Hello and welcome to Word Magazine. This is Jeff Riddle, pastor of Christ Reformed Baptist Church in Louisa, Virginia. And this is the final day, December 31 of 2018. And in Word Magazine 113, We are going to be looking at Clement of Rome and more specifically at what is known as Clement's first epistle or first Clement. I have had an interest over the last year or so especially in going back and looking at the so-called patristic literature, that of the church fathers, the generation after the time of the Apostles, And in some of the past Word magazines, we've looked at some of the church fathers. In Word magazine 85, we looked at the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch, who was an early martyr for Christianity. And in Word magazine 88, we looked at Polycarp of Smyrna and the account of his death in the document known as the Martyrdom of Polycarp. which was also circulated among the early Protestants as an example of a martyr alongside biblical examples like Stephen or James the Apostle. And then in Word Magazine 99 we looked at Cyril of Alexandria and the role he had in the Christological controversies of his day. And I will put up a blog post at JeffRiddle.net where I'll have links to those previous Word magazine episodes on the Church Fathers along with a link to this audio that you're listening to now and maybe anything else that might come up in the discussion. So again we've got to look at the age after the time of the Apostles. Obviously The New Testament is the product of the Apostles and the Apostolic Associates. If you look at the Gospels, for example, Matthew and John written by Apostles, Mark written by an apostolic associate with close connections both to Paul but especially to Peter. And then Luke is written by an apostolic associate, a companion of Paul in his missionary journeys. Eventually though the age of the Apostles comes to an end and we enter into the age of the church fathers. And in particular, that very first generation of early leaders are sometimes referred to as the Apostolic Fathers, and these are men who had personal contact with the Apostles and were considered to be faithful inheritors of what the Apostles had taught, and they're very important for telling us about the development of early Christianity. It's important to look at how they use the Bible and how they look at the Bible as an authority. And some of those who are considered among the Apostolic Fathers include, as I've already mentioned, men like Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna, then we'll add to that today another apostolic father, so-called Clement of Rome. And I'm going to be reviewing again his first epistle, the first epistle of Clement, and I'm using an English translation that is published by Penguin Classics. It's one that was edited by Andrew Luth And the text is one that was translated by Maxwell Stanaforth. I think it was the translation that was used in the original Loeb Classical Library editions of the Apostolic Fathers, and there's been a new edition in the Loeb Classical Library series where Bart Ehrman has given a translation of the Apostolic Fathers, but this one by Staniforth is still, I think, a very useful one. So what do we know about Clement of Rome? It seems that we don't really have a lot of historical information about Clement of Rome. There are two early documents that are attributed to him. 1st Clement is the one we're going to be looking at a little bit in this episode. 2nd Clement is also often associated with the name of Clement, but the current modern-day consensus seems to be that the second work, 2nd Clement, first of all is not really an epistle, but It's more like a homily or a sermon, and the assumption today also is that it's a pseudonymous work. It wasn't really written by the historical Clement of Rome, but comes from a later period in church history. But First Clement, although I guess you could say it's technically anonymous, it never says this is written by Clement. In tradition it's affirmed that Clement is the author and most hold that tradition to be genuine, that First Clement is actually written by Clement of Rome. So one question you might ask is who was Clement of Rome? And there is a an early church tradition that associates this Clement with the Clement who is mentioned in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 3 when Paul writes to the church at Philippi and he says, I now entreat thee also true yoke fellow help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life." So Paul writes to the Philippians, a church that he helped to found according to Acts 16, and he tells two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who had some kind of conflict to agree in the Lord, And he encourages someone who he calls the true yoke fellow or the true companion, maybe the elder or the pastor of the church. And then he appeals to another fellow, Clement, and tradition says that this Clement, who was there at the church at Philippi, would eventually become the Clement who becomes the bishop or the pastor of the church at Rome. Andrew Luth suggests that there have been other solutions for this, for who Clement was, and there's a mention in a Roman author Dio Cassius someone named Flavius Clemens who was put to death by the Roman Emperor Domitian on the charge of atheism and Jewish customs. And some have suggested that that was just a misunderstanding of Christianity. Christianity was accused of being atheism because it rejected the polytheistic gods and it was seen to be simply an internecine struggle within Judaism, and so perhaps Flavius Clemens, mentioned by Dio Cassius, but Luth points out that Clemens or Clement is a pretty common Roman name, but again the early Christians had a tendency to associate Clement with the Clement mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 4 verse 3. And there are some later traditions about Clement again that have a lot less historical reliability. It seems like in Christian art and iconography Clement of Rome is sometimes depicted as having met a martyr's death like Ignatius and like Polycarp, and you'll find some pictures of, in particular, of a boat and him being cast over, tied to an anchor, and there's a tradition that says he was put to death by the Roman Emperor Trajan, and again was tied to an anchor, thrown into the sea, and died in that manner. That's not mentioned in 1 Clement, and that is a lot less historically reliable. Let's turn and look a little bit at 1st Clement. Again, it seems that most scholars today think that 1st Clement is authentic. That is, it was actually written by Clement of Rome. When was it written? The epistle is usually dated to either 95 or 96 AD. So it's right at the end of the first century and it's suggested that in the very opening chapter there may be an allusion to a persecution of Christians that took place under the Roman Emperor Domitian. The very first chapter starts off, because of our recent series of unexpected misfortunes and setbacks, my dear friends, we feel there has been some delay in turning our attention to the causes of dispute in your community." And when it makes reference to unexpected misfortunes and setbacks, some have suggested that that referred to, again, the Domitian persecution. So this would date it, the letter, to about AD 96. It is not a personal letter, although it's called First Clement, but it is a letter from the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. In the Stanforth Luth translation, it begins, from the colony of the Church of God at Rome to the colony of the Church of God at Corinth, called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, all grace and peace to you from God Almighty through Jesus Christ. So it's a churchly letter, it's an ecclesial letter. Tradition suggests though that Clement was the bishop of the church at Rome at this time and so this would have been a letter composed by him. And tradition also suggests that Clement was the fourth bishop or pastor of the church at Rome after Peter and Linus and Annuncletus. And again this is a tradition obviously this becomes lionized in the Church of Rome with its thought that Peter was the initial pastor or bishop of the Roman Church. I think that probably stands on a little shakier ground historically, but anyway this is what the tradition says. The letter does not reflect the authoritative role of the bishop, in a kind of a hierarchical structure that will develop later on, the so-called monarchical bishop. So there's not a lot of mention, as there is in Ignatius of Antioch even, of the central role of the bishop. There's more talk about the bishop or the pastor and the elders. In this translation the word presbyteroi, elders, is rendered as the clergy. But perhaps this letter does reflect the significance of the Christian community in Rome. Obviously, you know, hundreds of years later Rome will be considered the center of Western Christianity, and that persists in the so-called Roman Catholic Church. But it does say that very early on there was a strong Christian community at Rome. We have, for example, Paul's letter to the church at Rome. But here, as you get to the end of the very first Christian century, perhaps it says that this church was having a lot of influence on other Christian communities, and so there's a conflict that has arisen at the church in Corinth. and they appeal to the church at Rome for some advice, and so this is why this letter is formulated. First Clement is typically divided into 65 units. We'll refer to them as chapters, in some cases no more than a paragraph or two, but 65 chapters. And again, it was written, apparently, to address discord that had developed at the church at Corinth. And if you look at Paul's letter, first letter to the church at Corinth, you know that there were many, many difficulties. There were schisms in the church. There was a party spirit. Some saying, I follow Paul. Some saying, I follow Cephas or Peter. Some saying, I follow Apollos. Others, perhaps piously saying, I follow Christ. And then there were problems with brethren overlooking blatant sin, as in 1 Corinthians 5, the immoral brother who has committed incest. There is, in chapter 6, the admonition about taking the brethren to civil law courts. There was conflict over the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, over the exercise of spiritual gifts and prophecy in chapter 14. So there had been problems at the church at Corinth, and apparently those problems were continuing. here at the end of the very first century of the Christian movement. Luth suggests in his editorial comments on 1st Clement that its theme is Christian ministry and so again it's an ecclesial letter, it's a letter that has to do with leadership, Luth points out that like Paul, Clement calls for peace and harmony in the church as well as submission to the elders. He notes that Clement makes frequent use of the Greek word homonoia. or harmony, and he even suggests this may reflect the influence of Stoic philosophy, and I don't know enough about Stoic philosophy to say whether I think that's true or not, but anyways, that's his observation. Also with 1st Clement, as I think I mentioned earlier, we see how early Christians were using the Old Testament. There are lots of citations from the Old Testament, but when you come across the citation in an English translation, it may not seem as familiar because many of these citations are using the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, including that which is sometimes referred to as the Septuagint, but at least it shows their use of the Old Testament. And obviously he also is familiar with the New Testament He'll make a reference to 1 Corinthians, and there are many allusions and repetitions of things from Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth. And he seems also to be aware of the information in the Synoptic Gospels, things that Jesus said and did that were recorded in the Gospels. And so we see that very early on here, by the end of the first century, that Christians are using the Old Testament, and they're using even the writings of the New Testament canon as authoritative sources. So with all that said now, I just want to look at the letter, the first epistle of Clement. or we might say the epistle of the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. And I just want to highlight, again there are 65 chapters or 65 units, but I'm just going to highlight eight different themes that stood out to me as I read through this epistle. And the first theme that I'll point to is the theme of the author attempting urge peace and unity in the face of disunity. And I'm going to just point to a few places and where it becomes very clear what the problem was, what had happened at Corinth. And I already mentioned the very first chapter In the first chapter, he says, your elders were treated with the honor due to them. Your young men were counseled to be soberly and seriously minded. Your womenfolk were bidden to go about their duties in irreproachable devotion and purity of conscience, showing all proper affection to their husbands. They were taught to make obedience. the rule of their lives, to manage their households decorously, and to be patterns of discretion in every way. So he's reminding them that they have been instructed to act in orderly ways. And he mentions in particular, as was a theme in 1 Corinthians, Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, the importance of women in particular, being obedient to the leaders and the elders of the church, and so he returns to that theme. Then in chapter 14, he says, it is surely more right and reverent for us, my brothers, to obey God and to follow people whose insolent unruliness has made them the ringleaders of this odious rivalry. And now we sort of get the point that although they have been admonished to be submissive to their leaders, there have been those who have risen up in rebellion against them. Moving on to chapter 21. He says, "'Take care then, my friends, lest we fail to conduct ourselves worthily of him and do what is good and acceptable to him in amity. Together all this beneficence of his should turn to our condemnation.'" And then he adds, "'Accordingly, let us be respectful to those who have been set over us, honor our elders, and train up our young people in the fear of God Let us set our women folk on the road to goodness by teaching them to be examples of lovable purity, etc. And so, again, there are these admonitions that are related to unity and not upsetting the apple cart, not being disobedient towards the elders and leaders. And in chapter 40, he talks about the fact that the public services of the church shouldn't be haphazard or irregular, but they should take place at fixed times and hours. So there had been apparently some disorderliness in the church, much as there had been at the church at Corinth when Paul wrote, disorderliness in the Lord's Supper, disorderliness apparently reflected in disorderliness in gender roles related to what he says in 1 Corinthians 11, my head coverings, and that has again continued. Now he really comes to the point though what the problem specifically has been when it comes to chapter 44 and the problem is that this disruption in Corinth has resulted in some of these ringleaders of the opposition actually removing the officers who had been appointed to guide the church at Corinth. And so in chapter 44, he says, And they went on to add an instruction that if these should fall asleep, I guess that is, die, other accredited persons should succeed them in their office. In view of this, we cannot think it right for these men now to be ejected from their ministry when, after being commissioned by the apostles or by other reputable persons at a later date with the full consent of the church, they have since been serving God's flock in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested way and earning everybody's approval over so long a period of time. It will undoubtedly be no light offense on our part if we take their bishopric away from men who have been performing its duties with this impeccable devotion. How happy those presbyters must be who have already passed away with a lifetime of fruitfulness behind them They at least need fear no eviction from the security they are now enjoying. You, however, as we notice in more than one instance, have turned men out of an office in which they were serving honorably and without the least reproach." And so this is the problem. They have wrongfully, unjustly ejected their ministers, their elders from their office. and he is writing to admonish them about this and even, I think, to implore their return to that office. This chapter, chapter 44, is somewhat controversial, has been because of debate about what it teaches about so-called apostolic succession. And I think it's interesting that he doesn't say simply that they should not be removed from office because they were appointed by the apostles or by successors of the apostles, but because they were doing their work honorably and without the least approach. And in some ways it's parallel to what is described in the book of 3 John in the New Testament. when diatrophies, who loves to have the preeminence, and removes from the church Orthodox brethren. And one of the things this tells us is that when officers are removed from the church it's not always because of the poor character or conduct of the officers, but because of the poor character and conduct of the congregation. And this is why churches need to have accountability to other churches. And in this case, here's the church at Rome and Clement admonishing a sister church for this very thing. And as a Reformed Baptist in chapter 26 of our confession, it urges that there be communion among churches in particular so that there can be a handling of situations where there are disruptions. It's kind of interesting, in chapter 47, Clement says to the church at Corinth, read your letter from the blessed Apostle Paul again. What did he write to you in those early gospel days? How truly the things he said about himself and Cephas and Apollos were inspired by the Spirit. And so basically saying, listen, Paul already wrote to you guys about unity in 1 Corinthians. Do you need to go back and read it again? Go back and read it again, brothers." And so he is, again, admonishing them and using 1 Corinthians as the sort of gold standard for what they should do. In chapter 54, he says, "'Is there any man of noble mind among you, a man who has compassion, a man overflowing with love, then let such a one say, if it is I who am the cause of any disorder, friction, or division among you, I will remove myself. I will go away anywhere you wish, and I will do anything the congregation says, only let there be peace between Christ's flock and their appointed clergy. Anyone who does this will earn a great name for himself in Christ and be sure of a welcome anywhere, for the earth and everything in it is the Lord's. Men who are truly citizens of heaven Citizens that bring no regrets have done such things in the past and they will still do so today." Notice he doesn't say if there's been disruption the church, the minister ought to step aside and leave. No, he says the people who have been fomenting rebellion, those persons, they ought to do the honorable thing and they ought to remove themselves rather than continue to create discord within the church. In chapter 57, he says, those of you then who were at the root of these disorders, pray now, make your submission to the clergy or to the elders, bend the knee of your hearts and accept correction so that it may bring you to a better frame of mind. Learn to subordinate yourselves, curb those loud and overbearing speeches. So don't be windbags and make long overbearing speeches justifying yourself. but be submissive. Finally in chapter 63 he says, So this theme of disunity and his urging of unity is really the primary theme of 1st Clement. So I spent a lot of time on the first one. I won't spend as much time on the others, but I'm just going through eight different themes or observations on 1 Clement. The second is, I find it interesting in chapter 5, there is a mention of the apostles Peter and Paul. And here at the end of the first century, maybe 95-96, We're seeing the esteem with which the apostles were held, and in particular two of them, Peter and Paul, and there's a reference to them running their course and meeting their deaths. So he says in chapter five, take the noble figures of our own generation. Even the greatest and most virtuous pillars of our church were assailed by envy and jealousy and had to keep up the struggle till the end of their days. Look at the good apostles. It was by sinful jealousy that Peter was subjected to tribulation, not once or twice, but many times. It was in that way that he bore his witness ere he left for his well-earned place in glory. And Paul, because of jealousy and contention, had become the very type of endurance rewarded. He was in bond seven times. He was exiled. He was stoned. He preached in the East and in the West, winning a noble reputation for his faith. He taught righteousness to all the world. And after reaching the further limits of the West and bearing his testimony before kings and rulers, he passed out of this world and was received up into holy places In him, we have one of the greatest of all examples of endurance. And so he points not only to Peter and Paul, but also how they struggled with those who had jealousy and those who brought envy and discord. And so they are models for the present church officers as they continue to persevere. I'm kind of trying to go through the epistles in the order, or the chapters in the order that they appear. citing some of these themes. And let's go on to chapter 24. Chapter 24. And one of the things I find interesting about this first epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is how he repeats so many of the things that were in Paul's 1 Corinthians in the New Testament. And one example of this is in 1 Corinthians, there was conflict over the doctrine of the resurrection. And 1 Corinthians 15 is probably the most complete statement on the Christian view of the resurrection in the New Testament, alongside the narrative descriptions of Christ being raised from the dead in the Gospels. And this is still an issue that is plaguing the church at Corinth, apparently, because in chapter 24 he says, Think, my dear friends, how the Lord offers us proof after proof that there is going to be a resurrection of which he has made Jesus Christ the firstfruits by raising him from the dead. And so still there were those who were questioning perhaps the resurrection of Christ alongside when there would be a final resurrection at the end of the ages. A fourth theme in 1st Clement that I find interesting is an emphasis on the doctrine of justification by faith as well as the doctrine of good works. And again this is something we can see within the New Testament itself whether it's Paul's writings where there's a stress on justification by faith, and the writings of James where he's saying, yes, but faith without works is dead. And we see that there's still in the early church this issue being raised. So if you look at chapter 32, he talks about justification. He says, Similarly, we also who by his will have been called in Christ Jesus are not justified by ourselves or our own wisdom or understanding or godliness, nor by such deeds as we have done in holiness of heart, but by that faith, through which alone Almighty God has justified all men since the beginning of time. Glory be to him forever and ever. Amen." So, you know, it seems that Clement is channeling Paul and the doctrine of justification by faith. But then in chapter 33, he talks about the importance of good works and the evidences of our conversion and so he says what must we do then my brothers should we relax our efforts at well-doing and cease to exercise Christian love God forbid that we least should ever come to such a pass. And so it's interesting that there's this emphasis on justification by faith, but also the importance of good works as evidence of our conversion. A fifth theme that we can find in 1 Clement is another one I noted here that is a reinforcement of Paul's 1 Corinthians, and he stresses the church as a body. And this is chapter 37 of 1 Clement. He says, So now, my friends, let us get on resolutely with our warfare under his unerring direction. Think of the men who serve our commanders in the field and the prompt and orderly obedience with which they go about all their duties. Not all of them are marshals, generals, colonels, captains, or the like. Nevertheless, each at his own level executes the order of the emperor and the military chief." Now, again, first he starts off with the military. Not everybody in the army is a chief, is a general, is a commander, but everybody plays their role. And then he moves on to the image from 1 Corinthians 12. that of a body. He says, for the great cannot exist without the small, nor the small without the great. Every organism is composed of various different elements, and this ensures its own good. Take the body as an instance. The head is nothing without the feet, nor are the feet anything without the head. Even the smallest of our physical members are necessary and valuable to the whole body, yet all of them work together and observe a common subordination. so that the body itself is maintained intact. And so again in chapter 37 of 1st Clement, he's reinforcing the things in 1st Corinthians 12, you are the body of Christ and in a body there are many members, they all have the same function. A sixth observation about 1st Clement with regard to church government, again he doesn't stress the so-called monarchical bishop, the bishop who is over many churches in a region, but the emphasis seems to be on, as it is in the apostolic church, the bishop who is the pastor or overseer in a local church, and alongside other elders, and then also deacons. So it seems to be the two office, bishops and deacons. And so in chapter 42, for example, he says, this was in no way an innovation for bishops and deacons, had already been spoken of in Scripture long before that, and he cites from the Septuagint Isaiah 60 verse 17, but he's saying that the pattern of church government is that of bishops or elders and deacons, much like Philippians 1.1, when Paul writes to the church at Philippi, And he writes to all the saints who are there, the believers, and then he writes also to the bishops and the deacons. A seventh theme that I would point out in 1 Clement, which I think is very interesting, relates to the doctrine of God. And in 1 Clement, we begin to see already very early on, I think, references to the Trinity. References to the idea that there is one God, but that this one God is three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So in, let's see, this is chapter 46. He says, why must there be all this quarreling and bad blood, these feuds and dissensions among you? Have we not all the same God and the same Christ? Is not the same Spirit of grace shed upon all? And there with the reference to God, meaning God the Father and Christ. the Son of God, and the Spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit, there's a sort of a triadic thinking about God of the sort that we see in the New Testament, whether that's in places like the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whether it's in Paul's benediction at the end of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13, 14, you know, may the love of God and the grace of Christ and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. So there's Trinitarian language in 1 Clement. Another place would be in chapter 58. Chapter 58, it says, as surely as God lives, as Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Ghost also. So there it's even more explicit. Again, as surely as God, meaning God the Father lives, as Jesus Christ lives and as the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit lives. So, you know, sometimes you run into people who will say, you know, the Trinity was invented at the Council of Nicaea in 325. And it's nice to look at 1 Clement and see that that idea is just balderdash. It was there from the very beginning. It was there in the times of the apostles, and I have a feeling I mangled my Freeform Quotation of 2 Corinthians 13, 14. Let me read it properly. It says, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. There was a Trinitarian benediction in the New Testament coming from the hand of an apostle now in 1 Clement. There's Trinitarian language, and so this wasn't something that was cooked up or invented in some smoke-filled room, or it didn't come about by some conciliar decision, but it was there from the very beginning in the teaching of the apostles and in those who came after them. We see it now in an apostolic father like Clement of Rome. And then the eighth and last theme that I'll just touch on is that of love or agape. And of course probably the best known chapter in Paul's epistle, first epistle to the church at Corinth, is chapter 13, the so-called love chapter. And I find it interesting, we've seen these other repetitions, whether it's resurrection, whether it's the church as a body, and there's a repetition of the theme of love in chapter 49 of 1 Clement, where Clement writes, If there is true Christian love in a man, let him carry out the precepts of Christ. Who can describe the constraining power of a love for God, its majesty and its beauty? Who can adequately express? No tongue can tell the heights to which love can uplift us. Love binds us fast to God. Love casts a veil over sins innumerable. There are no limits to love's endurance, no end to its patience. Love is without servility, as it is without arrogance. Love knows of no divisions, promotes no discord. All the works of love are done in perfect fellowship. It was in love that all God's chosen saints were made perfect, for without love nothing is pleasing to Him. It was in love that the Lord drew us to Himself, Because of the love he bore us, our Lord Jesus Christ, at the will of God, gave his blood for us, his flesh for our flesh, his life for our lives. And so it's sort of a beautiful reflection on agape, on charity, on love. And also at the very end of that, We definitely have a stress on the atoning death of Christ and the fact that Christ was offered up as a penal substitution for sinners. He gave his blood for us, his flesh for our flesh, his life for our lives. So there's still in First Clement very much the fragrance and the spirit of the apostolic writings and I think it still works today as good devotional literature. Again, we got a problem if we take any uninspired writings, whether that's writings of the church fathers or writings of the Reformers, and we equate those, we put those on the same level with the New Testament writings that were inspired, that were God-breathed by the Holy Spirit. But These writings that are orthodox can be edifying, they can be encouraging, they can have devotional use, and of course they're historically important as well. And I think 1 Clement is a writing that I think I would commend to any Christian as a useful devotional literature, literature of piety that can encourage him and build him or her up in the faith. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Word Magazine, and I trust that the Lord will bless you in the year that is to come. Till the next Word Magazine, take care and God bless.