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Augustine of Hippo

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 7,530 passages across 62 books

Commentary

21–40 of 7,530
1 Corinthians 7:9

But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

Why do you acknowledge that there is a necessary remedy for lust yet contradict me when I say that lust is a disease? If you recognize the remedy, then recognize the disease as well.

AGAINST JULIAN 15

1 Corinthians 7:12

But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

We are here given to understand that neither spouse may divorce the other if both are believers.

QUESTIONS 83

1 Corinthians 7:15

But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

A Christian husband may leave his wife without any blame, even if they are lawfully married, if she refuses to live with him because he is a Christian.

EIGHT QUESTIONS OF DULCITIUS 1

1 Corinthians 7:34

There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

This should not be interpreted to mean that a married woman is not meant to be holy in body as well as in soul.

THE EXCELLENCE OF WIDOWHOOD 6

1 Corinthians 7:39

The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

The death referred to here is clearly the death of the body, not of the soul. Forgiveness and attempts at reconciliation of the offending person are offered as better solutions than divorce.

ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES

1 Corinthians 8:1

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

Paul means that knowledge only does good in company with love. Otherwise it merely puffs a man into pride.
1 Corinthians 8:3

But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

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

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

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 · 2 passages

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

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.
“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

But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

“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.
1 Corinthians 8:11

And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

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

But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

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

Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

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 · 2 passages

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

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.”

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

Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

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

Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

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.
1 Corinthians 9:11

If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

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

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

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.

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