Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2

Our Instructor, children, is like His Father God — the sinless, blameless, passionless Son who is God in human form, unblemished, a servant by the Father's will, the Word of God who dwells in the Father and sits at His right hand, God even in human flesh. This One is our unchanging image, and we must strive with all our strength to make our souls like Him. He is utterly free of human passions; therefore He alone is Judge, because He alone is sinless. We, on the other hand, try as best we can to sin as little as possible. Nothing is so urgent as first being freed from passions and diseases, and then being kept from easily slipping into the habit of sin. The best is not to sin at all in any way — a characteristic we attribute to God. Second is never to have committed any intentional wrong — the mark of a wise person. Third is not to fall into many unintentional sins — the mark of those nobly instructed. Last is not to linger long in sin; yet even this struggle brings salvation to those called to repentance. It seems to me our Instructor speaks beautifully through Moses: "If anyone dies suddenly beside him, the head of his consecration shall be defiled and he shall shave it" (Numbers 6:9), calling sudden death an unintentional sin. He says it defiles him, staining the soul; therefore He prescribes the treatment of shaving the head immediately, urging us to shear off the locks of ignorance that overshadow our reasoning, so that our mind — stripped of the hairy stuff of evil (for the mind sits enthroned in the brain) — may turn back to repentance. Then, adding a few words, He says, "The former days were unreasoning" (Numbers 6:12), making clear that sins not done according to reason are indicated. He called the unintentional sin "sudden," but sinning itself "unreasoning." For this reason the Word our Instructor has taken charge to prevent irrational sin. Consider then from Scripture: "Therefore the Lord says these things." The earlier sin is shown convicted by the following statement, because just judgment follows, and this is plainly revealed through the prophets, as if they were saying, "If you had not sinned, He would not have threatened you," and "Therefore the Lord says this," and "Because you did not listen to these words, the Lord says this," and "Therefore, behold, the Lord says this." For prophecy exists for obedience and disobedience — for the one that we may be saved, for the other that we may be instructed. Our Instructor, then, is the Word who heals the soul's unnatural passions through exhortations. Properly speaking, help for the body's diseases is called medicine, a human art taught by wisdom. But the paternal Word is the only physician for human weaknesses, a holy and gentle healer of the sick soul. "Save Your servant," it says, "my God, the one who hopes in You; have mercy on me, Lord, for I cry to You all day" (Psalm 119:145-152). "For medicine," according to Democritus, "heals the body's diseases, but wisdom removes the soul's passions." And the good Instructor, Wisdom, the Word of the Father who created humanity, cares for the whole creature and heals both body and soul — the all-sufficient doctor of humanity. The Savior says to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your mat and go home" (Matthew 9:6), and immediately the sick man was healed. And to the dead man He said, "Lazarus, come out" (John 11:43); he came out of the tomb, the dead man, just as he was before he suffered, having practiced resurrection. Yes, and He heals the soul itself with commands and gifts — though perhaps He will do so through proposals; yet with gifts He is rich, saying to us sinners, "Your sins are forgiven." But we have become foolish in our thinking, receiving the best and most secure order from His own well-orderedness, which first concerns the world and heaven — the sun's cycles, the circles and courses of the other stars — all for humanity's sake; then it concerns humanity itself, about whom all care is taken. It regards this work as the greatest: guiding the human soul with prudence and self-control, shaping the body with beauty and harmony, and inspiring in human actions both what is right and what is well-ordered.