Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Corinthians 3:13
There are 21 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 18, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Clement of Rome (HTML)
First Epistle to the Corinthians (HTML)
Chapter XLVII.—Your recent discord is worse than the former which took place in the times of Paul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 214 (In-Text, Margin)
Take up the epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the Gospel first began to be preached? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos,[1 Corinthians 3:13] because even then parties had been formed among you. But that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your partialities were then shown towards apostles, already of high reputation, and towards a man whom they had approved. But now reflect who those are that have perverted you, and lessened the renown of your far-famed brotherly love. It is ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 52, footnote 5 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)
Book Third.—Similitudes (HTML)
Similitude Ninth. The Great Mysteries in the Building of the Militant and Triumphant Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 390 (In-Text, Margin)
... fruits, adorned with fruits of various kinds, they who believed were the following: they who suffered for the name of the Son of God, and who also suffered cheerfully with their whole heart, and laid down their lives.” “Why, then, sir,” I said, “do all these trees bear fruit, and some of them fairer than the rest?” “Listen,” he said: “all who once suffered for the name of the Lord are honourable before God; and of all these the sins were remitted, because they suffered for the name of the Son of God.[1 Corinthians 3:13-15] And why their fruits are of various kinds, and some of them superior, listen. All,” he continued, “who were brought before the authorities and were examined, and did not deny, but suffered cheerfully—these are held in greater honour with God, and of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 450, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter IV.—Divine Things Wrapped Up in Figures Both in the Sacred and in Heathen Writers. (HTML)
... with meat: for ye were not able. Neither yet are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But those who abstain from these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. “According to the grace,” it is said, “given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. And another buildeth on it gold and silver, precious stones.”[1 Corinthians 3:10-13] Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But “the stubble, and the wood, and the hay,” are the additions of heresies. “But the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” In allusion to the gnostic ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 502, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XIII (HTML)
... object of sense. But if, on the contrary, the works of the wicked man are spoken of figuratively under the names of “wood, or hay, or stubble,” why does it not at once occur (to inquire) in what sense the word “fire” is to be taken, so that “wood” of such a kind should be consumed? for (the Scripture) says: “The fire will try each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work be burned, he shall suffer loss.”[1 Corinthians 3:13-15] But what work can be spoken of in these words as being “burned,” save all that results from wickedness? Therefore our God is a “consuming fire” in the sense in which we have taken the word; and thus He enters in as a “refiner’s fire,” to refine the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 332, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Antonianus About Cornelius and Novatian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2484 (In-Text, Margin)
... and chastity and modesty preserve the tenor of their glory. Nor is the vigour of continence broken down because repentance and pardon are facilitated to the adulterer. It is one thing to stand for pardon, another thing to attain to glory: it is one thing, when cast into prison, not to go out thence until one has paid the uttermost farthing; another thing at once to receive the wages of faith and courage. It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins, to be cleansed and long purged by fire;[1 Corinthians 3:13] another to have purged all sins by suffering. It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day of judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 171, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book VI. Of True Worship (HTML)
Chap. IX.—Of the law and precept of god; of mercy, and the error of the philosophers (HTML)
But let us suppose it possible that any one, by natural and innate goodness, should gain true virtues, such a man as we have heard that Cimon was at Athens, who both gave alms to the needy, and entertained the poor, and clothed the naked; yet, when that one thing which is of the greatest importance is wanting—the acknowledgment of God—then all those good things are superfluous and empty, so that in pursuing them he has laboured in vain.[1 Corinthians 3:11-15] For all his justice will resemble a human body which has no head, in which, although all the limbs are in their proper position, and figure, and proportion, yet, since that is wanting which is the chief thing of all, it is destitute both of life and of all sensation. Therefore ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 216, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book VII. Of a Happy Life (HTML)
Chap. XX.—Of the judgment of Christ, of Christians, and of the soul (HTML)
These things are near to the truth.[1 Corinthians 3:13-15] For the soul, when separated from the body, is, as the same poet says, such as
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 243, footnote 18 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)
The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. (HTML)
Your Recent Discord is Worse Than the Former Which Took Place in the Times of Paul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4257 (In-Text, Margin)
Take up the epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the gospel first began to be preached? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos,[1 Corinthians 3:13] because even then parties had been formed among you. But that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your partialities were then shown towards apostles, already of high reputation, and towards a man whom they had approved. But now reflect who those are that have perverted you, and lessened the renown of your far-famed brotherly love. It is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 468, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Of Those Who Assert that All Catholics Who Continue in the Faith Even Though by the Depravity of Their Lives They Have Merited Hell Fire, Shall Be Saved on Account of the ‘Foundation’ Of Their Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1536 (In-Text, Margin)
... laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day of the Lord shall declare it, for it shall be revealed by fire; and each man’s work shall be proved of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall endure which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. But if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.”[1 Corinthians 3:11-15] They say, accordingly, that the catholic Christian, no matter what his life be, has Christ as his foundation, while this foundation is not possessed by any heresy which is separated from the unity of His body. And therefore, through virtue of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 474, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1575 (In-Text, Margin)
... words, who he is who builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? “He that is unmarried,” he says, “careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” Would you hear who he is that buildeth wood, hay, stubble? “But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,”—the day, no doubt, of tribulation—“because,” says he, “it shall be revealed by fire.”[1 Corinthians 3:13] He calls tribulation fire, just as it is elsewhere said, “The furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and the trial of affliction righteous men.” And “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide”—for a man’s ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 474, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1580 (In-Text, Margin)
... for you,” unless that they are those who have built on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? But if the fire of which our Lord speaks is the same as that of which the apostle says, “Yet so as by fire,” then both—that is to say, both those on the right as well as those on the left—are to be cast into it. For that fire is to try both, since it is said, “For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”[1 Corinthians 3:13] If, therefore, the fire shall try both, in order that if any man’s work abide— i.e., if the superstructure be not consumed by the fire—he may receive a reward, and that if his work is burned he may suffer loss, certainly that fire is not the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The True Sense of the Passage I Cor. III. 11–15 About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1221 (In-Text, Margin)
But as these most plain and unmistakeable declarations of the apostles cannot be false, that obscure saying about those who build upon the foundation, Christ, not gold, silver, and precious stones, but wood, hay, and stubble (for it is these who, it is said, shall be saved, yet so as by fire, the merit of the foundation saving them[1 Corinthians 3:11-15]), must be so interpreted as not to conflict with the plain statements quoted above. Now wood, hay, and stubble may, without incongruity, be understood to signify such an attachment to worldly things, however lawful these may be in themselves, that they cannot be lost without grief of mind. And though this grief burns, yet if ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The True Sense of the Passage I Cor. III. 11–15 About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1222 (In-Text, Margin)
... of which the apostle speaks in this place must be such a fire as both men are made to pass through, that is, both the man who builds upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, and the man who builds wood, hay, stubble. For he immediately adds: “The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.”[1 Corinthians 3:13-15] The fire then shall prove, not the work of one of them only, but of both. Now the trial of adversity is a kind of fire which is plainly spoken of in another place: “The furnace proveth the potter’s vessels: and the furnace of adversity just men.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 16, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 173 (In-Text, Margin)
... by His laws, is called His anger. In which anger, the soul, which now prays, would not only not be reproved, but not even chastened, that is, amended or instructed. For in the Greek it is, παιδεύσῃς, that is, instruct. Now in the day of judgment all are “reproved” that hold not the foundation, which is Christ. But they are amended, that is, purged, who “upon this foundation build wood, hay, stubble. For they shall suffer loss, but shall be saved, as by fire.”[1 Corinthians 3:11-13] What then does he pray, who would not be either reproved or amended in the anger of the Lord? what else but that he may be healed? For where sound health is, neither death is to be dreaded, nor the physician’s hand with caustics or the knife.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 17, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 179 (In-Text, Margin)
6. “For in death there is no one that is mindful of Thee” (ver. 5). He knows too that now is the time for turning unto God: for when this life shall have passed away, there remaineth but a retribution of our deserts.[1 Corinthians 3:13-15] “But in hell who shall confess to Thee?” That rich man, of whom the Lord speaks, who saw Lazarus in rest, but bewailed himself in torments, confessed in hell, yea so as to wish even to have his brethren warned, that they might keep themselves from sin, because of the punishment which is not believed to be in hell. Although therefore to no purpose, yet he confessed that those torments had ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 103, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 953 (In-Text, Margin)
... “gold, silver, and precious stones;” and should have nothing to fear from either fire: not only that which is to consume the ungodly for ever, but also that which is to purge those who are to escape through the fire. For it is said, “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.” And because it is said, “he shall be saved,” that fire is thought lightly of. For all that, though we should be “saved by fire,” yet will that fire be more grievous than anything that man can suffer in this life whatsoever.[1 Corinthians 3:11-15] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 110, footnote 20 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, And Shall Come in Glory to Judge the Quick and the Dead; Of Whose Kingdom There Shall Be No End. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1918 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall manifestly come, even our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and a fierce tempest round about Him, and the rest. The Son of Man shall come to the Father, according to the Scripture which was just now read, on the clouds of heaven, drawn by a stream of fire, which is to make trial of men. Then if any man’s works are of gold, he shall be made brighter; if any man’s course of life be like stubble, and unsubstantial, it shall be burnt up by the fire[1 Corinthians 3:12-13]. And the Father shall sit, having His garment white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. But this is spoken after the manner of men; wherefore? Because He is the King of those who have not been defiled with sins; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 271, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3284 (In-Text, Margin)
... from the brook, when the land was parched by drought; and, when but faintly breathing, to be restored to life and left as a seed to Israel, that we might not become like Sodom and Gomorrah, whose destruction by the rain of fire and brimstone is only more notorious than their wickedness. Therefore, when we were cast down, a horn of salvation was raised up for us, and a chief corner stone, knitting us to itself and to one another, was laid in due season, or a fire to purify our base and evil matter,[1 Corinthians 3:13] or a farmer’s fan to winnow the light from the weighty in doctrine, or a sword to cut out the roots of wickedness; and so the Word finds him as his own ally, and the Spirit takes possession of one who will breathe on His behalf.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 359, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4007 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord together. Let none of you, even though he has much confidence in himself, dare to say, Touch me not for I am pure, and who is so pure as I? Give us too a share in your brightness. But perhaps we are not convincing you? Then we will weep for you. Let these men then if they will, follow our way, which is Christ’s way; but if they will not, let them go their own. Perhaps in it they will be baptized with Fire, in that last Baptism which is more painful and longer, which devours wood like grass,[1 Corinthians 3:12-19] and consumes the stubble of every evil.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 22, footnote 15 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Reply to the suggested objection that we are baptized “into water.” Also concerning baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1026 (In-Text, Margin)
... between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. “I indeed,” he says, “baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, “The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.”[1 Corinthians 3:13] And again, “The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.” And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ’s sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 84, footnote 10 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. In the narration of that event already mentioned, and especially of the sacrifice offered by Nehemiah, is typified the Holy Spirit and Christian baptism. The sacrifice of Moses and Elijah and the history of Noah are also referred to the same. (HTML)
103. What else can this mean—namely, that fire became water and water called forth fire—but that spiritual grace burns out our sins through fire, and through water cleanses them? For sin is washed away and it is burnt away. Wherefore the Apostle says: “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”[1 Corinthians 3:13] And further on: “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”