Cool Quote

Here's a cool quote that I'm going to use in my sermon tomorrow . . .

In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body. Likewise Christians dwell in the world but are not of the world.  . . . The flesh hates the soul and wages war against it, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasures. Similarly the world also hates the Christians, even though it has suffered no wrong, because they set themselves against its pleasures. [But] The soul loves the flesh that hates it and its members, and Christians love those who hate them. The soul is enclosed in the body, but it holds the body together. And though Christians are detained in the world as if in a prison, they in fact hold the world together. . . . Such is the important position to which God has appointed them, and it is not right for them to decline it. 

from: Letter to Diognetus, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Vol. IVb, John 11-21, p. 244