For it is said to Paul by the Macedonian, Come, help us. Governments, kinds of tongues. Those who know how to govern individuals. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of powers? Have all the grace of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? That which he said above, If all were one member, where would be the body? But earnestly desire. Strive to imitate. The charisms. These gifts are of graces, not of merits, because what is given is not placed in our power, nor is it required of us. Unlike a good life, which we ought to exhibit with God's help. The better ones. Because these too are good. And yet more excellent.
Just as the public highway is loftier than the other ways and paths, so also charity is the direct way by which one journeys to the heavenly metropolis. If anyone has the other virtues, unless he enters upon this way—that is, unless he has charity, which is the more excellent way—he will not be able to enter the city of the Lord. I show you a way. By which you may journey to God, that is, charity. He wishes to show that we ought to seek those things which profit unto life, rather than signs. Chapter XIII. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity. Not only of men, but even if there be any of angels. I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
Which of itself gives back only a sound at another's impulse, a sound that profits neither itself nor another. But charity possesses every fruit. And if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries. Here prophecy is to foretell things future; mysteries pertain to wisdom; but knowledge is to know all things that have been and are. And all knowledge. It is no wonder if charity is preferred to knowledge, since even prophecy and martyrdom are said to be nothing without it. And if I should have all faith, so as to remove mountains. The Savior says that faith like a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains;
but here the Apostle says it to be 'all faith' which can remove mountains—whence it is understood that faith which is compared to a grain of mustard seed is perfect; and this was added not on account of its smallness, but on account of its integrity and fervor. But if I have not charity, I am nothing. What will it profit me to have the powers of foreknowledge, if I have not the works of charity? For it is said to me: Depart from me, worker of iniquity. And if I distribute all my goods to feed the poor. It is to be noted that contempt of the world is joined to martyrdom, against those who excuse that Gospel passage with various arguments. And if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.
If it be done not for the sake of God but for the sake of human glory, or if in that very martyrdom one holds anger against a brother, despising God who said, Forget the malice of your neighbor: charity does not arise from martyrdom, but martyrdom is born of charity. Charity. Now he describes the members and the kinds of charity: Charity is of God—nay, God Himself is charity—and therefore it consists of so great virtues. It is patient, it is kind. Parents, because they love their children, patiently bear all the injuries of their little ones. Charity does not envy. No one envies him whom he truly loves, of whatever glory or honor he sees him possessed, but gladly embraces all his happiness as though it were his own. It does not deal wrongly. It does all things according to order. It is not puffed up;
it is not ambitious. For it does not aim to be greater than others, nor desires to lord it over the brethren. It seeks not the things that are its own. It seeks not what is useful to itself, but what is useful to many. It is not provoked, it thinks no evil. So that not only does it not think to do evil to friends, but neither to return evil for evil to enemies. It rejoices not over iniquity, but rejoices together with the truth. It is grieved if it beholds anyone to have either done or suffered iniquity. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. It bears injuries, believes him who makes satisfaction, hopes for amendment, waits until you correct yourself. It endures all things; charity never fails; whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease.
That is, charity alone remains in the future—or rather, that which is true is not changed nor fails, because it does all things with a good mind. Or knowledge shall be destroyed. Without charity, knowledge puffs up, and therefore is destroyed. For with charity it builds up. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. We do not know all things, nor prophesy all things. But when that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away. In the future, that which is promised—that is, that it may no longer be in part, but wholly; because for faith and hope the thing itself succeeds, not that which is believed and hoped, but that which is seen and held; but charity, which is the greater of these three, is not taken away, but increased, and made full.
having attained by contemplation that which it believed and looked for; in which fullness of charity that commandment shall be fulfilled: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart. For as long as there is still some carnal concupiscence, which is bridled only by restraint, God is not loved with the whole soul. When I was a little child, I spoke as a little child, I understood as a little child, I thought as a little child. By the example of carnal growth he wishes to show spiritual progress. When I became a man, I did away with the things of a child. He shows how those things are done away which he mentioned above. We see now. Like little children, who cannot with the most serene keenness of heart perfectly behold the light of truth. Through a mirror, in an enigma.
Through the mirror of the law we see as it were an image of things. But then face to face. Now I know in part. He speaks of things present, or clearly. But then I shall know, even as I have been known. I shall then know God, and the things which are of God. Yet only insofar as the human mind can know of God: for who can know God as He is? But now these three remain: faith, hope, charity; but the greater of these is charity. In the present three, in the future the charity of God alone, and of the angels, and of all the saints. Greater therefore is that which is always needful than that which shall someday cease. For everything which we hope for we also believe; not everything which we believe do we also hope for. Chapter XIV.
Follow after charity. With every effort follow after and hold fast that same charity, which is poured out through the Holy Spirit. Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy; for he who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. I do not forbid you to desire and seek the spiritual gifts, but rather I exhort you to prophesy—that is, to expound—so that others also may be edified. For no one hears. No one understands but God, and anyone who has the interpretation. But the Spirit speaks mysteries. Through the grace of the Spirit. For he who prophesies speaks to men unto edification, exhortation, and consolation. He has expounded the prophecy of which he spoke; whoever therefore does this, prophesies. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. Himself alone.
But he who prophesies edifies the Church of God. All. I wish that you all spoke with tongues, but rather that you prophesied. This I do not forbid, that I exhort; this I wish, that I prefer. For greater is he who prophesies. He is greater, because he seeks this gift by which many profit, since this too is a work of charity, than he who speaks with tongues. Which they thought the greatest thing. Unless perhaps he interpret, that the Church may receive edification. If he have both, then he shall be made equal to him who prophesies. But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues. By his own example he dissuades them from seeking as a great thing that which does not profit the Church. What shall it profit you? There will be for you only wonder, not progress. Unless I speak to you either in revelation.
Then shall I profit you, if I interpret, or speak plainly, or expound prophecies, or teach morals. Or knowledge. That is, the spiritual sense, that is, discernment—what we ought to do, and how to correct our ways. By knowledge we can understand to relate well things that have been done. Or prophecy. Through allegory, prophecy—that is, anagogy—that is, when discourse is transferred to invisible and future things, as is that which announces concerning the resurrection of the dead. In this place he calls prophecy chiefly exposition. Or in doctrine. Simple historical narration. Yet even things which are without soul, giving a voice, whether the flute or the harp, unless they give a distinction by their sound.
Since these lifeless things, unless they have a distinction, will not be pleasing, and will be rejected as empty and superfluous, how much more you, whose spiritual sweetness ought not to soothe the ears but the mind? How shall it be known what is sung or played on the harp? It shall be understood. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle? So also you, through the tongue, unless you give a plain word, how shall it be known what is said? The trumpet's sound has been uncertain: whether it be for a solemnity or for war, no one distinguishes. So then your discourse ought to be understood, that it may be able to prepare the soldiers of Christ for the spiritual battle. For you will be speaking into the air. There are so many, for example, kinds of tongues in this world.
Even if you speak as many as there are kinds of tongues, what will it profit, when all are dissolved in the air and profit no one? And nothing is without a voice. Nothing is without the voice of tongues. If therefore I know not the power of the voice, I shall be to him to whom I speak a barbarian, and he who speaks to me a barbarian. Every discourse which is not understood is barbarous to the hearer. So also you, since you are emulators of spirits. As I said of myself. For the edification of the Church, seek that you may abound. As you pursue spiritual gifts. And therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. Let him pray that he may merit also the grace of interpreting, or else he ought so to speak that he may interpret. For if I say in a tongue what I do not understand, I speak as though inspired by the Spirit, in ecstasy.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays. In this place 'spirit' is to be understood as speech, which sometimes prays while the mind is thinking of other things. Whence the prophet: My heart has forsaken me. But my mind is without fruit. Because I do not understand what I say through the spirit. What then is it? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the mind: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing also with the mind. For he who interprets must first himself understand what he is about to say to others. But if you bless with the spirit. Everything is blessed which is said truly and according to God. Who supplies the place of the unlearned? Who fills up the soundness of knowledge in the heart of the unlearned? How does he say Amen to your blessing? When he knows not what you say, who, in place of the unlearned—that is, the ignorant—answers Amen.
For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified. Because you have blessed. I give thanks to God that I speak with the tongue of you all. Do not suppose that I too do not have this grace, and therefore forbid you. But in the Church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. But I prefer to speak a few words unto profit than many which profit no one. Some ask why five words: they are on the contrary to be questioned about the ten thousand. Brethren, do not become children in your understanding, but in malice be little children, and in your understanding be perfect. In the law it is written: For in other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people, and not even so will they hear Me, says the Lord.
At the same time he shows that no one is perfect in understanding except him who is a little child in malice, because wisdom will not enter into a malevolent soul. In malice be little children, not in understanding; for you ought to know how long tongues shall endure, and why they were given. And so tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers. It is shown that as faith grows, the signs cease which were given on account of unbelievers. But prophecies are not for unbelievers, but for believers. Greater therefore and more useful is that which profits believers, and which is always necessary. If therefore the whole Church come together into one, and all speak with tongues. That is, if it could come to pass that, because you all wish this, it were granted to you. But there enter the unlearned or unbelievers.
Those newly come to faith, or the ignorant, the less instructed. Will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and there comes in one who is an unbeliever or an untaught man, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all — just as the Jews said, 'These men are full of new wine.' The secrets of his heart are made manifest, when his conscience is struck by the teaching. And so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is indeed among you. So Nebuchadnezzar worshipped Daniel, saying, 'Your God is truly the very God,' after he had heard his dream and its interpretation. What is it then, brethren? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, an understanding. He has a revelation, he has a tongue, he has an interpretation.
The revelation of mysteries. Let all things be done unto edification. Let there be nothing among you that does not edify one another. If any speak in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three (according to the Greeks); and that in turn, and let one interpret — whether the two themselves speak in turns, not together, or whether one interprets in turns. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church — either that man himself, or another; but let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the rest judge. Let his own conscience and God bear witness that he has this grace. But if anything be revealed to another that sits by, let the first hold his peace; for you may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be exhorted — he who spoke first, or he who is first in honor.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; for God is not the author of dissension, but of peace. Whether the grace of the Spirit consents to another prophet, or the spirit of humility and charity ought to be in the prophets: because God is not of pride and dissension, who dwells not in such, but of peace, for the things they prophesy are known to them. As I teach in all the churches of the saints. It is so in all the churches, lest you think I am laying upon you some new command. Let the women keep silence in the churches. Because it is against the order of nature and of the law that women should speak in an assembly of men; for it is not permitted them to speak. How then does he elsewhere say that they ought well to teach prudence, so that they may lead a life of prudence and chastity;
but that is in respect of their sex, and at the same time, while he shows the place where they are to keep silence, elsewhere he permitted them to speak. But let them be subject, as also the law says. Because the man was made first, and Sarah called Abraham lord. But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church. Or did the word of God go forth from you, or did it come to you only? If any man think himself a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. Lest he should seem also to have forbidden them to learn, he shows that they ought to learn at home, but in the church all are to keep silence. It is to be noted that men too ought to be so learned that they can teach their own wives and instruct them in the truth of the faith.
But if any man be ignorant, he shall be held ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, be zealous to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues; but let all things be done honestly and according to order among you. When the Apostle was urging that all things be done honestly and according to order, he said: If any man think himself to have prophesied or to be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, he shall be held ignorant. That is, if any man seem to be something and yet is not; for he who truly is knows this without doubt, and has no need of admonition and correction, because he judges all things and is judged by no one. It was therefore those who seemed to be what they were not that made seditions and disturbances in the church:
these he teaches to acknowledge that it is the commandment of the Lord, because God is not the author of sedition, but of peace. But if any man be ignorant, he shall be held ignorant — that is, he shall be disapproved; for if you refer it to knowledge, God is not ignorant of those to whom He is to say, 'I never knew you'; rather, their disapproval is implied by this word: 'Amen I say to you, I know you not.' And therefore we ought to give diligence, that we may be furnished by the gift of God with charity. CHAPTER XV. Now I make known unto you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you. Among other things, certain of the Corinthians dared even to deny the resurrection of the flesh, whom the Apostle refutes. Which also you have received — lest he should seem to have preached only to those who did not believe. Wherein also you stand — in whose teaching you stand. By which also you are saved.
By which also you are saved — if indeed you believe with faith and fulfill it in deed; or because even in the present many are saved from many infirmities. By what reasoning I preached to you, if you hold it fast, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He gathers into a summary the things he had preached to them, and recalls them to memory. And that He was seen of Cephas — not that He appeared to him first, but that He manifested Himself to him at the third appearance. And after that of the eleven — on the very day of the resurrection, in the evening, when Thomas was absent.
Then He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom many remain until now — through whom you can, if you will, know the things I say. But some have fallen asleep — in the Lord. Then He was seen by James; then by all the apostles. And last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. He is called 'born out of due time' who is born before his time, or who is brought forth alive from a dead mother. He calls himself one born out of due time, who believed outside the time of the Lord's own preaching. He was seen by me also — when he was going to Damascus. For I am the least of the apostles — not in labor, for I labored more than all; but in order — who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. The whole substance of our preaching is this, that you should believe the resurrection;
for this is the reward of those who serve Christ; otherwise all the labor of fastings and tribulations is superfluous, which in this life, whether in prosperity or adversity, may seem to be shared in common with unbelievers — as they are wont to put to us, asking what more we have than they. And truly, if we hope for no reward of these labors in the other life, we are worse off than they. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me has not been void. But I have labored more abundantly than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me. That is, the grace of God gave me life and restored me, and after this I labored with the grace of God, and it was not void in me. And because he had said:
'I have labored more abundantly than all of them,' lest he should seem to ascribe anything to himself, he immediately added: 'Yet not I, but the grace of God with me' — because God works in us, and Himself inspires us to labor, and Himself helps those who labor, and Himself completes the good work: for from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things. As he also says elsewhere: 'He who has begun a good work in you will Himself perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.' And He Himself says: 'Without Me you can do nothing.' For blessed Jerome too, in his Apology to Pammachius, cites this testimony thus: 'Yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me.' For whether it were I, or whether it were they, so we preached, and so you believed.
But if Christ is preached that He rose from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ risen. And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith also is vain. And we are found even to be false witnesses of God, because we have testified against God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise, if the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen; and if Christ has not risen, your faith also is vain, for you are yet in your sins. Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. For he burdened none of those to whom he preached the Gospel, but earned his own living with his own hands — wherein is the more fulfilled what he said: 'I have labored more than all of them'; and he adds: 'Yet not I, but the grace of God with me' — so that this too may appear to be reckoned to the grace of God, that both in mind and body he was able to labor so far beyond them all, that he neither ceased from preaching the Gospel, nor yet sustained this life from the Gospel. But now Christ has risen from the dead — which has already been proved — the firstfruits of them that sleep.
If the Head has risen, it is necessary that the other members also follow, because He rose first in incorruption. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. As through Adam death entered, because he was the first to die, so also through Christ the resurrection, because He was the first to rise: as he was the pattern of those who die, so is this One the pattern of those who rise. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. That which dies, this rises again. It is not called 'to rise again' except that which has fallen. For neither is the soul mortal, although it be dead through sin; nor did it lie in its own substance, because it is incorporeal. But of the body one might rather say it 'rises' than 'rises again.'
But each one in his own order — of time or of honor. The firstfruits, Christ. As he said above: The firstfruits of them that sleep. Afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming. Not now, but at His coming shall they rise. Then the end. When there shall be the resurrection of all, then shall be the end of death. When He shall have delivered up. The Arians slander, saying: If the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Father, then after He has delivered up the kingdom He will cease to reign. To whom it must be answered: If the Son will not reign because He is to deliver up the kingdom to the Father, then neither does the Father reign before it is delivered up to Him by the Son. But if the Father did not then first begin to reign, though He then receives it, so neither will the Son lose it, though He delivers up the kingdom.
Again they allege that He will be subject to the Father — that those men are impious who even now deny that He is subject to the Father in His own body. But subjection does not always pertain to diminishment. For the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, that God may be not of dissension, but of peace. The kingdom. But the delivering up of the kingdom is our advancement, when we have deserved to be wholly of the Son within the Father's kingdom, when He shall have led His elect, made incorruptible, to that contemplation of which blessed John says: 'We shall see Him as He is.' It must be held first of all that in this passage the Apostle treats not of the Trinity, but of the resurrection, which he confirms by the example of the Lord, that is, of the man assumed. The kingdom.
The kingdom of God is indeed by nature over all things which He Himself has established; but God is then properly said to reign, when men have become subject to Him by their will, just as they subjected themselves of their own accord to the kingdom of the devil. To God and the Father. To God according to His humanity, to the Father according to His divinity: and therefore he says, to God and the Father. When He shall have made void every. Emptying it of sins, their kingdom shall be made void by us. Principality — because we followed them, doing their will. And power — because they had dominion over us. And might — because our enemies were conquering for themselves. But He must reign. He put 'to reign' for 'to judge.' Until He shall put all His enemies under His feet — when some shall be subject by will, others by necessity. But the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
For there will be nothing else to be destroyed afterward, when this mortal shall have put on immortality. Death. In the Apocalypse sin too is called death, because it is the author of death. For He has put all things under His feet. David says this of man. But when He says, all things are subject to Him. Because of the slander — without doubt, except Him who put all things under Him. God, who was in the world itself, reconciling it to Himself. Or else understand it of the Father, who assumed no created condition by which He ought to be subject. But when all things shall be subjected to Him. When both the good and the evil shall be subjected. Then shall the Son Himself also be subject to Him who put all things under Him. Concerning this subjection some say, as He hungers in the hungry, or is fed in His subjects:
that is, He is subjected in His own body, or that human nature itself in thanksgiving ought to be subject to that divinity which, now made one with itself, has subjected all things to Him. Otherwise: In the judgment He must again appear in the form of lowliness; but after the judgment He is now so subject — that is, the man so joined and wholly united to God — that there appears nothing but the divinity, as His own word declares: That God may be all in all. It is to be understood 'in due times'; or else because as yet not so now, because His body is still resisted, while we do not do the things we would, since the flesh still lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. That God may be in all. Wholly ruling in all:
for as yet He is not all in all, because each of the saints has diverse virtues of His in himself. But then one man shall have all things, and He Himself shall be all in all. Let us likewise see what the holy bishop Augustine held (Augustine, in the book On Diverse Questions, question 66): Then shall the Son Himself also be subject to Him who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all. It is rightly asked in this place whether the Apostle said it according to the properties of the persons, or according to the assumption of the man. The surrounding context of Scripture is wont to illuminate the meaning, when the things that lie around the Scripture bearing upon the present question are handled by diligent discussion.