Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 12

I would also advise married men to love their wives at home, not face to face as if they were servants. Aristotle, after all, never even allows one to laugh with slaves; how much more necessary is it that a wife appear devoted to her husband in their presence. It is better for those who begin from marriage to display dignity at home. For the greatest union of self-control breathes out pure pleasure. The tragedy puts it wonderfully: 'Alas, alas, women, for neither gold, nor tyranny, nor the ornament of wealth holds so many varied pleasures as the judgment of a good man and a pious woman—thinking justly and bravely.' These are the commands of justice, and they must not be rejected even though they have been uttered by those who possess worldly wisdom.

Knowing therefore each person's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourning, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish (1 Peter 1:17–19). Peter says, 'The time that is past is enough for doing what the Gentiles desire, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revelries, carousing, and lawless idolatry' (1 Peter 4:3). Let us make the cross of the Lord our boundary, by which we are crucified and put to death to our former sins. Having been born again, therefore, let us cling to the truth, and let us be sobered and sanctified, 'for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil' (1 Peter 3:12). And who will harm you if you become zealous for what is good?

The best way of life is orderliness, which is complete propriety and established strength, the successive elements well-disposed toward each other in action, unsurpassable in virtue. If I have spoken these things somewhat roughly, administering the salvation of correction, I have spoken, says the Pedagogue, since 'whoever reproves with frankness makes peace.' You, if you listen to me, will be saved; but if you do not pay attention to what has been said, I do not care—and yet I do care: 'for the Lord chooses the repentance of the sinner rather than his death.' 'If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land,' the Pedagogue says again, calling human goods good—beauty, wealth, health, strength, food. For the truly good things are 'what no ear has heard, nor has entered the human heart,' concerning the truly existing King; the truly existing good things exist and await us, for He is both giver and guardian of good things. But the things named good here are so only by a transfer of meaning, the Word pedagogically guiding human weakness from sensible things to the intellect.