TRV
Augustine of Hippo
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 7,530 passages across 62 books
Commentary
Galatians 5:23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
He has added “against such there is no law” so that we understand that those on whom the law must be imposed are those in whom these excellent behaviors do not already reign. For those in whom they reign are the ones who apply the law legitimately, since the law is not imposed on them with coercive intent, seeing that righteousness is already their overwhelming preference.… These spiritual fruits reign in one in whom sins do not reign. These good things reign if they are so delightful that they themselves uphold the mind in its trials from falling into consent to sin. For whatever gives us more delight, this we necessarily perform.
Galatians 6:1
· 2 passages
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
One is overtaken on those occasions either when one sins without seeing at the time that it is a sin or when one sees this and is still overcome. One sins either in ignorance of truth or under the limitations of infirmity.
There is no surer test of the spiritual person than his treatment of another’s sin. Note how he takes care to deliver the sinner rather than triumph over him, to help him rather than punish him and, so far as lies in his capacity, to support him.
Galatians 6:2
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
The “law of Christ” means the law of love. The one who loves his neighbor fulfills the law. The love of neighbor is strongly commended even in the Old Testament. The apostle elsewhere says that it is by love that all the commands of the law are summed up. If so, then it is evident that even that Scripture which was given to the covenant people was the law of Christ, which, since it was not being fulfilled by fear, he came to fulfill by love. The same Scripture, therefore, and the same law is called the old covenant when it weighs down in slavery those who are grasping after earthly goods. It is called the new testament when it raises to freedom those who are ardently seeking the eternal good.
Galatians 6:8
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
To sow in the spirit is to serve righteousness from faith and with love and not to heed the desires of sin, even though they arise from mortal flesh.… When we are under grace, we sow in tears, when desires arise from our animal body, which we resist by not consenting, so that we may reap in joy. We reap when, by the reformation of our body, no vexation or peril of temptation comes to trouble us from any physical source.
Galatians 6:12
As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
The Jews were inflicting great persecution on those who seemed to be deserting their traditional observances such as circumcision. Paul’s lack of fear has been demonstrated through his composing such a letter in his own handwriting. In this way he shows that those who force the Gentiles into circumcision are operating under fear’s control, as though they were subject to the law.
Galatians 6:13
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Not only did [the Judaizers] wish to avoid persecution from the Jews, who were absolutely unwilling to let the law be given to the uncircumcised, but they desired to boast to the Jews about the number of proselytes they made.
Galatians 6:16
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Paul means those who are truly prepared for the vision of God. These are distinguished from those who are called by this name [Israel] and in their carnal blindness refuse to see the Lord, spurning his grace, still desiring to be enslaved by temporal things.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Scripture called heaven and earth that formless matter of the universe, which was changed into formed and beautiful natures by God’s ineffable command.… This heaven and earth, which were confused and mixed up, were suited to receive forms from God their maker.
Genesis 1:2
· 4 passages
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
One who diligently considers what darkness is really finds only the absence of light. Thus it said, “darkness was over the abyss,” as if to say, “There was no light over the abyss.” Hence, this matter that is ordered and distinguished by the next work of God is called the invisible and unformed earth and the deep that is lacking light. This is what was above called heaven and earth, like the seed of heaven and earth.
The earth was invisible and unorganized, and darkness was over the abyss. Formlessness is suggested by these words, so that we might grasp the meaning by degrees, for we are unable to think cognitively about an absolute privation of form that still does not go as far as nothing. From this, another visible and organized heaven and earth were to be made.
“And darkness was over the abyss.” The Manichaeans find fault with this and say, “Was God then in darkness, before he made the light?” They themselves are truly in the darkness of ignorance, and for that reason they do not understand the light in which God was before he made this light. For they know only the light they see with the eyes of the flesh. And therefore they worship this sun that every creature sees. But let us understand that there is a different light in which God dwells.
The matter is first called by the name of the universe, that is, of heaven and earth, for the sake of which it was made from absolutely nothing. Second, its formlessness is conveyed by the mention of the unformed earth and the abyss, because among all the elements earth is more formless and less bright than the rest. Third, by the name water, there is signified matter that is subject to the work of the Maker, for water can be moved more easily than earth. And thus on account of the easiness by which it can be worked and moved, the matter subject to the Maker should be called water rather than earth.
Genesis 1:3
· 2 passages
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
As the words themselves make sufficiently clear, we are told that this light was made. The light born from God is one thing; the light that God made is another. The light born from God is the very Wisdom of God, but the light made by God is something mutable, whether corporeal or incorporeal.
We ought to understand that God did not say “Let there be light” by a sound brought forth from the lungs or by the tongue and teeth. Such thoughts are those of persons physically preoccupied. To be wise in accord with the flesh is death. “Let there be light” was spoken ineffably.
Genesis 1:4
· 2 passages
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
“God saw that the light was good,” and these words do not mean that God found before him a good that he had not known but that he was pleased by one that was finished.
We should understand that this sentence does not signify joy as if over an unexpected good but an approval of the work. For what is said more fittingly of God—insofar as it can be humanly said—than when Scripture puts it this way: “he spoke,” and “it was made,” “it pleased him.” Thus we understand in “he spoke” his sovereignty, in “it was made” his power and in “it pleased him” his goodness. These ineffable things had to be said in this way by a man to men so that they might profit all.
Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
“And God divided the light and the darkness, and God called the light day and he called the darkness night.” It did not say here “God made the darkness,” because darkness is merely the absence of light. Yet God made a division between light and darkness. So too we make a sound by crying out, and we make a silence by not making a sound, because silence is the cessation of sound. Still in some sense we distinguish between sound and silence and call the one sound and the other silence.… “He called the light day, and he called the darkness night” was said in the sense that he made them to be called, because he separated and ordered all things so that they could be distinguished and receive names.
Genesis 1:7
· 2 passages
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
The matter was separated by the interposition of the firmament so that the lower matter is that of bodies and the higher matter that of souls.
The waters were divided so that some were above the firmament and others below the firmament. Since we said that matter was called water, I believe that the firmament of heaven separated the corporeal matter of visible things from the incorporeal matter of invisible things.