Against Marcion

Furthermore, since both circumcision and uncircumcision were attributed to the same Deity, both lost their power in Christ, by reason of the excellency of faith— of that faith concerning which it had been written, “And in His name shall the Gentiles trust?” — of that faith “which,” he says “works by love.” By this saying he also shows that the Creator is the source of that grace. For whether he speaks of the love which is due to God, or that which is due to one's neighbor— in either case, the Creator's grace is meant: for it is He who enjoins the first in these words, “You shall love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength;” and also the second in another passage: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” “But he that troubles you shall have to bear judgment.” From what God?

From (Marcion's) most excellent god? But he does not execute judgment. From the Creator? But neither will He condemn the maintainer of circumcision. Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? “For,” says he, “all the law is fulfilled in you by this: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'” If, indeed, he will have it that by the words “it is fulfilled” it is implied that the law no longer has to be fulfilled, then of course he does not mean that I should any more love my neighbour as myself, since this precept must have ceased together with the law.

But no! We must evermore continue to observe this commandment. The Creator's law, therefore, has received the approval of the rival god, who has, in fact, bestowed upon it not the sentence of a summary dismissal, but the favour of a compendious acceptance; the gist of it all being concentrated in this one precept! But this condensation of the law is, in fact, only possible to Him who is the Author of it. When, therefore, he says, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” since this cannot be accomplished except a man love his neighbour as himself, it is evident that the precept, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (which, in fact, underlies the injunction, “Bear one another's burdens”), is really “the law of Christ,” though literally the law of the Creator.

Christ, therefore, is the Creator's Christ, as Christ's law is the Creator's law. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked.” But Marcion's god can be mocked; for he knows not how to be angry, or how to take vengeance. “For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” It is then the God of recompense and judgment who threatens this. “Let us not be weary in well-doing;” and “as we have opportunity, let us do good.” Deny now that the Creator has given a commandment to do good, and then a diversity of precept may argue a difference of gods.

If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death and of life. But “in due time we shall reap;” because in Ecclesiastes it is said, “For everything there will be a time.” Moreover, “the world is crucified unto me,” who am a servant of the Creator— “the world,” (I say,) but not the God who made the world— “and I unto the world,” not unto the God who made the world. The world, in the apostle's sense, here means life and conversation according to worldly principles; it is in renouncing these that we and they are mutually crucified and mutually slain.

He calls them “persecutors of Christ.” But when he adds, that “he bare in his body the scars of Christ”— since scars, of course, are accidents of body — he therefore expressed the truth, that the flesh of Christ is not putative, but real and substantial, the scars of which he represents as borne upon his body.