Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book VIII/Chapter III

Chapter III.

Before proceeding to the next point, it may be well for us to see whether we do not accept with approval the saying, &#8220;No man can serve two masters,&#8221; with the addition, &#8220;for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other,&#8221; and further, &#8220;Ye cannot serve God and mammon.&#8221; &#160; The defence of this passage will lead us to a deeper and more searching inquiry into the meaning and application of the words &#8220;gods&#8221; and &#8220;lords.&#8221;&#160; Divine Scripture teaches us that there is &#8220;a great Lord above all gods.&#8221; &#160; And by this name &#8220;gods&#8221; we are not to understand the objects of heathen worship (for we know that &#8220;all the gods of the heathen are demons&#8221; ), but the gods mentioned by the prophets as forming an assembly, whom God &#8220;judges,&#8221; and to each of whom He assigns his proper work.&#160; For &#8220;God standeth in the assembly of the gods:&#160; He judgeth among the gods.&#8221; &#160; For &#8220;God is Lord of gods,&#8221; who by His Son &#8220;hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.&#8221; &#160; We are also commanded to &#8220;give thanks to the God of gods.&#8221; &#160; Moreover, we are taught that &#8220;God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.&#8221; &#160; Nor are these the only passages to this effect; but there are very many others.