The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

If then we do righteousness before

Let us then wait for the kingdom of God, from[*](Interpretation of a Saying of the Lord) hour to hour, in love and righteousness, seeing that we know not the day of the appearing of God.

For when the Lord himself was asked by someone when his kingdom would come, he said: When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female neither male nor female.[*](The same saying, or very nearly so, is quoted from Cassianus by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. iii. 13), and the latter states that it is from the Gospel of the Egyptians. But the whole question has been complicated by the discovery of Grenfell and Hunt’s Lost Gospel (Oxyrhynchus papyri, vol. iv. pp. 22 ff.), which seems to refer to a similar saying, and the problem of the mutual relations between these documents is still unsolved.)

Now the two are one when we speak with one another in truth, and there is but one soul in two bodies without dissimulation.

And by the outside as the inside he means this, that the inside is the soul, and the outside is the body. Therefore, just as your body is visible, so let your soul be apparent in your good works.

And by the male with the female neither male nor female he means this, that when a brother sees a sister he should have no

When you do this, he says, the kingdom of my Father will come.

Therefore, brethren, let us at last repent[*](The need for repentance) forthwith, and be sober for our good, for we are full of much folly and wickedness; let us wipe off from[*](The impression made on those without) 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.

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.[*](The source of this quotation is unknown.) Wherein is it blasphemed?

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.

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