Pelagius

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

465 passages across 8 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On Romans

20 of 369
  1. Romans 1:30
    The Scriptures link slander to idolatry by stipulating the same penalty for it—destruction. The haughty are those who want to be more than they are. The devil was like this, and so destroyed himself. For one who seeks to lord it over others will end up beneath them.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  2. Romans 1:31
    Paul mentions all these sins, set out one by one, with respect to those who have been abandoned by God because they have abandoned him. Let us therefore take care, lest we also be abandoned for embracing one of these evils.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  3. Romans 1:32
    Even people who did not agree with these doings … nevertheless seem to have accepted them, because they agreed to idolatry, which is the source and cause of them all.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  4. Romans 2:1
    This concerns those who are in a position to pass judgment. Judges and princes are being put on trial. By a natural process everyone pronounces a sentence which fits the crime and knows that righteousness deserves reward while wickedness should be punished.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  5. Romans 2:2
    If you, a sinner, pass judgment upon a sinner like yourself, how much more will God, who is just, condemn you as unjust? If he did not do so, it might appear that evil is pleasing to him while good is not. But God has no favorites, and he spared neither his friends (the patriarchs) nor his angels when they sinned! Human judgment on the other hand is imperfect in many ways. The integrity of judges is often compromised by love, hate, fear and greed, and occasionally mercy is allowed to overturn the rule of justice.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  6. Romans 2:4
    Do you imagine you can act with impunity just because God does not punish immediately.… Listen to the words of Scripture: “The Lord is not slow with his promises … but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.” The Lord is good in as much as he waits and just in as much as he punishes.… People may go far astray because of God’s patience, because he does not want to punish sinners immediately. And because he delays, people suppose either that he does not care at all about human affairs or that he overlooks sins.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  7. Romans 2:5
    Unaware that you are sick, you use the very cure in order to sustain even greater wounds.… Rejected kindness leads in the end to severer judgment, so that the man who refused to be touched by mercy is afflicted with punishment.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  8. Romans 2:7
    The reward for well-doing is awaited with patience because it is not given in this life. The glory is that with which the saints will shine like the sun. Nothing is greater than the honor of the children of God, on account of which they will judge even the angels.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  9. Romans 2:9
    The apostle threatens the soul with punishment because of heretics who say that only the flesh does wrong and that the soul cannot sin. Or perhaps “soul” refers to the whole man.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  10. Romans 2:10
    Glory is opposed to wrath and honor to displeasure. What Paul called “immortality” above he calls “peace” here. The word first is emphatic and means “indeed,” because God does not play favorites. Or it may mean first in time but not in honor.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  11. Romans 2:12
    “Will perish” means the same thing as “will be judged,” for the man who perishes perishes by God’s judgment, and the man who is judged a sinner perishes. Paul puts Jews and Gentiles on the same level when he says that doers rather than hearers of the law are righteous and then adds that the Gentiles will be judged on the day of the Lord. For does anyone doubt that those under the law will perish just as those who lived without the law, unless they have believed in Christ?

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  12. Romans 2:14
    Paul is referring either to those who were righteous before the law or to those who even now are doing some good. He shows that the Gentiles are not without any kind of law in order to leave them with no excuse and to take away the glory which the Jews had by their possession of the law.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  13. Romans 2:15
    Nature produces a law in their hearts through the witness of their conscience. Or it may mean that the conscience testifies to the fact that it has its own law, because even if the sinner is afraid of no one the conscience is worried when he sins and rejoices when that sin is overcome.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  14. Romans 2:16
    Paul says that there is a mental debate when we decide after long deliberation what we should and should not do. On the day of the Lord we shall be judged by this. This proves that we were not ignorant of good and evil. Or perhaps it means that on the day of judgment our conscience and our thoughts will appear before our eyes like history lessons to be learned; they will either accuse us or excuse us.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  15. Romans 2:17
    At this point Paul turns to the Jews and says that a man should be a Jew in deed and not merely in name.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  16. Romans 2:18
    The Jew boasts that he alone understands God and knows his will. He approves what is excellent, because what is beneficial by nature is made much more so by the law.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  17. Romans 2:19
    The blind are those who have been deprived of the light of knowledge.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  18. Romans 2:20
    One who continually keeps the law in view does not stumble.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  19. Romans 2:21
    Paul says to the Jew: If you rely on the law, why do you not obey it? If you glory in God, why do you dishonor him? If you know his will, why do you not do it? If you approve what is excellent, why do you go after what is harmful? Why do you not look for the right way, if you are a guide for the blind? Surely if you saw it you would walk in it! If you are a light for others, why do you not cast off the works of darkness? As an instructor of the foolish, why have you abandoned the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom? As a teacher of children, why are you a child in understanding? If you have the standard of knowledge and truth in the law, why do you not follow it yourself, nor by your evil example allow others to follow it? Why does your life not match your teaching, and why does your behavior make a mockery of your faith? Because you have not kept the law it will happen that not only will the law do you no good, it will condemn you for the greater crime of holding it in contempt.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

  20. Romans 2:22
    There is not just one kind of adultery, for you commit adultery if you give anyone other than God what the soul owes exclusively to him.

    PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

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