destroyed but fulfilled. Because it was the burdens of the law that were until John, not the healing virtues. It is the yokes of works that have been rejected, not the yokes of training and discipline. Freedom in Christ has not harmed innocence. The law of reverence, holiness, kindness to others, truth, purity, justice, mercy, generosity, and modesty remains completely. In that law, blessed is the man who will meditate by day and by night. About that law, the same David says again: The law of the Lord is without blame, turning souls back. The statutes of the Lord are right, making hearts glad. The command of the Lord is shining brightly, giving light to the eyes. In the same way, the apostle says, and so the law indeed is holy, and the command holy and very good. Do not commit adultery, of course. But he had also said above, are we then making the law useless through faith? Far from it. Instead, we are establishing the law. We establish it in those points that even now are forbidden by the New Testament. They are forbidden by an even stronger command. Instead of, do not commit adultery, it says, whoever has looked with the purpose of lust has already committed adultery in his own heart. And instead of, do not kill, it says, whoever has said to his brother, Racha, will be in danger of hell. Ask yourself whether the law against committing adultery is still in force since the command not to give in to lust has been added to it.

HIPPOLYTUS: The Ebionites admit that the world was made by Him who is truly God. But they put forward stories about the Christ, like Cerinthus and Carpocrates do. They live according to Jewish customs. They claim that they are made right with God by the law. They also say that Jesus was made right by keeping the law. Therefore, according to the Ebionites, the Savior was called the Christ of God and Jesus. They say this because none of the rest of mankind had kept the law completely. For if any other person had kept the commandments in the law, that person would have been that Christ. The Ebionites also claim that they themselves, when they keep the law in the same way, are able to become Christs. They say that our Lord Himself was a man in the same sense as all the rest of the human family.

HIPPOLYTUS: He himself says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden," and so on, because those who keep the commandments and do not reject the ordinances of the law enjoy rest both in them and in the teaching of our Lord. As the Lord says, "I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them." Even our Lord, because He keeps the commandments, does not destroy the law and the prophets; instead, He fulfills them, as He says in the Gospels.

ORIGEN: the one who came to bring things to an end, also came to complete what was missing in the law. He did this by saying, "It was said to them of old time," and again, that the things spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled.

ORIGEN: The righteous requirements of the law are about its moral side. Law is a general word; righteous requirements are only one part of the law. The law includes righteous requirements, judgments, commands, formalities, and many other kinds of things like these. If Paul is not saying that the uncircumcised person keeps the law itself but instead keeps the righteous requirements of the law, then that person is placed so far ahead of the circumcised person who breaks the law that he could even judge the law. Paul also added this well: who perfects the law? Someone who lives according to the letter is said to keep the law, but someone who lives according to the Spirit perfects it. The perfection of the law happens in Christ, who said, "I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it." Now, to fulfill the law means to perfect the law.

ORIGEN: It is not the same thing to say, "We set aside the law," and "The law is set aside." So in this passage, Paul is saying that he himself does not set aside the law, even if the law is set aside because of the glory that is greater than it. It is not set aside by Paul or by any other saint. This is also why the Lord was saying, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." So no saint, not even the Lord himself, sets aside the law. Instead, the law's temporary and passing glory is set aside and is surpassed by the eternal and lasting glory.

ORIGEN: If we love our neighbor, we are keeping the whole law and all the commandments through love for him. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe. It is completely impossible for someone who loves Christ with his whole heart and with all his inner being to do anything that displeases Christ. The person who loves Christ not only does not commit murder, which the law forbids; he also does not get angry with his brother because the one he loves takes delight in this. And not only does he not commit adultery, he also does not look at a woman in order to desire her. Instead, he says to him, "My soul desires and faints for the living God." When would someone who loves Christ, and who has even given up everything he owns, follow Christ? Think about stealing. When would the one who loves Christ give false testimony when he knows that the one he loves was betrayed by false testimony? The one who loves Christ will also love his neighbor. A disciple is shown to belong to Christ by this one proof: that he loves his neighbors. For it is certain that the one who does not love his neighbor does not know Christ.

ARCHELAUS: Also, from the creation of the world, God has always been with righteous men; He has never stopped requiring their blood from the hands of the wicked, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias. Where did righteous Abel and all those worthy men who came after him and are listed among the righteous get their righteousness? This was when the law of Moses did not yet exist, and when the prophets had not yet come and carried out the work of prophecy. Were they not made righteous because they fulfilled the law? Scripture says, every one of them showing the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness. For when a man who does not have the law does naturally the things contained in the law, he not having the law is a law to himself. Now think about the many laws that existed among the different righteous men who lived upright lives. Sometimes they discovered for themselves the law of God planted in their hearts; other times they learned it from their parents, and at other times they were taught it even more by the ancients and the elders. But only a few were able to rise by this way to the full height of righteousness. That is, only a few rose by means of the traditions of parents when there was still no law written down. So God had compassion on the human race; He was pleased to give, through Moses, a written law to people, since truly the fairness of the natural law was not kept perfectly in their hearts. Therefore, in keeping with man's first creation, a written set of laws was prepared. It was given through Moses for the salvation of very many. For if we say that a man is made right without the works of the law, and if Abraham was counted righteous, how much more will those gain righteousness who have fulfilled the law that contains the things that are helpful for people?

ARCHELAUS: There is the law of Moses in this world, and it does not give pardon to the offender; and there is the law of Christ that punishes in the world to come. Therefore, notice how he confirms the law: he does not destroy it; instead, he fulfills it.

ORIGEN: but the one dot is not only the Iota of the Greeks; it is also what the Hebrews call the Yod, and the one Iota or one dot can symbolically be said to be Jesus. This is because the beginning of His name is written not only by Greeks with an Iota, but also by Hebrews with a Yod. So Jesus will be the one dot; He is the Word of God in the Law, which does not pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

CYPRIAN: we must obey and do what Christ did and what He commanded to be done. He Himself says in the Gospel, "If you do whatever I command you, from now on I do not call you servants but friends." The Father also testifies from heaven that Christ alone should be listened to. He says, "This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him." Therefore, if Christ alone must be listened to, we should not pay attention to what someone else before us may have thought should be done. Instead, we should pay attention to what Christ, who is before all, did first. It is not right to follow the practice of man, but the truth of God. God speaks through Isaiah the prophet and says, "In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men." And again, the Lord in the Gospel repeats this same saying. He says, "You reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition." Moreover, in another place He confirms it, saying, "Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven."

CYPRIAN: all these things, most brave and faithful soldiers of Christ, you have suggested to your brothers and sisters. You have done what you previously taught in words. From now on, you will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord promises and says, "Whoever will do and teach this will be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

CYPRIAN: if you take on the name of Christ but do not walk in the way of Christ, what is that except making fun of God's name and turning away from the way of salvation? He himself teaches and says that the one who keeps His commandments will come to life. He also says that the one who hears His words and does them is wise. He says too that the one who does this and teaches it will be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So then, what good is it to the preacher that he has preached something well and usefully? If what he says with his mouth is not carried out by the deeds that follow.

CYPRIAN: We must work not with words, but with actions. In Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus: "Do not be hasty with your tongue, and in your deeds useless and careless." And Paul, in 1 Corinthians: "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." Also to the Romans: "Not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: "He who shall do and teach so shall be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Also in the same place: "Everyone who hears my words and does them, I will compare him to a wise man who built his house on a rock." The rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it was built on a rock. And everyone who hears my words and does not do them, I will compare him to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and its ruin became great.

LACTANTIUS: The things you teach cannot have any weight unless you are the first to practice them.

JUSTIN MARTYR: He urged his disciples to live better than the Pharisees. He warned them that if they did not, they could be sure they could not be saved. These words are written in the memoirs: "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

JUSTIN MARTYR, ADDRESSED TO JEWS: Also, I have proved in what I said before that those who were known ahead of time to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked because of God's fault. Instead, each person, by his own fault, becomes what he will be shown to be. But so that you will not have an excuse to say that Christ had to be crucified and that the one who sinned had to be from your nation and that it could not have happened any other way, I said briefly ahead of time that God wanted men and angels to follow His will. So He decided to create them free to do what is right. He gave them reason so they could know who created them and through whom they, who did not exist before, now exist. He also gave a law so that they would be judged by Him if they do anything against right reason. And we ourselves, men and angels, will be shown to have sinned unless we repent ahead of time. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men will certainly be punished, it said this because it knew ahead of time that they would be unchangeably wicked, not because God created them that way. So if they repent, all who want it can receive mercy from God. Scripture also foretells that they will be blessed, saying, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin." That means a person has repented of his sins so that he may receive forgiveness for them from God. It does not mean what you and some others like you trick yourselves into saying, that even if they are sinners but know God, the Lord will not count sin against them. We have proof of this in the one fall of David. It happened because of his boasting. It was forgiven only when he mourned and wept, as it is written. But if even a man like that was not forgiven before repentance, and only when this great king and anointed one and prophet mourned and lived in that way, how can the impure and completely abandoned people, if they do not weep and do not mourn and do not repent, still hope that the Lord will not count sin against them? And this one fall of David, in the matter of Uriah's wife, shows that the patriarchs had many wives, not to commit sexual sin, but so that a certain plan and all mysteries might be carried out through them. Because if it were allowed to take any wife, or as many wives as someone chooses, and in whatever way he chooses, as the men of your nation do all over the earth wherever they live or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of marriage, then David would have been even more allowed to do this.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The Christian, then, is shaped by the closest likeness, that is, by the mind of the Master. Since he had this mind, he commanded it and recommended it to his disciples and to the wise. When a person understands this, the way the teacher wanted, and receives it in its full and great meaning, he teaches in a worthy way, on the housetops, to those who are able to be built up to a high level. He also begins to do what is spoken, following the example of his life. For he commanded what is possible. And truly, the kingly man and the Christian ought to be a ruler and a leader. For we are commanded to be lords, not only over the wild beasts outside us, but also over the wild passions inside ourselves. Through knowledge, then, it appears that the Christian is saved by knowing the difference between a bad life and a good life. He understands and carries out more than the scribes and Pharisees.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: After the Greeks abandon idols, they will hear the scripture: "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees." These people justified themselves by staying away from what was evil. But even with the kind of perfection they show, and with loving your neighbor, you must also be able to do good. If you cannot, you will not be kingly.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: People who think they are better than others because they were born into a noble family should also be better than them in their moral character; then they can escape being locked up in the prison. For the Lord said, "Unless your righteousness is greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God."