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2 Clement

About this book
Chapter 4

1 Let us therefore not only call Him ‘Lord,’ for this will not save us: 2 for He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,’ shall be saved, but the one who does what is right.”⁠ 3 So then, brothers and sisters, let us confess Him by our deeds, by loving one another, by not committing adultery or speaking evil against one another or envying, but by being temperate, merciful, and kind. We ought to have empathy for one another and not be greedy. By these works let us confess Him, and not by the opposite. 4 And we ought not to fear people rather than God. 5 For this reason, if you do these things, the Lord said, “Though you be gathered together with Me in My bosom, and do not My commandments, I will cast you away and will say to you, ‘Depart from Me, I do not know where you are from, you workers of evil.’”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Matthew 7:21 and 2 Clement 4:2

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In Matthew 7, Jesus requires obedience to his Father's will for entry to the kingdom. In 2 Clement, the preacher interprets this as doing right to be saved, adapting the saying to his appeal for good deeds rather than just verbal confession.

Passages

Matthew 7:21

New Testament
18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

2 Clement 4:2

Early Christian
1 Let us therefore not only call Him ‘Lord,’ for this will not save us: 2 for He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,’ shall be saved, but the one who does what is right.” 3 So then, brothers and sisters, let us confess Him by our deeds, by loving one another, by not committing adultery or speaking evil against one another or envying, but by being temperate, merciful, and kind. We ought to have empathy for one another and not be greedy. By these works let us confess Him, and not by the opposite. 4 And we ought not to fear people rather than God.
130–160 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Clement

References

“... A very similar situation may arise in 2 Clem. 4. 2. This is another explicit ‘citation’ of what ‘the Lord’ (= Jesus) ‘says’. The citation is clearly close in substance to Matt. 7. 21 // Luke 6. 46. Further, once again, 2 Clement is much closer to the version in Matthew than to that in Luke [...] Thus, although one cannot point to verbatim agreement with clearly identifiable elements of Matthean redaction, the fact remains that the version in 2 Clement does agree with Matthew in what is (probably) Matthew’s restructuring of the saying from Q 6. 46; and the further points where 2 Clement differs from Matthew (and in so doing avoids the more obviously Matthean terminology) can be adequately explained by the linguistic preferences of ‘Clement’ himself. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 258–259.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Matthew 7:21 and 2 Clement 4:2

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