Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

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

1 Corinthians 9:22

This is correctly interpreted to mean that he, not by lying but by sympathy, brought it about that he enabled their con-version by his own great love which made it seem as though he himself were afflicted with that evil of which he wished to heal them.

On Lying 21

1 Corinthians 9:24

It is not from the one who wills nor from the one that runs but from God who has mercy that we obtain what we hope for and reach what we desire. Esau was unwilling and did not run. Had he been willing and had he run, he would have obtained the help of God who by calling him would have given him the power both to will and to run.

TO SIMPLICIAN 10

1 Corinthians 9:25

When we enter upon the way of the Lord, let us fast from the vanity of this present life and refresh ourselves with the hope of the future life, not focusing our heart on things here but feasting it on things above.

SERMON 263

1 Corinthians 9:27

Paul chastises what is of him and not what is himself. For what is of him is one thing, what is himself is another. He chastises what is of him so that he, being just, may bring about the death of bodily wantonness.

AGAINST JULIAN 24

1 Corinthians 10:2

The history of the exodus was an allegory of the Christian people that was yet to be.

THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF 8

1 Corinthians 10:4

All symbols seem in some way to personify the realities of which they are symbols. So, St. Paul says, “The rock was Christ,” because the rock in question symbolized Christ.

City of God 18.46

1 Corinthians 10:7

What is as similar to the play of children as the worshiping of idols?

QUESTIONS 61

1 Corinthians 10:13

Why is this written if we are now so endowed that by the strength of our free will we are able to overcome all temptations merely by bearing them?

LETTER 179, TO BISHOP JOHN

1 Corinthians 10:16

That chalice, or rather, what the chalice holds, consecrated by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. Through those elements the Lord wished to entrust to us his body and the blood which he poured out for the remission of sins. If you have received worthily, you are what you have received.

EASTER SERMON 227

1 Corinthians 10:17

So by bread you are instructed as to how you ought to cherish unity. Was that bread made of one grain of wheat? Were there not, rather, many grains? However, before they became bread, these grains were separate. They were joined together in water after a certain amount of crushing. For unless the grain is ground and moistened with water, it cannot arrive at that form which is called bread. So, too, you were previously ground, as it were, by the humiliation of your fasting and by the sacrament of exorcism. Then came the baptism of water. You were moistened, as it were, so as to arrive at the form of bread. But without fire, bread does not yet exist.

EASTER SERMON 227

1 Corinthians 10:17

The one who is properly said to eat the body of Christ and to drink his blood is the one who is incorporated into the unity of his body. Heretics and schismatics can receive the sacrament but to no avail—in fact, to their harm—since the result is to increase their pain rather than to curtail the length of their punishment.

City of God 21.25

1 Corinthians 10:26

One does not sin who afterward unwittingly eats food which he had previously refused as belonging to idols. Vegetables and any kind of fruit grown in any field are God’s who created them.

1 Corinthians 10:33

The apostle wanted believers to please all men, and he took pleasure in pleasing them, not because he swelled up inside at their praise but because by being pleasing all might be edified in Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

For the man is the head of the woman in perfect order when Christ who is the Wisdom of God is the head of the man.

AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 2.12.16