Augustine of Hippo
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 7,530 passages across 62 books
Commentary
1 Corinthians 13:7
· 2 passages
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
The greater the love of God that the saints possess, the more they endure all things for him.
For what is it to hear about oneself from you but to know oneself? Who, then, can know himself and say “It is false,” unless he himself lies? But because “charity believes all things,” certainly among those whom it makes one, in intimate union with each other, I, also, O Lord, do even confess to you in such a way that men may hear, though I cannot prove to them the things I confess are true. But those whose ears charity opens to me, they believe.
1 Corinthians 13:8
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Use your knowledge as a sort of tool to build the edifice of charity, which remains forever, even when “knowledge passes away.” For knowledge which is used to promote love is useful, but in itself and separated from love it turns out to be not only useless but even harmful.
1 Corinthians 13:9
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
Our knowledge in this life remains imperfect, but it is reliable within its limits. Believers trust the witness of their senses, which are subservient to their intelligence. They may occasionally be deceived, but even so they are still better off than those who maintain that the senses can never be trusted.
1 Corinthians 13:10
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
But, as this faith, which works by love, begins to penetrate the soul, it tends, through the vital power of goodness, to change into sight, so that the holy and perfect in heart catch glimpses of that ineffable beauty whose full vision is our highest happiness.… We begin in faith, we are perfected in sight.
1 Corinthians 13:12
· 2 passages
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Face to face—this is how the holy angels, who are called our angels, already see. They are our angels in the sense that once we have been delivered from the power of darkness, have received the pledge of the spirit and have been translated to the kingdom of Christ, we shall have begun to belong to the angels.
But when we begin to have a spiritual body as we are promised in the resurrection, let us see it even in the body, either by an intellectual vision or in some miraculous manner, since the grace of the spiritual body is indescribable. We shall then see it according to our capacity, without limitations of space, not larger in one part and smaller in another, since it is not a body, and it is wholly present everywhere.
1 Corinthians 14:14
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
For he speaks thus, when that which is said is not understood, because it cannot even be uttered, unless the images of corporeal sounds precede the oral sounds by the thought of the spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:40
Let all things be done decently and in order.
Those who make dissensions and disturbances in the church are the ones who seem to be what they are not. Letter , To Euodius.
1 Corinthians 15:9
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
The Enemy is more completely vanquished in the case of a man over whom he holds fuller sway.
1 Corinthians 15:10
· 3 passages
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Gladly and with the eyes of faith do all in the City of God look up to this great man, Paul, this athlete of Christ, who was anointed by Christ and instructed by him. With him he was nailed to the cross, and through him made glorious. This man was made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. He lawfully carried on a great conflict in the theater of this world and strained forward to the prize of his heavenly calling.
Paul did not labor in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might labor.
How, then, is God’s commandment accomplished, even with difficulty, without his help, since if the Lord does not build, the builder is said to have labored in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:12
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
When the apostle says to the Corinthians, “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” he shows plainly that not all of them were claiming this but that some were, and that it is clear they were not outside but among them… If we had not read in the same letter that “the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace,” we might otherwise have concluded that all the Corinthians were carnalminded and sensual, not discerning the Spirit of God, “quarrelsome, envious, walking according to man.” Letter , To Vincent.
1 Corinthians 15:15
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
If a lie directed against the temporal life of another is detestable, how much more so is one prejudicial to his eternal life. Such is every lie voiced in the teaching of religion. On that account, the apostle terms it false witness if anyone lies about Christ, even in what might seem to pertain to his praise.
1 Corinthians 15:22
· 5 passages
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
We commonly say that all enter a certain house through one door, not because all humanity enters that house but because no one enters except through that door. It is in this sense that as all die in Adam so do all those who live live in Christ.… Aside from the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
This does not mean that all who die in Adam will be members of Christ, since the majority will be punished in eternity by a second death. The apostle uses the word all in both clauses because as no one dies in a natural body except in Adam, so no one is made to live again in a spiritual body, except in Christ.
No human enters into death except through Adam and no one into eternal life except through Christ. This is the meaning of that repeated phrase all, because as all men belong to Adam through their first or carnal birth, so all men who belong to Christ come to the second or spiritual birth. Therefore he says “all” in both places because as all who die die only in Adam, so all who will be made alive will not be made alive except in Christ.
Notice how he emphasizes “one” and “one,” that is Adam and Christ, the former for condemnation, the latter for justification.… Obviously he is speaking of the resurrection of the just where there is life eternal, not of the resurrection of the wicked where there will be eternal death. Those who “shall be made alive” are contrasted with the others who will be damned.
Man indeed brought death to himself and to the Son of Man. But the Son of Man, by dying and rising again, brought life to man.