But although He is Word, He is not, as I said, composed of syllables like human words. Rather, He is the exact Image of His own Father. Human beings, because they are composed of parts and came to be from non-being, have their own word composed and dissolvable. But God truly is and is not composite; therefore His Word also truly is and is not composite. Rather, He is the one and only-begotten God, who came forth good from the Father as from a good fountain, and He orders all things and holds them together.
The reason why the Word of God has come upon created things at all is truly wonderful and shows that it was fitting for things to be no other way than this, just as they are. For the nature of created things, since it subsisted from non-being, is, when considered in itself, something fluid, weak, and mortal. But the God of all is by nature good and supremely beautiful. For this reason He also loves humanity. One who is good would envy nothing; therefore He does not begrudge anything its existence, but wills all things to exist so that He may exercise His loving-kindness.
Seeing, then, that all created nature, according to its own principles, is fluid and dissolving, God acted so that it might not suffer this and the whole dissolve again into non-being. For this reason, having made all things by His own eternal Word and given creation its being, He did not leave it to be carried and storm-tossed by its own nature, lest it risk again falling into non-being. Rather, because He is good, He governs and establishes the whole by His own Word, who is Himself God, so that creation, illumined by the Word’s governance, providence, and ordering, may be able to remain secure. For creation partakes of the Word who truly is from the Father and is helped by Him to exist, so that it may not suffer what it would have suffered if the Word did not preserve it—that is, non-being.
For He is “the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” because through Him and in Him all things, visible and invisible, have been constituted, and He Himself is “the head of the Church,” as the ministers of truth teach in the holy Scriptures.
But although He is Word, He is not, as I said, composed of syllables like human words. Rather, He is the exact Image of His own Father. Human beings, because they are composed of parts and came to be from non-being, have their own word composed and dissolvable. But God truly is and is not composite; therefore His Word also truly is and is not composite. Rather, He is the one and only-begotten God, who came forth good from the Father as from a good fountain, and He orders all things and holds them together.
The reason why the Word of God has come upon created things at all is truly wonderful and shows that it was fitting for things to be no other way than this, just as they are. For the nature of created things, since it subsisted from non-being, is, when considered in itself, something fluid, weak, and mortal. But the God of all is by nature good and supremely beautiful. For this reason He also loves humanity. One who is good would envy nothing; therefore He does not begrudge anything its existence, but wills all things to exist so that He may exercise His loving-kindness.
Seeing, then, that all created nature, according to its own principles, is fluid and dissolving, God acted so that it might not suffer this and the whole dissolve again into non-being. For this reason, having made all things by His own eternal Word and given creation its being, He did not leave it to be carried and storm-tossed by its own nature, lest it risk again falling into non-being. Rather, because He is good, He governs and establishes the whole by His own Word, who is Himself God, so that creation, illumined by the Word’s governance, providence, and ordering, may be able to remain secure. For creation partakes of the Word who truly is from the Father and is helped by Him to exist, so that it may not suffer what it would have suffered if the Word did not preserve it—that is, non-being.
For He is “the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” because through Him and in Him all things, visible and invisible, have been constituted, and He Himself is “the head of the Church,” as the ministers of truth teach in the holy Scriptures.