Polski

Augustine of Hippo

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

7,530 passages across 62 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On 1 Thessalonians

20 of 27
  1. 1 Thessalonians 2:4
    Therefore, our good Master has taught us by his apostle not to live right and to do right in order to be praised by men, that is, not to make the praise of men our motive for doing right, yet for the sake of men we are to seek what is worthy of praise. Even when good men are praised, the benefit falls more on those who praise than on those who are praised. For, as far as the latter are concerned, it is enough for them that they are good. But the former, whose advantage it is to imitate the good, are to praise the good because they give evidence that those whom they praise sincerely are pleasing to them. Thus the apostle says in a certain passage: “If I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” In another passage he says: “Please all men in all things as I also in all things please all men,” but he gives the reason: “not seeking that which is profitable to myself but to many that they may be saved.”

    Letters 231.1, 4

  2. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
    But there is no greater proof of charity in Christ’s church than when the very honor which seems so important on a human level is despised. This is why Solomon’s wise attempt to prevent the limbs of the infant being cut in two is like our efforts to prevent Christian infirmity from being torn to shreds by the break-up of unity. The apostle says that he had shown himself like a mother to the little ones among whom he had done the good work of the gospel, not he but the grace of God in him. The harlot could call nothing her own but her sins, whereas her ability to bear children came from God. And the Lord says beautifully about a harlot, “she to whom much is forgiven loves much.” So the apostle Paul says, “I became a little one among you, like a nurse fondling her children.” But when it comes to the danger of the little one being cut in two, when the insincere woman claims for herself a spurious dignity of motherhood and is prepared to break up unity, the mother despises her proper dignity provided she may see her son whole and preserve him alive. She is afraid that if she insists too…
    But there is no greater proof of charity in Christ’s church than when the very honor which seems so important on a human level is despised. This is why Solomon’s wise attempt to prevent the limbs of the infant being cut in two is like our efforts to prevent Christian infirmity from being torn to shreds by the break-up of unity. The apostle says that he had shown himself like a mother to the little ones among whom he had done the good work of the gospel, not he but the grace of God in him. The harlot could call nothing her own but her sins, whereas her ability to bear children came from God. And the Lord says beautifully about a harlot, “she to whom much is forgiven loves much.” So the apostle Paul says, “I became a little one among you, like a nurse fondling her children.” But when it comes to the danger of the little one being cut in two, when the insincere woman claims for herself a spurious dignity of motherhood and is prepared to break up unity, the mother despises her proper dignity provided she may see her son whole and preserve him alive. She is afraid that if she insists too obstinately on the dignity due to her motherhood, she may give insincerity a chance to divide the feeble limbs with the sword of schism. So indeed let mother Charity say “Give her the boy.”

    Sermons 10.8

  3. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
    See Paul ascending: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven and heard unutterable words which it is not granted to man to speak.” You heard him ascending; hear him descending: “I could not speak to you as spiritual men but only as carnal, as to little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” Look, he who had ascended descended. Seek where he had ascended: “Up to the third heaven.” Seek where he had descended: To giving milk to little ones. Hear that he descended: “I became a little one,” he says, “in your midst, as if a nurse were fondling her own children.” For we see both nurses and mothers de-scend to little ones; and though they know how to speak Latin, they clip their words and somehow switch their speech so that they may be able to communicate their desires through simple language; for if they should speak in a mature, grammatically correct fashion, the in-fant does not hear with understanding. Neither does he benefit. And some eloquent father, though he…
    See Paul ascending: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven and heard unutterable words which it is not granted to man to speak.” You heard him ascending; hear him descending: “I could not speak to you as spiritual men but only as carnal, as to little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” Look, he who had ascended descended. Seek where he had ascended: “Up to the third heaven.” Seek where he had descended: To giving milk to little ones. Hear that he descended: “I became a little one,” he says, “in your midst, as if a nurse were fondling her own children.” For we see both nurses and mothers de-scend to little ones; and though they know how to speak Latin, they clip their words and somehow switch their speech so that they may be able to communicate their desires through simple language; for if they should speak in a mature, grammatically correct fashion, the in-fant does not hear with understanding. Neither does he benefit. And some eloquent father, though he be a great orator, thundering with his tongue and rattling the magistrates’ platforms, if he should have a son, when he returns home, he puts aside the legal eloquence by which he had ascended and with childish language he de-scends to his little one.

    TRACTATES ON JOHN 7.23.4

  4. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
    Can we not see, even in dumb, unreasoning creatures, where there is no spiritual charity but only that which belongs to their nature as animals, with what eager insistence the mother’s milk is demanded by her little ones? Yet, however rough be the nursing calf’s mouth upon the udder, the mother likes it better than if there were no sucking, no demanding of the debt that charity admits. Indeed, we often see the bigger calf butting with its head at the cow’s udders, and the mother’s body forced upward by the pressure; yet she will never kick her calf away, but if the young one not be there to suck, she will low for him to come. Of spiritual charity, the apostle says: “I have become little among you, like a nurse cherishing her children.” If such charity be in us, we cannot but love you when you press your demand upon us. We do not love backwardness in you. It makes us fearful that your strength is failing.

    HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 9.1

  5. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
    While Scripture is spiritual in itself, nonetheless it often, so to say, adapts itself to carnal, materialistic people in a carnal, materialistic way. But it doesn’t want them to remain carnal and materialistic. A mother, too, loves to nurse her infant, but she doesn’t love it so that it will always remain a baby. She holds it in her bosom, she cuddles it with her hands, she comforts it with caresses, she feeds it with her milk. She does all this for the baby, but she wants it to grow, so that she won’t be doing this sort of thing forever. Now look at the apostle. We can fix our eyes on him all the more suitably because he wasn’t above calling himself a mother. He writes “I became like a baby in your midst, like a nurse fondling her children.” There are of course nurses who fondle babies that are not their own children. And on the other hand there are mothers who give their children to nurses and don’t fondle them themselves. The apostle, however, full of genuine, juicy feelings of love, takes on the role both of nurse when he says “fondling” and of mother when he completes it with “…
    While Scripture is spiritual in itself, nonetheless it often, so to say, adapts itself to carnal, materialistic people in a carnal, materialistic way. But it doesn’t want them to remain carnal and materialistic. A mother, too, loves to nurse her infant, but she doesn’t love it so that it will always remain a baby. She holds it in her bosom, she cuddles it with her hands, she comforts it with caresses, she feeds it with her milk. She does all this for the baby, but she wants it to grow, so that she won’t be doing this sort of thing forever. Now look at the apostle. We can fix our eyes on him all the more suitably because he wasn’t above calling himself a mother. He writes “I became like a baby in your midst, like a nurse fondling her children.” There are of course nurses who fondle babies that are not their own children. And on the other hand there are mothers who give their children to nurses and don’t fondle them themselves. The apostle, however, full of genuine, juicy feelings of love, takes on the role both of nurse when he says “fondling” and of mother when he completes it with “her children.”

    Sermons 23.3

  6. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
    There you are then; persecution had increased so much, and tribulation so much, that the psalmist was even weary of living. See how fear and trembling had come upon him and darkness had covered him, as you heard when it was said in the psalm. It’s the voice, you see, of the body of Christ, the voice of Christ’s members. Do you want to recognize your own voice there? Be a member of Christ. “Fear,” it says, “and trembling fell upon me, and darkness covered me. And I said, Who will give me wings like a dove’s, and I will fly away and take my rest?” … The psalmist felt weariness, after a fashion, from the earthly heaviness and decay of the flesh, when he wanted to fly away to Christ; a plethora of tribulations was infesting the way but not blocking it altogether. He was weary of living but not of the eternal life about which he says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But because he was held down here by charity, how does he go on? “If, though, to live in the flesh here is the fruit of my work—and which I should choose I do not know. But I am being torn both ways, having a l…
    There you are then; persecution had increased so much, and tribulation so much, that the psalmist was even weary of living. See how fear and trembling had come upon him and darkness had covered him, as you heard when it was said in the psalm. It’s the voice, you see, of the body of Christ, the voice of Christ’s members. Do you want to recognize your own voice there? Be a member of Christ. “Fear,” it says, “and trembling fell upon me, and darkness covered me. And I said, Who will give me wings like a dove’s, and I will fly away and take my rest?” … The psalmist felt weariness, after a fashion, from the earthly heaviness and decay of the flesh, when he wanted to fly away to Christ; a plethora of tribulations was infesting the way but not blocking it altogether. He was weary of living but not of the eternal life about which he says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But because he was held down here by charity, how does he go on? “If, though, to live in the flesh here is the fruit of my work—and which I should choose I do not know. But I am being torn both ways, having a longing to cast off and be with Christ.” … “But to remain in the flesh is necessary on your account.” He had given in to the cheepings of his chicks. He was covering them with the spread of his wings, cherishing his chicks, as he says himself: “I became a little one in your midst, like a nurse cherishing her children.”

    SERMONS 305A.5

  7. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
    Is it not apparently the beginning of the Thessalonians’ faith for which this same apostle thanks God, when he says, “Therefore, we also give thanks to God without ceasing, because when you had received the word which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it truly is) the word of God, which works in you, in which you have believed”? Why does he give thanks here to God? Certainly, it would be vain and meaningless if the person to whom he gives thanks for something is not the person who did it. But since this is not vain and meaningless, then certainly God, to whom he gives thanks for this work, is the one who brought it about that the Thessalonians, when they had received from the apostle the word by hearing it, received it not as the word of men but, as it truly is, as the word of God. Therefore, God works in the hearts of men, by that calling which is according to his purpose and of which we have said much, so that they would not hear the gospel in vain.

    ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 19.39

  8. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
    We may compare the manner in which our own word is made as it were the speech produced by our body, through assuming that speech as a means of displaying itself to human senses, with the assumption of flesh by the Word of God as a means of displaying himself to human senses. Even as our human words are human thoughts not yet not changed into speech, so the Word of God was made flesh, but most assuredly not changed into flesh. Our words become vocalized. So the divine Word becomes flesh by an assumption of the outward form and not by a transformation of one thing into another. He, therefore, who desires to arrive at some sort of likeness—unlike as it must be at many points—of the Word of God, should not regard as final the human word that sounds upon the ear, either in its vocal utterance or in the unspoken thinking of it. The words of every audible language may also be the subject of thought without being vocalized. Poems may be repeated mentally, while the bodily mouth remains silent. Not only the series of syllables but the notes of tunes, material as they are, and addressed to the…
    We may compare the manner in which our own word is made as it were the speech produced by our body, through assuming that speech as a means of displaying itself to human senses, with the assumption of flesh by the Word of God as a means of displaying himself to human senses. Even as our human words are human thoughts not yet not changed into speech, so the Word of God was made flesh, but most assuredly not changed into flesh. Our words become vocalized. So the divine Word becomes flesh by an assumption of the outward form and not by a transformation of one thing into another. He, therefore, who desires to arrive at some sort of likeness—unlike as it must be at many points—of the Word of God, should not regard as final the human word that sounds upon the ear, either in its vocal utterance or in the unspoken thinking of it. The words of every audible language may also be the subject of thought without being vocalized. Poems may be repeated mentally, while the bodily mouth remains silent. Not only the series of syllables but the notes of tunes, material as they are, and addressed to the material sense which we call hearing, may be presented through their material images to the thinking mind which rehearses them all in silence. We must go beyond all this to arrive at the human word which may furnish some small measure of likeness for comprehending, as in an enigma, the Word of God. We speak here not of that word which came to one or another of the prophets, of which it is said that “the word of God grew and multiplied”; or again that “faith comes of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”2; or again: “when you received from us the word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the word of God.” There are numberless instances in the Scriptures where similar statements are made about the word of God, which is scattered in the sounds of many different languages through the hearts and minds of men. But it is called the word of God, therefore, because a divine and not a human doctrine is handed down.

    ON THE TRINITY 15.11.20

  9. 1 Thessalonians 3:8
    This is why I am admonishing your graces and urging you in the Lord to think lightly, my brothers and sisters, of things present, which you can’t carry with you when you die. Be on your guard against sin, on your guard against injustice of all sorts, on your guard against worldly appetites and greed. It is only then, you see, that our profit from you is undiminished and our reward full of joy in the Lord. I mean, we say what has to be said. We preach what has to be preached and absolve ourselves of our debt to the Lord in the Lord’s sight. We haven’t kept quiet about what we fear, and haven’t kept quiet about what we love. So the sword of the Lord’s vengeance, upon whomever it may fall, cannot blame the sentinel for failing at his post. Still, we don’t want our reward to be assured with all of you being lost, but with all of you being found. The apostle Paul too was sure of his reward, and yet what did he say to the people? “Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.”

    Sermons 359.9

  10. 1 Thessalonians 3:10
    Let the admonition of the most blessed apostle not depart from your hearts, “If anyone preaches to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.” He did not say “more than you received” but “besides that which you have received.” For if he said the former, he himself would be prejudging himself, who desired to come to the Thessalonians that he might supply what things were lacking to their faith. But he who supplies adds to what was smaller, he does not take away what was there. But he who goes beyond the rule of faith does not go forward in the way but goes back to the way.

    TRACTATES ON JOHN 98.7.4

  11. 1 Thessalonians 3:10
    But every discourse on this topic, where one’s goal is that what is said may not only be believed but also understood and known, is burdensome for those still spiritually immature. These the apostle says are carnal, needing to be nourished with milk, as they do not have the strength to perceive such things and are more easily frustrated than fed. Because of this it happens that spiritual men do not in all circumstances refuse to discuss these things with the carnal, on account of the Catholic faith, which must be preached to all. Yet, having the desire to transmit some degree of truth to understandings not capable of a secure grasp, they take care to transmit these in a way that does not cause their discourse to be regarded with disdain and the truth contained therein to be completely ignored. Thus, in order to continue to nourish them despite their immaturity, [the apostle], writing to the Colossians, says, “Even if I am absent in body, in spirit I am with you, rejoicing and beholding your order and that which is lacking to your faith in Christ.” And to the Thessalonians, “Night and…
    But every discourse on this topic, where one’s goal is that what is said may not only be believed but also understood and known, is burdensome for those still spiritually immature. These the apostle says are carnal, needing to be nourished with milk, as they do not have the strength to perceive such things and are more easily frustrated than fed. Because of this it happens that spiritual men do not in all circumstances refuse to discuss these things with the carnal, on account of the Catholic faith, which must be preached to all. Yet, having the desire to transmit some degree of truth to understandings not capable of a secure grasp, they take care to transmit these in a way that does not cause their discourse to be regarded with disdain and the truth contained therein to be completely ignored. Thus, in order to continue to nourish them despite their immaturity, [the apostle], writing to the Colossians, says, “Even if I am absent in body, in spirit I am with you, rejoicing and beholding your order and that which is lacking to your faith in Christ.” And to the Thessalonians, “Night and day,” he says, “more abundantly praying that we may see your face and may supply the things that are lacking to your faith.”

    Tractates on John 98.5.1

  12. 1 Thessalonians 3:12
    Suppose we first loved him so as to merit his love in return. Then wouldn’t we first choose him so as to merit our being chosen by him? But he who is Truth itself says otherwise and openly contradicts such human vanity by declaring, “You have not chosen me.” Consequently, if it is not you who have chosen, then it is certainly not you who have loved; for how could they choose him whom they did not love? “But it is I,” he says, “who have chosen you.” And how could they possibly fail to choose him afterward or fail to prefer him to all the goods of this world? It was because they were chosen that they chose him. They were not chosen because they had chosen him. There would be no merit in men’s choosing him unless the action of God’s grace in choosing them had gone before. That is why in imparting his blessing to the Thessalonians the apostle Paul declares, “And may the Lord make you to increase and abound in charity toward one another and toward all men.” He who gave this blessing to love one another is the same who gave us the love to love one another.

    GRACE AND FREE WILL 38

  13. 1 Thessalonians 4:3
    The disease of disordered desire is what the apostle refers to, when, speaking to married believers, he says, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication, that everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the disease of desire, even as the Gentiles who do not know God.” The married believer, therefore, must not only not use another man’s vessel—which is what they do who lust after other men’s wives—but he must know that even his own vessel is not to be possessed in the disease of disordered sexual desire. Paul’s counsel is not to be understood as if the apostle prohibited conjugal—that is to say, lawful and honorable—cohabitation.

    ON MARRIAGE AND CONCUPISCENCE 1.8.9

  14. 1 Thessalonians 4:4
    There are, then, many kinds of lusts for this or that, but when the word is used by itself without specification it suggests to most people the lust for sexual excitement. Such lust does not merely invade the whole body and outward members. It takes such complete and passionate possession of the whole man, both physically and emotionally, that what results is the keenest of all pleasures on the level of sensation. And at the crisis of excitement, it practically paralyzes all power of deliberate thought.This is so true that it creates a problem for every lover of wisdom and holy joys, who is both committed to a married life and also conscious of the apostolic ideal, that every one should “learn how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Any such person would prefer, if this were possible, to beget his children without suffering disordered passion. He could wish that, just as all his other members obey his reason in the performance of their appointed tasks, so the genital organs, too, might function in obedience t…
    There are, then, many kinds of lusts for this or that, but when the word is used by itself without specification it suggests to most people the lust for sexual excitement. Such lust does not merely invade the whole body and outward members. It takes such complete and passionate possession of the whole man, both physically and emotionally, that what results is the keenest of all pleasures on the level of sensation. And at the crisis of excitement, it practically paralyzes all power of deliberate thought.This is so true that it creates a problem for every lover of wisdom and holy joys, who is both committed to a married life and also conscious of the apostolic ideal, that every one should “learn how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Any such person would prefer, if this were possible, to beget his children without suffering disordered passion. He could wish that, just as all his other members obey his reason in the performance of their appointed tasks, so the genital organs, too, might function in obedience to the orders of will and not be inordinately excited by the ardors of lust.

    City of God 14.16

  15. 1 Thessalonians 4:9
    It is through grace that we not only discover what ought to be done but also that we do what we have discovered. That is, not only that we believe what ought to be loved but also that we love what we have believed. If this grace is to be called “teaching,” let it at any rate be called “teaching” in such a manner that God may be believed to infuse it, along with an ineffable sweetness, more deeply and more internally. This teaching, therefore, would be not only by their agency who plant and water from without but likewise by God also who ministers in secret his own increase. All this is in such a way that God not only exhibits truth but likewise imparts love.… Thus the apostle speaks to the Thessalonians, “As touching love of the brothers, you have no need that I write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.”

    On the Grace of Christ 12.13-13.14

  16. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
    And you should not grieve as the heathen do who have no hope, because we have hope, based on the most assured promise, that as we have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where, more than ever, their dearness to us will be proportional to the closeness we shared on earth and where we shall love them without fear of parting.

    LETTERS 92.1.1

  17. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
    Paul didn’t just say that you may not be saddened, but that you may not be saddened as the heathen are, who do not have any hope. It is unavoidable, after all, that you should be saddened; but when you feel sad, let hope console you. SERMONS 173.3.Fulgentius of Ruspe: There must remain in our heart a distinction between a beneficial and a harmful sadness. The benefit of the distinction is that we see that a spirit given over to eternal things does not collapse because of the loss of temporal solace. Rather it is able to feel a salutary sadness concerning those things in which it considers that it acted either below, or apart from, the standard which it ought to have observed. So Paul teaches that each type of sadness is different, no less in deed than in word. Finally, he shows that in one there is progress toward salvation but in the other an ending in death, saying, “For godly sorrow produces a beneficial repentance without regret, but worldly sorrow produces death.”

    Letters 2.3

  18. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
    In the Gospel it is written, “And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slept”? If we understand that sleep as caused by the delay of the last judgment, to which Christ is to come to judge, and the fact that because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many grows cold, how shall we put the wise virgins there, when they are rather of those of whom it is said, “But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved”? It says, “they all slept,” because it is not only the foolish who do their good works for the sake of human praise, but also the wise who do them that God may be glorified, who experience that death. Both kinds die. And that death is often spoken of in the Scripture as sleep, as the resurrection is called an awakening. Hence the apostle says, “But I will not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning them that are asleep,” and in another place, “of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep.”

    Letters 140.32.76

  19. 1 Thessalonians 4:14
    The apostle’s words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead. But it is continually being asked whether those whom Christ is to find living in this world (represented in the apostle’s picture by himself and his contemporaries) are never to die at all, or whether in that precise moment of time when they are caught up in the clouds, along with those rising again, to meet Christ in the air, they will pass with marvelous speed through death to immortality. For it must not be said that it is impossible for them to die and come to life again in that space of time when they are being carried on high through the air.… The apostle himself seems to demand that we should take his words in this sense; that is, we should take it that those whom the Lord will find alive here will undergo death and receive immortality in that brief space of time. He confirms this interpretation when he says, “In Christ all men will be brought to life,” and by his statement in another…
    The apostle’s words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead. But it is continually being asked whether those whom Christ is to find living in this world (represented in the apostle’s picture by himself and his contemporaries) are never to die at all, or whether in that precise moment of time when they are caught up in the clouds, along with those rising again, to meet Christ in the air, they will pass with marvelous speed through death to immortality. For it must not be said that it is impossible for them to die and come to life again in that space of time when they are being carried on high through the air.… The apostle himself seems to demand that we should take his words in this sense; that is, we should take it that those whom the Lord will find alive here will undergo death and receive immortality in that brief space of time. He confirms this interpretation when he says, “In Christ all men will be brought to life,” and by his statement in another passage, dealing directly with the resurrection of the body: “The seed you sow does not come to life unless it first dies.”

    City of God 20.20.1-2

  20. 1 Thessalonians 4:14
    And after this he says to them, “Lazarus, our friend, is sleeping; but I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.” He spoke the truth. To the sisters he was dead; to the Lord he was sleeping. He was dead to men who were unable to raise him up; for the Lord roused him from the tomb with such ease as you would not rouse a sleeping person from his bed. Therefore, as regards his own power he spoke of him as sleeping; for other dead men, too, are often referred to in the Scriptures as sleeping, as the apostle says, “But I will not have you ignorant, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve, even as others who have no hope.” And so he, too, called them sleeping, because he foretold that they would rise again. Therefore, every dead man sleeps, both the good and the evil.

    TRACTATES ON JOHN 49.9.1-2

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