Self-conceit and the order of the Church

In chapter 39 Clement draws heavily upon the book of Job to indicate the foolishness of all human conceit.

God is presented as having established and order for worship, both concerning when, by who, and where offerings were to be presented. There is an enigmatic reference to offerings in the Jerusalem temple, which must every now and then allow a maverick scholar to suggest an earlier date for the epistle, but which more significantly raises the question of what Clement thought about the sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple.

Based on this, Chapter 42 presents Clement's understanding of the order of the Church. First are the apostles, commissioned by Christ, witnesses of the resurrection and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They then appointed and entrusted bishops and deacons from those who first converted. There is a curious hermeneutical use of the Old Testament in the way that Clement adapts Isaiah 60:17 "I will give thy rulers in peace, and thy overseers in righteousness.” (LXX) to say "I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith.”

Chapters 43 and 44 develop this further. What the apostles have done is analogous to what Moses did in the OT when he set up the priesthood. The problem in Corinth is that this order has been broken, those whom the apostles [or other eminent men] have appointed have been displaced without reason and the church is rebuked for having " removed some men of excellent behaviour from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honour."