Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on 1 Timothy

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  The end of all divine Scriptures is the love for the Being in which we should rejoice and love for the being that can rejoice with us in that love. … Whoever … thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all. Whoever finds a lesson there useful to the building of charity, even though he has not said what the author may be shown to have intended in that place, has not been deceived.… But anyone who understands in the Scriptures something other than that intended by them is deceived, although they do not lie.

  ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 1.35.39-1.36.40-41

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  You have now, if I am not mistaken, an answer to two questions—what kind of person you ought to be if you would pray, and what things you should ask in prayer; and the answer has been given not by my teaching, but by His who has condescended to teach us all. A happy life is to be sought after, and this is to be asked from the Lord God. Many different answers have been given by many in discussing wherein true happiness consists; but why should we go to many teachers, or consider many answers to this question? It has been briefly and truly stated in the divine Scriptures, "Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." That we may be numbered among this people, and that we may attain to beholding Him and dwelling for ever with Him, "the end of the commandment is, charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

  LETTERS 130.13.24

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  But when the sight shall have come which is promised anew to us face to face, we shall see this not only incorporeal but also absolutely indivisible and truly unchangeable Trinity far more clearly and certainly than we now see its image which we ourselves are: and yet they who see through this glass and in this enigma, as it is permitted in this life to see, are not those who behold in their own mind the things which we have set in order and pressed upon them; but those who see this as if an image, so as to be able to refer what they see, in some way be it what it may, to Him whose image it is, and to see that also by conjecturing, which they see through the image by beholding, since they cannot yet see face to face. For the apostle does not say, We see now a glass, but, We see now through a glass. They, then, who see their own mind, in whatever way that is possible, and in it that Trinity of which I have treated as I could in many ways, and yet do not believe or understand it to be an image of God, see indeed a glass, but do not so far see through the glass Him who is now to be seen through the glass, that they do not even know the glass itself which they see to be a glass, i.e. an image. And if they knew this, perhaps they would feel that He too whose glass this is, should by it be sought, and somehow provisionally be seen, an unfeigned faith purging their hearts, that He who is now seen through a glass may be able to be seen face to face. And if they despise this faith that purifies the heart, what do they accomplish by understanding the most subtle disputes concerning the nature of the human mind, unless that they be condemned also by the witness of their own understanding?

  ON THE TRINITY 15.23.44-15.24.44

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  When anyone knows the end of the commandments to be charity "from a pure heart, and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith" and has related all of his understanding of the divine Scriptures to these three, he may approach the treatment of these books with security. For when he says "charity" he adds "from a pure heart," so that nothing else would be loved except that which should be loved. And he joins with this "a good conscience" for the sake of hope, for he in whom there is the smallest taint of bad conscience despairs of attaining that which he believes in and loves. Third, he says "an unfeigned faith." If our faith involves no lie, then we do not love that which is not to be loved, and living justly, we hope for that which will in no way deceive our hope.

  ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 1.40.44

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  For where are there those three, in order to build up which in the mind the whole apparatus of the divine Scriptures has been raised up, namely Faith, Hope, and Charity, except in a mind believing what it does not yet see, and hoping and loving what it believes? Even He therefore who is not known, but yet is believed, can be loved. But indisputably we must take care, lest the mind believing that which it does not see, feign to itself something which is not, and hope for and love that which is false. For in that case, it will not be charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, which is the end of the commandment, as the same apostle says.

  ON THE TRINITY 8.4.6

• 1 Timothy 1:5

  When all these things have been said and considered, I am unwilling to contend about words, for such contention is profitable for nothing but the subverting of the hearer. But the law is profitable for edification if one uses it lawfully. For the end of the law "is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." And our Master knew it well, for it was on these two commandments that he hung all the law and the prophets.

  Confessions 12.18

• 1 Timothy 1:7

  Two walls must adhere to the cornerstone in order to preserve "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"—one from the Jews and the other from the Gentiles. We mustn't let our minds be put off by the great number of reprobate Jews, among whom were the builders; those, that is, who "wished to be teachers of the law," but as the apostle says about them, "do not understand either what they are saying or the things about which they are making their assertions." It was as a result of this mental blindness, after all, that they rejected the stone which was put at the head of the corner. But it wouldn't be put at the head of the corner unless it offered to the two peoples coming from different points a peaceful joining, a coupling of grace.

  SERMONS 204.3

• 1 Timothy 1:7

  What, therefore, if the soul and spirit of a human being in like manner is given by God Himself, whenever it is given; and given, too, by propagation from its own kind? Now this is a position which I neither maintain nor refute. Nevertheless, if it must be defended or confuted, I certainly recommend its being done by clear, and not doubtful proofs. Nor do I deserve to be compared with senseless cattle because I avow myself to be as yet incapable of determining the question, but rather with cautious persons, because I do not recklessly teach what I know nothing about. But I am not disposed on my own part to return railing for railing and compare this man with brutes; but I warn him as a son to acknowledge that he is really ignorant of that which he knows nothing about; nor to attempt to teach that which he has not yet learnt, lest he should deserve to be compared with those persons whom the apostle mentions as "desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm."

  On the Soul and Its Origin 1.16.26

• 1 Timothy 1:7

  Let us, then, love not ourselves, but Him; and in feeding His sheep, let us be seeking the things which are His, not the things which are our own. For in some inexplicable way, I know not what, every one that loveth himself, and not God, loveth not himself; and whoever loveth God, and not himself, he it is that loveth himself. For he that cannot live by himself will certainly die by loving himself; he therefore loveth not himself who loves himself to his own loss of life. But when He is loved by whom life is preserved, a man by not loving himself only loveth the more, when it is for this reason that he loveth not himself [namely] that he may love Him by whom he lives. Let not those, then, who feed Christ's sheep be "lovers of their own selves," lest they feed them as if they were their own, and not His, and wish to make their own gain of them, as "lovers of money;" or to domineer over them, as "boastful;" or to glory in the honors which they receive at their hands, as "proud;" or to go the length even of originating heresies, as "blasphemers;" and not to give place to the holy fathers, as those who are "disobedient to parents;" and to render evil for good to those who wish to correct them, because unwilling to let them perish, as "unthankful;" to slay their own souls and those of others, as "wicked;" to outrage the motherly bowels of the Church, as "irreligious;" to have no sympathy with the weak, as those who are "without affection;" to attempt to traduce the character of the saints, as "false accusers;" to give loose reins to the basest lusts, as "incontinent;" to make lawsuits their practice, as "implacable;" to know nothing of loving service, as those who are "without kindness;" to make known to the enemies of the godly what they are well aware ought to be kept secret, as "traitors;" to disturb human modesty by shameless discussions, as "heady;" to understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, as "blinded;" and to prefer carnal delights to spiritual joys, as those who are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." For these and such like vices, whether all of them meet in a single individual, or whether some dominate in one and others in another, spring up in some form or another from this one root, when men are "lovers of their own selves."

  TRACTATES ON JOHN 123.5

• 1 Timothy 1:8

  Accordingly "the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good." It commands what ought to be commanded, and prohibits what ought to be prohibited. "Was that which is good, then, made death to me? God forbid." The fault lies in making a bad use of the commandment, which in itself is good. "The law is good if one uses it lawfully." But he makes a bad use of the law who does not subject himself to God in humble piety, so that, with the aid of grace, he may become able to fulfill the law. He who does not use the law lawfully receives it to no other end than that his sin, which was latent before the prohibition, should be made apparent by his transgression.

  TO SIMPLICIAN: ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.1.6

• 1 Timothy 1:8

  Indeed, "the precepts are good," as Pelagius says, if we use them lawfully. And in virtue of our strong conviction "that the good and just God could not have prescribed impossibilities," we are admonished both what to do in easy things and what to ask for in difficult ones. Indeed, all things are easy for love, to which alone the burden of Christ is light, or which alone is itself the burden which is light.

  ON NATURE AND GRACE 1.69.83

• 1 Timothy 1:9

  Because "for a righteous man the law was not made;" and yet "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For how can it be that "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully," if what follows is also true: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man?" For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous. Must then the unrighteous man, in order that he may be justified,—that is, become a righteous man,—lawfully use the law, to lead him, as by the schoolmaster's hand, to that grace by which alone he can fulfil what the law commands? Now it is freely that he is justified thereby,—that is, on account of no antecedent merits of his own works; "otherwise grace is no more grace," since it is bestowed on us, not because we have done good works, but that we may be able to do them,—in other words, not because we have fulfilled the law, but in order that we may be able to fulfil the law. ... The unrighteous man therefore lawfully uses the law, that he may become righteous; but when he has become so, he must no longer use it as a chariot, for he has arrived at his journey's end,—or rather (that I may employ the apostle's own simile, which has been already mentioned) as a schoolmaster, seeing that he is now fully learned.

  ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 1.10.16

• 1 Timothy 1:13

  From being a persecutor he was changed into "a preacher and the teacher of the nations." "Previously," he says, "I was a blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent man. But the reason I obtained mercy was this, that Christ Jesus might demonstrate his forbearance first of all in me, and for the instruction of those who were going to trust him for eternal life." It is by the grace of God, you see, that we are saved from our sins, in which we are languishing. God alone is the medicine that cures the soul. The soul was well able to injure itself but quite unable to cure itself. In the body, too, after all, people have it in their power to get sick, but not equally in their power to get better. I mean, if they exceed the proper limits, and live self-indulgent lives and do all the things that undermine the constitution and are injurious to health, the day comes, if that's what they want, when they fall sick. When they've so fallen, though, they don't get better. In order to fall sick, you see, they apply themselves to self-indulgence. But in order to get better, they must apply the doctor's services to their health.… And so it goes with the soul.

  SERMONS 278.1-2

• 1 Timothy 1:13

  We heard the reading from the apostle, and perhaps some of you may be worried by what is written there, "According to the justice which is from the law, I was without reproach. Whatever was a gain for me, that I have regarded as a dead loss on account of Christ." Then he went on to say, "I have reckoned it to be not only a dead loss, but even muck, that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having my own justice which is from the law, but the justice which is from the faith of Jesus Christ." The question is, how could he consider conducting himself without reproach according to the justice which is from the law, to be so much muck and loss? After all, who gave the law?… But let us listen to what he says in another place, "It was not as a result of works," he says, "which we have done ourselves, but according to his own mercy that he saved us, by means of the bath of rebirth." And again, "I, who was previously a blasphemer and persecutor, and an overbearing man; but I obtained mercy," and so on. On the one hand he affirmed that he conducted himself without reproach; on the other he confessed he had been a sinner of such proportions that no sinners need despair of themselves, precisely because even Paul had found remission.

  SERMONS 170.1

• 1 Timothy 1:13

  What then is this "grace for grace"? By faith we first win God's favor; and for us who were not worthy to have our sins forgiven, from the very fact that, though unworthy, we received so great a gift, it is called grace. What is grace? That which is given gratuitously. That which is bestowed, not paid back. If it was owed, recompense was paid, not grace bestowed.… Having acquired this grace of faith, you will be just by faith. "For the just man lives by faith." And you will first win God's favor from living by faith. When you have won God's favor from living by faith, you will receive as a reward immortality and everlasting life. And that is grace.… Paul acknowledges this grace when he says that he had before been a blasphemer and a persecutor, and insulting, "but I obtained mercy."

  TRACTATES ON JOHN 3.9-10

• 1 Timothy 1:15

  There was no reason for Christ the Lord to come, except to save sinners. Eliminate diseases, eliminate wounds, and there is no call for medicine. If a great doctor has come down from heaven, a great invalid must have been lying very sick throughout the whole wide world. This invalid is the whole human race.

  SERMONS 175.1

• 1 Timothy 1:15

  We heard the blessed apostle Paul saying, "The word is human and worthy of total acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." So it's a human word, and worthy of total acceptance. Why human, and not divine? Without the slightest doubt, unless this word were also divine, it would not be worthy of total acceptance. But this word is both human and divine in the same sort of way that Christ himself is both man and God. So if we are right in understanding this word to be not only human but also divine, why did the apostle prefer to call it human rather than divine?… So the aspect he chose was the one by which Christ came into the world. He came, after all, insofar as he was man. Because insofar as he was God, he was always there.

  SERMONS 174.1

• 1 Timothy 1:15

  "For all have sinned," either in Adam or by themselves, "and are deprived of the glory of God." Consequently, the whole human mass ought to be punished, and if the deserved punishment of damnation were rendered to all, beyond all doubt it would be justly rendered. This is why those who are liberated from it by grace are not called vessels of their own merits but "vessels of mercy." But whose mercy was it but him who sent Jesus Christ into this world to save sinners, whom he foreknew, predestined, called, justified and glorified? Hence, who could be so advanced in foolish insanity as not to render ineffable thanks to the mercy of this God who liberates those whom he has wished, considering that one could not in any way reproach the justice of God in condemning all entirely?

  On Nature and Grace 1.4.4-1.5.5

• 1 Timothy 1:15

  Pay attention to the apostle Paul, "The word is faithful and worthy of total acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first." He said, "of whom I am the first." How was he the first? Weren't there so many Jews who were sinners before him? Weren't there any sinners before him in the whole human race?… So what's the meaning of "of whom I am the first"? That I am worse than all of them. By first he meant us to understand worst.… Remember Saul, and you'll discover why. Isn't he the one who wasn't satisfied with only one hand to stone Stephen, and who took care of the coats of the others? Isn't he the one who persecuted the church everywhere?… So he it is who was the number one persecutor. There was none worse than he.

  SERMONS 175.6-7

• 1 Timothy 1:16

  So note how this Saul, later Paul, ironically "congratulates himself" on having attained to the mercy of God, because he was found to be the first, that is the most outstanding, in sins!… This was so that others could all say to themselves, "if Paul was cured, why should I despair? If such a desperately sick man was cured by such a great physician, who am I, not to fit those hands to my wounds, not to hasten to the care of those hands?" That people might be able to say that sort of thing, that's why Saul was made into an apostle out of a persecutor. When a doctor comes to a new place, he looks for someone there who's been despaired of and cures him, even if he finds he's very poor, provided he finds him a desperate case. He is not looking for a fee but displaying his skill.

  SERMONS 175.9

• 1 Timothy 1:17

  So this faith is also a rule for salvation, to "believe in God the Father almighty," creator of all things, "king of the ages, immortal and invisible." He is indeed the almighty God who at the origin of the world made all things out of nothing. He is before the ages and made and governs the ages. He doesn't, after all, grow with time, or stretch out in space, nor is he shut in or bounded by any material. He abides with and in himself as full and perfect eternity, which neither human thought can comprehend nor tongue describe.

  SERMONS 215.2

• 1 Timothy 1:17

  Let us hold firmly that Father and Son and Holy Spirit in their own proper nature, their proper substance, are together and equally invisible. We believe them to be together and equally immortal, together and equally imperishable. There is one place where the apostle states all these things simultaneously, "Now to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, imperishable, to the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

  Sermons 277.15

• 1 Timothy 1:17

  In order to attain that vision by which we see God as he is, he has warned us that our hearts must be cleansed. As objects are called visible in our fashion of speaking, so God is called invisible lest he be thought to be a material body. Yet he will not deprive pure hearts of the contemplation of his essence, since this great and sublime reward is promised, on the Lord's own word, to those who worship and love God. At the time when he appeared visibly to bodily eyes, he promised that his invisible being also would be seen by the clean of heart, "He that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." It is certain that this nature of his, which he shares with the Father, is equally as invisible as it is equally incorruptible.

  LETTERS 147.19.48

• 1 Timothy 1:20

  We see the same in the apostle, who, not in cruelty, but in love, delivered a man up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Others, too, he delivered up, that they might learn not to blaspheme.

  REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 22.79

• 1 Timothy 1:20

  Three crosses stood in one place: on one was the thief who was to be saved; on the second, the thief who was to be condemned; on the third, between them, was Christ, who was about to save the one thief and condemn the other. What could be more similar than these crosses? what more unlike than the persons who were suspended on them? Paul was given up to be imprisoned and bound, but Satan is unquestionably worse than any gaoler: yet to him Paul himself gave up one man for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And what say we to this? Behold, both deliver a man to bondage; but he that is cruel consigns his prisoner to one less severe, while he that is compassionate consigns his to one who is more cruel. Let us learn, my brother, in actions which are similar to distinguish the intentions of the agents; and let us not, shutting our eyes, deal in groundless reproaches, and accuse those who seek men's welfare as if they did them wrong. In like manner, when the same apostle says that he had delivered certain persons unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme, did he render to these men evil for evil, or did he not rather esteem it a good work to correct evil men by means of the evil one?

  LETTERS 93.2.7

• 1 Timothy 1:20

  Again they say, "Who made the devil?" He made himself; for the devil was made by sinning, not by nature. "Or," they say, "God should not have made him if he knew that he would sin." On the contrary, why should he not have made him? For through his own justice and providence God corrects many as a result of the malice of the devil. Or have you perhaps not heard the apostle Paul saying, "And I handed them over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme"?

  ON GENESIS, AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 2.28.42

• 1 Timothy 2:1

  I prefer to understand by these words what the entire, or almost the entire, church observes: that we take as supplications those prayers which are said in celebrating the mysteries, before we begin to consecrate what lies on the table of the Lord. Prayers are said when it is blessed and sanctified and broken for distribution; and the whole church, for the most part, closes this complete petition with the Lord's Prayer. The original Greek word helps us to understand this distinction: the Scripture seldom uses the word euche in the sense of oratio, but generally and much more frequently euch&#; means votum; whereas proseuch&#;,the word used in the passage we are treating, is always rendered by oratio. … Now, all the things which are offered to God are vowed, especially the oblation at the holy altar, for in this sacrament we show forth that supreme offering, by which we vow to abide in Christ, even to the union of the body of Christ. The outward sign of this is that "we, being many, are one bread, one body." Consequently, I think that at this consecration and this preparation for Communion the apostle fittingly wishes that proseuchas, that is, prayers, should be made, or, as some have unskillfully rendered it, adoration, that is, what takes place at the offering, although this is more commonly expressed in Scripture by euch&#;.Intercessions, however, or, as your texts have it, requests, are offered while the blessing is being given to the people, for at that time, by the laying on of hands, the bishops, as intercessors, offer the members of their flock to the most merciful Power. When this is completed and all have received the holy sacrament, the whole is ended by thanksgiving, and this last is the very term called to our notice by the apostle. .

• 1 Timothy 2:2

  As the life of the body is the soul, so the "blessed life" of a man is God. As the sacred writings of the Hebrews have it, "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Yet even such a people cherishes a peace of its own which is not to be scorned, although in the end it is not to be had because this peace, before the end, was abused. Meanwhile, it is to our advantage that there be such peace in this life. For, as long as the two cities are mingled together, we can make use of the peace of Babylon. Faith can assure our exodus from Babylon, but our pilgrim status, for the time being, makes us neighbors. All of this was in St. Paul's mind when he advised the church to pray for this world's kings and high authorities—in order that "we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and worthy behavior." Jeremiah, too, predicting the Babylonian captivity to the Old Testament Jews, gave them orders from God to go submissively and to serve their God by such sufferings, and meanwhile to pray for Babylon. "For in the peace thereof," he said, "shall be your peace"—referring, of course, to the peace of this world, which the good and bad share in common.

  City of God 19.26

• 1 Timothy 2:2

  My very special reason for saying all this was that after I had briefly defined and interpreted these terms [i.e., the terms of 1 Timothy 2:1], no one should think of overlooking the passage that follows, "for all men, for kings and for all those who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and charity," and that no one should imagine, by a common frailty of the human mind, that these prayers are not also to be made even for those at whose hands the church suffers persecution. For the members of Christ are to be gathered from every class. Hence he continues and says, "for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." And that no one might say there can be a way of salvation without partaking of the body and blood of Christ but simply by living a good manner of life and worshiping one God Almighty, Paul continues: "For there is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus." This makes it clear that what he had said above, "He will have all men to be saved," is to be realized only through a mediator who would not be God, as the Word is always God, but the man Christ Jesus, since "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."

  Letters 149.2.17

• 1 Timothy 2:4

  Accordingly. When we hear and read in sacred Scripture that God "wills that all should be saved," although we know well enough that not all are saved, we are not on that account to underrate the omnipotent will of God. Rather, we must understand the Scripture, "who will have all to be saved," as meaning that no one is saved unless God wills his salvation. It is not that there is no one whose salvation God does not will, but that no one is saved unless God wills it. Moreover, God's will should be sought in prayer, because if he wills, then what he wills must necessarily be. And, indeed, it was of prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he made that statement.

  Enchiridion 103.27

• 1 Timothy 2:4

  And what is written, that "he wills all men to be saved," while yet all men are not saved, may be understood in many ways, some of which I have mentioned in other writings of mine; but here I will say one thing: "He wills all men to be saved" is so said that all the predestinated may be understood by it, because every kind of man is among them.

  ON REBUKE AND GRACE 14.44

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  He then adds: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and fixed it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." Who has the power of so adjusting what he does, as this Man had of arranging all that He suffered? But this Man was the Mediator between God and men; the Man of whom we read in prophecy, He is man also, and who shall acknowledge Him? for the men who did such things acknowledged not this Man as God. For He who was manifest as man, was hid as God: He who was manifest suffered all these things, and He Himself also, who was hid, arranged them all. He saw, therefore, that all was accomplished that required to be done before He received the vinegar, and gave up the ghost.

  TRACTATES ON JOHN 119.4

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  Now, we could not be redeemed, even through "the one mediator between God and man, Man himself, Christ Jesus," if he were not also God. For when Adam was made—being made an upright man—there was no need for a mediator. Once sin, however, had widely separated the human race from God, it was necessary for a mediator, who alone was born, lived and was put to death without sin, to reconcile us to God and provide even for our bodies a resurrection to life eternal—and all this in order that a man's pride might be exposed and healed through God's humility.

  Enchiridion 108.28

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  Hence we respond to this objection of theirs, which they propose from the gospel, in a way which allows no man to be so lacking in understanding that he thinks we are compelled by this text to believe and confess that the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, did not have a human soul. In the same way I inquire how they respond to objections so palpable as ours, whereby we show through countless places in the Gospel writings what was narrated of him by the Evangelists, namely, that he was found with feelings that are impossible without a soul.

  EIGHTY-THREE DIFFERENT QUESTIONS 80.3

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  It was in order to make the mind able to advance more confidently toward the truth that Truth itself, the divine Son of God, put on humanity without putting off his divinity and built this firm path of faith so that man, by means of the God-Man, could find his way to man's God. I speak of the "mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus." For it is as man that he is the Mediator and as man that he is the way.

  City of God 11.2

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  But how are we reconciled, save by the removal of that which separates between us and Himself? For He says by the prophet, "He hath not made the ear heavy that it should not hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God." And so, then, we are not reconciled, unless that which is in the midst is taken away, and something else is put in its place. For there is a separating medium, and, on the other hand, there is a reconciling Mediator. The separating medium is sin, the reconciling Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ: "For there is one God and Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." To take then away the separating wall, which is sin, that Mediator has come, and the priest has Himself become the sacrifice.

  TRACTATES ON JOHN 41.5

• 1 Timothy 2:5

  Christ Jesus, himself man, is the true Mediator, for, inasmuch as he took the "form of a slave," he became "the Mediator between God and men." In his character as God, he received sacrifices in union with the Father, with whom he is one God. Yet he chose, in his character as a slave, to be himself the sacrifice rather than to receive it, lest any one might take occasion to think that sacrifice could be rendered to a creature. Thus it is that he is both the Priest who offers and the Oblation that is offered.

  City of God 10.20

• 1 Timothy 2:8

  He must be quite cognizant, certain and confident of his own innocence who stretches out and extends his hands to God. Hence the apostle says, "I wish then that men pray everywhere, lifting up pure hands." He rightly lifts his hands to God, he pours forth prayers with a good conscience, who can say, "You know, O Lord, how holy, how innocent, how pure from every fraud, injury and plunder are the hands which I lift up to you; how unstained and free from all deceit are the lips with which I pour forth prayers to you so that you may have pity on me." Such a person deserves to be heard quickly and can obtain what he asks even before he has finished his prayer.

  THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 11

• 1 Timothy 2:14

  So, too, we must believe that Adam transgressed the law of God, not because he was deceived into believing that the lie was true but because in obedience to a social compulsion he yielded to Eve, as husband to wife, as the only man in the world to the only woman. It was not without reason that the apostle wrote, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived." He means, no doubt, that Eve accepted the serpent's word as true, whereas Adam refused to be separated from his partner even in a union of sin. This does not imply that he was on that account any less guilty, since he sinned knowingly and deliberately.

  City of God 14.11.2

• 1 Timothy 3:1

  Consider these three temperaments: the contemplative, the active, the contemplative-active. A man can live the life of faith in any of these three and get to heaven. What is not indifferent is that he love truth and do what charity demands. No man must be so committed to contemplation as, in his contemplation, to give no thought to his neighbor's needs, nor so absorbed in action as to dispense with the contemplation of God. The attraction of leisure ought not to be empty-headed inactivity but in the quest or discovery of truth, both for his own progress and for the purpose of sharing ungrudgingly with others. Nor should the man of action love worldly position or power, for all is vanity under the sun, but only what can be properly and usefully accomplished by means of such position and power … of contributing to the eternal salvation of those committed to one's care. Thus, as St. Paul wrote, "If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires good work." He wanted to make clear that the office of bishop, episcopatus, implies work rather than dignity.

  City of God 19.19

• 1 Timothy 3:1

  You think, however, that even what we have done to you should not have been done, because, in your opinion, no man should be compelled to that which is good. Mark, therefore, the words of the apostle: "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work," and yet, in order to make the office of a bishop be accepted by many men, they are seized against their will, subjected to importunate persuasion, shut up and detained in custody, and made to suffer so many things which they dislike, until a willingness to undertake the good work is found in them.

  LETTERS 173.1.2

• 1 Timothy 3:1

  "I want to be a bishop; oh, if only I were a bishop!" Would that you were! Are you seeking the name or the real thing? If it's the real thing you're seeking, you are setting your heart on a good work. If it's the name you're seeking, you can have it even with a bad work but with a worse punishment. So what shall we say? Are there bad bishops? Perish the thought, there aren't any; yes, I have the nerve, the gall to say there are no bad bishops; because if they are bad, they aren't bishops. You are calling me back again to the name and saying, "He is a bishop, because he is seated on the bishop's throne." And a straw scarecrow is guarding the vineyard.

  SERMONS 340A.6

• 1 Timothy 3:6

  What does Paul mean by saying "or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil"? It doesn't mean he is to be judged by the devil but that he is to be condemned with the devil. The devil, after all, won't be our judge. He himself fell through pride. Like him, one who has become godless on account of pride will be condemned to everlasting fire. We are to consider carefully, Paul is saying, to whom a position of eminence is given in the church, lest the person being lifted up should through pride fall into the very judgment into which the devil fell.

  SERMONS 340A.2

• 1 Timothy 3:7

  The fruit represents a good character; not the praise given a man by a few just and wise people, but popular report, which bestows greatness and renown on a man, and which is not desirable for its own sake, but is essential to the success of good men in their endeavors to benefit their fellow-men. So the apostle says, that it is proper to have a good report of those that are without; for though they are not infallible, the lustre of their praise and the odor of their good opinion are a great help to the efforts of those who seek to benefit them. And this popular renown is not obtained by those that are highest in the Church, unless they expose themselves to the toils and hazards of an active life.

  REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 22.56

• 1 Timothy 3:10

  But none could rightly be ordained a minister in the Church if the apostle had said, "If any is without sin," where he says, "If any is without crime;" or if he had said, "Having no sin," where he says, "Having no crime." Because many baptized believers are without crime, but I should say that no one in this life is without sin,—however much the Pelagians are inflated, and burst asunder in madness against me because I say this: not because there remains anything of sin which is not remitted in baptism; but because by us who remain in the weakness of this life such sins do not cease daily to be committed, as are daily remitted to those who pray in faith and work in mercy. This is the soundness of the catholic faith, which the Holy Spirit everywhere sows,—not the vanity and presumption of spirit of heretical pravity.

  AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 1.14.28

• 1 Timothy 3:15

  Honor the holy church as your mother. Love her, proclaim her the Jerusalem which is above, the holy city of God. She it is who, in this faith which you have heard, bears fruit and grows in the whole world, the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth. She tolerates the wicked in the communion of the sacraments, knowing that they are due to be separated from her at the end and withdrawing from them meanwhile in the dissimilarity of their morals.

  SERMONS 214.11

• 1 Timothy 3:15

  Therefore, beloved, with assured mind and steadfast heart, let us continue to live under so lofty a Head in so glorious a body, in which we are mutually members. Thus, even if my absence were as far as the most distant lands, we should be together in him, and we should never withdraw from the unity of his body. If we lived in one house, we should certainly be said to be together; how much more are we together when we are together in one body!

  LETTERS 142.1.1

• 1 Timothy 3:16

  But when the fullness of time was come, she [Wisdom] was sent, not to fill angels, nor to be an angel, except in so far as she announced the counsel of the Father, which was her own also; nor, again, to be with men or in men, for this too took place before, both in the fathers and in the prophets; but that the Word itself should be made flesh, that is, should be made man. In which future mystery, when revealed, was to be the salvation of those wise and holy men also, who, before He was born of the Virgin, were born of women; and in which, when done and made known, is the salvation of all who believe, and hope, and love. For this is "the great mystery of godliness, which was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

  ON THE TRINITY 4.20.27

• 1 Timothy 4:1

  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.

  LETTERS 199.8.22

• 1 Timothy 4:1

  Assuredly there are predictions of the Manichaeans, less clear in the prophets, and most explicit in the apostle. For example: "The Spirit," he says, "speaketh expressly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by believers, and those who know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving." The fulfillment of this in the Manichaeans is as clear as day to all that know them, and has already been proved as fully as time permits.

  REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 15.10

• 1 Timothy 4:3

  The Church of God, however, being meanwhile so constituted as to enclose much chaff and many tares, bears with many things; yet if anything be contrary to faith or to holy life, she does not approve of it either by silence or by practice. Accordingly, that which you wrote as to certain brethren abstaining from the use of animal food, on the ground of its being ceremonially unclean, is most clearly contrary to the faith and to sound doctrine. If I were to enter on anything like a full discussion of this matter, it might be thought by some that there was some obscurity in the precepts of the apostle in this matter whereas he, among many other things which he said on this subject, expressed his abhorrence of this opinion of the heretics in these words: "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; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 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. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."

  LETTERS 55.19.35-20.36

• 1 Timothy 4:3

  The Lord, in that He came to the marriage to which He was invited, wished, apart from the mystical signification, to assure us that marriage was His own institution. For there were to be those of whom the apostle spoke, "forbidding to marry," and asserting that marriage was an evil, and of the devil's institution: notwithstanding the same Lord declares in the Gospel, on being asked whether it be lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause, that it is not lawful save for the cause of fornication. In His answer, if you remember, He said, "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder." And they that are well instructed in the catholic faith know that God instituted marriage; and as the union of man and wife is from God, so divorce is from the devil.

  TRACTATES ON JOHN 9.2

• 1 Timothy 4:4-5

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

  Confessions 10.31.46

• 1 Timothy 4:4-5

  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 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 be 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, which you cannot bear, and so turn to fables. 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, and placed by Him in their courses,—the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night. And if earthly bodies are good, of which the apostle spoke when he said that no food is unclean, because every creature of God is good, much more the heavenly bodies, of which the sun and moon are the chief.

  REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 14.11

• 1 Timothy 4:4

  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.

  THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 34

• 1 Timothy 4:8

  "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.

  LETTERS 155.2.17

• 1 Timothy 4:10

  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.

  SERMONS 292.4

• 1 Timothy 4:12

  Let me, however, say that the source of these evils is pride, and a desire for the praises of men, which also frequently produces hypocrisy. This is successfully resisted only by him who is penetrated with love and fear of God, through the multiplied declarations of the divine books; provided, however, that such a man exhibit in himself a pattern both of patience and of humility, by assuming as his due less praise and honour than is offered to him: at the same time neither accepting all nor refusing all that is rendered to him by those who honour him; and as to the portion which he does accept, receiving it not for his own sake, seeing that he ought to live wholly in the sight of God and to despise human applause, but for the sake of those whose welfare he cannot promote if by too great self-abasement he lose his place in their esteem. For to this pertains that word, "Let no man despise thy youth;" while he who said this says also in another place, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

  Letters 22.2.7

• 1 Timothy 4:12

  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."

  ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 4.27.59-60

• 1 Timothy 4:12

  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?

  Sermons 46.9