Well, last week on five minutes in church history, we were talking about Clement, and we did not get through his epistle to the Corinthian,

so I thought it would be good to go back and spend a little bit more time with Clement of Rome.

One of the things that's fascinating to me about this writing of Clement is that it was very

likely written either right alongside of the time John was writing his

apocalypse or the book of revelation or it was actually written before John wrote

revelation. Now what Clement wrote is not a canonical book. He did not write under the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But what we have here is a significant work. Not

only did Clement have associations with these early apostles,

very likely with Peter and Paul and with John,

but what we also see here is a writing that comes to us from the early church

either just as the canon of the New Testament

was closing or even before the New Testament canon was closed. So this is a

fascinating read and I want to focus our attention. Last week, we looked

at how he talks about justification by faith alone, and we also looked at how he deals with

works once we have been justified. but in this episode I want to look at

chapter 37.

In this chapter, Clement tells us that Christ is our leader and we are his soldiers.

Now, let me just read to you what he happens to say,

and then we'll talk about it for a little bit.

Let us then, men and brethren, with all energy, act the part of

soldiers in accordance with his holy commandments. Let us consider those who serve under

our generals, with what order, obedience, and submissiveness, they

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