First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

Chapter 2: The Godhead

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things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” (Ps 50:16–23) The Way of Life F irst C lement 29: Let us then draw near to Him with holiness of spirit. Let us lift up pure and unstained hands to Him. Let us love our gracious and merciful Father, who has made us participants in the blessings of His elect. For as it is written, When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (Deut 32:8–9) And in another place it says, “Behold, the Lord takes a nation for Himself from of the midst of another nation, as a man takes the grain of the threshing floor. And from that nation will come the Most Holy” ( Deut 4:34; Num 18:27; 2 Chron 31:14 ). D idache 1: There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways. The way of life is this: First, you will love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And