Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

"Faith working through love," comes not so much by fearing punishment as by loving justice. Still, as the soul does not become just except by sharing in the better one who justifies the ungodly—for what has it that it has not received?43—it ought not to glory as if it had not received it, by attributing to itself what comes from God. That is why it was said to him, "Be not high-minded, but fear." And that fear is also commanded for those who live by faith and are heirs of the new covenant, being "called to freedom."

This justice is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just while they live by faith until, by the perfection of justice, they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also equally brought to immortality of the body itself by the perfection of salvation. Hence, in another place the apostle says, "So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." And then he adds, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin"—that is, a sacrifice for sin, for in that law offerings made for sins were called sin—"so that in him we might become the righteousness of God," that is, in his body, which is the church, of which he is the head, that we may be the justice of God.

"No man living is righteous before you," yet "the righteous one lives by faith." The saints are clad in justice, one more, another less; yet no one lives here without sin. In this also, one more, another less, but he is best who has least sin.

Will there be any of us bold enough to say, "I am just"? I assume, after all, that "I am just" amounts to the same thing as "I am not a sinner." … Here we are with people who have been justified from their sins. We can't deny it. There remains, however, the struggle with the flesh, there remains the struggle with the world, there remains the struggle with the devil. When you are struggling, you sometimes hit, sometimes you get hit; sometimes you win, sometimes you're done for; it remains to be seen how you leave the stadium. Because "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Again, if we say we have no justice at all, we are telling a lie about God's gifts. You see, if we have no justice at all, we have no faith either; and if we have not faith, we are not Christians. But if we do have faith, we already have at least some justice. Do you want to know how much that "some" is? The just live by faith. The just, I repeat, live by faith, because they believe what they cannot see.

What is closer to your ears than a heart that is penitent and a life founded on faith?

Hebrews 11:1 · 2 passages

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

If they are not seen, how can you be convinced that they exist? Well, where do these things that you see come from, if not from one whom you cannot see? Yes, of course you see something in order to believe something, and from what you can see to believe what you cannot see. Please do not be ungrateful to the one who made you able to see; this is why you are able to believe what you are not yet able to see. God gave you eyes in your head, reason in your heart. Arouse the reason in your heart, get the inner inhabitant behind your inner eyes on his feet, let him take to his windows, let him inspect God's creation.

When you hope, you do not yet have what you are hoping for, but, by believing it, you resemble someone who does possess it. For faith will eventually take hold, but our very faith stands for the thing itself. I mean, you do not have your hands on anything when you have them on faith, nor are they empty if they are full of faith. The reason faith is greatly rewarded is that it does not see and yet believes. I mean, if it could see, what reward would there be?... But faith does not falter, because it is supported by hope. Take away hope, and faith falters. How, after all, when you are walking somewhere, will you even move your feet, if you have no hope of ever getting there? If, though, from each of them, that is from faith and hope, you withdraw love, what is the point of believing; what is the point of hoping, if you do not love? Indeed, you cannot even hope for anything you do not love. Love, you see, kindles hope; hope shines through love. But when we attain the things that we have been hoping for while believing in and not seeing them, what faith will there be then to be praised?…

When you hope, you do not yet have what you are hoping for, but, by believing it, you resemble someone who does possess it. For faith will eventually take hold, but our very faith stands for the thing itself. I mean, you do not have your hands on anything when you have them on faith, nor are they empty if they are full of faith. The reason faith is greatly rewarded is that it does not see and yet believes. I mean, if it could see, what reward would there be?... But faith does not falter, because it is supported by hope. Take away hope, and faith falters. How, after all, when you are walking somewhere, will you even move your feet, if you have no hope of ever getting there? If, though, from each of them, that is from faith and hope, you withdraw love, what is the point of believing; what is the point of hoping, if you do not love? Indeed, you cannot even hope for anything you do not love. Love, you see, kindles hope; hope shines through love. But when we attain the things that we have been hoping for while believing in and not seeing them, what faith will there be then to be praised? Considering that "faith is the conviction of things not seen," when we do see, it will not be called faith. After all, you will be seeing, not believing.

Hebrews 11:11

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:17

By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son

Hebrews 11:39-40

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Now this would be no praise for faith, nor would it be faith at all, if people were in believing to follow after rewards that they could see—in other words, if the reward of immortality were bestowed on believers in this present world.

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our being born again by water and the Spirit is not a recompense for any merit but is freely given. And if faith has led us to the bath of regeneration, we ought not for that reason to think that we have first given something, so that our saving regeneration might be given us in return. For that one has made us believe in Christ who made for us the Christ in whom we believe. That one made in humans the beginning and the completion of their faith in Jesus who made the human Jesus “the author and finisher of the faith,” for this is what he is called, as you know, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:4

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

For short periods and at prescribed times, power has been given to the demons to incite people whom they control to exercise a tyrannical hostility to the City of God. Thus, they are able not only to receive sacrifice from those who offer it and to seek it from those who are well disposed but also to extort it violently from the unwilling by means of persecutions. However, this power is not a menace to the church but rather an advantage, since it helps to fill up the number of its martyrs. And these the City of God esteems as its most illustrious and honored citizens, just because they have resisted the impious so valiantly, even “to the shedding of blood, striving against sin.”

Hebrews 12:7

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Here discipline is spoken of in reference to those evils that anyone suffers for his sins in order that he may be corrected.

Hebrews 12:14 · 2 passages

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt—that God shall be seen by the inward person which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, “God is love.” This inward person alone is able to see “peace and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord.” For no fleshly eye now sees love, peace and holiness, and such things. Yet all of them are seen, so far as they can be seen, by the eye of the mind, and the purer [the mind] is, the more clearly it sees. Therefore we may, without hesitation, believe that we shall see God.

Many careful precepts have been given us, such as those concerning mutual forgiveness and the encouraging of that peace which is the very condition of our seeing God. One has only to recall the fearsome command given to the servant to pay the debt of ten thousand talents, from which he had been released, because he had not released his fellow servant from the debt that he owed of one hundred pence. When the Lord had proposed this parable, he added the words, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Sometimes people who commit this sin treat it lightly out of heaven knows what kind of perversity. They hunt about for heaven knows what null and worthless proofs in their support, and say, “God does not mind the sins of the flesh.” Well, what about what we have heard today, “God will judge the immoral and adulterous”? So there you are, pay attention, any of you afflicted with this sort of disease. Listen to what God is saying, not to what your own prejudice is saying in favor of your sins, or to your friend, perhaps, chained with the same shackles of wickedness as yourself—though in fact he is more your enemy and his own.

Hebrews 13:5

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

So keep a moderate amount of money for temporal uses; treat it as journey money, with the end in view stated in the text. Notice above all what he put first: “Free from love of money,” he says, put your hand in the purse in such a way that you release your heart from it.

Hebrews 13:16

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

In the words of the prophet Micah, a distinction is clearly drawn between the fact that God does not require sacrifices as they are in themselves and the fact that God does desire the offerings that are symbolized by these sacrifices. … That is why the words "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice" must be understood to mean that one sacrifice is to be preferred to another, since what is commonly called a sacrifice is merely a symbol of the true sacrifice. For, mercy is the true sacrifice. Hence, "such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

Hebrews 13:17

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

In all my sermons I am presenting you with a mirror. These are not my sermons, anyway; I only speak at the Lord’s command. It is only dread of him that stops me from keeping quiet. I mean to say, who would not much rather keep quiet and not have to give an account of you? But it is quite a time since I accepted this burden, and now I neither can nor should shrug it off my shoulders. You heard, my brothers and sisters, when the letter to the Hebrews was being read.

Hebrews 13:18

Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

We have mutual need of one another’s prayers, for those reciprocal prayers are enkindled by charity and—like a sacrifice offered on the altar of piety—are fragrant and pleasing to the Lord. If the apostles used to ask for prayers on their own behalf, how much more does it behoove me to do so?