For to think otherwise than is perfect may be called human temptation; and the strife of the flesh may be called human temptation, while the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. 'But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able.' Stand firm, and he will grant you strength to endure. 'But will with the temptation also make a way out, that you may be able to bear it.' He will bring to pass for you that which you shall be able to bear, or a gain of the soul from the very tribulation. 'Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from the worship of idols. I speak as to wise men; judge you what I say.' Wherefore you ought not to do this even unwillingly. 'The cup of blessing which we bless.'
He named the cup first, because afterward he was going to dispute more about the bread. 'Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?' As the Savior said: 'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.' 'And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?' So also the bread of idols is the partaking of demons. 'Since there is one bread, we, being many, are one body, all who partake of the one bread.' So also, if we eat of the same bread from which the idolaters eat, we are made one body with them. 'Behold Israel according to the flesh.' Carnal Israel offers carnal victims, spiritual Israel spiritual ones; and as the former are partakers of the altar of God, so this one of the altar of idols.
'Are not those who eat the victims partakers of the altar? What then do I say? That what is offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?' Lest it be answered to him thus: You speak as though an idol has something, or some malice, though it is without soul. 'But the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I would not that you should be made partakers of demons.' There are demons who pollute these things, who preside over the images, to seduce men. 'You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.' You cannot both be companions with God and with demons, since you wish to be partakers of both tables. 'Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?' As elsewhere: 'They are jealous over you, but not well.' 'Are we stronger than he?'
'All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient.' He who did not do these things, if he had known that faith is thereby proved stronger, would himself also have done it, that in this too he might give us an example. 'All things are lawful to me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's.' Everything expedient is lawful, though not everything lawful is expedient. But we, by the example of Christ, ought to consider not what is lawful, but what is expedient for us and edifies others, so that we may not seek the things that profit us alone, and either do not profit or harm another: things which are not forbidden, because in themselves they have no sin, but have occasion of sin. 'Whatever is sold in the market, eat.' As to what he said, 'It is good not to eat flesh and not to drink wine'; and again:
'I will never eat flesh'—how then does he command that all things are to be eaten? But he rather permits the eating of flesh, only that they should not eat things offered to idols. 'Asking no questions for conscience' sake. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.' If they asked questions, they were recognized as being Christians, and out of mockery people told them that everything had been offered to idols. 'If any of the unbelievers invites you to supper, and you are willing to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for conscience' sake. But if anyone says, This has been offered to idols, do not eat, for the sake of him who told you, and for conscience' sake.' And this he left to their own will: he did not say, Go.
For then a Christian ought to go to an unbeliever, if he may have some advantage—that is, if he knows he can gain him: as the Savior went for this reason, that he might either perform miracles or rebuke. Thus, when he went to a certain Pharisee, and while they were dining, first he taught him not to feed the rich but the weak. Then he taught the Pharisees to keep humility even at a meal. Thirdly he reproved the lawyers, who claimed something more for themselves, and neither rebuked pride themselves nor allowed others. 'But conscience, I say, not your own, but the other's.' Lest they should say, How is it that they avoid eating as though it were evil, and these eat as though it were holy and clean? 'For why is my liberty judged by another's conscience?'
'Since it profits me nothing.' If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I blasphemed for that for which I give thanks? All things are clean which are received with thanksgiving, but he does not understand this, and judges me as though I pretend to say that it is evil to eat things offered to idols. 'Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God.' Nothing else is to be done by a Christian than that in his every work God may be glorified, nothing superfluous. 'Be without offense to the Jews, and to the Gentiles, and to the Church of God.' To all these it was an offense. The Jews said: Christians have gone into such madness that they sacrifice to idols; the Gentiles said: How do they forbid us from idols, while they themselves serve idols with us?
But Christians, thinking it lawful, followed the example. 'As I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is useful to myself, but what is useful to many, that they may be saved.' I so conduct myself that I may please. But if anyone hates me without cause, let him know it is not my fault. CHAPTER XI. 'Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.' Christ did or suffered nothing for his own sake, but for the salvation of all. So too Paul, who seeks not what is useful to himself, but what is useful to many. 'Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me.' What was it, that he suddenly praises those whom he had before rebuked? Where he has not the authority of law, he provokes them to reason by flatteries. 'And as I delivered to you, you hold my precepts.'
Thus as a law, since you know that I have the Spirit of God, who spoke in the law and the prophets. 'But I would have you know.' This too I would have you hold. 'That the head of every man is Christ.' No man is subject to any man save to Christ, who is both man and God. 'But the head of the woman is the man.' The woman ought to be subject both to the man and to Christ, according to the order of nature; though in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, yet he willed them to be subject. 'And the head of Christ is God.' Of Christ according to his humanity, whence also he received the name. For as to his name in his deity, according to Solomon, who can know it?—who says, 'What is his name, or what is the name of his son?' 'Every man praying or prophesying with his head veiled dishonors his head.'
'But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head; for it is one and the same as if she were shaved. For if a woman is not veiled, let her be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her veil her head. The man indeed ought not to veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.' He comes to the matter, because both certain men wore long hair and women went about with bare head in church, and gloried in their own hair; which was not only unseemly but also a scandal. Therefore the man, he says, ought not to have a veil, who has Christ alone as head. But the woman ought to have a veil, which shows her to be humble and subject to the man.
He notes the custom of the Corinthians, that their women had uncovered heads, and the men wore long hair, and ate indiscriminately in the temples, and, puffed up with worldly wisdom, denied the resurrection of the flesh. 'For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Therefore the woman ought to have power over her head. On account of the angels.' Understand as angels the priests and ministers of the altar, or all the clergy who announce the precepts of God. For 'angel' is a name of office, not of nature. 'Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord.' Because Christ gave himself for all.
'For as the woman is of the man, so also is the man by the woman; but all things are of God. Judge for yourselves: is it fitting for a woman to pray to God unveiled? Does not even nature itself teach you, that if a man nourishes long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but if a woman nourishes long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given her for a covering.' As the first woman was from Adam, so Christ is from the Virgin. 'But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Church of God. Now this I command, not praising, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.' That is, we have said the things that seemed to us honorable and just.
But if anyone, unwilling to acquiesce in the truth, seeks what he may answer, and on what he may rely, let him on the contrary know that he is not worthy of a reply, because he is more ready to contend than to be taught. 'For first, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.' Contentions. 'For there must be heresies, that they also who are approved may be made manifest among you.' Not that heresies please God, but that through them the faithful, being exercised, may—as they are known to God—so also be made manifest to men, and become more clearly known. For whence will the skill of an advocate appear, if he pleads no case in which he may be tested? Whence will the shipmaster or pilot be praised, if the ship always remains in port or in calm?
When you assemble together, it is now no longer to eat the Lord's Supper. For each one takes his own supper to eat beforehand; and one indeed is hungry, while another is drunken. Have you not houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the Church of God, and put to shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not. Among the Corinthians in former times, as some assert, a perverse custom had taken hold: to dishonor the churches here and there with banquets, at which they feasted before the Lord's oblation, which supper they used to offer by night; and when the rich came drunk to the Eucharist, the poor were tormented by hunger. This practice, they report, still came from pagan superstition;
whence also in certain places throughout the regions of Egypt or of Syria, it is said that on the sabbath night, after supper, they gather at the church. For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus. From this point, as though he had forgotten, he calls to mind how great a sacrament of this mystery He commanded. On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread. He left us the last commemoration or remembrance of Himself. And giving thanks, He broke it, and said—blessing it—This is My body, which shall be delivered up for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In like manner also the cup, after He had supped, saying: He who eats, He says, My body and drinks My blood, abides in Me, and I in him. Therefore with Him we have died to the world in baptism, as the Apostle says.
You have died with Christ, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. Seek therefore no glory or joy here, where you are dead. This cup is the New Testament. For the old one foreshadowed this through the blood of animals. In My blood. Do this. A testament is ratified through blood, because without a death it is not firm. As often as you shall drink, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup. God the Savior gave an example, that as often as we do this, we may hold in mind that Christ died for us all.
For this reason it is called to us the body of Christ, that when we have remembered this, we may not be ungrateful for His grace—just as if a dying man should leave to one whom he loves some pledge, which that man, after his death, whenever he sees it, can he hold back his tears, if he had loved him perfectly? You shall proclaim the Lord's death until He come. In your hearts, when you hear, the body of Christ. And so whoever shall eat this bread, or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily. Every clean person shall eat the flesh, but the soul that shall eat while unclean shall be cut off. If there you shall remember that your brother has anything against you, leave there your gift. And Jeremiah: Shall vows and flesh take away your wickedness from you?
First the whole conscience must be searched, whether it reproaches us in nothing; and thus one must either offer or communicate. He shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. As though he himself had slain Him, because he despises Him and holds His body as nothing, just as the Jews did. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the cup. If a thing cannot be placed in a soiled cloth or in a filthy vessel, and no one dares it, how much more ought it not be received with a defiled heart?—which uncleanness God abhors above all things, and which alone is an injury done to His body. For even Joseph, that just man, wrapped the Lord's body in a clean linen shroud and buried it in a new tomb.
For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself. He who approaches unworthily is doubly guilty—both for the sin and for the usurpation. Not discerning the body of the Lord. If he receives it as common food. Therefore among you many are weak and feeble, and many sleep. Bodily infirmities come from three causes: either from testing, as with Job and Tobias; or from sin, as with Jehoshaphat, whom the Apostle here reproves in the present case; or from negligence or some intemperance, as with Timothy, and those who are commanded to honor the physician—for this cause alone can human medicine avail, and from this very negligence or other mishap men can also die, as it is written:
The just man, by whatever death he shall be overtaken; and again, Be not too harsh, lest you die before your time. Which, although it does not happen without God's permission, yet does not happen by His command, but comes to pass by His just judgment. There was a present correction, and there is one now, but we do not understand it, and we suppose that to be of custom which is of fault, because many suffer this. But if we would judge ourselves, we should surely not be judged, if we would acknowledge ourselves. But while we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world. Correction is of fatherly love, that we may do penance, lest we be condemned forever with the faithless of the world. And so, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.
Because whoever came first, it was offered to him, and he ate and departed. That you may not come together unto judgment. They were coming together in judgment, not in sanctification. The rest, when I come, I will set in order. Concerning the mysteries themselves. Chapter XII. Now concerning spiritual things. As faith grew, the grace of tongues was diminishing, which they had received on account of unbelievers; hence very many, saddened, began to envy those who still had this grace, thinking it to be greater than all the charisms. I would not have you ignorant, brethren. And you know that when you were Gentiles. I would not have you ignorant of the reason. To dumb idols. According to the prophet who says, Let those become like them who make them, and all who trust in them, which are voiceless and insensible things.
As you were led, going away. By the magicians or soothsayers of idols. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says Anathema to Jesus. Therefore, that you may no longer be irrational and unstable: for with religion you ought both to change your ways and to know the reason of your faith. And no one can say, The Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit. How then shall the Lord not recognize the workers of iniquity? For although they have confessed the Lord, the Apostle himself affirms that God is denied by deeds:
that is, no one in the Holy Spirit can say the Lord, except he who confesses Him wholly and faithfully to be God-man, and according to each substance—both equal to the Father and less than the Father. Now there are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit. That is, of tongues, or of the various things which the Holy Spirit distributes by His own will, as being truly God. And there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord. Although he speaks properly against Macedonius, who denies the Holy Spirit to be God: for by always saying 'the same,' he shows that he says all things of the Holy Spirit.
yet it is no small argument also against the Arians, who always slander on this point, that the Father is named first, the Son second, the Holy Spirit third. But here he has altered this order. Now he wishes here to show that the grace of the divine Spirit—not that He Himself is divided—that is, He bestows the gifts of the ministries of the Church's teaching and of the rest. And there are divisions of operations, but the same God, who works all in all. By which the powers were wrought. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit. Whether of believers or of unbelievers, that they may believe. To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom.
That he may appear to have the Holy Spirit, who receives wisdom from God, since he will speak without his own labor and forethought, and no one will be able to resist him, as with Stephen. Wisdom is to speak wisely and fittingly and reasonably, and to be able to discourse and teach what one knows. Wisdom can be understood as knowing divine things, knowledge as human things. Again, otherwise: they are commonly distinguished by men probably thus, that wisdom pertains to the understanding of eternal things, but knowledge to those things which we experience by the senses of the heart. But even so, God's knowledge is not of the same kind as that which is called men's; just as that very thing which is called God is far other than the way in which men are called gods:
just as also when we say 'the wrath of God,' though no disturbance falls upon God: whence in the books against the Academics, addressed to Romanianus (Augustine, Book I against the Academics): For you do not now for the first time hear that wisdom is the knowledge of things human and divine. Likewise after other matters: Or when the knowledge of human affairs is spoken of, that is meant by which each one knows either how many or what kind of estates we have, or how much gold, how much silver; but that is the knowledge of human affairs which knows the light of prudence, the beauty of temperance, the strength of fortitude, the holiness of justice. For these are the things which, fearing no fortune, we dare truly to call our own; and if that Albicerius had learned these, never, believe me, would he have lived so luxuriously and disgracefully.
But to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. Knowledge is of the mysteries of the law, or to know things past and to form judgments about things future. Wisdom seems to me to be not only the knowledge, but also the diligent inquiry, of things human and divine which pertain to the blessed life (from the same book, a little later). If you would divide this description, the first part, which holds knowledge, is God's; but this which holds inquiry is content to be man's. By the former therefore God is, but by the latter man is blessed. Wisdom can be understood as knowing divine things; knowledge, however, human things, or to recall history and to narrate past things well. Again, otherwise: Wisdom pertains to the understanding of eternal things;
but knowledge to those things which we seek by the senses of the body. Such wisdom pertains to the blessed life. To another faith in the same Spirit; to another the grace of healings in the one Spirit. As a grain of mustard seed; or he put the thing for the effect. Here faith is not only for believing, but even for wonders, so that fire might fall. To another the working of powers. It is a power to raise the dead, to cleanse lepers. To another prophecy. To foretell things future, or to expound things obscure. To another the discerning of spirits. Of what sort each one comes in spirit, or what spirit suggests that something be done, whether a good one or a hostile one. To another kinds of tongues. It is to be noted that among the other gifts he mentions kinds of tongues. To another kinds of tongues, that he may know how to speak with tongues.
To another the interpretation of words. One could interpret what another was speaking. But all these one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as He wills. He shows that above he had said everything about the Holy Spirit alone, and that he had proclaimed Him God and Lord. But also when he says 'as He wills,' he thus too demonstrates Him to be God, who works not under command but of His own will, who divides as He wills and is subject to no one. If therefore one Spirit works all things, why are you saddened that you have received another grace, and why do you envy another, as though he had seized the greater part, when this lies not in our power but in the power of the Giver?
For just as the body is one and has many members; but all the members of the body, though they are many, are yet one body. He uses the comparison of the body to show that the offices are diverse, not the nature of the members, and that no one ought to care of what office he is, so long as all are animated by one Spirit and are fitted together in one body. So also is Christ. It is to be noted that the Church is called Christ, that is, the body of Christ. For in one Spirit we all were baptized into one body. That we might be one body. Those therefore whose spiritual things are in common—their carnal things also ought to be in common, according to His judgment; for those whose God is one, and the same their Father, unless their possession also be in common, are impious.
Whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. He bestowed, as it were, a draught according to each one's capacity, as much as He willed. For the body also. He returns to the example. Is not one member, but many. The whole body therefore cannot have one office, but each member that to which it is fitted. If the foot should say. The feet can be called the Church of those who walk to intercede, or who preach the Gospel. Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body—is it therefore not of the body? The hand is he who works useful things in the body. For they were saying they were not of the body, because they did not have this grace which others had. And if the ear should say.
The wise hearer is the ear—the understanding of Scripture, which among other things was taken away from Judea. Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body—is it therefore not of the body? The eye is he who understands either things future, which he speaks, or things present. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If all were teachers, where the hearers? If the whole were hearing, where the smelling? If all were hearers, who would know how to discern good or evil? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body. As in the body the members are aptly and orderly constituted, so also in the Church each one is ordained by God to that for which he is fit. If all had one grace, where would the rest be? As He willed. But if all were one member, where would be the body?
But now there are many members, yet one body. The will of God is both good and just and holy, and is not to be disputed but to be admired. O man, who are you that answer back to God, and say, Why then thus, and that one not thus, and what is it that He gave to that one and did not give to this one? The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of your works. Therefore we need one another, that charity may be preserved. For if one had all things, he would be proud against the rest. Or again the head. Here the priest is the head. To the feet, You are not necessary to me. To the feet, who bear the body. But much more those members of the body which seem to be weaker are more necessary. The prophecy which they scorned availed for greater profit.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. Just as in the body one can live without eyes and hands, but not without the inner organs. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. Inasmuch as they are covered more cautiously and more diligently with garments. But our comely parts have need of nothing. Because in themselves they are beautiful and comely, like the head and the rest. But God has tempered the body, giving to that part which lacked the more abundant honor. Granting greater gifts to the lesser, that he who is lesser in honor may be greater in grace. That there be no schism in the body. While we need one another, we are anxious for one another, lest anyone say himself deprived of both grace and honor.
But that the members should have the same care for one another. The eyes provide for the feet, the hands work the way for the whole body, and all the members serve one another. And if one member suffers anything, all the members suffer with it. If one member is in pain, the whole body is sick, and the remaining members hasten to its healing. Or if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. As Solomon says, With a glad heart the countenance flourishes. But we, by compassion and congratulation, change into the contrary. You are the body of Christ, and members of a member. All of you the body, each one a member—that is, the Church, as elsewhere he says, Of His flesh and of His bones. It is to be noted that we are rightly called the Church.
And God has set some indeed in the Church. He now shows the order of the members. First apostles; second prophets. In the Church, not in the Synagogue, lest we suppose he spoke of the ancient prophets, but rather of Agabus and the rest. Otherwise he ought also to have named the patriarchs, who were called prophets, from whom Agabus was—not those who prophesied of God to come in the flesh. Third teachers. And those who explain the obscure sayings of the prophets, and those who speak consolations to men, are rightly called teachers, who honorably instruct in morals, even if they cannot explain mysteries. Then powers. Powers are the greater signs, whether of demons or of infirmities. Then the graces of healings, helps. Aids.