5.
What, then, is that--how execrable should it appear to you--which I have learnt with extreme anguish and grief of mind, to wit, that there are not wanting those who defile the temples of God, and the members sanctified after confession and made glorious, 1 with a disgraceful and infamous concubinage, associating their beds promiscuously with women's! In which, even if there be no pollution of their conscience, there is a great guilt in this very thing, that by their offence originate examples for the ruin of others. 2 There ought also to be no contentions and emulations among you, since the Lord left to us His peace, and it is written, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 3 "But if ye bite and find fault with one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." 4 From abuse and revilings also I entreat you to abstain, for "revilers do not attain the kingdom of God;" 5 and the tongue which has confessed Christ should be preserved sound and pure with its honour. For he who, according to Christ's precept, speaks things peaceable and good and just, daily confesses Christ. We had renounced the world when we were baptized; but we have now indeed renounced the world when tried and approved by God, we leave all that we have, and have followed the Lord, and stand and live in His faith and fear.
