Book V, Chapter 6

God will bestow salvation upon the complete nature of man, consisting of body and soul in close union - since the Word took it upon Him - and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of whom our bodies are, and are termed, 'the temples'.

1. Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God.

Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists of the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded according to the image of God.

For this reason the apostle declares: "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect" [1 Cor.2:5]terming those persons perfect who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God speak in all languages, as he himself also used to speak.

In like manner we also hear many brethren in the Church who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms 'spiritual men' - they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away, and thus have become purely spiritual. For if any one takes away the substance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understands that to be purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God.

But when the Spirit -here blended with the soul- is united to [God's] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and this is the person who was made "according to the image and to the likeness" of God.

But if the Spirit is missing from the soul, he who is thus is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation - but not receiving the likeness through the Spirit - thus is this being imperfect.

Thus also, if any one takes away the image and sets aside the handiwork, one cannot then perceive this as being a man, but as either some part of a man (as I have already said), or as something other than a man.  For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself, but only the body of a man, and part of a man.

Neither is the soul itself - if considered apart, by itself - the man; but is only the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called 'the spirit', and not a man; it is the commingling and union of all these that constitutes the perfect man. And it is for this cause that the apostle, explaining himself, makes it clear that the saved man is a perfect (complete) man - as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, "And may He, the God of peace, sanctify you as wholly perfect; and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thess.5:23]

Now what was his object in wishing that these three — that is, soul, body, and spirit — might be preserved at the coming of the Lord, unless he knew about the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and that they would be heirs of the one and the same salvation?

It is for this cause also that he declares the perfect ones are those who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] blamelessly.

Those, then, are the perfect: who have kept the Spirit of God within them, and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God - that is, the faith which is [directed] towards God - and who have maintained righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.

2. Whence also - he says - this handiwork is the temple of God, thus declaring: "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man, therefore, were to defile the temple of God, him God will destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] is what you are." [1 Cor.3:16]

Here he outrightly states the body to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As the Lord also says in reference to Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spoke this, however, it is said, implying the temple of His body." [John 2:19-21]  

And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?" [1 Cor.3:17]

He says these things, not in reference to another, spiritual man (for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with a harlot), but is declaring that our bodies - that is, the flesh which remains in sanctity and purity - are the members of Christ; which, however, when they become one with a harlot, they become the members of a harlot. And it is for this reason that He said: "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man, therefore, were to defile the temple of God, him God will destroy". [1 Cor.3:16]

How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege, that a temple of God, in which dwells the Spirit of the Father and the members of Christ, does not partake of salvation, but is reduced to perdition?

Also, that our bodies are resurrected - not by their own substance, but by the power of God - he says to the Corinthians: "Foods are for the belly (gluttony) and the belly (gluttony) is for foods; and God will abolish both the one and the others - as for the body, it is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. And God had raised up the Lord and will also raise us up, by His power............" [1 Cor.6:13-14]

The perfect ones being resurrected by the risen Lord

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(See also the related article on the Definition of Salvation)

 


Translation A.N.