First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

Chapter 6: The Church

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we have found in faith and have patiently endured that we may be found as disciples of Jesus Christ our only Teacher, then how can we live apart from Him, who, in the Spirit, the prophets themselves did wait as their Teacher? And therefore, He, for whom they rightly waited, having come, raised them from the dead. Assembling with the Church F irst C lement 34: The good servant receives the bread of his labor with confidence. The lazy and idle cannot look his employer in the face. It is necessary, therefore, that we be prompt in the practice of doing good, for all things are from Him. For He warns us: “Behold the Lord! His reward is with him, to repay everyone for what he has done” ( Isa 40:10; 62:11; Rev 22:12 ). He urges us, therefore, with our whole heart to attend to this, that we are not to be lazy or idle in any good work. Let our boasting and our confidence be in Him. Let us submit ourselves to His will. Let us consider the whole multitude of His angels, how they stand ever ready to minister to His will. For the Scripture says, “A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him” (Dan 7:10); “and one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host, the whole earth is full of his glory’” (Isa 6:3). And let us therefore, dutifully gathering together in harmony, cry to Him earnestly, as with one mouth, that we may be made participants in His great and glorious promises. For it says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9). I gnatius to the E phesians 5: For if I in this brief period of time have enjoyed such fellowship with your bishop—