Second Clement: An Ancient Homily · §3 · Anonymous (2 Clement)

Confessing Christ in deeds, not only with lips

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The preacher has just said Christ saved many by coming and calling us while we were perishing; now he explains how believers should repay that mercy by confessing Christ through obedience and wholehearted honor, not mere lip-service.

Since he has shown us such great mercy, think first of this: we who are alive do not sacrifice to dead gods or worship them. Through him we have come to know the Father of truth. And what is this knowledge of him? It is refusing to deny the one through whom we came to know him.

He himself says, "Whoever confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father" (Matthew 10:32).

This, then, is our reward, if we confess the one through whom we were saved.

And how do we confess him? By doing what he says and not disobeying his commandments, and by honoring him not only with our lips but from our whole heart and from our whole mind.

For he says also in Isaiah, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Isaiah 29:13).

Greek

Τοσοῦτον οὖν ἔλεος ποιήσαντος αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς, πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες τοῖς νεκροῖς θεοῖς οὐ θύομεν καὶ οὐ προσκυνοῦμεν αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ ἔγνωμεν δἰ αὐτοῦ τὸν πατέρα τῆς ἀληθείας: τίς ἡ γνῶσις ἡ πρὸς αὐτόν, ἢ τὸ μὴ ἀρνεῖσθαι δἰ οὖ ἔγνωμεν αὐτόν;

λέγει δὲ καὶ αὐτός: Τὸν ὁμολογήσαντά με ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ὁμολογήσω αὐτὸν ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου.

οὗτος οὖν ἐστὶν ὁ μισθὸς ἡμῶν, ἐὰν οὖν ὁμολογήσωμεν δἰ οὖ ἐσώθημεν.

ἐν τίνι δὲ αὐτὸν ὁμολογοῦμεν; ἐν τῷ ποιεῖν ἃ λέγει καὶ μὴ παρακούειν αὐτοῦ τῶν ἐντολῶν, καὶ μὴ μόνον χείλεσιν αὐτὸν τιμᾶν, ἀλλὰ ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας.

λέγει δὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ: Ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἄπεστιν ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ.

About this text

An early Christian sermon by an unknown preacher, long attached to Clement of Rome, calling a congregation to repentance, pure living, and endurance before the coming judgment.

This homily is anonymous. Although later tradition attached it to Clement of Rome, the author does not name himself, and the work is now understood to have been written by an unknown Christian preacher around the early second century. It is addressed to a congregation as 'brothers' and 'brothers and sisters,' and it survives not as a letter but as a sermon, included in some ancient biblical manuscripts and later classified among the Apostolic Fathers.

The preacher wrote to exhort a Christian community to repentance, pure living, and endurance in view of coming judgment. He calls his hearers to think of Christ as God and judge of the living and the dead, and to repay his saving mercy with confession enacted in deeds, not just words. The occasion is a direct appeal for the congregation to heed his written exhortation while there is still time to repent.

A reader will meet Jesus Christ as the main speaker, quoted through sayings introduced by 'the Lord says' or 'he said.' The preacher also quotes the apostle Peter, the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, and the words of the double-minded, the nations, the faithless at judgment, and the righteous at judgment. The homily quotes the Greek Old Testament, and Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint where it differs from modern English Bibles.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 (London: William Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912) (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.