{"id":1876,"date":"2014-08-01T03:30:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T08:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbookblogger\/?p=1876"},"modified":"2017-07-30T20:09:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T01:09:47","slug":"church-fathers-day-eleven-tertullian-and-using-what-god-gave-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbookblogger\/2014\/08\/01\/church-fathers-day-eleven-tertullian-and-using-what-god-gave-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Use what God gave you the way God intended; Church Fathers: Day 011"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"tertullian-spotlight-1\"<\/a>God created the universe, and it was very good. But that doesn\u2019t mean every use of every created thing is good, says Tertullian. When we use God\u2019s creation to do evil, the fault is ours, not God\u2019s.<\/i><\/p>\n

Everyone is ready with the argument that everything\u2014as we teach\u2014was created by God and given to man for his use, so it all must be good, because it comes from so good a source. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, no one denies what everyone knows, for nature herself teaches it: that God is the Creator of the universe, and that it is good, and that it belongs to hu\u00admanity by the free gift of its Creator. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is a vast difference between the corrupted state and the state of pri\u00admal purity, just as there is a vast difference between the Creator and the corrupter. <\/span><\/p>\n

All kinds of bad things\u2014which even the heathens prohibit and guard them\u00adselves from, because they are undeniably bad\u2014come from the works of God. Take murder, for instance, whether it\u2019s done by iron, poison, or magic. Iron, herbs, and demons are all equally creations of God. Then did the Creator provide these things so we could destroy each other? No. He prohibits every kind of manslaugh\u00adter with that one summary commandment, \u201cYou shall not kill.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

We ourselves, though we\u2019re guilty of every sin, are not just a work of God: we\u2019re image. Yet we have cut ourselves off from our Creator in both soul and body. Did we get eyes to serve lust, the tongue to speak evil, ears to hear evil, a throat for gluttony, a stomach to be gluttony\u2019s ally, hands to do violence, genitals for unchaste excesses, feet for an erring life? Was the soul put in the body to think up traps, fraud, and injustice? I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0<\/span>\u2013Tertullian, <\/span>On the Shows, <\/i><\/span>2<\/span><\/p>\n

IN GOD\u2019S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . . <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Do I use the things God gave me\u2014both my own body and soul and the goods of creation\u2014in the way God intended them to be used? <\/span><\/p>\n

CLOSING PRAYER <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Father, Author of grace, Creator of worlds, Founder of knowledge, Giver of wisdom, Treasure of holiness: scatter the darkness in my soul, and enlighten the eyes of my understand\u00ading, so that I may make use of your creation as you intended.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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