Clement, Again

Let's go back and spend a little bit more time with Clement of Rome. His is known for his Epistle to the Corinthians, or 1 Clement. One of the things that's fascinating to me about this letter from Clement is that it was likely written right at the time the Apostle John was writing the book of Revelation or even possibly right before John wrote Revelation. Now, Clement's letter is not canonical, because he did not write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But it is still a significant work. Clement likely had associations with the Apostles Peter, Paul, and John, and his letter comes to us from the time of the early church, around the time of the closing of the New Testament canon. So, this is a fascinating read.

We previously looked at how Clement talks about justification by faith alone and how he deals with works once we have been justified. I want to focus now on chapter 37. Here, Clement tells us that Christ is our leader and we are His soldiers:

Let us then, men and brethren, with all energy, act the part of soldiers in accordance with His holy commandments. Let us consider those who serve under our generals with what order, obedience, and submissiveness, they perform the things which are commanded them. All are not prefects nor commanders of a thousand nor of a hundred nor fifty nor the like, but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals. The great cannot subsist without the small nor the small without the great. There is a kind of mixture in all things and thence arises mutual advantage. Let us take our body for example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head. Yea, the very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body but all work harmoniously together and are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.

Clement goes on to talk about how these members of the whole body are an illustration of an army and the various ranks within it. These metaphors stress the body of Christ, both the uniqueness and the necessity of each of the members of the body of Christ as they perform their tasks. He reminds us that whether it is the work of the great ranks or the work of the lesser ranks, all of that work is necessary and all of that work is in a sweet, mutual harmony to accomplish the aims and intentions of the army and to move the army forward and to advance its mission.

And so, we have this testimony of an early bishop in the church, who learned this lesson very well from the Apostle Paul. He also learned the lesson very well from James, the brother of Christ, who reminds us that we should not show partiality and say to the rich man, "Here, come here, we have a place of prominence for you," while relegating to the back rows the sort of person who is of lesser social status. Clement learned his lesson well from the New Testament Epistles when he sat down to write his epistle to the believers at Corinth to encourage them to think about what it means to be a part of the body of Christ.

And so, here we are, two thousand years later, with this testimony of an early church father reminding us of what the church is all about.