Commentary on 1 Timothy

Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

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.

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.

See also

• More works by Augustine of Hippo

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