Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Colossians

• Colossians 1:6

  For there are both good and bad in the Catholic Church, which, unlike the Donatist sect, is extended and spread abroad, not in Africa only, but through all nations; as the apostle expresses it, "bringing forth fruit, and increasing in the whole world." But those who are separated from the Church, as long as they are opposed to it cannot be good; although an apparently praiseworthy conversation seems to prove some of them to be good, their separation from the Church itself renders them bad, according to the saying of the Lord: "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth."

  Letter 189.6

• Colossians 1:6

  Honor also the Holy Church, your mother, as the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city of God; love her, proclaim her. She it is who bears fruit and grows in the whole world in this faith which you have heard, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth; she tolerates in the communion of the sacraments the wicked, who are to be separated in the end, from whom in the meantime she withdraws by reason of their diverse manners. For the sake of her grain that now groans among the chaff, whose mass will be revealed in the final winnowing and assigned to the barns. She receives the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that through her, by the blood of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit, the remission of sins may be effected. In this Church the soul that was dead in sins will revive, so as to be made alive with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.

  Sermon 214

• Colossians 1:6

  It is much less surprising that he [Paul] used his verbs in the present tense in that passage which, as you remarked, he repeated again and again: "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come to you as also it is in the whole world, and brings forth fruit and grows." Although the gospel did not yet embrace the whole world, he said that it brings forth fruit and grows in the whole world, in order to show how far it would extend in bearing fruit and growing. If, then, it is hidden from us when the whole world will be filled by the church bringing forth fruit and growing, undoubtedly it is hidden from us when the end will be, but it certainly will not be before that.

• Colossians 1:6

  But the evidence of all the several scriptures with one accord proclaims the Church spread abroad throughout the world, with which the faction of Donatus does not hold communion. The law of God declared, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The Lord said by the mouth of His prophet, "From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, a pure sacrifice shall be offered unto my name: for my name shall be great among the heathen." The Lord said through the Psalmist, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." The Lord said by His apostle, "The gospel is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit." The Son of God said with His own mouth, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even unto the uttermost part of the earth." Caecilianus, the bishop of the Church of Carthage, is accused with the contentiousness of men; the Church of Christ, established among all nations, is recommended by the voice of God.

  A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists 1.5

• Colossians 1:10

  We are commanded to do good when it says: "Decline from evil and do good," but we pray to do good when it says: "We cease not to pray for you, asking," and among other things that Paul asks he mentions: "That you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, in every good work and good word." As then we acknowledge the part played by the will when these commands are given, so let him acknowledge the part played by grace when these petitions are offered. .

• Colossians 1:12

  The lament in the Psalms, indeed, is absolutely true: "Behold in iniquity was I conceived, and in sins did my mother nourish me in her womb." Again, there is what is written, that there is none clean in God's sight, not even an infant whose life has lasted but a day on the earth. So these are the exception, and it is to exceed our limited human measure to wish to inquire about the rank they may deserve in that "lot of the saints in light" which is promised for the future.

• Colossians 1:12

  See, then, how it can come to pass that a man may have the baptism of Christ and still not have the faith or the love of Christ; how it is that he may have the sacrament of holiness and still not be reckoned in the lot of the holy. With regard to the mere sacrament itself, it makes no difference whether someone receives the baptism of Christ where the unity of Christ is not.

• Colossians 1:12

  How can the apostle say: "Giving thanks to God the Father, who makes us suitable for a share of the lot of the saints in light, who has snatched us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son," unless the will that liberates us is not ours but his? Letters.

• Colossians 1:13

  From this power of evil angels nothing doth deliver man but the grace of God, whereof the Apostle speaketh, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love:" of which things that people did bear the figure, when they were delivered from the power of the Egyptians, and translated into the kingdom of the land of promise flowing with milk and honey, which doth signify the sweetness of grace.

  Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 78

• Colossians 1:13

  "And he cast him into the abyss,"—i.e., cast the devil into the abyss. By the abyss is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; not that the devil was not there before, but he is said to be cast in thither, because, when prevented from harming believers, he takes more complete possession of the ungodly. For that man is more abundantly possessed by the devil who is not only alienated from God, but also gratuitously hates those who serve God... But by the chain and prison-house of this interdict the devil is prohibited and restrained from seducing those nations which belong to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For before the foundation of the world God chose to rescue these from the power of darkness, and to translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, as the apostle says.

  The City of God, Book 20

• Colossians 1:13

  Pascha (passover) is not, as some think, a Greek noun, but a Hebrew: and yet there occurs in this noun a very suitable kind of accordance in the two languages. For inasmuch as the Greek word paschein means to suffer, therefore pascha has been supposed to mean suffering, as if the noun derived its name from His passion: but in its own language, that is, in Hebrew, pascha means passover; because the pascha was then celebrated for the first time by God's people, when, in their flight from Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea... And a most salutary transit we make when we pass over from the devil to Christ, and from this unstable world to His well-established kingdom. And therefore surely do we pass over to the ever-abiding God, that we may not pass away with this passing world. The apostle, in extolling God for such grace bestowed upon us, says: "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love."

  Tractates on John 55

• Colossians 1:15

  In parents and children there would be found an image and an equality and a likeness if the age difference were lacking. For the child's likeness has been derived from the parent, so that the likeness may rightly be called an image…. In God, however, the conditions of time do not obtain, for God cannot be thought of as having begotten in time the Son through whom he has created the times. Hence it follows that not only is [the Son] his image, because he is from [God], and the likeness, because the image, but also the equality is so great that there is not even a temporal distinction standing in the way between them.

• Colossians 1:15

  For, according to the form of God, He is the beginning, that also speaketh unto us, in which "beginning" God created the heaven and the earth; but according to the form of a servant, "He is a bridegroom coming out of His chamber." According to the form of God, "He is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all things and by Him all things consist;" according to the form of a servant, "He is the head of the body, the Church." According to the form of God, "He is the Lord of glory."

  On the Trinity, Book 1

• Colossians 1:16

  Before Abraham, I am, He Himself said: the Gospel speaks: hear, or read. But it is hardly sufficient, before Abraham creator: before Adam creator, creator before heaven and earth, before all Angels and the whole spiritual creation, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers, before all things creator. Because in the beginning, the Word was not made, but was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him.

  Sermon 290

• Colossians 1:18

  "If the spirit of him," he says, "that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies, because of the spirit that dwells in you." Therefore, the universal church, which is now in the pilgrimage of mortal life, awaits at the end of time what was first shown in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the firstborn from the dead," because the church is his body, of which he is the head. .

• Colossians 1:18

  This is also what is meant when it said, "he emptied himself," because he did not appear to men in that dignity which he had with the Father, but took into account the weakness of those who did not yet have a clean heart whereby they might see the Word in the beginning with the Father. What then do the words "he left the Father" mean? He left [the Father] to appear to men as he is with the Father. He likewise left his mother, that is, the old and carnal observance of the synagogue, which was a mother to him from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he clung to his wife, that is, the church, so that they might be two in one flesh. For the apostle says that he is the head of the church and the church is his body. .

• Colossians 1:18

  For the Resurrection we Christians know already hath come to pass in our Head, and in the members it is to be. The Head of the Church is Christ; the members of Christ are the Church. That which hath preceded in the Head, will follow in the Body. This is our hope; for this we believe, for this we endure and persevere amid so great perverseness of this world, hope comforting us, before that hope becometh reality.

  Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 66

• Colossians 1:22

  Now some of these passages exhort men who are running their course that they run perfectly; others refer to the end thereof, that men may reach forward to it as they run. He, however, is not unreasonably said to walk blamelessly, not who has already reached the end of his journey, but who is pressing on towards the end in a blameless manner, free from damnable sins, and at the same time not neglecting to cleanse by almsgiving such sins as are venial. For the way in which we walk, that is, the road by which we reach perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer. That, however, is a clean prayer in which we say in truth, "Forgive us, as we ourselves forgive." So that, as there is nothing censured when blame is not imputed, we may hold on our course to perfection without censure, in a word, blamelessly; and in this perfect state, when we arrive at it at last, we shall find that there is absolutely nothing which requires cleansing by forgiveness.

  Concerning Man's Perfection in Righteousness

• Colossians 1:24

  Of the same character is what this very apostle said in another place: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." He said not, of my afflictions, but "of Christ's;" for he was a member of Christ, and in his persecutions, such as it behoved Christ to suffer in the whole of His body, he also was filling up his own share of His afflictions.

  Tractates on John 108

• Colossians 1:24

  And hence the same Apostle, even when he was still Saul, heard: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" because the body is joined to the head; and when already the preacher of Christ suffered from others the things which he himself had done as a persecutor: "To make up," he said, "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh," showing that what he suffered pertained to the afflictions of Christ. This cannot be understood concerning the head, which now in heaven suffers nothing of the sort, but concerning the body, that is, the Church, which body with its head is one Christ.

  Sermon 341

• Colossians 2:3

  The fact that He took rest in sleep, and was nourished by food, and experienced all the feelings of humanity, is the evidence to men of the reality of that human nature which He assumed but did not destroy. Behold, this was the fact; and yet some heretics, by a perverted admiration and praise of His Divine nature, have refused altogether to acknowledge the reality of His human nature, in which is the guarantee of all that grace by which He saves those who believe in Him, containing deep treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and imparting faith to the minds which He raises to the eternal contemplation of unchangeable truth. What if the Almighty had created the human nature of Christ not by causing Him to be born of a mother, but by some other way, and had presented Him suddenly to the eyes of mankind? What if the Lord had not passed through the stages of progress from infancy to manhood, and had taken neither food nor sleep? Would not this have confirmed the erroneous impression above referred to, and have made it impossible to believe at all that He had taken to Himself true human nature; and, while leaving what was marvellous, would eliminate the element of mercy from His actions? But now He has so appeared as the Mediator between God and men, that, uniting the two natures in one person, He both exalted what was ordinary by what was extraordinary, and tempered what was extraordinary by what was ordinary in Himself.

  LETTER 137, TO VOLUSIANUS

• Colossians 2:3

  Attend, dearest ones, and see how beneficially the Apostle advises, saying: As therefore you have received Christ Jesus our Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith. For with the same simple and certain faith, we must firmly remain in him, so that he may reveal to the faithful what is hidden in him: because as the same apostle says: In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. These are not hidden to deny, but to excite the desire for the hidden things. This is the utility of the secret. Honor in what you do not yet understand; and honor all the more, the more veils you see. For the more honorable a person is, the more veils hang in his house. The veils create the honor of the secret: but to those who honor, the veils are lifted. To those mocking the veils, they are driven away from the vicinity of the veils. Therefore, because we have passed on to Christ, the veil is removed.

  Sermon 51

• Colossians 2:9

  Speaking of him as our Head, the apostle says: "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporally." He does not say "corporally" because God is corporeal, but he either uses the word in a derived sense as if he dwells in a temple made by hands, not corporally but symbolically, that is, under prefiguring signs … or else the word corporally is certainly used because God dwells, as in his temple, in the body of Christ which he took from the Virgin.

• Colossians 2:11

  For if these passing days gladden us so much, during which we devoutly commemorate the passion and resurrection of Christ, how will the eternal one bless us, where we shall see Him and remain with Him, whom we now rejoice in, longing and hoping for? How great an exultation will He give to His Church, to which, regenerated through Christ, He removes in a way the foreskin of carnal nature, that is, the reproach of birth? Hence it is said: And you, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive with Him, forgiving us all our debts. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Thus, what was hidden in the shadow of the old circumcision is revealed in the baptism of Christ; and this also pertains to that same uncircumcision made without hands, when the covering of carnal ignorance is removed. When you shall have passed on to Christ, he says, the veil is taken away.

  Sermon 229D

• Colossians 2:14

  This is the whole scheme of our salvation, by which the one who as God had made man himself became man, for the sake of finding lost man. This is the whole matter of Christ shedding for the forgiveness of our sins true, not false, blood, and with his blood, "obliterating the bond of our sins." All this these damnable heretics strive to drain of all meaning. All this, so the Manichaeans believe, as it appeared to human eyes, was spirit and not flesh.

• Colossians 2:14

  With good reason do we celebrate the Passover wherein the blood of the Lord was poured out, by which we are cleansed of every offense. Let us be assured; the devil was holding the bond of slavery against us, but it was blotted out by the blood of Christ. .

• Colossians 2:14

  She [i.e., his mother, Monica] did not ask for such things but simply requested that remembrance be made for her at Thy altar, which she had attended without missing a single day. She knew that on it the Holy Victim is offered; by means of which "the decree against us, which was hostile to us" is canceled; by means of which the Enemy, adding up our offenses and seeking something to charge against us, and finding nothing in him in whom we conquer, was overcome. .

• Colossians 2:15

  And where he could do anything, there in every respect he was conquered; and wherein he received outwardly the power of slaying the Lord in the flesh, therein his inward power, by which he held ourselves, was slain. For it was brought to pass that the bonds of many sins in many deaths were loosed, through the one death of One which no sin had preceded. Which death, though not due, the Lord therefore rendered for us, that the death which was due might work us no hurt. For He was not stripped of the flesh by obligation of any authority, but He stripped Himself. For doubtless He who was able not to die, if He would not, did die because He would: and so He made a show of principalities and powers, openly triumphing over them in Himself. For whereas by His death the one and most real sacrifice was offered up for us, whatever fault there was, whence principalities and powers held us fast as of right to pay its penalty, He cleansed, abolished, extinguished; and by His own resurrection He also called us whom He predestinated to a new life; and whom He called, them He justified; and whom He justified, them He glorified.

  On the Trinity 4.13.17

• Colossians 2:16

  Whoever seeks to be a stranger to that carnal … Judaism which is justly repudiated and condemned must first consider as alien to himself those ancient observances which have clearly ceased to be necessary. This is so because the New Testament has been revealed, and the things which were prefigured by those others have come to pass. A person is not to be judged "in meat or drink or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come." On the other hand, he must receive, embrace and observe, without any reserve, those commandments in the law which help to form the character of the faithful … [and] whatever progress he makes in them he must not attribute to himself but to "the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord." .

• Colossians 2:18

  There is another even more obscure passage about which I ask you to pull me up out of deep water and set me in the shallows. In the epistle to the Colossians, I simply cannot see the connection where he says: "Let no man seduce you into taking pleasure in the humility and religion of angels, walking in the things which he has not seen; in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh and not holding the head." What angels does he mean? If he means the rebel and wicked angels, what is their religion or their humility, or who is the master of this seduction, who under cover of some angelic religion or other would teach what he does not see as something seen or experienced? Doubtless, the heretics, who follow the teachings of demons, who think up false systems under the impulse of their spirit, who give out that they have seen visions which they have not seen and by their deadly arguments sow their seed in foolish and credulous hearts—doubtless, these are the ones who do not hold the head, namely, Christ, the source of truth. .

• Colossians 2:20

  As to the words "Touch not, taste not, handle not," they are not to be considered as a commandment of the apostle forbidding us to touch, taste or handle something or other. It is just the opposite, if I am not deluded by the obscurity of the passage. Surely he used these words in mockery of those by whom he did not want his followers to be deceived and led astray. They were the ones who made a distinction of foods according to the worship of angels and issued decrees for this life, saying: "Touch not, taste not, handle not," although "all things are clean to the clean." "For every creature of God is good," as he assures us in another place. .

• Colossians 2:20

  What is so praiseworthy as a show of wisdom, and what so detestable as the superstition of error? Humility, also, both pleasing to God and eminently praiseworthy in true religion, is given with a show of wisdom to those of whose teachings and actions we are told: "Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are unto destruction," because they are not of God, and "all that is not of faith, is sin." … I wish to know what this humility is and this show of wisdom which he says is in their superstition, which comes from the doctrines of men…. I think he is speaking of a pretended and useless abstinence such as heretics usually strive after … because they put on the appearance of a holy work, but, as they do not practice it in the fold of truth, they gain neither honor nor the reward of glory. .

• Colossians 3:1

  Because, if even the inner man certainly is renewed day by day, yet undoubtedly it is old before it is renewed. For that is done inwardly of which the same apostle speaks: "Put off the old man, and put on the new;" which he goes on to explain by saying, "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth." But where is lying put away, unless inwardly, that he who speaketh the truth from his heart may inhabit the holy hill of God? But the resurrection of the body of the Lord is shown to belong to the mystery of our own inner resurrection, where, after He had risen, He says to the woman, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father;" with which mystery the apostle's words agree, where he says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; set your thoughts on things above." For not to touch Christ, unless when He had ascended to the Father, means not to have thoughts of Christ after a fleshly manner.

  On the Trinity 4.3.6

• Colossians 3:3

  For then there will be nothing wanting they can desire, when God will be all in all. An end like that has no end. No one dieth there, where no one arriveth save he that dieth to this world, not that universal kind of death whereby the body is bereft of the soul; but the death of the elect, through which, even while still remaining in this mortal flesh, the heart is set on the things which are above. Of such a death it is that the apostle said, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." And perhaps to this, also, do the words refer, "Love is strong as death." For by this love it is brought about, that, while still held in the present corruptible body, we die to this world, and our life is hid with Christ in God; yea, that love itself is our death to the world, and our life with God. For if that is death when the soul quits the body, how can it be other than death when our love quits the world? Such love, therefore, is strong as death. And what is stronger than that which bindeth the world?

  Tractate 65 on the Gospel of John

• Colossians 3:4

  But what follows he says? When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. So now is the time for sighing, then for rejoicing: now for longing, then for embracing: what we now long for is not present; but let us not falter in longing, let long longing train us, because he who promised does not deceive us. We do not say, brothers, let no one grow cold: let no one even grow lukewarm. And if the lovers of the world mock those serving God: "Behold what we have and what we enjoy: where is your happiness?" You do not have what you see, but you have what you believe: but those do not believe to whom it is not shown; rejoice, because you have believed: you will rejoice more when you see. And if you sigh because you cannot show it now, the sigh of your pain will profit for salvation, but also for eternal glory.

  Sermon 350A

• Colossians 3:5

  Thus, in movements according to the spirit, the soul sometimes opposes other movements of itself according to the flesh. Conversely, in movements according to the flesh, it opposes others which it has according to the spirit, and this is why we say the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh. But this is also why "it is being renewed day by day," for the soul does not fail to make progress in virtue as it gradually diminishes the carnal desires to which it does not consent. It is to those already baptized that the apostle says, "Mortify your members, which are on the earth." .

• Colossians 3:9

  Elsewhere, too, he has even more plainly called it an image, while enforcing the same thing in other words. "Do you," he says, "putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him." Where the one passage reads, "Put ye on the new man, which is created after God," the other has, "Put ye on the new man, which is renewed after the image of Him that created him." In the one place he says, "After God;" in the other, "After the image of Him that created him." But instead of saying, as in the former passages "In righteousness and true holiness," he has put in the latter, "In the knowledge of God." This renewal, then, and forming again of the mind, is wrought either after God, or after the image of God. But it is said to be after God, in order that it may not be supposed to be after another creature; and to be after the image of God, in order that this renewing may be understood to take place in that wherein is the image of God, i.e. in the mind.

  On the Trinity, Book 14

• Colossians 3:18

  For on natural principles it is more feasible for one to have dominion over many, than for many to have dominion over one. Nor can it be doubted, that it is more consonant with the order of nature that men should bear rule over women, than women over men. It is with this principle in view that the apostle says, "The head of the woman is the man;" and, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands." So also the Apostle Peter writes: "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord."

  On Marriage and Concupiscence, Book 1

• Colossians 3:19

  God forbid that a man who possesses faith should, when he hears the apostle bid men "love their wives," love that carnal concupiscence in his wife which he ought not to love even in himself; as he may know, if he listens to the words of another apostle: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is, in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as also God abideth for ever."

  On Marriage and Concupiscence, Book 1

• Colossians 4:2

  The blessed Apostle, when he exhorted us about praying, at the same time also exhorted us about watching: "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same." Unclean love, brothers, compels those it possesses to watch. The shameless one watches to corrupt; the wicked one, to harm; the drunkard, to drink; the robber, to kill; the extravagant one, to squander; the greedy one, to collect; the thief, to steal; the plunderer, to seize. How much more, therefore, should love in the holy and innocent watch, if iniquity extorts watches from the flagitious and criminal? But they are pressed by the deep sleep of the heart, so they are compelled to watch by the flesh. Against this sleep it is cried: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." But in us, this voice has broken the sleep of this world if we have listened and arisen from the dead, of whom it has been said: "Let the dead bury their dead." Meanwhile, let us render the watchfulness of the flesh to celebration; but let us hold perpetual watchfulness of the heart with Christ illuminating. Let us watch with the flesh as much as we can, so that we may pray; and let us pray, so we may come to where we also watch without end with the flesh. For the angels do not sleep, whose equality is promised to us on the day of resurrection, if now love watches in us.

  Sermon 223J

• Colossians 4:3

  This whoso hath held fast, hath made no heresy; this whoso hath held fast, hath made no schism. For whence came schisms? When men say, "we" are righteous, when men say, "we" sanctify the unclean, "we" justify the ungodly; "we" ask, "we" obtain. But what saith John? "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But some man will say: then do the saints not ask for us? Then do bishops and rulers not ask for the people? Yea, but mark the Scriptures, and see that rulers also commend themselves to the prayers of the people. Thus the apostle saith to the congregation, "Praying withal for us also." The apostle prayeth for the people, the people prayeth for the apostle. We pray for you, brethren: but do ye also pray for us. Let all the members pray one for another, let the Head intercede for all.

  Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 1