1 Cor. 3:15 ECF comments

MarcoPolo · #1 Jun 15, '12, 6:26 pm

Putting this here for reference.

EARLY CHURCH FATHERS on 1 Corinthians 3:15 (and a couple on purifying fire)

Origen, Homilies on Jeremias, ca. 244 A.D.
Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones; Neither is this just. It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works."

St. Lactantius, Divine Institutes 7.21.6, ca. 307 AD
But also, when God will judge the just, it is likewise in fire that he will try them. At that time, they whose sins are uppermost, either because of their gravity or their number, will be drawn together by the fire and will be burned. Those, however, who have been imbued with full justice and maturity of virtue, will not feel that fire; for they have something of God in them which will repel and turn back the strength of the flame."

Pseudo-Ambrose, Commentary on Paul's Epistles, ca. 377 A.D.
If anyone's works proves lasting, he will receive his wage. He will be just like the three brothers in the fiery furnace, destined to receive as his wage heavenly life with glory.

Pseudo-Ambrose, Commentary on Paul's Epistles, ca. 377 A.D.
To suffer loss is to endure reproof. For what person, when subjected to punishment, does not lose something thereby? Yet the person himself may be saved. His living soul will not perish in the same way that his erroneous ideas will. Even so, however, he may suffer punishments of fire. He will be saved only by being purified through fire.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead, ca. 382 A.D.
If a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that which is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity for himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted, overcoming the irrational by reason. If he has inclined to the irrational pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire."

St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, 9.5, ca. 395 A.D
If someone has the right faith but leads a wicked life, his faith will not protect him from punishment, because his work will be burned up. A man in gold armor will pass through a river of fire and come out shining all the more brightly, but a man who passes through it with hay will lose it all and destroy himself besides.

St. Augustine, Explanations of the Psalms 37.3, ca. 392 A.D.
'Lord, rebuke me not in Your indignation, nor correct me in Your anger' (Ps 38:1)...In this life may You cleanse me and make me such that I have no need of the corrective fire, which is for those who are saved, but as if by fire...for it is said: 'He shall be saved, but as if by fire' (1 Cor 3:15). And because it is said that he shall be saved, little is thought of that fire. Yet plainly, though we be saved by fire, that fire will be more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life."

St. Augustine, City of God 21, ca. 420 A.D.
In this fire neither man will be lost forever, through the fire will profit the one and harm the other, being a test for both.

St. Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love 18.69, ca. 421 A.D.
That there should be some such fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish -- through a certain purgatorial fire (per ignem quemdam purgatorium)."

continued...

MarcoPolo · #2 Jun 15, '12, 6:27 pm

Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 183, ca. 450 A.D.
The teacher teaches what is right. Some follow him; others do not. Those who follow will be like gold and silver––purified by the fire and shining when they emerge from it. The others will be burned up. But the teacher will not lose anything by this. If he has been faithful, he will receive his reward regardless.

Caesarius of Arles, Sermons 179.1, ca. 515 A.D.
There are many people who understand this text incorrectly, deceiving themselves with a false assurance. They believe that if they build serious sins upon the foundation of Christ, those very offenses can be purified by transitory flames, and they themselves can later reach eternal life. This kind of understanding must be corrected. People deceive themselves when they flatter themselves in this way. For in that fire it is slight sins which are purged, not serious ones. Even worse, it is not only the greater sins but the smaller ones as well which can ruin a person.

St. Gregory, Dialogues 4.41, ca. 600 A.D.
We should remember that in the world to come no one will be purged of even his slightest faults unless he has deserved such a cleansing through good works performed in this life

St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on First Corinthians, 169, ca. 1260 A.D.
Now a man’s work is said to burn in two ways: in one way on the part of the worker, inasmuch as he is afflicted by the fire of tribulation on account of the immoderate attachment he has to earthly things and by the fire of purgatory or by the fire which goes before the face of the judge on account of venial sins, which he committed by caring for temporal things or even by the frivolous and vain things he taught. In another way a work burns in the fire on the part of the work itself, because when tribulation comes, a person cannot find time for foolish teaching or worldly works: “On that day all his plans perish” (Ps 146:4). Furthermore, the fire of purgatory or the fire which goes before the face of the judge will not leave any of these things to act as a remedy or as merit.

MikeDunphy · #3 Jul 22, '12, 3:42 pm

Theodotus
Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures

XXV. John says: "I indeed baptize you with water, but there comes after me He that baptizes with the Spirit and fire." [Matthew 3:11] But He baptized no one with fire. But some, as Heraclius says, marked with fire the ears of those who were sealed; understanding so the apostolic saying, "For His fan is in His hand, to purge His floor: and He will gather the wheat into the garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." [Matthew 3:12] There is joined, then, the expression "by fire" to that "by the Spirit"; since He separates the wheat from the chaff, that is, from the material husk, by the Spirit; and the chaff is separated, being fanned by the wind: so also the Spirit possesses a power of separating material forces. Since, then, some things are produced from what is unproduced and indestructible,— that is, the germs of life—the wheat also is stored, and the material part, as long as it is conjoined with the superior part, remains; when separated from it, it is destroyed; for it had its existence in another thing. This separating element, then, is the Spirit, and the destroying element is the fire: and material fire is to be understood. But since that which is saved is like wheat, and that which grows in the soul like chaff, and the one is incorporeal, and that which is separated is material; to the incorporeal He opposes spirit, which is rarefied and pure— almost more so than mind; and to the material He opposes fire, not as being evil or bad, but as strong and capable of cleansing away evil. For fire is conceived as a good force and powerful, destructive of what is baser, and conservative of what is better. Wherefore this fire is by the prophets called wise.

XXVI. Thus also, then, when God is called "a consuming fire", it is because a name and sign, not of wickedness, but of power, is to be selected. For as fire is the most potent of the elements, and masters all things; so also God is all-powerful and almighty, who is able to hold, to create, to make, to nourish, to make grow, to save, having power of body and soul. As, then, fire is superior to the elements, so is the Almighty Ruler to gods, and powers, and principalities. The power of fire is twofold: one power conduces to the production and maturing of fruits and of animals, of which the sun is the image; and the other to consumption and destruction, as terrestrial fire. When, then, God is called a consuming fire, He is called a mighty and resistless power, to which nothing is impossible, but which is able to destroy.

Respecting such a power, also, the Saviour says, "I came to send fire upon the earth," [Luke 12:49] indicating a power to purify what is holy, but destructive, as they say, of what is material; and, as we should say, disciplinary. Now fear pertains to fire, and diffusion to light.