Commentary on 1 Corinthians

Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390)

Bearing all things, enduring all things for our love and hope regarding him, let us give thanks for all things, both favorable and unfavorable alike—I mean the pleasant and the painful—since reason often knows even these as arms of salvation.

No one has yet discovered or shall ever discover what God is in his nature and essence. As for a discovery some time in the future, let those who have a mind for it research and speculate. The discovery will take place, so my reason tells me, when this Godlike, divine thing, I mean our mind and reason, mingles with its kin, when the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after. This seems to me to be the meaning of the great dictum that we shall, in time to come, know even as we are known.

Worshiping and praying in the Spirit seem to me to be simply the Spirit presenting prayer and worship to himself.

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nazianzus

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