{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1607","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":5,"verse_to":5},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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.<br/><i>— ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 1.35.39-1.36.40-41</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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.<br/><i>— Confessions 12.18</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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.<br/><i>— ON THE TRINITY 8.4.6</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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.<br/><i>— ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 1.40.44</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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?<br/><i>— ON THE TRINITY 15.23.44-15.24.44</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: 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.\"<br/><i>— LETTERS 130.13.24</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: Ascend the mountain and see the end. Christ is the mountain; come to him, and from there you will see the end of all perfection. What is the end? Ask Paul, \"Now the purpose of this charge is charity, from a pure heart and a pure conscience and faith unfeigned,\" and in another place, \"love is the fulfillment of the law.\" … Therefore, whatever you do, do it for the love of Christ, and let the intention or end of all your actions look to him. Do nothing for the sake of human praise, but everything for love of God and the desire for eternal life.<br/><i>— SERMONS 137.1</i></p><p><b>Ignatius of Antioch</b>: None of these things is hid from you, if ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love. Now these two, being inseparably connected together, are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sinneth; nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit; so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession, but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.<br/><i>— Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Nothing is so injurious to mankind as to undervalue friendship; and not to cultivate it with the greatest care; as nothing, on the other hand, is so beneficial, as to pursue it to the utmost of our power. This Christ has shown, where He says, \"If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father\" (Matt. xviii. 19); and again, \"Because iniquity shall abound, love shall wax cold.\" (Matt. xxiv. 12.) It is this that has been the occasion of all heresies. For men, because they loved not their brethren, have envied those who were in high repute, and from envying, they have become eager for power, and from a love of power have introduced heresies. On this account Paul having said, \"that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,\" now shows that the manner in which this may be effected is by charity. As therefore when he says, \"Christ is the end of the Law\" (Rom. x. 4), that is, its fulfillment, and this is connected with the former, so this a commandment implied in love. The end of medicine is health, but where there is health, there is no need to make much ado; so where there is love, there is no need of much commanding. But what sort of love does he speak of? That which is sincere, which is not merely in words but which flows from the disposition, from sentiment, and sympathy. \"From a pure heart,\" he says, either with respect to a right conversation, or sincere affection. For an impure life too produces divisions. \"For every one that doeth evil, hateth the light.\" (John iii. 20.) There is indeed a friendship even among the wicked. Robbers and murderers may love one another, but this is not \"from a good conscience,\" not \"from a pure\" but from an impure \"heart,\" not from \"faith unfeigned,\" but from that which is false and hypocritical. For faith points out the truth, and a sincere faith produces love, which he who truly believes in God cannot endure to lay aside.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 2</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: The goal of the command is love from a pure heart and of a good conscience and sincere faith.</p><p>For since this was the case, the practice of teaching others also ceased. How so? Because from not loving, envy entered some against the teachers due to their desire to be teachers themselves. Therefore, the practice of teaching others ceased.</p><p>For he says, from a pure heart. For it is also possible to love from an impure heart, like the friendships of thieves toward thieves. From a pure heart, as well as perfect love, he says, you yourself command. Indeed, those things which are the chief parts of speeches, are repeated at the beginning and at the end by those who give commands, because these are easier to remember.</p><p>and of a good conscience. I do not seek, Paul said, that which is extended merely to words, which can also be in hypocrisy, but that which proceeds from the heart, and is pure in that way: which comes from conscience and from the thought that arises from it, which alone has no hypocrisy. For who would be the one to deceive himself, or try to conceal it?<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"41a0b80394165ff6db41ab9bf94c96b42a4f6d3ccad6895c2580045cc001d33c","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1607,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e6e5fdce7963eff5be430c3029f52b681b862baf57c195b55649ae090c051abb","translator":null,"work":null}