The reason why the earliest fathers are important, even more important than the later fathers who wrote during and after the fourth century, is because, for most Christian communities, everyone for the most part was considered a professed Christian. This is especially true after the decree of Theodosius in 380 that outlawed all other religion except Christianity but can be said of even the earlier time after Constantine's decree that made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This remains true pretty much for Western culture up until the Enlightenment (i.e., until after the Reformation). This means that everyone who professed to be a Christian and a part of the church rightly would be considered a neighbor. It is only the earliest period and the period following the Enlightenment that helps us see what Christians have believed concerning the idea of the neighbor and why they have believed it.
Clement: “Therefore let our
whole body be saved in Christ Jesus, and let each of us be subject to his
neighbor, ⌊according to the
gift given to him”[1]
“However,
then, we have fallen away and whatever
we have done through any insidious plots ⌊of the opponent⌋,
let us ask that we be forgiven. And those also who became leaders of the
rebellion and dissension [i.e., of the church schism] ought to pay careful
attention to the common hope. For those who lead their lives with fear and
love, they themselves prefer to experience mistreatments rather than their
neighbors, and to endure condemnation themselves rather than the harmony being
handed down to us rightly and justly.”[2]
In other
words, Clement is saying that the church leaders wronged by the schism would
rather be mistreated than to mistreat fellow Christians.
Ignatius: “Therefore you all, having received a divine agreement in your
convictions, have respect for one another, and let no one
consider his neighbor according to the flesh,
but ⌊always⌋ love one another
in Jesus Christ.”[3]
“These
people, while seeming trustworthy, mingle Jesus Christ with themselves like
those who produce a deadly drug with honeyed wine, which the ignorant
one gladly takes hold of in evil pleasure, to his death. Therefore be on guard against such as these.
And so it will be for you, not being puffed up and being inseparable from God, from Jesus Christ
and from the bishop and from the injunctions of the apostles. 2 The one who is inside of
the sanctuary is pure, but the one who is outside of the
sanctuary is not pure. That is, whoever does anything without the bishop and
the council of elders and the deacons, this one ⌊does not have a
clear conscience⌋. Since I do not know of anything of such a kind
among you, but I am protecting you, being my beloved, anticipating the snares
of the devil. Therefore you, adopting gentleness, regain your
strength in faith which is the flesh of the Lord and in
love which is the blood of Jesus Christ. 2
Let none of you hold a grudge against his neighbor.”[4]
Ignatius is
talking about being slandered by other Christians and warning the congregation
not to hold a grudge against their fellow Christians as these others have.
The Epistle of Barnabas: “You shall share in all things with your
neighbor and you shall not say it is your own. For if you are sharers in the
incorruptible, how much more in the corruptible?”[5]
The Martyrdom of Polycarp: “For he waited to be betrayed as also the Lord, in
order that we also might be imitators of him not only looking out for ⌊our own concerns⌋ but also ⌊the concerns of our
neighbors⌋. 5 For true and
steadfast love is not only to desire oneself to be delivered, but all the
brothers as well.”[6]
Tertullian: “Recognise also in Him the Judge, and one, too, who expresses Himself
on the safety of His followers with the same tenderness as that which the
Creator long ago exhibited: “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my
eye.” Such identity of care proceeds from one and the same Being. A trespassing
brother He will have rebuked.8 If one failed in this duty of
reproof, he in fact sinned, either because out of hatred he wished his brother
to continue in sin, or else spared him from mistaken friendship, although
possessing the injunction in Leviticus: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in
thine heart; thy neighbor thou shalt seriously rebuke, and on his account shalt
not contract sin.”10 Nor is it to be wondered at, if He thus teaches who forbids your
refusing to bring back even your brother’s cattle, if you find them astray in
the road; much more should you bring back your erring brother to himself. He
commands you to forgive your brother, should he trespass against you even
“seven times.”[7]
“He brings no accusation against men’s bodies, of
which he even writes as follows: “Putting away lying, speak every man truth
with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not:
let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let
him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands
(the thing which is good), that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for the
edification of faith, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be
put away from you, with all malice: but be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven
you.”8[8]
J
[1]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[5]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6]
Brannan, R. (Trans.). (2012). The Apostolic
Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7]
Tertullian. (1885). The Five Books against Marcion. In A. Roberts, J.
Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), P. Holmes (Trans.), Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian (Vol. 3, p. 407).
Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
[8]
Tertullian. (1885). On the Resurrection of the Flesh. In A. Roberts,
J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), P. Holmes (Trans.), Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian (Vol. 3, p. 578).
Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
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