Exhortation to the Greeks 4.59

“But he, playing the lyre, struck up a beautiful song.” Sing us, Homer, that beautiful voice: “of the love of Ares and fair-crowned Aphrodite, how they first lay together in the house of Hephaestus in secret; and he gave many gifts, and shamed the bed and couch of lord Hephaestus.” Stop the song, Homer! It is not beautiful; it teaches adultery. We have declined to commit sexual immorality even with our ears. For we, we are the ones who carry about the image of God in this living and moving statue, the human being: an image that dwells with us, counsels us, converses with us, shares our hearth, suffers with us, suffers for us. We have been made an offering to God for Christ's sake: “We are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people, who once were not a people but are now the people of God”; we who, as John says, are not “from below,” but have learned everything from him who came from above; we who have understood the plan of God; we who have practiced “walking in newness of life.”