Like an athlete he comes last into the arena. He lifts his eyes to heaven… He sees that his whole task awaits him… He chastises his body so that it will not defeat him in the contest. He anoints it with the oil of mercy. He practices daily exhibitions of virtue. He smears himself with dust. He runs with assurance to the goal of the course. He aims his blows, he darts his arms, but not at empty spaces… Earth is man’s training ground, heaven his crown.
So fight I, not as one that beateth the air. The comparison is still maintained. I fight as an athlete, but I do not spend my toil for nought, but I wound my enemy, i.e, I subdue my body and my flesh; and when I have subdued this foe, the remaining two, the world and the devil, are easily overcome. For the world and the devil cannot kill us, wound us, strike us, tempt us, approach us, except through the body and its organs, the eyes and ears and tongue and other members.
Thus having shamed them from those that are without, he next brings forward himself also, which kind of thing is a most excellent method of teaching: and accordingly we find him every where doing so.
But what is, not uncertainly? Looking to some mark, says he, not at random and in vain, as you do. For what profit have ye of entering into idol-temples, and exhibiting for-truth that perfectness? None. But not such am I, but all things whatsoever I do, I do for the salvation of my neighbor. Whether I show forth perfectness, it is for their sake; or condescension, for their sake again: whether I surpass Peter in declining to receive [compensation], it is that they may not be offended; or descend lower than all, being circumcised and shaving my head, it is that they may not be subverted. This is, not uncertainly. But you, why do you eat in idol-temples, tell me? Nay, you can not assign any reasonable cause. For meat commends you not to God; neither if you eat are you the better, nor if y...
