Second Clement: An Ancient Homily · §9 · Anonymous (2 Clement)

The flesh will be judged and raised; serve God from the heart

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The preacher has just begun his homily, urging the congregation to repay Christ's saving mercy with pure living, and now turns to the flesh's future judgment and the need for heartfelt repentance.

Let none of you say that this flesh is not judged and does not rise.

Understand this: in what were you saved? In what did you receive sight? Was it not while you were in this flesh?

So we must guard the flesh as God's temple.

For just as you were called in the flesh, you will also come in the flesh.

If Christ, the Lord who saved us, was first spirit and became flesh, and in this way called us, so also we will receive the reward in this flesh.

Let us love one another, then, so that we may all enter the kingdom of God.

While we have time to be healed, let us give ourselves to God who heals, giving recompense to him.

What recompense? To repent from a sincere heart.

For he is the foreknower of all things and knows what is in our heart.

Let us give him praise, then, not from the mouth only but also from the heart, so that he may receive us as sons.

For the Lord also said: "My brothers are these who do the will of my Father" (Matthew 12:50).

Greek

Καὶ μὴ λεγέτω τις ὑμῶν, ὅτι αὕτη ἡ σὰρξ οὐ κρίνεται οὐδὲ ἀνίσταται.

γνῶτε: ἐν τίνι ἐσώθητε, ἐν τίνι ἀνεβλέψατε, εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ταύτῃ ὄντες;

δεῖ οὖν ἡμᾶς ὡς ναὸν θεοῦ φυλάσσειν τὴν σάρκα:

ὃν τρόπον γὰρ ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἐκλήθητε, καὶ ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἐλεύσεσθε.

εἰ Χριστός, ὁ κύριος ὁ σώσας ἡμᾶς, ὢν μὲν τὸ πρῶτον πνεῦμα, ἐγένετο σὰρξ καὶ οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐκάλεσεν: οὕτως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ σαρκὶ ἀποληψόμεθα τὸν μισθόν.

ἀγαπῶμεν οὖν ἀλλήλους, ὅπως ἔλθωμεν πάντες εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

ὡς ἔχομεν καιρὸν τοῦ ἰαθῆναι, ἐπιδῶμεν ἑαυτοὺς τῷ θεραπεύοντι θεῷ, ἀντιμισθίαν αὐτῷ διδόντες.

ποίαν; τὸ μετανοῆσαι ἐξ εἰλικρινοῦς καρδίας.

προγνώστης γάρ ἐστιν τῶν πάντων καὶ εἰδὼς ἡμῶν τὰ ἐν καρδίᾳ.

δῶμεν οὖν αὐτῷ αἶνον, μὴ ἀπὸ στόματος μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ καρδίας, ἵνα ἡμᾶς προσδέξηται ὡς υἱούς.

καὶ γὰρ εἶπεν ὁ κύριος: Ἀδελφοί μου οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ ποιοῦντες τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός μου.

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.