Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

1 Corinthians 8:3

Paul says: “If one loves God, one is known by him.” He certainly did not say “one knows God,” a dangerous presumption, but “he is known by God.” Elsewhere he remarks, “But now you know God,” and then immediately corrects himself: “or rather you are known by God.”

1 Corinthians 8:4

Although man has made his own gods, he nevertheless became their captive once he was handed over to their fellowship by his act of worshiping them… For what are idols but things, as the Scripture says, which “have eyes and see not”? City of God

1 Corinthians 8:6

You have made not only what is created and formed but also whatever can be created and formed. Everything which is formed from the formless must first be formless before it can be a formed thing.

Confessions 12.19

1 Corinthians 8:6

“From him” means from the Father. “Through him” means through the Son. “In him” means in the Holy Spirit. It is self-evident that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God.

ON THE TRINITY 1.13

1 Corinthians 8:8

“Neither shall we have any abundance if we do eat, nor shall we suffer any loss if we do not eat.” That is to say: neither will the former make me rich, nor will the latter make me poor.

Confessions 10.45

1 Corinthians 8:11

If you love the weak person less because of the moral failing that makes him weak, consider the One who died on his behalf.

QUESTIONS 71

1 Corinthians 8:12

It is the very law of Christ that we bear one another’s burdens. Moreover, by loving Christ we easily bear the weakness of another, even him whom we do not yet love for the sake of his own good qualities, for we realize that the one whom we love is someone for whom the Lord has died.

QUESTIONS 71

1 Corinthians 8:13

Those who are stronger and are not troubled by scruples are nevertheless commanded to abstain so as not to offend those who, on account of their weakness, still find abstinence necessary.

THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 71

1 Corinthians 9:5

When his identity has been established, he shows that the privileges granted to the other apostles are his also, namely, exemption from manual labor and livelihood in recompense for his preaching as the Lord appointed. This is stated most clearly according to the verses where St. Paul argues explicitly that faithful women, possessing the goods of this world, went along with the apostles and ministered to them from their own supplies that the servants of God might lack none of those commodities which constitute the necessities of life… Certain persons, not understanding this passage, have interpreted it as “wife.” The obscurity of the Greek word deceived them, since, in Greek, the same word is used for wife and woman. Yet the apostle has placed the words in such a way that people should not be deceived, since he says not merely “a woman” but “a sister woman,” and not “to take in marriage” but “to take about.”

1 Corinthians 9:5

To what right does he refer unless it be to the one which the Lord gave to those whom he sent to preach the kingdom of heaven when he said: “Eat what they have; for the laborer deserves his wages”? He offered himself as an exponent of this privilege. Very faithful women attended to the necessities of his life at their own expense.

1 Corinthians 9:6

The Lord directed those who preach the gospel to live by the gospel, that is, to maintain at the expense of the faithful that life for which food and clothing are essential.

1 Corinthians 9:7

The church has its own soldiers and its own provincial officers … its vineyard and its planters, its flock and its shepherds.… Thus some are rightly fed and clothed at the expense of the charitable rich. They accept nothing for their own necessities except from those who sell their goods. They are not to be judged and condemned by the more perfect members of Christ who furnish their own needs with their own hands—a higher virtue which the apostle strongly commends. They in turn ought not to condemn as Christians of lower grade those from whose resources they are supplied.… The servants of God who live by selling the honest works of their own hands could, with much less impropriety, condemn those from whom they receive nothing than could those others who are unable to work with their hands because of some bodily weakness yet who condemn the very ones at whose expense they live.

LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS

1 Corinthians 9:11

Paul emphasizes the fact that his fellow apostles were not transgressing in any way when they did not engage in manual labor to provide the necessities of life, but, as the Lord directed, living on the gospel, they accepted, without offering payment, bodily nourishment from those to whom they in turn furnished spiritual nourishment without demanding payment.

1 Corinthians 9:14

The apostle says this [here and in Timothy :-] so that Timothy might understand that what he took from those for whom he was, as it were, fighting, and whom he was cultivating as a vine, or feeding as a flock, was not a sign of begging but an acknowledgment of a right.

1 Corinthians 9:15

“For the laborer deserves his hire.” He showed that this practice was permitted, though not commanded, lest perhaps a disciple who took some compensation for his personal needs from those to whom he was preaching might think he was doing wrong. That it was more commendable to omit this practice is shown clearly in the life of the apostle … [who] declared: “Nevertheless I have not used this right.” … He possessed the right, but he did not bind his followers by a command. Since we are, then, unable to comprehend many passages, we gather from the deeds of the saints how to understand those passages which may easily be misinterpreted if reference is not made to the example set by the saints.

1 Corinthians 9:15

“The Lord directed that those who preach the gospel should have their living from the gospel. But I for my part have appealed to none of these rights.” … What is clearer than this? What is more definite? My only fear is that, when I discuss the passage in an attempt to explain it, I may obscure that which is of itself patent and forceful. For, they who do not understand these words, or pretend that they do not understand them, understand mine much less.

1 Corinthians 9:17

Up to now I am so far restored in that glory that I confess I am ignorant not only how near I come to it but even whether I shall come to it at all. It is true I am a dispenser of eternal salvation along with my other innumerable fellow servants. “For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward.” To be a dispenser of that salvation by word and sacrament is not at all the same as to be a partaker of it. Letter , To Audax.

1 Corinthians 9:20

A person who nurses a sick man becomes, in a sense, sick himself, not by pretending to have a fever but by thinking sympathetically how he would like to be treated if he were sick himself. Letter , To Jerome.

1 Corinthians 9:20

Paul was not pretending to be what he is not but showing compassion. Letter , To Jerome.

1 Corinthians 9:21

He did this by compassion, not by lying. For each one becomes like him whom he wants to help when such great mercy prevails as that each one would wish for himself if he were in the same misery. And so he becomes like the other—not by deceiving him but by putting himself in the other’s place.

Against Lying 12