[1] Therefore, brethren, let us at last repent
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forthwith, and be sober for our good, for we are full of much folly and wickedness; let us wipe off from
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ourselves our former sins, and let us gain salvation by repenting with all our souls. Let us not be men-pleasers, and let us wish to please by our righteousness not ourselves alone, but also those who are without, that the name be not blasphemed on our account.
[2] For the Lord says,
Every way is my name blasphemed among all the heathen, and again,
Woe unto him on whose account my name is blasphemed.
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Wherein is it blasphemed?
[3] In that you do not do what I desire. For when the heathen hear from our mouth the oracles of God, they wonder at their beauty and greatness; afterwards, when they find out that our deeds are unworthy of the words which we speak, they turn from their wonder to blasphemy, saying that it is a myth and delusion.
[4] For when they hear from us that God says:
It is no credit to you, if ye love them that love you, but it is a credit to you, if ye love your enemies, and those that hate you;— when they hear this they wonder at this extraordinary goodness; but when they see that we not only do not love those that hate us, but not even those who love us, they laugh us to scorn, and the name is blasphemed.
The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. Clement of Rome. Kirsopp Lake (Translator). London. 1912.
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