Does 1 Clement Teach Faith Alone or Faith and Works?

Quick Facts

Claim examined: That 1 Clement holds a “synergistic” or “ancient pastoral” view in which faith and works are bound together, rather than distinguished as in the “faith alone vs. works” framework.

Short answer: No. In 32.3–4 Clement draws the same “not … but” line twice, setting works against God’s will (32.3) and then against faith (32.4), and in 33.1 he raises and answers the objection Paul answers in Romans 6:1. He distinguishes how a person is justified from how a justified person must live.

Text: 1 Clement, a letter from the church at Rome to the church at Corinth, usually dated to around 95–96 A.D.

Key texts: 1 Clement 12.7, 30.1–7, 31.2, 32.3–4, 33.1, 34.7; Romans 3:28, 4:5, 6:1–2.

Conclusion: Faith and works are distinct at the point of justification and joined in the life that follows. That is conditional security, not a blend of the two.

It is often said that 1 Clement, “like many early post-apostolic writings”, holds a “synergistic” or “ancient pastoral” view, in which faith in Christ and a life of obedient, virtuous works are “tightly bound together rather than sharply polarized in the modern Protestant ‘faith alone’ vs. ‘works’ framework”.

That sounds reasonable until you read the Greek. Clement does not blur faith and works. He separates them sharply, in the very place where he talks about justification, and then he binds them together in the place where he talks about the Christian life. The distinction is not a modern Protestant import. It is in Clement, and before him it is in Paul.

1. Clement Draws the Line Twice

Read 1 Clement 32.3–4 slowly. It is built on a “not … but” (οὐ … ἀλλά) contrast, and Clement uses it twice in a row: first works against God’s will, then works against faith.

First, of the patriarchs and the people of God:

πάντες οὖν ἐδοξάσθησαν καὶ ἐμεγαλύνθησαν οὐ δι’ αὐτῶν ἢ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν ἢ τῆς δικαιοπραγίας ἧς κατειργάσαντο, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ. “They all therefore were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous doing which they wrought, but through his will.” (32.3)

Then, of “us”:

καὶ ἡμεῖς οὖν, διὰ θελήματος αὐτοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ κληθέντες, οὐ δι’ ἑαυτῶν δικαιούμεθα οὐδὲ διὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας σοφίας ἢ συνέσεως ἢ εὐσεβείας ἢ ἔργων ὧν κατειργασάμεθα ἐν ὁσιότητι καρδίας, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς πίστεως, δι’ ἧς πάντας τοὺς ἀπ’ αἰῶνος ὁ παντοκράτωρ Θεὸς ἐδικαίωσεν. “And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning.” (32.4)

The verb is δικαιούμεθα, “we are justified”. On one side of the contrast stand “ourselves”, “wisdom”, “understanding”, “piety” and “works which we wrought in holiness of heart”. On the other side stands one thing: faith. Clement does not say we are justified by faith together with works. He lists works on the side of what does not justify.

Notice how the two verses fit together. In 32.3 the patriarchs were glorified “not through … their own works … but through his will”. In 32.4 we are justified “through his will” (διὰ θελήματος αὐτοῦ) as those called in Christ Jesus, “not through … works … but through faith”. On one side stands human effort, even “works which we wrought in holiness of heart”, works done with a holy disposition. On the other side stand God’s will and faith together. Faith is not one more human work; it stands on God’s side of the line.

That is not “tightly bound together”. That is the faith-versus-works antithesis, stated in a late first-century letter from Rome.

2. It Is Paul’s Distinction, Not a Modern One

The claim calls this framework “modern Protestant”. But the shape of 32.4 is Paul’s:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)

Clement even ties it, as Paul does, to all of God’s people “from the beginning”: the faith “whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning”. A distinction found in Paul and repeated by the church of Rome around 95 A.D. is not a product of the sixteenth century.

3. Clement Raises Paul’s Objection, and Answers It Like Paul

If Clement really held a blended view in which faith and works were never distinguished, the next sentence would make no sense. Immediately after 32.4, he asks:

Τί οὖν ποιήσωμεν, ἀδελφοί; ἀργήσωμεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγαθοποιΐας καὶ ἐγκαταλείπωμεν τὴν ἀγάπην; μηδαμῶς τοῦτο ἐάσαι ὁ δεσπότης ἐφ’ ἡμῖν γε γενηθῆναι, ἀλλὰ σπεύσωμεν μετὰ ἐκτενείας καὶ προθυμίας πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιτελεῖν. “What then shall we do, brethren? Shall we be idle from doing good and abandon love? May the Master never allow this to happen to us, but let us hasten with earnestness and zeal to accomplish every good work.” (33.1)

Compare Paul:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” (Romans 6:1–2)

The objection only arises if justification has just been said to be apart from works. Nobody asks “shall we stop doing good?” after being told that good works are part of what justifies them. Clement asks it because he has just excluded works from justification, and he answers it the way Paul does: certainly not. The two objections are not worded the same (Paul’s is about continuing in sin, Clement’s about growing idle in doing good), but both arise only after works have been excluded from justification.

So the order of 1 Clement 32–33 is this: justification is not by works but by faith (32.4); therefore, the justified must not be idle but must do every good work (33.1). The two are distinguished first and joined second.

4. Where Faith and Works Are Joined: The Life That Follows

This is where the truth in the claim belongs. Clement does bind faith and works together, but in the Christian life, not in justification.

31.2. Abraham was blessed “because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith” (δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἀλήθειαν διὰ πίστεως ποιήσας). The works come through faith; faith is their source, not their partner in justification.

30.3. “Let us therefore cleave unto those to whom grace is given from God … being justified by works and not by words.” The people addressed have already been given grace. The verse is about the righteousness of the justified, not how a sinner becomes justified (see the next section).

34.4. God “exhorts us, who believe on him with our whole heart (πιστεύοντας ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας), not to be idle or careless in any good work”. The readers are already believers; the works are what believers are urged to do.

In 1 Clement, then, faith and works are not “tightly bound together” at every point. They are separated at justification and joined afterwards. Calling that “synergism” erases the very distinction Clement draws.

5. Why 30.3 does not contradict 32.4

Chapter 30 says “being justified by works and not by words” (ἔργοις δικαιούμενοι καὶ μὴ λόγοις, 30.3), using the same verb Clement uses in 32.4. Read the whole chapter, though, and it is clear what kind of justifying he means.

It opens by addressing people who already belong to God: Ἁγίου οὖν μερὶς ὑπάρχοντες, “being therefore the portion of the Holy One” (30.1). And the contrast in 30.3 is not works against faith. It is works against words: deeds against talk.

The next verse explains it with Job 11:2–3: Ὁ τὰ πολλὰ λέγων καὶ ἀντακούσεται· ἢ ὁ εὔλαλος οἴεται εἶναι δίκαιος; “He who speaks much will also hear much in return; or does the fluent talker think himself righteous?” (30.4). Then: “Let our praise be in God and not from ourselves, for God hates those who praise themselves” (30.6), and “let the testimony to our good deeds be given by others, as it was given to our fathers, the righteous” (30.7).

The question in chapter 30 is how people who already belong to God are shown to be righteous: by deeds that others can see, not by talking about themselves. It is about the righteousness of those already in God’s portion. How a sinner is first justified is the subject of 32.4, and there Clement says “not … through works … but through faith”.

6. What About Rahab, “Saved Through Faith and Hospitality”?

Someone may point to 12.1: “On account of faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved” (Διὰ πίστιν καὶ φιλοξενίαν ἐσώθη Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη). But in chapter 12 Clement is telling the story of Rahab’s household being brought safely out of Jericho (12.5–6). When he draws the spiritual lesson, he names only believing and hoping:

πρόδηλον ποιοῦντες ὅτι διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Κυρίου λύτρωσις ἔσται πᾶσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν καὶ ἐλπίζουσιν ἐπὶ τὸν Θεόν. “And moreover they gave her a sign, that she should hang out from her house a scarlet thread, thereby showing beforehand that through the blood of the Lord there shall be redemption unto all them that believe and hope on God.” (12.7)

Redemption through the blood of the Lord is for those who “believe and hope on God”. Hospitality is part of Rahab’s story; it is not part of the redemption Clement draws from it.

7. The Early Writers Are Not One Block

The claim also says 1 Clement is “like many early post-apostolic writings”. That turns a whole century of different authors into a single view and then reads Clement through it. Each writer has to be read on his own terms, and Clement’s own terms are clear: “not through … works … but through faith” (32.4).

“Ancient pastoral view” also undersells him. 32.4 is not pastoral encouragement; it is a statement about justification, using the verb δικαιόω, “to justify”. Clement is making a doctrinal claim.

8. A Note on the Word “Synergism”

If “synergism” only means that people must respond to God’s grace (by believing, repenting, calling on him and then living obediently), then Clement is “synergistic”, and so is nearly every Christian writer. The claim examined here is different and stronger: that Clement binds faith and works “tightly together rather than sharply polarized”. That claim is what 32.3–4 and 33.1 refute. Clement distinguishes the two at justification and joins them afterwards.

9. Conclusion

1 Clement does not blur faith and works. It draws the “not … but” line twice (32.3–4), in Paul’s own form, and then raises and answers Paul’s own objection (33.1). Justification is “not … through works … but through faith”. Afterwards, the justified must abound in good works, and Clement warns that those who do not can be “cast out from the hope” of Christ (57.2). Distinct at the entrance, joined in the life that follows, with continuance conditioned on obedience: that is conditional security.

And even after his long exhortation to good works, notice what Clement tells his readers to do in order to share in God’s promises: “let us cry out to him earnestly, as with one mouth, that we may become partakers of his great and glorious promises” (βοήσωμεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκτενῶς, 34.7).

Sources

Greek text of 1 Clement: Lightfoot (1869), corrected from the Jerusalem codex and the ancient versions. English of 12.7, 30.3 and 32.4: J. B. Lightfoot’s translation; 30.1, 30.4, 30.6 and 30.7 are literal. Other translations are literal.