Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/311

52* evil in accordance with the commandment of Christ. Neither must he have on his conscience the death of a single person.

We have tarried longer upon the se matters in order to show that the apostles, while preaching perfection to the first Christians, could not bring them instantly to that perfection – that is, not all of them – and so they offered them a concession in time, hoping that they would thus bring them eventually to the better goal. So now Saint Paul concedes courts at least at home, away from pagans – and even these courts he conceded with shame. But in his last letters to these people we find that all this has been corrected.

And more time was spent on this also in order to show that the early Christians established their rules concerning lawsuits and courts on the words of Saint Paul saying:

In establishing these rules about lawsuits and courts they completely distorted the words of Saint Paul, giving them I-Corinthians 6:4.