Use what God gave you the way God intended; Church Fathers: Day 011

Last updated on: July 30, 2017 at 8:09 pm by Pete Socks

Use what God gave you the way God intended; Church Fathers: Day 011 2017-07-30T20:09:47-05:00 Pete Socks

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God created the universe, and it was very good. But that doesn’t mean every use of every created thing is good, says Tertullian. When we use God’s creation to do evil, the fault is ours, not God’s.

Everyone is ready with the argument that everything—as we teach—was created by God and given to man for his use, so it all must be good, because it comes from so good a source.

Now, no one denies what everyone knows, for nature herself teaches it: that God is the Creator of the universe, and that it is good, and that it belongs to humanity by the free gift of its Creator.

But there is a vast difference between the corrupted state and the state of primal purity, just as there is a vast difference between the Creator and the corrupter.

All kinds of bad things—which even the heathens prohibit and guard themselves from, because they are undeniably bad—come from the works of God. Take murder, for instance, whether it’s done by iron, poison, or magic. Iron, herbs, and demons are all equally creations of God. Then did the Creator provide these things so we could destroy each other? No. He prohibits every kind of manslaughter with that one summary commandment, “You shall not kill.”

We ourselves, though we’re guilty of every sin, are not just a work of God: we’re image. Yet we have cut ourselves off from our Creator in both soul and body. Did we get eyes to serve lust, the tongue to speak evil, ears to hear evil, a throat for gluttony, a stomach to be gluttony’s ally, hands to do violence, genitals for unchaste excesses, feet for an erring life? Was the soul put in the body to think up traps, fraud, and injustice? I don’t think so. –Tertullian, On the Shows, 2

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I use the things God gave me—both my own body and soul and the goods of creation—in the way God intended them to be used?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, Author of grace, Creator of worlds, Founder of knowledge, Giver of wisdom, Treasure of holiness: scatter the darkness in my soul, and enlighten the eyes of my understanding, so that I may make use of your creation as you intended.

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