Living for food - The Instructor on eating

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series. You may also want to read the introduction to Book 2 of The Instructor as it give advice on how to understand Clement and his writings.

"Some men, in truth, live that they may eat, as the irrational creatures, 'whose life is their belly, and nothing else.' But the Instructor enjoins us to eat that we may live. For neither is food our business, nor is pleasure our aim; but both are on account of our life here, which the Word is training up to immortality. Wherefore also there is discrimination to be employed in reference to food. And it is to be simple, truly plain, suiting precisely simple and artless children—as ministering to life, not to luxury. And the life to which it conduces consists of two things—health and strength; to which plainness of fare is most suitable, being conducive both to digestion and lightness of body, from which come growth, and health, and right strength, not strength that is wrong or dangerous and wretched, as is that of athletes produced by compulsory feeding." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

Clement warns of a life that is centered around food. Eating is a necessity of this life and yet it should not be the focus of our lives. Food is necessary for our life here on Earth, yet we are being prepared for an eternal life in heaven, a life which does not require the consumption of food. While we must eat to live, we must not live to eat. We must view food in light of eternity, something that is required for a short period of time out of necessity, but not part of our eternal life to come. As such, our choice and use of food should be that which contributes to a life of health and strength. In fine, the eating of food that is easily digested and leads to leanness of the body.

"Antiphanes, the Delian physician, said that this variety of viands was the one cause of disease; there being people who dislike the truth, and through various absurd notions abjure moderation of diet, and put themselves to a world of trouble to procure dainties from beyond seas. For my part, I am sorry for this disease, while they are not ashamed to sing the praises of their delicacies, giving themselves great trouble to get lampreys in the Straits of Sicily, the eels of the Mæander..." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

Antiphanes was a physician of Clement's day that believed that variation in diet was one of the causes of certain disease of the body, and yet men went to great lengths, even risking personal danger and harm, to procure rare and diverse foods from around the world. I must confess, I do enjoy eating King Crab legs from time to time, but we must ask ourselves "at what cost?" Should we expect men to risk life and limb that we might enjoy such delicacies? Should we expect people to risk personal harm just for "food?" I know it is their job and they do it for the money, but it is our appetite that actually funds their risky behavior. It is one thing to risk one's life for that which sustains life, but another for that which is merely for pleasure and tends to luxury.

"In their greed and solicitude, the gluttons seem absolutely to sweep the world with a drag-net to gratify their luxurious tastes. These gluttons, surrounded with the sound of hissing frying-pans, and wearing their whole life away at the pestle and mortar, cling to matter like fire. More than that, they emasculate plain food, namely bread, by straining off the nourishing part of the grain, so that the necessary part of food becomes matter of reproach to luxury." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

When our life's care centers around food, then our life is centered around that which is temporal and earthly and unbefitting of our call to life eternal with Christ. Clement also denounces the practice of refining foods; removing that which is nutritious for that which is tasty; preferring luxury over that which provides sustenance.

"There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. 'Desire not,' says the Scripture, 'rich men’s dainties;' for they belong to a false and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go to the dunghill." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

Epicurism is the unrelenting pursuit of pleasure. When we pursue food for pleasure we are pursuing that perishes with the use. Our life is meant to be more than "all jaw" and food is meant to support that greater life we have been called to and to provide health more than pleasure.

"But we who seek the heavenly bread must rule the belly, which is beneath heaven, and much more the things which are agreeable to it, which 'God shall destroy,' says the apostle, justly execrating gluttonous desires. For 'meats are for the belly,' for on them depends this truly carnal and destructive life;" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

This is the heart at which Clement is driving at, that we should rule our stomachs rather than be ruled by them. Jesus said, "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) We should seek first God's Kingdom and food only as a necessity. All other pursuits other than the pursuit of His Kingdom are vain and empty and devoid of eternal life, even the pursuit of food.

David Robison

Introduction to Book 2 - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Keeping, then, to our aim, and selecting the Scriptures which bear on the usefulness of training for life, we must now compendiously describe what the man who is called a Christian ought to be during the whole of his life." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

Here, Clement states in clear terms his purpose for this entire work: to show believer how to behave and walk during their time on earth. Clement lived in a time when many were coming to Christ and the church in Alexandria was flourishing. However, most of these new believers were coming out of a culture and a heritage that was devoid of God. They lacked any basic understanding or knowledge of the scriptures. Most of them would have never read the teachings of Moses let alone heard them expounded upon in public or at home. They were steeped in a culture that served various daemon gods and, in many cases, lived lives of licentiousness and lives spent in seeking hedonistic pleasures. The issue for Clement was how to introduce these new believers to the culture of Christ and how to indoctrinate them into a Christian way of living? This was the purpose of his book, "The Instructor".

"We must accordingly begin with ourselves, and how we ought to regulate ourselves. We have therefore, preserving a due regard to the symmetry of this work, to say how each of us ought to conduct himself in respect to his body, or rather how to regulate the body itself. For whenever any one, who has been brought away by the Word from external things, and from attention to the body itself to the mind, acquires a clear view of what happens according to nature in man, he will know that he is not to be earnestly occupied about external things, but about what is proper and peculiar to man—to purge the eye of the soul, and to sanctify also his flesh. For he that is clean rid of those things which constitute him still dust, what else has he more serviceable than himself for walking in the way which leads to the comprehension of God." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

Having completed his introduction in Book 1, in which he presented us a children and Jesus as our loving instructor, he now turns to what he refereed to as "a system of reasonable actions." Specifically, looking at how one aught to regulate their lives and discipline their bodies for this new life that has been granted to us by God. It is a life that is to be no longer lead by our flesh or our passions and desires but a life that is to be lead by our spirit; that rational part of our soul that Clement refers to as the mind.

Some, while reading Clements "system of reasonable actions" will be offended, others will decry "legalism!" However, for both, when reading with simplistic minds, they miss the whole point of Clements teaching. This book is not for those who are content with their present lives nor is it for those looking for an excuse to continue their current lifestyle. This book is for those who are seeking and desiring a new way of living, a new lifestyle; one that is built upon eternal principals, a life style that is good, wholesome, and healthy, a lifestyle that is pleasing to God. For such people seeking something better in their lives, this book is for them.

The key to understanding Clements "system" is to view his remedies in light of his principals. For example, when he speaks against women coloring their hair he does so in encouraging them not to imitate the prostitutes that were common in those days and to not offend God by believing that He had not made the pretty enough and that they had to take matters into their own hands. The principals of not imitating the evil of our culture and not offending God by casting dispersion upon His creation are sound principals and, once understanding his principals, we can discuss the merits of his remedies or how such remedies might be adapted to our present time and culture.

Such us of intellectual reasoning should not be foreign to us and its use and value can be demonstrated in many places throughout the scriptures. For example, consider Paul's instruction to Timothy, "But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression." (1 Timothy 2:12-14) Notice Paul says "I" in "I do not allow" not "God does not allow." Paul was establishing an apostolic tradition in the churches he started that women were not to teach or have authority over a man. This was the case in Paul's churches but not necessarily in all churches, for example, in those that might have been started by Peter, John, or another apostle. Regardless of what you think about Paul's injunction, it is clearly shown as a remedy built upon Paul's established principles, that women are more easily deceived than men and men are more easily tempted to sin then women. When we read Paul in such places we must understand his remedy in light of his principal and then examine how the principal and once such remedy might be applied to our present day and time. By using such reasoning we will be able to glean wisdom and counsel from Clements "system of reasonable actions" that will aid us in adopting for ourselves a better life, a superior lifestyle, and a more godly way of living. Such a goal is noble and the end of all good and right teaching.

David Robison

Sin is irrational - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Everything that is contrary to right reason is sin. Accordingly, therefore, the philosophers think fit to define the most generic passions thus: lust, as desire disobedient to reason; fear, as weakness disobedient to reason; pleasure, as an elation of the spirit disobedient to reason." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 13)

This is a profound statement and one that we might be reticent to accept at first glance. We have been conditioned to think of sin in terms of our disobedience to God, His Word, and His ways, and justly so since sin is certainly all these things. However, to juxtapose sin and reason in such a way is not familiar to us. Is there a relationship between sin and right reason?

"If, then, disobedience in reference to reason is the generating cause of sin, how shall we escape the conclusion, that obedience to reason—the Word—which we call faith, will of necessity be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay, to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error of reason is transgression, and is rightly called, sin." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 13)

If sin is anything contrary to right reason then anything done according to right reason must be righteousness; reason being the cause that promotes our duty of right behavior before God. Can it be true that to error against reason is to error against God? That both are one and the same and are both called sin? Interestingly, God refers to sinful man in this way, "Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:20) It is also interesting that Clement defines faith as "obedience to reason." We typically understand faith as being related to the promises of God and the things of the Kingdom that remain unseen. How is faith and reason related?

The answer to how sin, righteousness, faith, and unbelief are all related to reason is that Jesus is the Word or, as the Greeks would say, the Logos of God. Logos is a Greek term for reason. Jesus is the right reason of God! Jesus is what makes this whole world make since. He also brings to light the invisible Kingdom of God. Jesus is not only the Word, as in the message of God, but also the Logos, as the very reason and wisdom of God. To obey Jesus as being God's right reason is both faith and righteousness.

"The right operation of piety perfects duty by works; whence, according to just reasoning, duties consist in actions, not in sayings. And Christian conduct is the operation of the rational soul in accordance with a correct judgment and aspiration after the truth, which attains its destined end through the body, the soul’s consort and ally... For the life of Christians, in which we are now trained, is a system of reasonable actions—that is, of those things taught by the Word—an unfailing energy which we have called faith." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 13)

I have, at times, looked upon works with disdain, as if they were incongruous with my life of faith. However, as the soul works together with the flesh, so faith energizes and produces works. Each are in concert with the other and one cannot exist without the other. James put it this way, "faith without works is dead." (James 2:26) A Christian life cannot be realized without corresponding action, in fact, it is by these actions that we recognize the Christian life in others. It is also these same actions through which we serve both God and mankind. Christianity is not intellectual in that it requires the full participation of the person; both body and soul. Therefore, when considering the instructions of our Lord it is reasonable to expect them to be taught as a "system of reasonable actions."

"The system is the commandments of the Lord, which, being divine statutes and spiritual counsels, have been written for ourselves, being adapted for ourselves and our neighbours... Whence also duties are essential for divine discipline, as being enjoined by God, and furnished for our salvation... The commandments issued with respect to natural life are published to the multitude; but those that are suited for living well, and from which eternal life springs, we have to consider, as in a sketch, as we read them out of the Scriptures." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 13)

Fortunately for us, God has already laid out His counsel and instruction for a life well lived. We find them both in the written word of the scriptures and in the person of Jesus who is the very Word of God. As Clement closes Book One and moves to Books Two and Three, he will draw from the scriptures the counsel contained there in that we might be instructed in the right way, the way of eternal life.

David Robison

Our own self-sufficiency - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Besides, He makes preparation for a self-sufficing mode of life, for simplicity, and for girding up our loins, and for free and unimpeded readiness of our journey; in order to the attainment of an eternity of beatitude, teaching each one of us to be his own storehouse. For He says, 'Take no anxious thought for tomorrow,' meaning that the man who has devoted himself to Christ ought to be sufficient to himself, and servant to himself, and moreover lead a life which provides for each day by itself. For it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained. War needs great preparation, and luxury craves profusion; but peace and love, simple and quiet sisters, require no arms nor excessive preparation. The Word is their sustenance." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

God has provided all we need for our new life in Christ. He has made preparations for the life He now commands us that we might attain to it through those things which He has prepared for us. God is our instructor but He is also our provider. God also intends that we take this new life upon ourselves. This is a life we must live ourselves, others cannot live it for us, nor can we inherit its blessings through the efforts and good order of others. We must find what we need, not through others, but within ourselves, not that we must walk this life by our own means, but from the relationship we individually have within ourselves with God. Each of us is to have our own relationship with God and it is from that individual relationship with God that we are to find our self-sufficiency in the things He requires. Everything we have need of is laid out at our disposal, we need merely to appropriate it through our own individual relationship with God.

"Our superintendence in instruction and discipline is the office of the Word, from whom we learn frugality and humility, and all that pertains to love of truth, love of man, and love of excellence. And so, in a word, being assimilated to God by a participation in moral excellence, we must not retrograde into carelessness and sloth. But labour, and faint not." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

Christ, the Word, is our instructor and our progress in the things He instructs is achieved through our participation and obedience in the things He teaches. It is not enough to hear the Word of God, one must fulfill the Word of God for it to have any effect in their life. This participation, this obedience, requires deliberate and continual effort on our part. One cannot drift through life and hope to inherit the beatitudes of the Kingdom. Carelessness, sloth, and fainting are our enemies and only server to draw us back into our old way of living. We must ever be moving forward, ever looking and learning from our Instructor, ever obeying and participating with the loving Word of God.

"And as there is one mode of training for philosophers, another for orators, and another for athletes; so is there a generous disposition, suitable to the choice that is set upon moral loveliness, resulting from the training of Christ. And in the case of those who have been trained according to this influence, their gait in walking, their sitting at table, their food, their sleep, their going to bed, their regimen, and the rest of their mode of life, acquire a superior dignity." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

Our training in Christ is not merely for our preparation for eternal life in heaven, but also to teach us how to live happy and fruitful lives here on earth. It teaches us not only how to be citizens of heaven but also citizens here where we live. The Gospel changes the whole man and makes us fit, not only for heaven, but for the purposes of own own nations, states, and communities in which we live. The Word of God civilizes us for useful service to man and country as well as for the brethren and the Kingdom of God. God has left nothing to chance and, as we will see, Clement will show us how the Word of God can be applied to every area of our lives, even, how to walk, how to sleep, our daily habits, etc., that we might life lives with the dignity afforded to us by God.

"For such a training as is pursued by the Word is not overstrained, but is of the right tension. Thus, therefore, the Word has been called also the Saviour, seeing He has found out for men those rational medicines which produce vigour of the senses and salvation; and devotes Himself to watching for the favourable moment, reproving evil, exposing the causes of evil affections, and striking at the roots of irrational lusts, pointing out what we ought to abstain from, and supplying all the antidotes of salvation to those who are diseased. For the greatest and most regal work of God is the salvation of humanity. The sick are vexed at a physician, who gives no advice bearing on their restoration to health. But how shall we not acknowledge the highest gratitude to the divine Instructor, who is not silent, who omits not those threatenings that point towards destruction, but discloses them, and cuts off the impulses that tend to them; and who indoctrinates in those counsels which result in the true way of living? We must confess, therefore, the deepest obligations to Him." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

God is a well balanced teacher, blending instruction with rebuke, direction with correction, praise with punishment, all meant to bring about the true salvation of the soul and to prepare us for life eternal with God. Since He created us He knows best how to lead and instruct us. He knows how we were meant to live and what makes life healthy, blessed, and abundant. He alone is well qualified to be the instructor. So how should we respond to a God who is both gentle and rough, kind and sever, punishing and rewarding? We should respond with the deepest since of love and loyalty knowing that all He does is out of an abiding love for us and a deep desire to have us with Him in heaven throughout all eternity.

"For what else do we say is incumbent on the rational creature—I mean man—than the contemplation of the Divine? I say, too, that it is requisite to contemplate human nature, and to live as the truth directs, and to admire the Instructor and His injunctions, as suitable and harmonious to each other. According to which image also we ought, conforming ourselves to the Instructor, and making the word and our deeds agree, to live a real life." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

Some are content to fill their lives with the contemplation of God, however, Clement knows that we must also contemplate human nature; to understand who we are and who we are called to be, to understand our weaknesses and strengths, to recognize our failings and to seize upon our successes. Having contemplated God we must then turn to look at ourselves and to consider how what we have learned about God can and must be applied to our lives; how our knowledge of God impacts our understanding of ourselves and the life we are now called to live. Our knowledge of God aught to compel us into a life long journey to be remade into His image, that we too might reflect that knowledge which we have learned in contemplation of Him who is our greatest good and our highest aim.

David Robison

The here and now - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Having now accomplished those things, it were a fitting sequel that our instructor Jesus should draw for us the model of the true life, and train humanity in Christ. Nor is the cast and character of the life He enjoins very formidable; nor is it made altogether easy by reason of His benignity. He enjoins His commands, and at the same time gives them such a character that they may be accomplished." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

Jesus, having obtained our salvation through His own death and sacrifice on the cross, not only bids us to come and receive His salvation, but also to allow Him to lead us into a life that is befitting of our newly obtained salvation. Jesus not only came to save us from an eternity of Hell and eternal separation from God, but also to teach us how to live here and now; to teach us how to live as children of God even as we live in this dead and dying world. His instruction, combined with His commands, are designed to teach us how to live right lives, yet those teachings and commands are not burdensome or inaccessible to us, but He has made all provision that we might keep His commands and obtain to His instruction. Jesus Himself said, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:30) and Augustine of Hippo put it this way, "Lord command what you will and grant what you command!"

"The view I take is, that He Himself formed man of the dust, and regenerated him by water; and made him grow by his Spirit; and trained him by His word to adoption and salvation, directing him by sacred precepts; in order that, transforming earth-born man into a holy and heavenly being by His advent, He might fulfil to the utmost that divine utterance, 'Let Us make man in Our own image and likeness.' And, in truth, Christ became the perfect realization of what God spake; and the rest of humanity is conceived as being created merely in His image." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

Our hope in this life is not that we might merely escape the eternal fires of Hell, nor that we might one day inherit eternity in Heaven, but that we might live here and now bearing the full image and nature of God. Such an image we once bore but it was lost through sin. Jesus came and re-displayed the image that, as humans created by God, we were meant to carry and now, through the help of our loving instructor, Jesus wants to again teach us how to bear His image and reflect His nature; a goal that is not beyond any one of us.

"But let us, O children of the good Father—nurslings of the good Instructor—fulfil the Father’s will, listen to the Word, and take on the impress of the truly saving life of our Saviour; and meditating on the heavenly mode of life according to which we have been deified, let us anoint ourselves with the perennial immortal bloom of gladness—that ointment of sweet fragrance—having a clear example of immortality in the walk and conversation of the Lord; and following the footsteps of God, to whom alone it belongs to consider, and whose care it is to see to, the way and manner in which the life of men may be made more healthy." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 12)

The life of God is not only meant to be marveled at and admired, but it means to leave its mark on our life. We must not only claim the life of Christ but we must allow it to leave its mark on our lives; we must allow it to change us and conform us to its image. The write of Hebrews says of Jesus that, "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature." (Hebrews 1:3) The Greek word for "exact representation" is our word for "Character" and represents both the engraving tool and the mark that is left by the tool; its not only that which impresses but also the impression that is left. Jesus showed forth the character of God and we are to, in turn, show forth the character of Jesus. Christianity is as much about the here-and-now as it is about the sweet-by-and-by. God is desiring to show us a new way to live, a way that is worthy of our new calling and position in Christ, a way that is right and fitting, a way that is "more healthy." In seeking such a life it is right that we should turn to Christ, for He alone is able to instruct us in the right way. Many may desire to be our instructors, but only Jesus knows the way of eternal life.

David Robison

God is like mustard - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"The mode of His love and His instruction we have shown as we could. Wherefore He Himself, declaring Himself very beautifully, likened Himself to a grain of mustard-seed; and pointed out the spirituality of the word that is sown, and the productiveness of its nature, and the magnificence and conspicuousness of the power of the word; and besides, intimated that the pungency and the purifying virtue of punishment are profitable on account of its sharpness. By the little grain, as it is figuratively called, He bestows salvation on all humanity abundantly." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 11)

Clement saw God everywhere, even in the small and insignificant mustard seed. Mustard has a unique pungent quality that is hard to describe as being anything other than "mustard." Clement likens this pungency to God's discipline and punishment in that, though they contain sharpness, they are also purifying. It is the pungent, or sharpness, of God's punishment that serves to purify our souls of sin and wickedness.

"Honey, being very sweet, generates bile, as goodness begets contempt, which is the cause of sinning. But mustard lessens bile, that is, anger, and stops inflammation, that is, pride. From which Word springs the true health of the soul, and its eternal happy temperament." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 11)

Honey stands in contrast to mustard in that it is sweet and contains no sharpness in its taste. Sometimes, the sweetness of God can cause us to take God for granted; We take for granted His goodness, forgiveness, and forbearance. Sometimes, in taking God for granted, we can become contemptuous of His commands and instruction in our lives and to cease fearing sin as we aught. At times like these we need the sharpness of God to awaken our souls and to restore us to what we know to be true; to return once again to God and to His ways.

"Accordingly, of old He instructed by Moses, and then by the prophets. Moses, too, was a prophet. For the law is the training of refractory children... And when, having senselessly filled themselves, they senselessly played; on that account the law was given them, and terror ensued for the prevention of transgressions and for the promotion of right actions, securing attention, and so winning to obedience to the true Instructor, being one and the same Word, and reducing to conformity with the urgent demands of the law." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 11)

Clement takes a much more moderate view of the Old Testament law then may today. The people had found favor and deliverance with God. However, in their new found freedom, they through off all restraint and the fear of God and behaved as they pleased. In response, God gave His Law to arrest their impulses and to restore the fear of God in their lives that they might learn to live good and godly lives. The law as as mustard to their licentiousness.

"For Paul says that it was given to be a 'schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.' So that from this it is clear, that one alone, true, good, just, in the image and likeness of the Father, His Son Jesus, the Word of God, is our Instructor; to whom God hath entrusted us, as an affectionate father commits his children to a worthy tutor, expressly charging us, 'This is my beloved Son: hear Him.' The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornament—knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;—with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom... with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator:.. and with benevolence, for He alone gave Himself a sacrifice for us... Now, benevolence is nothing but wishing to do good to one’s neighbour for his sake." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 11)

The law became our tutor to lead us to Christ. By showing us how we aught to live, and by realizing that we are incapable of being good by ourselves, it leads us to Christ who alone is good and who alone can help us to live a good and holy life. Now, having come to Christ, He Himself has become our instructor, leading us in the right way, and it is right that we should choose Him to instruct our lives because He possesses knowledge, authority, and benevolence. There are many who claim to be enlightened and many who would seek to be our instructors, but no other has the knowledge and wisdom of God, no other has the authority of being God, and no other has shown the love and desire for good in our lives like Jesus who came and died for us that we might live eternally with Him. He is our loving instructor,

David Robison

Praising the not so perfect - The Instuctor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Again, showing the opposite scale of the balance of justice, He says, 'But not so the ungodly—not so; but as the dust which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth.' By showing the punishment of sinners, and their easy dispersion, and carrying off by the wind, the Instructor dissuades from crime by means of punishment; and by holding up the merited penalty, shows the benignity of His beneficence in the most skilful way, in order that we may possess and enjoy its blessings... Do you see the goodness of justice, in that it counsels to repentance?" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

The goodness and the severity of God go hand-in-hand. Both are necessary and both are salutary. The truth is that God loves both the righteous and the wicked, the sinner and the saint, and wishes both the blessings of eternal life. All His instruction and discipline in our lives is that we might obtain to that hope and promise.

"We might have adduced, as supporters on this question, the philosophers who say that only the perfect man is worthy of praise, and the bad man of blame. But since some slander beatitude, as neither itself taking any trouble, nor giving any to any one else, thus not understanding its love to man; on their account, and on account of those who do not associate justice with goodness, the following remarks are added. For it were a legitimate inference to say, that rebuke and censure are suitable to men, since they say that all men are bad; but God alone is wise, from whom cometh wisdom, and alone perfect, and therefore alone worthy of praise." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

Clement challenges the pervading philosophical thought of his day that saw perfection, especially moral and behavioral perfection, in absolute terms. One was either good or evil; the one engendering praise and the other rightly receiving punishment. For them, rewards and punishments were the earned fruit of behavior and one could only earn one or the other but not both and certainly not a mixture of both. However, if this were true then only God would be blessed, since He alone is good, and mankind would always be under punishment, since he is ever showing himself bad. Clement, however, does not see reward and punishment this way.

"But I do not employ such language. I say, then, that praise or blame, or whatever resembles praise or blame, are medicines most essential of all to men. Some are ill to cure, and, like iron, are wrought into shape with fire, and hammer, and anvil, that is, with threatening, and reproof, and chastisement; while others, cleaving to faith itself, as selftaught, and as acting of their own free-will, grow by praise:— 'For virtue that is praised Grows like a tree.'" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

Clement sees both rewards and punishment as medicine for the soul, one to correct and the other to encourage. Even a wicked man can benefit from praise of the things that remain good within him. For there are in each of our lives things worthy of praise and things needing God's correction and instruction; we are in need of rewards and punishments at the same time.

"But there are myriads of injunctions to be found, whose aim is the attainment of what is good, and the avoidance of what is evil." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

This is the goal of God's instruction, that we might avoid what is evil and attain to what is good, and to this end, whatever might be the manner of God's instruction in our lives, it is always good.

David Robison

The goodness of God - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"If, then, we have shown that the plan of dealing stringently with humanity is good and salutary, and necessarily adopted by the Word, and conducive to repentance and the prevention of sins; we shall have now to look in order at the mildness of the Word. For He has been demonstrated to be just. He sets before us His own inclinations which invite to salvation; by which, in accordance with the Father’s will, He wishes to make known to us the good and the useful. Consider these. The good belongs to the panegyrical form of speech, the useful to the persuasive. For the hortatory and the dehortatory are a form of the persuasive, and the laudatory and inculpatory of the panegyrical." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

Paul writes of the "goodness and severity of God." (Romans 11:22 NKJV) Having written in great lengths to show that God can be both good and stern, Clement now directs his discourse to reminding us that God, in His goodness, can also be mild. God's choice of instruction in our life, whether kind or severe, is determined by our own behavior and choices. Based on that, God chooses the best course of action for our correction and restoration to the right way. God often lays out His goodly counsel and hopes that we will follow it. However, if we ignore his counsel, God has other resources at His disposal to gain our attention and divert us from harm. Someone once told me they "had to figure it out for themselves." However, this is what King Solomon refers to as the Discipline of Fools. "Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, but the discipline of fools is folly." (Proverbs 16:22) We can either choose God's mild discipline or proceed on to learn His severe rebuke.

However, having dealt with the severe, Clement now returns to the mild.

"For the persuasive style of sentence in one form becomes hortatory, and in another dehortatory. So also the panegyrical in one form becomes inculpatory, and in another laudatory. And in these exercises the Instructor, the Just One, who has proposed our advantage as His aim, is chiefly occupied. But the inculpatory and dehortatory forms of speech have been already shown us; and we must now handle the persuasive and the laudatory, and, as on a beam, balance the equal scales of justice." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10)

In discussing milder forms of Instruction, Clement begins to enumerate some of the ways God instructs us.

"The exhortation to what is useful, the Instructor employs by Solomon 'I exhort you, O men; and I utter my voice to the sons of men. Hear me; for I will speak of excellent things;' and so on. And He counsels what is salutary: for counsel has for its end, choosing or refusing a certain course... And there are three departments of counsel: That which takes examples from past times; as what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed fornication, and the like. The second, whose meaning is understood from the present times, as being apprehended by perception... And the third department of counsel consists of what is future, by which we are bidden... So that from these things it is clear that the Lord, going the round of all the methods of curative treatment, calls humanity to salvation." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10) 

Exhortation is an attempt to persuade us to choose a better path; to strive for a higher calling; to attain to the Way of Holiness. Counsel is primarily directed to us when we must choose between two diverging paths or two conflicting options of a decision. God's counsel sheds light on the end of our choices and our paths to help us to make the right decision and to continue down the right path. In His counsel He often shows us our past, present, and future as they pertain to our choices and decisions that we might know the right decisions and best choices to make.

"By encouragement He assuages sins, reducing lust, and at the same time inspiring hope for salvation... By Jeremiah, too, He sets forth prudence, when he says, 'Blessed are we, Israel; for what is pleasing to God is known by us.' And still another form of instruction is benediction. 'And blessed is he,' He saith by David, 'who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree planted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not wither'... Such He wishes us to be, that we may be blessed." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 10) 

By encouragement, God shows us the benefit and utility of salvation; both in attempting to persuade us to choose for ourselves the pathway of salvation and to encourage us to continue along the way. It is easy, at times, to loose heart and to grow weary, but that is when the encouragement of God comes to aid and strengthen us in our continued journey.

Finally, for me, "benediction" was always what the preacher said at the end of the service, but "benediction" simply means a "good word" or a "spoken blessing." Solomon said, "Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. " (Proverbs 12:25) How often we need that Good Word from God to encourage us, warm hour hearts, and lift our load. It is like the couple that Jesus meat on the Emmaus Road who spoke of their time with Jesus, saying, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road." (Luke 24:32) Sometimes I need the severity of God to wake me up and to restore me to the right way, but I am also thankful for the encouraging and good word that He brings to encourage me along the way when my load gets heavy. He is sever when I need it and gentle with I need it, each in its own time. For both of these I am grateful.

David Robison

Discipline is our fault - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"Further, His righteousness cried, 'If ye come straight to me, I also will come straight to you but if ye walk crooked, I also will walk crooked, saith the Lord of hosts;' meaning by the crooked ways the chastisements of sinners.... Thus the Lord’s reproof is most beneficial. David also says of them, 'A perverse and provoking race; a race which set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God: they kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law.'" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

God disciplines us, not because He is a sadist or has nothing better to do, but because the needs of our life demand it. God disciplines us because our lives need it to secure for us participation in the right way. If our lives were "straight" then there would be no need for discipline in our lives, but because our lives are "crooked," we need His discipline so that we might enjoy life and find it in abundance.

"Such are the causes of provocation for which the Judge comes to inflict punishment on those that would not choose a life of goodness. Wherefore also afterwards He assailed them more roughly; in order, if possible, to drag them back from their impetuous rush towards death. He therefore tells by David the most manifest cause of the threatening: 'They believed not in His wonderful works. When He slew them, they sought after Him, and turned and inquired early after God; and remembered that God was their Helper, and God the Most High their Redeemer.' Thus He knew that they turned for fear, while they despised His love: for, for the most part, that goodness which is always mild is despised; but He who admonishes by the loving fear of righteousness is reverenced." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

In reading the Old Testament, some see only a God who is mean, punitive, and harsh. However, what we should see is a people who are "stiff-necked" and rebellious, and a loving God who would do anything necessary to turn them back to Himself. How repeatedly did God rebuke His people in order to restore them only to have them again rebel and wander far from Him. However, His love for them never failed and, in His slowness to anger, He continually called them back to Himself with gentle and harsh discipline as necessary.

"There is a twofold species of fear, the one of which is accompanied with reverence, such as citizens show towards good rulers, and we towards God, as also right-minded children towards their fathers... The other species of fear is accompanied with hatred, which slaves feel towards hard masters, and the Hebrews felt, who made God a master, not a father. And as far as piety is concerned, that which is voluntary and spontaneous differs much, nay entirely, from what is forced." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

The fear that God seeks to instill in us is different from that fear that resulted from the law. One is out of love and the other out of hatred; hatred that we are ruled over and hatred for the result of defying the one who rules over us. This is true even in the natural. For example, I do not excessively exceed the speed limit because I fear a speeding ticket. I do this not out of a loving fear or because I believe the law is justified, but out of a fear that submits because I have too. They have the power to make the laws and I must submit to them whether or not I want to. Some obey God out of a loving fear while others because they have too, hating the one who is their master because He is God. All fear is not bad, but fear without love gives no life.

"Wherefore David—that is, the Spirit by him—embracing them both, sings of God Himself, 'Justice and judgment are the preparation of His throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.' He declares that it belongs to the same power both to judge and to do good. For there is power over both together, and judgment separates that which is just from its opposite. And He who is truly God is just and good; who is Himself all, and all is He; for He is God, the only God." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

God is just and God is good. In fact, God cannot be one without the other. How can God be good without being just and how can He be just without being good?

"For as the mirror is not evil to an ugly man because it shows him what like he is; and as the physician is not evil to the sick man because he tells him of his fever,—for the physician is not the cause of the fever, but only points out the fever;—so neither is He, that reproves, ill-disposed towards him who is diseased in soul. For He does not put the transgressions on him, but only shows the sins which are there; in order to turn him away from similar practices. So God is good on His own account, and just also on ours, and He is just because He is good... This mutual and reciprocal knowledge is the symbol of primeval justice. Then justice came down to men both in the letter and in the body, in the Word and in the law, constraining humanity to saving repentance; for it was good. But do you not obey God? Then blame yourself, who drag to yourself the judge." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

If we find ourselves under discipline, let us not blame God or count God as evil for showing and reproving us of our sin. The sin is ours and our judgment and discipline rightly earned. We are the ones at fault, we are the ones who are less than good. In times like these, let us never forget the words of King Solomon, "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights." (Proverbs 3:11-12 NKJV)

David Robison

Fear is a good thing - The Instructor

This is a continuation of my series on Clement of Alexandria and his book, "The Instructor." If you are new to this series or are unfamiliar with Clement and his book, you may want to first read the introduction to this series.

"In fine, the system He pursues to inspire fear is the source of salvation. And it is the prerogative of goodness to save: 'The mercy of the Lord is on all flesh, while He reproves, corrects, and teaches as a shepherd His flock. He pities those who receive His instruction, and those who eagerly seek union with Him.'... For it is indeed noble not to sin; but it is good also for the sinner to repent; just as it is best to be always in good health, but well to recover from disease. So He commands by Solomon: 'Strike thou thy son with the rod, that thou mayest deliver his soul from death.' And again: 'Abstain not from chastising thy son, but correct him with the rod; for he will not die.'" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

The scriptures teach us that, in many ways, we are not to fear. "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again." (Romans 8:15) "and the one who fears is not perfected in love." (1 John 4:18) However, there are times when fear can be salutary in our lives. Fear should not be judged by its being fear in and of itself but rather by what harm or benefit it brings to our lives. Fear that would cause us to shrink back from God and from following His is fear to be resisted. However, fear that causes us to flee our sinful ways and embrace the way of God is useful and beneficial in our lives.

"For reproof and rebuke, as also the original term implies, are the stripes of the soul, chastizing sins, preventing death, and leading to self-control those carried away to licentiousness. Thus also Plato, knowing reproof to be the greatest power for reformation, and the most sovereign purification, in accordance with what has been said, observes, 'that he who is in the highest degree impure is uninstructed and base, by reason of his being unreproved in those respects in which he who is destined to be truly happy ought to be purest and best.'" (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

Reproof and rebuke, though they punish our soul, both serve to instruct us in a way that is destined to make us truly happy; the Lord using what is unpleasant in the present to ensure pleasures in the future. The one who is base, the one who is unholy, and the one who is useless to mankind is the one who has never been instructed by ways both unpleasant and painful. "You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol." (Proverbs 23:14)

"For if rulers are not a terror to a good work, how shall God, who is by nature good, be a terror to him who sins not? 'If thou doest evil, be afraid,' says the apostle... Thus also people in health do not require a physician, do not require him as long as they are strong; but those who are ill need his skill. Thus also we who in our lives are ill of shameful lusts and reprehensible excesses, and other inflammatory effects of the passions, need the Saviour. And He administers not only mild, but also stringent medicines. The bitter roots of fear then arrest the eating sores of our sins. Wherefore also fear is salutary, if bitter. Sick, we truly stand in need of the Saviour; having wandered, of one to guide us; blind, of one to lead us to the light; thirsty, 'of the fountain of life, of which whosoever partakes, shall no longer thirst;' dead, we need life; sheep, we need a shepherd; we who are children need a tutor, while universal humanity stands in need of Jesus; so that we may not continue intractable and sinners to the end, and thus fall into condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff, and stored up in the paternal garner." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

Its not that God wants us to live in fear but there are times when fear is a salutatory medicine that restores us from the path of death to the path of life. Those who have been perfected by the love of God need never to fear again. However, those of us who still are still being perfected, and are still in need of a healer and savior, may need the "bitter roots of fear" to arrest us from our unfruitful and deadly way of living. In these cases, it is the Father's love to even use fear in our lives to reprove and restore us to the way of life.

"Feed us, the children, as sheep. Yea, Master, fill us with righteousness, Thine own pasture; yea, O Instructor, feed us on Thy holy mountain the Church, which towers aloft, which is above the clouds, which touches heaven. 'And I will be,' He says, 'their Shepherd,' and will be near them, as the garment to their skin. He wishes to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality, and He hath anointed my body...For we who are passing over to immortality shall not fall into corruption, for He shall sustain us. For so He has said, and so He has willed. Such is our Instructor, righteously good... Generous, therefore, is He who gives for us the greatest of all gifts, His own life; and beneficent exceedingly, and loving to men, in that, when He might have been Lord, He wished to be a brother man; and so good was He that He died for us. (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9)

So should be the cry of our heart that God would employ such methods, and more so, to ensure our participation in His grand and glorious promises. For God has not promised us some earthly reward, but the reward of eternal life with Him; immortality like God and with God. Harsh and stringent discipline is never pleasant but it is a sign of His great love for us and the greatness of His promises towards us. Moreover, let us never forget His great love which He has already shown us in not only becoming a man that He might become our Savior, but also that He might become our brother. We often think of God as our Father, but He is also our elder brother. Should we not, with grateful hearts, gladly accept His instruction in our lives regardless if it is mild or harsh knowing that in both His love shines forth?

David Robison