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What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clement

Dr. K.R. Allen

Dr. K.R. Allen

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Are your beliefs close to that of Apostle Paul? How can we verify if we what we think Paul said in Scripture is really what he meant?

One of the best ways to know what was taught by the Apostles is to examine what their disciples taught. Granted it is not a perfect and exact science but it does give to us a good idea of what an Apostle likely believed if the disciple was actually commissioned into the ministry directly by the Apostle. I find this information like this so exciting as it can be a great aid in helping us to see how close we are to the original beliefs of the early faithful believers.

For example, Paul taught Timothy the strategy to discipleship. He said: "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).

Clement was appointed by Paul to serve in the church of Rome along with the other two elders in that church, Linus and Cletus. Thus Paul must have considered him to be faithful in his overall views or he would not have appointed him. Clement lived from around 30 AD to 100 AD. So his ministry existed during the time in which all of the apostles were alive.

What did this disciple of Paul believe and teach? I'll share a few statements from Clement and you can judge for yourself if he believed and taught what his mentor Paul taught.

Clement on Election/Justification/ and Salvation:
He said, "to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God through ou Lord Jesus Christ. . . .Day and night ye ere anxious for the whole brotherhood, that the number of God's elect might be saved with mecy and a good conscience."

"And we too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men."

"By Him are the eyes of our hearts opened. By Him our foolish and darkened understanding blossoms up anew towards HIs marvelous light. By Him the Lord has willed that we should taste of immoratal knolwedge."

"This blessedness cometh upon those who have been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom be glory for ever and ever."

"May God, who seeth all things, and who is the Ruler of all spirits and the Lord of all flesh--who chose our Lord Jesus Christ and us through him to be a peculiar people . . . ."

Clement on Man's Sin from Birth
"No man is free from defilement, even if his life be but one day."

Clement on Christ's Substitionary Death
"Let us look stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world."

Clement on Elders Ruling in the Church and Discipleship
"For ye did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the commandments of God, being obedient to those who had rule over you, and giving fiting honour to the presbyters among you."

"Let us reverence the LOrd Jesus Christ, whose blood was given for us; let us esteem those who have rule over us; let us honour the presbyters among us; let us train up the young men in the fear of God; let us direct our wives to that which is good."

"And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fuits of their labors, having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterward believe."

"It is disgraceful, beloved, ya, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that such a thing shold be heard of as of that the most stedast and ancient church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters."

"Who then among you is noble-minded? who compasionate? who full of love? Let him declare, 'if on my account sedition and disagreement and schisms have arisen, I will depart, I will go away whithersoever ye desire, and I will do whatever the majority commands; only let the flock of Christ live on in terms of peace with the presbyters set over it."

Clement on Love
"Love unites us to God."

"Without love nothing is well-pleasing to God."

"In love the Lord has taken us to himself."

Clement on Envy and Strife
"Envy has aliented wives fromtheir husbands, and changed that saying of our Father Adam, 'this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.' Envy and strife have overthrown geat cities and rooted up mighty nations."

Clement on Being Peacemakers
"It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation. For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclination of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind to one another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator."
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

It is always fun reading early church writings. I am curious where you received this information:

Clement was appointed by Paul to serve in the church of Rome along with the other two elders in that church, Linus and Cletus.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

Beautiful Dr. Allen! The message of love and His mercy is wonderful! It is exciting to see that many are still teaching the same truths as the early church did! Dr. Allen, thank you for sharing these writings with us.

Clement on Election/Justification/ and Salvation:
He said, "to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. . . .Day and night ye ere anxious for the whole brotherhood, that the number of God's elect might be saved with mercy and a good conscience."

"And we too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men."

So very exciting. I am amazed that even I am justified! Sometimes I feel like the only words of Paul that I can identify with are, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing."
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

The idea comes forth from Dr. Clevaland Cox, Eusebius, and Origen in their wirtings who present the idea that Clement trained under Paul and after Paul's departure he was placed there in a similar way as Timothy was in Ephesus and as Titus was in Crete. It is based upon the fact that this Clement of Phil. 4 was a close friend and associate with Paul and thus was a likely candidate to serve in Rome after Paul had taught the Romans.
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

Dr. K.R. Allen said:
The idea comes forth from Dr. Clevaland Cox, Eusebius, and Origen in their wirtings who present the idea that Clement trained under Paul and after Paul's departure he was placed there in a similar way as Timothy was in Ephesus and as Titus was in Crete. It is based upon the fact that this Clement of Phil. 4 was a close friend and associate with Paul and thus was a likely candidate to serve in Rome after Paul had taught the Romans.
Click to expand...

Hi

The reason I am asking is everywhere I have searched so far suggest that Peter is the one who ordained Clement. When I have time I will dig deeper.

Thanks
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

Possibly, but with Peter's focus on the ethnic Jews and Paul's ministry being to the Gentiles it made more sense to me that Paul would have led the way with this, especially since he wrote to the Romans and since Clement worked with him he would have known him better.

But, it might come down to one of those things where Peter had a hand in it and thus it was some type of dual approach. We certainly see the apostles going out two by two and we see Barnabas and Paul appointing elders together (Acts 14:23). So it might have been one of those things where even the apostles collectively reviewed someone and they collectively endorsed someone. It certainly was that way from other texts we see, such as with 1 Tim. 4:14. If the multiple elders who endorsed Timothy were following the apostolic pattern this it was likely more than just one Apostle who appointed Clement. Of course it is also likely that the elders there in Timothy's case were actually the apostles since at times apostles called themselves elders (3 John. 1 Peter 5).
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

Thank you for posting about Clement. I rarely hear anyone object that is not what Paul taught. They usually try to say Paul taught something different than Jesus taught and try to undermine the authority of Paul altogether so they would care even less about what Clement taught that some guy they do not care about taught.

How would you respond to all those Muslims that say Paul was a heretic teaching something completely different than what Jesus taught because of that whole pork thing?

Even though Paul never said you must eat pork to get eternal life. :roll: plus Muhammad changed so many rules :lol:

If that is a different topic I apologize.
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

How would you respond to all those Muslims that say Paul was a heretic teaching something completely different than what Jesus taught because of that whole pork thing?
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The issue over the food laws has to do with the presuppositions people have about the way God applies his laws. Every believer in Christ recognizes some changes in God's law code. If they do not then it is because they are not a believer in Christ and are still in Judaism. Some believers see more continuity, some see less and see more discontinuity, and usually all argue over to what degree it has developed. It is the whole continuity and discontinuity debate. It is really a pendulum to a degree in regard to thought.

If you want one of the best, most balanced, and credible books on this topic you can buy "Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Old and New Testament Relationships." See this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Continuity-Discon ... 0891074686

Dr. John Feinberg, the editor, did an oustanding job of pulling together scholars from both sides of the fence and letting them write articles and counters to one another all the way through the book. A masterful presentation.

For me to give a full presentation of that here would not be possible. In short I will simply say that "aqll Scripture is profitable" (2 Tim. 3:16) and thus the OT is profitable. But since the word there is divine we must take it as is, profitable does not mean directly our authority. The OT laws are examples for us; we can find principles from it but we are not to obey it in its exact form any more than we are to obey the law code of Great Britain. Though we as the believers in Christ have a heritage with Israel, just like we Americans do from Europe, the 613 laws of Moses were written to a covenant nation Israel. Jesus' words about not coming to destroy the law are indeed still true. But he said he would not destroy it. The OT has indeed been preserved and it will never go away as it is protected by God's hand of providence. All of the law is profitable as we from it can see God's holiness, his principles, his workings with people of a past administation/era.

But, just as a father whose character never changes, he will have different laws for his children at various stages of their life. A law he has for them when they are 7 years old will differ from his laws for them when they are 17 years old. At seven they may have had to eat a certain type of food. At seventeen the law may be altered to where now they do not have to eat a certain type of food or may be able to eat something they were not able to eat before. The character of the father did not change, his love did not change, but the application of that love to the child did as the father gave the law that was needed for the particular time. This was the point of Paul and all of the apostles who wrote under divine inspiration about the law of God after Christ's death and resurrection. Galatians 3, Ephesians 2, Romans 10, and Hebrews 7 are a few places where this subjects was discussed.

You can also see and read this short article here that will show a little how this works:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1811

I urge you to buy that book above if you want a full treatment of the subject. It is a wonderful study and one that will bless your heart and mind.
 
Re: What Did Paul Believe? Let's Look at his Disciple Clemen

It is obvious that some laws were even changing in the OT otherwise how did Cain get his wife?

So if God changed laws through Moses and Moses talked about a prophet like Moses it is ridiculous to say that the laws never changed.

It is even more ridiculous for Muslims to make that objection to Christianity because they changed a lot of Moses rules.

I think the bigger concern is they say Paul was not reliable because they do not want to believe that Jesus has divine properties nor that the set of the three individuals the father in heaven, Jesus (the unique son) and the Holy Spirit is God.

Paul makes reference to Jesus being God therefor they want to reject Paul.

It is more than just changing rules. They simply want to reject Paul.
(Although this will do them no good because such concepts are in the old testament also)

How would you go about arguing that Paul's letters count for anything?

Thank you for answering my last question and mentioning a book.
 
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