{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/009/0090314.htm","path":"chr/ecf/009/0090314.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/009/0090314.htm","text":"38. The World, of Which the Sin is Taken Away, is Said to Be the Church. Reasons for Not Agreeing with This Opinion.\nThe reader will do well to consider what was said above and illustrated from various quarters on the question what is meant in Scripture by the word \u201cworld\u201d; and I think it proper to repeat this. I am aware that a certain scholar understands by the world the Church alone, since the Church is the adornment of the world, 4983 and is said to be the light of the world. \u201cYou,\u201d he says, 4984 \u201care the light of the world.\u201d Now, the adornment of the world is the Church, Christ being her adornment, who is the first light of the world. We must consider if Christ is said to be the light of the same world as His disciples. When Christ is the light of the world, perhaps it is meant that He is the light of the Church, but when His disciples are the light of the world, perhaps they are the light of others who call on the Lord, others in addition to the Church, as Paul says on this point in the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he writes, \u201cTo the Church of God, with all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d Should any one consider that the Church is called the light of the world, meaning thereby of the rest of the race of men, including unbelievers, this may be true if the assertion is taken prophetically and theologically; but if it is to be taken of the present, we remind him that the light of a thing illuminates that thing, and would ask him to show how the remainder of the race is illuminated by the Church\u2019s presence in the world. If those who hold the view in question cannot show this, then let them consider if our interpretation is not a sound one, that the light is the Church, and the world those others who call on the Name. The words which follow the above in Matthew will point out to the careful enquirer the proper interpretation. \u201cYou,\u201d it is said, \u201care the salt of the earth,\u201d the rest of mankind being conceived as the earth, and believers are their salt; it is because they believe that the earth is preserved. For the end will come if the salt loses its savour, and ceases to salt and preserve the earth, since it is clear that if iniquity is multiplied and love waxes cold upon the earth, 4985 as the Saviour Himself uttered an expression of doubt as to those who would witness His coming, saying, 4986 \u201cWhen the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith upon the earth?\u201d then the end of the age will come. Supposing, then, the Church to be called the world, since the Saviour\u2019s light shines on it\u2014we have to ask in connection with the text, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,\u201d whether the world here is to be taken intellectually of the Church, and the taking away of sin is limited to the Church. In that case what are we to make of the saying of the same disciple with regard to the Saviour, as the propitiation for sin? \u201cIf any man sin,\u201d we read, \u201cwe have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world?\u201d Paul\u2019s dictum appears to me to be to the same effect, when he says, 4987 \u201cWho is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.\u201d Again, Heracleon, dealing with our passage, declares, without any proof or any citation of witnesses to that effect, that the words, \u201cLamb of God,\u201d are spoken by John as a prophet, but the words, \u201cwho taketh away the sin of the world,\u201d by John as more than a prophet. The former expression he considers to be used of His body, but the latter of Him who was in that body, because the lamb is an imperfect member of the genus sheep; the same being true of the body as compared with the dweller in it. Had he meant to attribute perfection to the body he would have spoken of a ram as about to be sacrificed. After the careful discussions given above, I do not think it necessary to enter into repetitions on this passage, or to controvert Heracleon\u2019s careless utterances. One point only may be noted, that as the world was scarcely able to contain Him who had emptied Himself, it required a lamb and not a ram, that its sin might be taken away.\n\u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 means both \u201cornament\u201d and \u201cworld.\u201d\n380:4984 380:4985 380:4986 380:4987","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol IX: Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John.: Chapter XXXVIII","type":"page"}