Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Considering the signs mentioned by Gospel and prophecy which we see happening, would anyone deny that we ought to hope for the coming of the Lord? Manifestly, it is nearer and nearer every day. But the exact span of the nearness, that, as we said, “is not for you to know.” Notice when the apostle said this, “For our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is past and the day is at hand,” and look how many years have passed! Yet, what he said was not untrue. How much more probable is it to say now that the coming of the Lord is near when there has been such an increase of time toward the end! Certainly the apostle said, “The Spirit manifestly says that in the last times some shall depart from the faith.” Obviously, those were not yet the times of heretics such as he describes them in the same sentence, but they have now come. According to this, we seem to be in the last times, and the heretics seem to be a warning of the end of the world.

1 Timothy 4:3 · 2 passages

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

The fact that the Lord was invited and came to the wedding, even without considering the mystical meaning, was meant to affirm what he himself created. For there were going to be those, about whom the apostle spoke, who would forbid marriage and say that marriage is an evil and that the devil created it, although the same Lord in the Gospel, when asked whether a man is allowed to divorce his wife for any reason, replied that he is not allowed except in the case of fornication.

The church of God, established in the midst of much chaff and much cockle, tolerates many things, yet it does not approve or accept in silence or practice those things that are contrary to faith and good living. Therefore, what you wrote of certain brothers refraining from meat because they believe it to be unclean is very clearly against faith and sound doctrine.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 · 3 passages

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

As there is an unconscious worship of idols and devils in the fanciful legends of the Manichaeans, so they knowingly serve the creature in their worship of the sun and the moon. And in what they call their service of the Creator they really serve their own fancy, and not the Creator at all. For they deny that God created those things which the apostle plainly declares to the creatures of God, when he says of food, "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving." This is sound doctrine.… The apostle praises the creature of God but forbids the worship of it. And in the same way Moses gives due praise to the sun and moon, while at the same time he states the fact of their having been made by God. They have been placed by him in their courses—the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night.

Because sin or iniquity is not a seeking of things evil by nature but an abandonment of the better things, this is found written in Scripture. "Every creature is good." Every tree that God planted in paradise was good. Man, therefore, did not desire anything evil by nature when he touched the forbidden tree. But by departing from what was better he himself committed an act that was evil.

It is not the uncleanness of meat that I fear, but the uncleanness of an incontinent appetite.

1 Timothy 4:8

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

“Godliness,” then, “which is the true worship of God, is profitable to all things,” since it deflects or blunts the troubles of this life and leads to that other life, our salvation, where we shall suffer no evil and enjoy the supreme and everlasting good. I exhort you as I do myself to pursue this happiness more earnestly and to hold to it with strong constancy.

1 Timothy 4:10

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

But in the Lord’s own very humility (in consenting to be baptized by John) there is a marvelous medicine; one was baptizing, the other healing. You see, if Christ is the Savior of all, especially of the faithful—it is the apostle’s judgment, and a true one, that Christ is the Savior of all—then nobody may say, “I have no need of a savior.” If you say this, you are not bowing humbly to the doctor’s orders but perishing in your disease.

1 Timothy 4:12 · 3 passages

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

However, the life of the speaker has greater weight in determining whether he is obediently heard than any grandness of eloquence. For he who speaks wisely and eloquently but lives wickedly may benefit many students, even though, as it is written, he “may be unprofitable to his own soul.” … And thus they benefit many by preaching what they do not practice; but many more would be benefitted if they were to do what they say. For there are many who seek a defense of their evil lives in those of their superiors and teachers, responding in their hearts or, if it breaks forth so far, with their lips, and saying, “Why do you not do what you preach that I do?” Thus it happens that they do not obediently hear one who does not hear himself, and they condemn the word of God which is preached to them along with the preacher himself. Hence, when the apostle, writing to Timothy, said, “Let no man despise thy youth,” he added the reason why he was not to be despised and said, “but be an example of the faithful in word, in conduct, in charity, in faith, in chastity.”

In what way is it said that bad shepherds kill the sheep? By leading bad lives, by setting a bad example. Was it for nothing that a servant of God was told, one prominent among the members of the supreme shepherd, “Offering yourself in all company as an example of good works”; and “Be a model to the faithful”. You see, even a strong sheep often enough, when he notices his pastor leading a bad life, if his eyes wander from the rules of the Lord and are attracted by human considerations, begins to say to himself, “If my pastor lives like that, who am I not to behave as he does?” He has killed a strong sheep. So if he has killed a strong sheep, what must he be doing for the others, seeing that by his bad life he has slaughtered what he hadn’t fattened himself, but has found fat and sturdy?

There is no way of resisting the temptation to pride except by instilling the fear and love of God, through frequent pondering of the sacred books. But he who does this must show himself a model of patience and humility by attributing to himself less honor than is offered, neither swallowing all nor refusing all from those who honor him. What praise and honor he accepts he must not receive for himself—for he should refer all to God and despise human things—but for the sake of those whom he could not help if he were to lose dignity by too great self-depreciation. Applicable to this is the saying, “let no man despise your youth,” recalling that he who said that said in another place, “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

1 Timothy 5:5

Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

When the Lord exhorted us to pray always and not to faint, he told of the widow whose continuous appeal brought a wicked and impious judge, who scorned both God and man, to hear her cause. From this it can be easily understood how widows, beyond all others, have the duty of applying themselves to prayer, since an example was taken from widows to encourage us all to develop a love of prayer. But, in a practice of such importance, what characteristic of widows is singled out but their poverty and desolation? Therefore, insofar as every soul understands that it is poor and desolate in this world, as long as it is absent from the Lord, it surely commends its widowhood, so to speak, to God its defender, with continual and most earnest prayer.

1 Timothy 5:6

But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

But there is a kind of death that the apostle detests when he says of the widow, “But she that lives in pleasures is dead while she is living.” Hence, the soul which was impious but has now become pious is said to have come back to life from the dead and to live on account of justification by faith. The body, on the contrary, is not only said to be about to die on account of the departure of the soul, which will come to pass, but, in a certain number of passages, it is even spoken of as already dead on account of the great weakness of flesh and blood, as where the apostle says, “The body, it is true, is dead on account of sin, the spirit is life on account of justice.”

1 Timothy 5:8

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Now God, our master, teaches two chief precepts: love of God and love of neighbor. In them one finds three objects for his love: God, himself and his neighbor. One who loves God is not wrong in loving himself. It follows, therefore, that he will be concerned also that his neighbor should love God, since he is told to love his neighbor as himself. And the same is true of his concern for his wife, his children, for the members of his household, and for all others, so far as is possible. And, for the same end, he will wish his neighbor to be concerned for him, if he happens to need that concern. For this reason he will be at peace, as far as in him lies, with all. In that peace he will live in ordered harmony. The basis of this order is the observance of two rules: first, to do no harm to anyone, and, second, to help everyone whenever possible. To begin with, therefore, one has a responsibility for his own household—obviously, both in the order of nature and in the framework of human society. He has easier and more immediate contact with them.

1 Timothy 5:11

But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry;

When the apostle says elsewhere, “I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule their households,” he recommends the good of marriage with wisdom and apostolic authority. He does not impose the duty of bearing children. It is not to be treated as it were a law to be observed, at least in the case of those who have chosen the state of continence. Finally, he makes it clear why he has said this, by adding, “Give the adversary no occasion for abusing us. For already some have turned aside after Satan.” By these words he wishes us to understand that for the young widows whom he thought it fitting to be married, continence would have been better than marriage, but that it was better for them to marry than to turn aside after Satan, that is, by looking back to former things after having chosen the excellent state of chastity in virginity or widowhood, to abandon it and to perish.

1 Timothy 5:12

Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.

The apostle mentions evil, unmarried women who are gossipers and busybodies and says that this vice springs from idleness. “And further,” he says, “being idle, they learn to go about from house to house, and are not only idle, but gossipers as well as busybodies, mentioning things they ought not.” He had previously said of these, “But refuse younger widows, for when they have wantonly turned away from Christ, they wish to marry and are to be condemned because they have broken their first pledge,” that is, they did not persevere in what they had first vowed. However, he does not say “They marry” but “They wish to marry,” for it is not the love of their noble vow which prevents many of them from marrying but fear of outright indecency. This itself springs from pride by which human displeasure is more dreaded than the divine displeasure.

1 Timothy 5:13

And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

Marriage is a good in all the things which are proper to the married state. And these are three: it is the ordained means of procreation, it is the guarantee of chastity, it is the bond of union. In respect of its ordination for generation the Scripture says, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house.” As regards its guaranteeing chastity, it is said of it, “The wife has not power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife. And considered as the bond of union, “What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.”

1 Timothy 5:16

If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

“But none of those reclining at table understood why he said this to him. For some thought that, because Judas held the purse, Jesus says to him, ‘Buy the things that we need for the feast,’ or that he should give something to the poor.” Therefore, the Lord, too, had a purse. Keeping safe the offerings from the faithful, he distributed both to the needs of his people and to others in need. The paradigm for handling church money was thereby established: We should understand that his teaching that one must not take thought of tomorrow was taught for this purpose, that no money should be kept by the saints, but that God should not be served for money and that justice should not be abandoned because of a fear of need. For the apostle too, looking ahead to the future, said, “If any believing woman has widowed relatives, let her provide sufficiently for them so that the church not be burdened, in order that it can have enough for true widows.”

1 Timothy 5:20 · 2 passages

Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

And here is a dilemma which often occurs: If you punish a man, you may ruin him. If you leave him unpunished, you may ruin another. I admit that I make mistakes in this matter every day.

Who is the hired hand? One who sees the wolf coming and flees. One who seeks his own things, not those of Jesus Christ. He does not dare openly to accuse the sinner. Suppose someone has sinned, and sinned grievously. He ought to be reproached and perhaps excommunicated. But if he is excommunicated, you imagine, he will be an enemy, he will make plots, he will do harm when he can. Now consider one who seeks his own things, not those of Jesus Christ. He does not lose what he is pursuing, the advantage of a human friendship. He does not incur the distress of human enmities—he is quiet; he does not correct. Look, the wolf seizes the sheep’s throat. The devil has persuaded a believer to commit adultery. You are silent; you do not scold. O hired hand, you saw the wolf coming and you fled.