A Visit with the Classics: 1Clement

When I was a teenager, the church where I was baptized ran the pastor off, not because of misconduct or poor performance, but because he got on the wrong side of the wrong people. It's the kind of ugliness that can cause church splits (of course, Baptists can split over almost anything) and even make people walk away from the church entirely. It turns out this is nothing new in church history.

I've made it a goal to read the early church fathers, particularly the pre-Constantine writers. I hope to learn from their experience of trying to follow Christ and defend the faith in a pagan culture.

First up, "The Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians," also known as 1Clement*, probably written in the last years of the first century AD.

The Main Message
If your immediate reaction is, "Oh heavens, someone's having to write Corinth again", you're not wrong. It was written in response to a "detestable and unholy schism" (1.1) that took place in that church when the leadership was ousted.

These leaders were not self-appointed busy-bodies. They were "appointed by [the apostles] or ... by other reputable men with the consent of the whole church, and who have ministered to the flock of Christ blamelessly, humbly, peacefully, and unselfishly, and for a long time have been well spoken of by all — these men we consider to be unjustly removed from their ministry. For it will be no small sin for us if we depose from the bishop's office those who have offered the gifts blamelessly and in holiness" (44.3-4). These were good men, carefully selected by respected leaders and approved by the church, who had done their job faithfully.

And what was the result? "Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow. And yet your rebellion still continues!" (46.9) Even enemies have heard about it and "heap blasphemies upon the name of the Lord because of your stupidity" (47.7). Strong language, but the damage done to the church and the cause of Christ was immense.

So the message of this letter is that this kind of division is dangerous and must be dealt with immediately and decisively. How? Repentance means fixing what you've done wrong:

"Let us therefore root this out quickly, and let us fall down before the Master [God] and pray to him with tears that he may be merciful and be reconciled to us, and restore us to the honorable and pure conduct which characterizes our love for our brotherhood." (48.1)

The instigators need to repent, admit responsibility, ask forgiveness, and be willing to do whatever is necessary to make things right (49, 51, 54). And the church should intercede for the transgressors "so that they may submit, not to us but to the will of God." (56.1)

So the response to this rebellion was the attack it head-on. Call out the instigators. Don't mince words. We can't just let this kind of thing go. The damage it can do is too great.

1Clement's instructions about schism: Deal with it decisively. Don't dishonor the Lord.

That's the main thrust of the letter, but there are some other things we can glean from it.

Early Theology
It's interesting to see early glimmers of what Christian theology will develop into. A couple of things that jumped out at me as I read:

"From him [Jacob] comes the Lord Jesus so far as his human nature goes" (32.2).
We know the doctrine of the Trinity took a while for the church to work out, the two natures of Christ even longer, but here in the first century we find the notion that Christ has two natures, one human, one not.

"You have studied Holy Scripture, which contains the truth and is inspired by the Holy Spirit. You realize that there is nothing wrong or misleading written in it" (45.2-3).
Here we find a pretty clear statement of the inspiration of scripture and another that is not far from a modern statement of inerrancy.

Apologetics
There's nothing directly apologetic in this work, but there was something I found odd. This author quotes several Old Testament books and several New Testament works, possibly including at least one gospel and Acts. And he never names his sources once. Why is that important? Because one of the lines of argument used to attack the traditional authorship of the Gospels is that they are not named in the earliest citations. If this pattern holds, that will suggest it was simply their way and should not be taken as evidence that "no one knew who wrote the Gospels."

General Insights on Living for Christ
There are several helpful insights, but two specifically strike me as speaking to our age:

"Let the testimony to our good deeds be given by others, as it was given to our fathers who were righteous." (30.7)
The people around us need to see the love of Jesus worked out in our lives. As Peter put it, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us" (1Pet 2:12).

"Be contention and zealous, brothers, but about the things that relate to salvation." (45.1)
There's a time for being contentious. But make sure you're doing it over things that matter. Politics, the worship music, and the color of the new carpet in the church are not things that matter. In most things, we need to find a way to get along. But we should be ready to fight over the gospel.

1Clement is not scripture. None of the church fathers' works are. They've no more authority than a book written by CS Lewis or Tim Keller. But they can also be just as edifying as a book written by CS Lewis or Tim Keller. We've kept reading them for almost 2000 years for a reason. 1Clement is only a little longer than Romans. It's worth your time to read it.

"How blessed and marvelous are the gifts of God, dear friends! Life in immortality, splendor in righteousness, truth with boldness, faith with confidence, self-control with holiness!" (35.1-2)


* from The Apostolic Fathers, second edition, Lightfoot and Harmer, trans; Holmes, ed. For a newer version, see this. 

Image via Pixabay