Clement of Rome (c. 30-101) was a disciple of Simon Peter. He was either the second or fourth bishop of Rome, depending on the historian; Roman Catholics consider him the second or fourth pope. It’s said that Peter apparently had him run the Roman church, while he meanwhile focused on prayer and preaching. After Peter was crucified, Clement ran the church till his arrest. Banished by the emperor Trajan, he was sent to a rock quarry in Chersonesus, Taurica (now Crimea, Ukraine). After a miracle where, like Moses, he got water out of a rock, he led a large number of locals and his fellow inmates to Christ. In annoyance, the guards tied him to an anchor and drowned him. 23 November is St. Clement’s Day in the west, and 24-25 November in the east.
Some scholars suspect Clement wrote his letter in the 60s or 70s, around the time Paul wrote his own letters. But since Clement referred (in chapter 44) to a second generation of Roman Christians, and to his own church as old, it was more likely written in the 90s, around the same time John wrote Revelation. The “sudden, repetitive disasters” (chapter 1) would then refer to the persecution under the emperor Domitian. The disagreements Paul had dealt with in his own letters to the Corinthians had, it seems, got worse and turned into an open fight: Several of the Corinthian elders had been removed from leadership, and since they weren’t fired for moral reasons, Clement found it indefensible.
The custom in Corinth, for many years, was to publicly read both Paul’s letters and Clement’s letter from time to time. It was included in the Codex Alexandrinus, a copy of the bible produced in the 400s: Apparently some early Christians considered it scripture. 1 Clement is really long and wordy (which suggests it was dictated, ’cause you know how preachers can be). So here’s the first part.
(There’s a 2 Clement, but it was written by a different guy named Clement.)
Greetings to a church gone wrong.
The church of God which stays in Rome: To the church of God staying at Corinth, to the called and sanctified through God’s will, through our master Christ Jesus. May Almighty God, through Christ Jesus, multiply grace to you, and peace.
1 Dear family: Because of the sudden, repetitive disasters which have happened to us, we feel we’ve been a bit tardy in turning our attention to the questions you consulted us about—especially that shameful, detestable rebellion, utterly abhorrent to God’s chosen people, which a few presumptuous, overconfident people kindled to a fever pitch. Your honorable, illustrious name, worthy to be loved by all, has been slandered.
For who’s ever lived with you, even for a short while, and couldn’t see the proof that your faith was firm and full of virtue? Who hasn’t admired the soberness and moderation of your Christian godliness? Who hasn’t proclaimed how magnificent your habitual hospitality is? Who hasn’t rejoiced over your comprehensive, well-grounded knowledge? You did everything without prejudice. You walked in God’s commands, were obedient to those who were in charge of you, and gave all appropriate honor to your elders. You encouraged young men to have sober and serious minds. You instructed your wives to do everything blamelessly, winsomely, with pure consciences, loving their husbands as they ought. You taught them that obedient living meant they should manage their households in a exemplary way, and be known for their discretion in everything.
2 More: You’re all known for your humility. You aren’t at all puffed up with pride. You demonstrated obedience, rather than just preaching it. You’re more willing to give than receive. You’re content with the provisions God made for you. Carefully watching his words, you were filled to your very innards with his teaching. His sufferings were on your minds, and so you were all given a profound, abundant peace. You had an insatiable desire to do good, a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon you, full of holy plans, with truly earnest minds and godly confidence. You stretched out your hands to Almighty God and begged him to be merciful to you, lest you were guilty of any involuntary stumbles. Day and night, you pored over the whole family, hoping the full number of God’s chosen would be saved with mercy and compassion. You were sincere, uncorrupted, forgiving of injuries between one another. Every kind of faction and split was offensive in your eyes. You mourned your neighbors’ transgressions; you considered their deficiencies yours. You never begrudged any act of kindness, but were ready for every good work. Dressed in a thoroughly virtuous, religious life, you did everything in the fear of God. The Lord’s commands and orders were written on the tablets of your hearts. 3 So every sort of honor and blessing was given you.
But then this saying became fulfilled: “My beloved ate and drank, was enlarged and grew fat, and kicked.” You began to copy others, envy others, fight, rebel, persecute, produce chaos, war, and take captives. The worthless rose up against the honored. Those with no reputation fought those with good reputation. The stupid fought the wise, The young fought the elderly. This is why rightness and peace left you long ago. Now everyone abandons the fear of God, and their faith is no longer in him. You neither follow the things he ordered you to do, nor act like Christ. You chase after your own wicked lusts, and return to the practices of an unrighteous, ungodly envy—which is how death entered the world.
The destructiveness of envy.
4 And so it’s written:
This happened after some days: Cain brought a sacrifice to God from the fruits of the earth, and Abel brought the firstborn of his sheep, and their fat. God respected Abel and his offering, but he disregarded Cain and his sacrifices.
Cain was deeply sad, and his face fell. God told Cain, “Why are you sad? Why’d your face fall, if you gave the right offering? But you didn’t offer rightly. Haven’t you sinned? Calm down; you get your offering back, and get to keep it.”
Cain told his brother Abel, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, it happened that Cain rose up against his brother and killed him.
—, from Septuagint.
You see, family, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother.
And through envy, our ancestor Jacob fled the face of his brother Esau. Envy got Joseph persecuted, nearly killed, and put into bondage. Envy forced Moses to flee the face of the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, once he heard these words from his fellow countryman: “Who made you judge or ruler over us? Will you kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” Because of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to live outside the camp. Envy caused Dathan and Abiram to fall into Hades alive, because of the rebellion they fostered against God’s servant Moses. Because of envy, David underwent not just foreign hatred, but was persecuted by King Saul of Israel.
5 But let’s not dwell on ancient examples; let’s look at more recent spiritual athletes. Let’s take the noble examples produced by our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, even the greatest, most righteous pillars were persecuted and executed.
Let’s look at the great apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not just one or two, but many trials. When he finally suffered martyrdom, he went to the place of glory set for him. Because of envy, Paul also got the reward of patient endurance, thrown seven times into prison, beaten and driven away, and stoned. After preaching in both east and west, he gained his great reputation because of his faith: He taught righteousness to the whole world, and went to the edge of the west… where the prefects martyred him. So he was removed from the world and went to the holy place. But he proved himself a striking example of patience. 6 These men spent their lives practicing holiness.
But add to them a great number of the chosen, who gave us excellent examples by enduring many indignities and tortures thanks to envy. The Danaid family and Dirkae were persecuted through envy: After they suffered terrible, unspeakable torment, they reached the end of their steadfast course of faith. Weak in body, they received a noble reward.
Envy has alienated wives from husbands, and undid that saying of our ancestor Adam, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” Envy and strife have overthrown great cities, and rooted up mighty nations.
The importance of repentance and grace.
7 Beloved, we write you these things not just to tell you to do your duty, but to remind ourselves too. We struggle in the same arena; we’re fighting the same battle. So let’s all give up useless, fruitless cares, and pursue the glorious, worthy, holy call assigned us. Let’s look at what’s good, pleasing, and acceptable in the sight of our maker. Let’s constantly look to Christ’s blood, and see how precious that blood is to God. It was shed for our salvation, and revealed the grace of repentance to the whole world. Let’s look at every age past, and learn how the Lord granted a place to repent to every generation, to everyone who will turn to him.
Noah preached this repentance, and everyone who listened to him were saved. Jonah proclaimed destruction to Nineveh, but though foreigners to God, they repented their sins, appeased God in prayer, and gained salvation. 8 By the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace spoke of repentance, and the Lord of All himself declared about it, with an oath, “By my life, says the Lord, I don’t desire the death of the sinner: I want his repentance.” More: He added this gracious declaration:
Israel’s house: Repent of your iniquity.
Tell the children of my people:
Though your sins reach from earth to heaven,
though they’re redder than scarlet
and blacker than sackcloth,
if you still turn to me with your whole heart
and say “Father!”
I’ll listen to you
as much as I’d listen to holy people.
And elsewhere, he says this:
Wash yourselves.
Become clean.
Get the wickedness of your souls away from my eyes.
Stop your evil ways.
Learn to do good.
Seek out judgment.
Rescue the oppressed.
Defend the fatherless.
See justice done for the widow.
Come, let’s reason together:
Though your sins are like crimson,
I’ll make them white as snow.
Though they’re like scarlet,
I’ll whiten them like wool.
If you’re willing, and obey me,
you’ll eat the good of the land.
If you refuse, and won’t hear me,
the sword will swallow you.
For the Lord’s mouth has spoken these things.
—The LORD, , from Septuagint.
So he wants all his beloved to participate in repentance. He established this by his almighty will.
God blesses our obedience.
9 Let’s be obedient to
Let’s continually think of those who perfectly ministered to his excellent glory. Let’s take the example of Enoch, found righteous in obedience, taken away, and never seen to die. Or Noah, found faithful, preached regeneration to the world in his ministry, and the Lord saved the animals by him, who entered together into the ark. 10 Or Abraham, called “the friend,” who was found faithful for he continually obeyed God’s word. In his obedience he left his homeland, his family, his father’s house. By leaving behind a small territory, a weak family, and an insignificant house, he might inherit God’s promises, for God told him,
Get out of your country,
from your family, from your father’s house,
into the land which I’ll show you.
I’ll make you a great nation and bless you,
and make your name great, and you’ll be blessed.
I’ll bless those who bless you,
curse those who curse you,
and by you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
—The LORD, , frrom Septuagint.
And again, on leaving Lot, God told him,
Lift up your eyes and look from the place you are—
to the north, south, east, and west—
for all the land you see,
I give to you and your seed forever.
I’ll make your seed like the dust of the earth:
If a man can count the dust of the earth,
they can count your seed.
—The LORD, , from Septuagint.
And again it says,
God brought Abram out, and told him, “Now look up to heaven and count the stars, if you can number them: That’s how your seed will be.” And Abram believed God, and this was counted as rightness.
—, from Septuagint.
Because of
11 Because of his hospitality and goodness, Lot was rescued from Sodom when the whole country round was punished through fire and sulfur. The Lord thus made it clear: He doesn’t abandon those who hope in him. But he does abandon those who leave him, to punishment and torture: Lot’s wife, who escaped with him, was of a different mind from him and disagreed with him, and she was made an example of. To this day she’s a pillar of salt. This was done so everyone might know: Those who are of a double mind, who distrust God’s power, become a judgment and a sign—a warning to all future generations.
12 But because of her faith and hospitality, Rahab the prostitute was saved. For when Joshua ben Nun sent spies to Jericho, its king realized they were there to spy the land, and sent men to arrest them so they’d be caught and put to death. But hospitable Rahab received them and hid them on the roof of her house under some flax stalks. When the king’s agents arrived and said, “Men came to you who are spying on our land; the king orders you to bring them out,” she answered them, “The two men you seek came to me, but they quickly left again and are gone,” thus not revealing the spies to them. Then she told the
Act like Jesus would have us act.
13 So let’s be of humble mind, family. Let’s set aside all highness, pride, foolishness, and angry feeling. Let’s act as it’s written, for the Holy Spirit says,
The wise man shouldn’t glory in his wisdom.
The mighty man shouldn’t glory in his might.
The rich man shouldn’t glory in his riches.
Those who glory, glory in the Lord,
diligently seek him, and judge righteously.
—The LORD, , from Septuagint.
Be especially mindful of the words the Lord Jesus spoke, teaching us meekness and patience. For he said this:
Be merciful, and you’ll receive mercy.
Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven.
As you do, you’ll be done to.
As you judge, you’ll be judged.
As you practice kindness, kindness will be shown you.
With the measure you measure out, it’ll be measured to you. —Jesus,
Let’s base ourselves on this idea, on these rules. Let’s walk, with all humility, in obedience to his holy words. For the holy word says, “Whom shall I look on?—He who is meek, peaceful, and trembles at my words.”
14 So people, so family, it’s right and holy to obey God rather than follow those who, through pride and rebellion, became the leaders of a terrible example. It won’t be a small injury we fall into, but great danger, if we unthinkingly give in to their inclinations. They aim to start fights and riots, and draw us away from what’s good.
Let’s be kind to one another, following the pattern of the tender mercy and benevolence of our maker. For it’s written,
The kind-hearted will live in the land.
The guiltless will be left on it.
But evildoers will be destroyed from the face of it.
—Solomon, , from Septuagint.
And again it says,
I saw the ungodly lifted high up,
set up like Lebanon cedars.
I passed by, and look: He wasn’t there!
I sought his place carefully, but didn’t find it.
Defend innocence. Look for fairness.
For peaceful men will always have descendants.
—David, , from Septuagint.
15 Let’s cling to those who develop godly peace; not those who hypocritically claim to want it. For it says somewhere, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” And again: “They bless with their mouth, but curse with their heart.” And again: “They loved him with their mouths, but lied to him with their tongue. Their hearts weren’t right with him. They weren’t faithful to his covenant.” Let lying lips be silent, —
—the bragging tongues of those who say,
“Let’s magnify our tongues.
Our lips are our own; who’s our master?”
The Lord says, “For
your oppression of the poor,for the sighing of the needy, I now arise.
I’ll place him in safety. I’ll deal with him confidently.”
—David, , from Septuagint.