Sacred Texts  Christianity  Early Church Fathers  Index  Previous  Next 

Chapter VII.—I have exhorted you to unity.

For though some would have deceived me according to the flesh, yet the Spirit, as being from God, is not deceived. For it knows both whence it comes and whither it goes, 939 and detects the secrets [of the heart]. For, when I was among you, I cried, I spoke with a loud voice: Give heed to the bishop, and to the presbytery and deacons. Now, some suspected me of having spoken thus, as knowing beforehand the division caused by some among you. 940 But He is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I got no intelligence from any man. 941 But the Spirit proclaimed p. 84 these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies 942 as the temples of God; 943 love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as He is of His Father.

For though some would have deceived me according to the flesh, yet my spirit is not deceived; for I have received it from God. For it knows both whence it comes and whither it goes, and detects the secrets [of the heart]. For when I was among you, I cried, I spoke with a loud voice—the word is not mine, but God’s—Give heed to the bishop, and to the presbytery and deacons. But if ye suspect that I spake thus, as having learned beforehand the division caused by some among you, He is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I learned nothing of it from the mouth of any man. But the Spirit made an announcement to me, saying as follows: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies 944 as the temples of God; love unity; avoid divisions; be ye followers of Paul, and of the rest of the apostles, even as they also were of Christ.

Footnotes

John iii. 8.

Some translate, “as foreseeing the division to arise among you.”

Literally, “did not know from human flesh.”

Literally, “your flesh.”

Comp. 1 Cor. iii. 16, 1 Cor. vi. 19.

Literally, “your flesh.”