Christ the Educator

Chapter 12

CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 263 Chapter 12 (84) For my part, I would advise husbands never to manifest their affection for their wives at home when slaves are present. Aristotle does not permit them ever to laugh with slaves,l and certainly much less to openly show love for their wives in their presence. It is better to practise reserve at home beginning with the first day of marriage. A chaste union redolent of pure delight is a wonderful thing. Indeed, the tragedian says, in his striking way: 'How strange, indeed, o woman, that among men, not gold, not tyranny, not greed for wealth holds pleasures so excellent as the wholesome mind of a good man and of a pious woman, when they are filled with upright thoughts.'2 These are the suggestions of justice, and must not be rejected, for they are expressed even by those skilled in worldly wisdom. (85) Therefore, realizing 'the work of each, behave yourselves with fear in the time of your sojourning, knowing that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things, with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.'3 'For sufficient is the time past,' Peter continues, 'for those to have accomplished the desire of the pagans, walking as they did, in dissipation, lusts, drunkenness, revellings, catousings and unlawful worship of idols.'4 We have the Cross of the Lord as our boundary line, and by it we are fenced around and shut off from our former sins. Let us be born again, then, and be nailed to the Cross I Frag 138, in V. Rose, Aristotelis Fragmenta (Leipzig 1886) . 2 Apollonides, Frag. I TGF II 825. 3 I Pel. 1.17·19. 4 I Pel. 4.3. 264 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA in truth;5 let us return to our senses and be sanctified, 'for the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is there to harm you, if you are zealous for what is good?'6 Good order is the perfect way of life, for it is entirely well behaved, is a quality that establishes constancy, fulfills virtuously in deed the things imposed on it, one after the other, and is unsurpassed in virtue. (86) Now, the Educator says, if I have proposed these things harshly when I administered healing correction, consider them said by Me, since 'he who corrects freely makes peace,'7 and as for you, if you listen to them, you will be saved, but if you do not attend to what has been said, I have no further interest. Yet I am interested inasmuch as 'He prefers the conversion of sinners rather than their death.'8 'If you hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land,'9 the Educator says at another time, meaning by 'the good things of the land' things that are dear to men: beauty, wealth, health; strength, and food. The good things, however, are really the things 'which ear has not heard nor has it ever entered into the heart,'lO the things that are really good and laid up in store for us, in our relation with Him who is truly King. It is He who is the Giver and Preserver of good things. He names the things of this life, however, by that same common name, because, as the Educator and Guide of little ones, the Word leads man from things seen to the spiritual, in His own divine way. 5 Cf. Rom. 6.6. 6 1 Pet. 3.12; Ps. 33.16. 7 Provo 10.10 (Septuagint) . 8 Cf. Ezech. 18.23. 9 !sa. 1.19. 10 1 Cor. 2.9. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 265 (87) The things we should be on our guard against at home, and how we are to preserve our lives upright, the Educator has shown us in abundant detail. The things that are dear to Him to discourse about along the way until He lead us to the Teacher, these, too, He has suggested and proposed by way of a general summary right in the Scriptures; He gives His commands plainly, adapting them to the time of guidance , but entrusting the interpretation of them to the Teacher...