Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 13:10
There are 41 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 476, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XII.—It clearly appears that there was but one author of both the old and the new law, from the fact that Christ condemned traditions and customs repugnant to the former, while He confirmed its most important precepts, and taught that He was Himself the end of the Mosaic law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3938 (In-Text, Margin)
... very same one to His disciples, when He enjoined them to love God with all their heart, and others as themselves. But if He had descended from another Father, He never would have made use of the first and greatest commandment of the law; but He would undoubtedly have endeavoured by all means to bring down a greater one than this from the perfect Father, so as not to make use of that which had been given by the God of the law. And Paul in like manner declares, “Love is the fulfilling of the law:”[Romans 13:10] and [he declares] that when all other things have been destroyed, there shall remain “faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of all is love;” and that apart from the love of God, neither knowledge avails anything, nor the understanding of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 411, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter III.—The True Excellence of Man. (HTML)
... Scripture. Well, then, says Heraclitus, “They would not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been.” And Socrates says, “that the law was not made for the sake of the good.” But the cavillers did not know even this, as the apostle says, “that he who loveth his brother worketh not evil;” for this, “Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in the word, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.”[Romans 13:8-10] So also is it said, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And “if he that loveth his neighbour worketh no evil,” and if “every commandment is comprehended in this, the loving our ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 430, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII.—On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires. (HTML)
“God,” then, being good, “is love,” it is said. Whose “love worketh no ill to his neighbour,”[Romans 13:10] neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God. “Love is,” then, “the fulfilling of the law;” like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands not to commit adultery, and not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, are fulfilled, [these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 430, footnote 5 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII.—On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires. (HTML)
“God,” then, being good, “is love,” it is said. Whose “love worketh no ill to his neighbour,” neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God. “Love is,” then, “the fulfilling of the law;”[Romans 13:10] like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands not to commit adultery, and not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, are fulfilled, [these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 633, footnote 4 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistles of Pope Fabian. (HTML)
To All the Bishops of the East. (HTML)
Of the right of bishops not to be accused or hurt by detraction. (HTML)
... heart and one soul; neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” For there was no laying of accusations against each other among them, except what was friendly; neither ought there ever to be such among their followers or among believers: for the Lord says, “Do not that to another which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.” And He says also, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;” and,” Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.”[Romans 13:10] In accordance herewith, the apostles themselves and their successors de creed of old time that those persons should not be admitted to lay accusations who were under suspicion, or who but yesterday, or the day before, or a little time ago, were at ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 316, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Januarius (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1853 (In-Text, Margin)
... reward, because I have not only believed the testimony of my God that “on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets;” but I have myself proved it, and daily prove it, by experience. For there is no holy mystery, and no difficult passage of the word of God, in which, when it is opened up to me, I do not find these same commandments: for “the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned;” and “love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 473, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Whether Those Who Received Heretical Baptism, and Have Afterwards Fallen Away to Wickedness of Life; Or Those Who Have Received Catholic Baptism, But Have Afterwards Passed Over to Heresy and Schism; Or Those Who Have Remained in the Catholic Church in Which They Were Baptized, But Have Continued to Live Immorally,—May Hope Through the Virtue of the Sacraments for the Remission of Eternal Punishment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1569 (In-Text, Margin)
... “They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Consequently, they who do such things shall not exist anywhere but in eternal punishment, since they cannot be in the kingdom of God. For, while they continue in such things to the very end of life, they cannot be said to abide in Christ to the end; for to abide in Him is to abide in the faith of Christ. And this faith, according to the apostle’s definition of it, “worketh by love.” And “love,” as he elsewhere says, “worketh no evil.”[Romans 13:10] Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members. For, not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the members of Christ and the members of a harlot. In fine, He Himself, when ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 531, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture (HTML)
Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1741 (In-Text, Margin)
32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: “For this, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.”[Romans 13:9-10] Whoever then supposes that the apostle did not embrace every man in this precept, is compelled to admit, what is at once most absurd and most pernicious, that the apostle thought it no sin, if a man were not a Christian or were an enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, or to kill him, or to covet his goods. And ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 596, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2018 (In-Text, Margin)
... doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers?” To strive about words is not to be careful about the way to overcome error by truth, but to be anxious that your mode of expression should be preferred to that of another. The man who does not strive about words, whether he speak quietly, temperately, or vehemently, uses words with no other purpose than to make the truth plain, pleasing, and effective; for not even love itself, which is the end of the commandment and the fulfilling of the law,[Romans 13:10] can be rightly exercised unless the objects of love are true and not false. For as a man with a comely body but an ill-conditioned mind is a more painful object than if his body too were deformed, so men who teach lies are the more pitiable if they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 286, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)
That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the Commendation of Love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1360 (In-Text, Margin)
7. Moreover, what greater reason is apparent for the advent of the Lord than that God might show His love in us, commending it powerfully, inasmuch as “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”? And furthermore, this is with the intent that, inasmuch as charity is “the end of the commandment,” and “the fulfilling of the law,”[Romans 13:10] we also may love one another and lay down our life for the brethren, even as He laid down His life for us. And with regard to God Himself, its object is that, even if it were an irksome task to love Him, it may now at least cease to be irksome for us to return His love, seeing that “He first loved us,” and “spared not His own only ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 55, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
Love of Ourselves and of Our Neighbor. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 129 (In-Text, Margin)
50. Hear also what Paul says: "The love of our neighbor," he says, "worketh no ill."[Romans 13:10] The testimonies here made use of are very short, but, if I mistake not, they are to the point, and sufficient for the purpose. And every one knows how many and how weighty are the words to be found everywhere in these books on the love of our neighbor. But as a man may sin against another in two ways, either by injuring him or by not helping him when it is in his power, and as it is for these things which no loving man would do that men are called ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 214, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus rejects the Old Testament because it leaves no room for Christ. Christ the one Bridegroom suffices for His Bride the Church. Augustin answers as well as he can, and reproves the Manichæans with presumption in claiming to be the Bride of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 554 (In-Text, Margin)
... be not under the law, lest fear prevent thy fulfilling it; but be under grace, that love, which is the fulfilling of the law, may be in thee. For it was in a review of these very tablets that the friend of thy Bridegroom said: "For thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is contained in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."[Romans 13:9-10] One table contains the precept of love to God, and the other of love to man. And He who first sent these tablets Himself came to enjoin those precepts on which hang the law and the prophets. In the first precept is the chastity of thy espousals; in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 236, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus rejects Christ’s declaration that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them, on the ground that it is found only in Matthew, who was not present when the words purport to have been spoken. Augustin rebukes the folly of refusing to believe Matthew and yet believing Manichæus, and shows what the passage of scripture really means. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 646 (In-Text, Margin)
... understand, or pretends not to understand, what it is to fulfill the law. He supposes the expression to mean the addition of words to the law, regarding which it is written that nothing is to be added to or taken away from the Scriptures of God. From this Faustus argues that there can be no fulfillment of what is spoken of as so perfect that nothing can be added to it or taken from it. Faustus requires to be told that the law is fulfilled by living as it enjoins. "Love is the fulfilling of the law,"[Romans 13:10] as the apostle says. The Lord has vouchsafed both to manifest and to impart this love, by sending the Holy Spirit to His believing people. So it is said by the same apostle: "The love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost, which is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 445, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism of Christ could not be conferred by heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 19 (HTML)
... also He says, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another;" and again, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." But who can doubt that this was spoken not only to those who heard His words with their fleshly ears when He was present with them, but also to those who learn His words through the gospel, when He is sitting on His throne in heaven? For He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill. But the fulfilling of the law is love.[Romans 13:10] And in this Cyprian abounded greatly, insomuch that though he held a different view concerning baptism, he yet did not forsake the unity of the Church, and was in the Lord’s vine a branch firmly rooted, bearing fruit, which the heavenly Husbandman ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 95, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
A Comparison of the Law of Moses and of the New Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 833 (In-Text, Margin)
... law was given outwardly, so that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, so that they might be justified. For this, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment,”—such, of course, as was written on those tables,—“it is briefly comprehended,” says he, “in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:9-10] Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but “is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” God’s law, therefore, is love. “To it the carnal mind is not subject, neither indeed can be;” but when the works of love ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Law Written in Our Hearts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 866 (In-Text, Margin)
What then is God’s law written by God Himself in the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is “the finger of God,” and by whose presence is shed abroad in our hearts the love which is the fulfilling of the law,[Romans 13:10] and the end of the commandment? Now the promises of the Old Testament are earthly; and yet (with the exception of the sacramental ordinances which were the shadow of things to come, such as circumcision, the Sabbath and other observances of days, and the ceremonies of certain meats, and the complicated ritual of sacrifices and sacred things which suited “the oldness” of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 103, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
How the Passage of the Law Agrees with that of the Prophet. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 947 (In-Text, Margin)
... law by the excis ion of the flesh, but keep it by the charity of the heart. “If,” says he, “the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?” And therefore in the house of the true Israel, in which is no guile, they are partakers of the new testament, since God puts His laws into their mind, and writes them in their hearts with his own finger, the Holy Ghost, by whom is shed abroad in them the love which is the” fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 127, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Who May Be Said to Be in the Flesh. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1172 (In-Text, Margin)
... we are discussing does not lie in this point. But what I want to hear from him, if I can, is about those who live according to the Spirit, and who on this account are not, in a certain sense, in the flesh, even while they still live here,—whether they, by God’s grace, live according to the Spirit, or are sufficient for themselves, natural capability having been bestowed on them when they were created, and their own proper will besides. Whereas the fulfilling of the law is nothing else than love;[Romans 13:10] and God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts, not by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 151, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
God Enjoins No Impossibility, Because All Things are Possible and Easy to Love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1355 (In-Text, Margin)
... How, indeed, can it be grievous, when it is the precept of love? Either, therefore, a man has not love, and then it is grievous; or he has love, and then it is not grievous. But he possesses love if he does what is there enjoined on Israel, by returning to the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul. “A new commandment,” says He, “do I give unto you, that ye love one another;” and “He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law;” and again, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] In accordance with these sayings is that passage, “Had they trodden good paths, they would have found, indeed, the ways of righteousness easy.” How then is it written, “Because of the words of Thy lips, I have kept the paths of difficulty,” except ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 161, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
The Eighth Breviate. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1378 (In-Text, Margin)
... This has been in fact already answered; but I see that it is necessary for me to make here an additional remark, that we are saved by hope. “But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Full righteousness, therefore, will only then be reached, when fulness of health is attained; and this fulness of health shall be when there is fulness of love, for “love is the fulfilling of the law;”[Romans 13:10] and then shall come fulness of love, when “we shall see Him even as He is.” Nor will any addition to love be possible more, when faith shall have reached the fruition of sight.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 166, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
To Whom God’s Commandments are Grievous; And to Whom, Not. Why Scripture Says that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous; A Commandment is a Proof of the Freedom Of Man’s Will; Prayer is a Proof of Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1447 (In-Text, Margin)
He next quotes passages to show that God’s commandments are not grievous. But who can be ignorant of the fact that, since the generic commandment is love (for “the end of the commandment is love,” and “love is the fulfilling of the law”[Romans 13:10]), whatever is accomplished by the operation of love, and not of fear, is not grievous? They, however, are oppressed by the commandments of God, who try to fulfil them by fearing. “But perfect love casteth out fear;” and, in respect of the burden of the commandment, it not only takes off the pressure of its heavy weight, but it actually lifts it up as if on wings. In order, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 220, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
What Purpose the Law Subserves. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1801 (In-Text, Margin)
What object, then, can this man gain by accounting the law and the teaching to be the grace whereby we are helped to work righteousness? For, in order that it may help much, it must help us to feel our need of grace. No man, indeed, is able to fulfil the law through the law. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] And the love of God is not shed abroad in our hearts by the law, but by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Grace, therefore, is pointed at by the law, in order that the law may be fulfilled by grace. Now what does it avail for Pelagius, that he declares the self-same thing under different phrases, that he may not be understood to place ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 458, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
A Good Will May Be Small and Weak; An Ample Will, Great Love. Operating and Co-operating Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3133 (In-Text, Margin)
... love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In accordance with this, the apostle also says, “He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law. For this: Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:8-10] This love the Apostle Peter did not yet possess, when he for fear thrice denied the Lord. “There is no fear in love,” says the Evangelist John in his first Epistle, “but perfect love casteth out fear.” But yet, however small and imperfect his love ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 8, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 42 (In-Text, Margin)
... Christian name, endure many such things; but they are excluded from that reward on this account, that it is not said merely, “Blessed are they which endure persecution;” but it is added, “for righteousness’ sake.” Now, where there is no sound faith, there can be no righteousness, for the just [righteous] man lives by faith. Neither let schismatics promise themselves anything of that reward; for similarly, where there is no love, there cannot be righteousness, for “love worketh no ill to his neighbour;”[Romans 13:10] and if they had it, they would not tear in pieces Christ’s body, which is the Church.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 48, footnote 14 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 369 (In-Text, Margin)
... be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light [lamp] that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” And this passage we are to understand in such a way as to learn from it that all our works are pure and well-pleasing in the sight of God, when they are done with a single heart, i.e. with a heavenly intent, having that end of love in view; for love is also the fulfilling of the law.[Romans 13:10] Hence we ought to take the eye here in the sense of the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all our works which we perform in accordance therewith are ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 480, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3728 (In-Text, Margin)
10. Now who is he that fulfilleth the Law, but he that hath charity? Ask the Apostle, “Charity is the fulfilling of the Law.[Romans 13:10] For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, in that which is written, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” But the commandment of charity is twofold; “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great commandment. The other is like it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” They are the words of the Lord in the Gospel: “On these two commandments hang all the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 168, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VI. 41–59. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 512 (In-Text, Margin)
... wherein God is righteous, but that which God bestows on man, that man may be righteous through God. But again, what was the righteousness of those Jews? A righteousness wrought of their own strength on which they presumed, and so declared themselves as if they were fulfillers of the law by their own virtue. But no man fulfills the law but he whom grace assists, that is, whom the bread that cometh down from heaven assists. “For the fulfilling of the law,” as the apostle says in brief, “is charity.”[Romans 13:10] Charity, that is, love, not of money, but of God; love, not of earth nor of heaven, but of Him who made Heaven and earth. Whence can man have that love? Let us hear the same: “The love of God,” saith he, “is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 349, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XV. 11, 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1412 (In-Text, Margin)
... says, “But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” And although in charity, that is, in love, are comprehended the two commandments; yet it is here declared to be the greatest only, and not the sole one. Accordingly, what a host of commandments are given us about faith, what a multitude about hope! who is there that could collect them together, or suffice to number them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: “Love is the fullness of the law.”[Romans 13:10] And so, where there is love, what can be wanting? and where it is not, what is there that can possibly be profitable? The devil believes, but does not love: no one loveth who doth not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not love, but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 490, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John III. 9–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2264 (In-Text, Margin)
... churches: there is no discerning of the children of God from the children of the devil, but only by charity. They that have charity are born of God: they that have it not, are not born of God. A mighty token, a mighty distinction! Have what thou wilt; if this alone thou have not, it profiteth thee nothing: other things if thou have not, have this, and thou hast fulfilled the law. “For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law,” saith the apostle: and, “Charity is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] I take this to be the pearl which the merchant man in the Gospel is described to have been seeking, who “found one pearl, and sold all that he had, and bought it.” This is the pearl of price, Charity, without which whatever thou mayest have, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 522, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John V. 1–3. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2506 (In-Text, Margin)
... making it. In both places the word is “end,” “finish:” but the bread is finished by its being consumed, the coat is finished by being made: the bread, so as to be no more; the coat, so as to be complete. Therefore in this sense take ye also this word, end, when the Psalm is read and ye hear it said, “On the end, a Psalm of David.” Ye are for ever hearing this in the Psalms, and ye should know what ye hear. What meaneth, “On the end”?—“For Christ is the end of the law unto every one that believeth.”[Romans 13:10] And what meaneth, “Christ is the end”? Because Christ is God, and “the end of the commandment is charity,” and “Charity is God:” because Father and Son and Holy Ghost are One. There is He the End to thee; elsewhere He is the Way. Do not stick fast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 44, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 460 (In-Text, Margin)
3. “He hath talked vanity each man to his neighbour” (ver. 2). By neighbour we must understand every man: for that there is no one with whom we should work evil; “and the love of our neighbour worketh no evil.”[Romans 13:10] “Deceitful lips, with a heart and a heart they have spoken evil things.” The repetition, “with a heart and a heart,” signifies a double heart.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 51, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 527 (In-Text, Margin)
11. “And He mounted above the cherubim, and did fly” (ver. 10). And He was exalted above the fulness of knowledge, that no man should come to Him but by love: for “love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] And full soon He showed to His lovers that He is incomprehensible, lest they should suppose that He is comprehended by corporeal imaginations. “He flew above the wings of the winds.” But that swiftness, whereby He showed Himself to be incomprehensible, is above the powers of souls, whereon as upon wings they raise themselves from earthly fears into the air of liberty.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 386, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3747 (In-Text, Margin)
... glory of God, and is interpreted the fulness of knowledge. There God sitteth in the fulness of knowledge. Though we understand the Cherubin to be the exalted powers and virtues of the heavens: yet, if thou wilt, thou wilt be Cherubin. For if Cherubin is the seat of God, hear what saith the Scripture: “The soul of a just man is the seat of wisdom.” How, thou sayest, shall I be the fulness of knowledge? Who shall fulfil this? Thou hast the means of fulfilling it: “The fulness of the Law is love.”[Romans 13:10] Do not run after many things, and strain thyself. The amplitude of the branches doth terrify thee: hold by the root, and of the greatness of the tree think not. Be there in thee love, and the fulness of knowledge must needs follow. For what doth he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 445, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XC (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4284 (In-Text, Margin)
... but crooked. In many copies the Psalm goes thus far, but in some there is found an additional verse at the end, as follows, “And make straight the work of our hands.” To these words the learned have prefixed a star, called an asterisk, to show that they are found in the Hebrew, or in some other Greek translations, but not in the Septuagint. The meaning of this verse, if we are to expound it, appears to me this, that all our good works are one work of love: for love is the fulfilling of the Law.[Romans 13:10] For as in the former verse he had said, “And the works of our hands make Thou straight upon us,” here he says “work,” not works, as if anxious to show, in the last verse, that all our works are one, that is, are directed with a view to one work. For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 484, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XCIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4513 (In-Text, Margin)
... willed man to know is different from this; the knowledge which He willed thee to have, pertaineth to the law of God. And who can, thou mayest perhaps say unto me, perfectly know the Law, so that he may have within himself the ful ness of the knowledge of the Law, and be able to be the seat of God? Be not disturbed; it is briefly told thee what thou hast, if thou dost wish to have the fulness of knowledge, and to become the throne of God: for the Apostle saith, “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.”[Romans 13:10] What followeth then? Thou hast lost the whole of thine excuse. Ask thine heart; see whether it hath love. If there be love there, there is the fulfilment of the Law there also; already God dwelleth in thee, thou hast become the throne of God. “Be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 567, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Vav. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5189 (In-Text, Margin)
... 44): that is, if Thou wilt not take the word of Thy truth out of my mouth. “Yea, unto age, and age of age:” he showeth what he meant by “alway.” For sometimes by “alway” is meant, as long as we live here; but this is not, “unto age, and age of age.” For it is better thus translated than as some copies have, “to eternity, and to age of age,” since they could not say, and to eternity of eternity. That law therefore should be understood, of which the Apostle saith, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] For this will be kept by the saints, from whose mouth the word of truth is not taken, that is, by the Church of Christ Herself, not only during this world, that is, until this world is ended; but for another also which is styled, “world without ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 656, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5855 (In-Text, Margin)
... way also. “I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God” (ver. 9). “A new song” is of grace; “a new song” is of the new man; “a new song” is of the New Testament. But lest thou shouldest think that grace departeth from the law, whereas rather by grace the law is fulfilled, “upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing unto Thee.” Upon the law of ten commandments: therein may I sing to Thee; therein may I rejoice to Thee; therein may “I sing to Thee a new song;” for, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”[Romans 13:10] But they who have not love may carry the psaltery, sing they cannot. Contradiction cannot make my psaltery to be silent.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 43, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 83 (In-Text, Margin)
... that you say these things rather by way of self-depreciation than with a view to truth, and I will employ no evidence but your own words and deeds to demonstrate the truth of my assertion. And now the first question I wish to ask of you is this: do you know how great the power of love is? For omitting all the miracles which were to be wrought by the apostles, Christ said, “Hereby shall men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another,” and Paul said that it was the fulfilling of the law,[Romans 13:10] and that in default of it no spiritual gift had any profit. Well, this choice good, the distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples, the gift which is higher than all other gifts, I perceived to be deeply implanted in your soul, and teeming with much ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 177, footnote 20 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the Italians and Gauls. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2326 (In-Text, Margin)
... but which we have not yet received; God, Who in His wisdom arranges all things, must have ordained according to the hidden judgments of His righteousness, that we should be tried for a longer time in these temptations. The fame of our condition has travelled to the ends of the earth, and you are not ignorant of it; nor are you without sympathy with brethren of like mind with yourselves, for you are disciples of the apostle, who teaches us that love for our neighbour is the fulfilling of the law.[Romans 13:10] But, as we have said, the just judgment of God, which has ordained that the affliction due to our sins must be fulfilled, has held you back. But when you have learnt all, specially what has not hitherto reached your ears, from our reverend brother ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 243, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the Neocæsareans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2736 (In-Text, Margin)
... whole life of man?] This [is happening in our case, no just occasion of estrangement existing, as far as I myself know, but on the contrary, there being, from the first, many strong reasons for the closest friendship and unity. The greatest and first is this, our Lord’s command, pointedly saying, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.”] Again, the apostle clearly sets before us the good of charity where he tells us that love is the fulfilling of the law;[Romans 13:10] and again where he says that charity is a good thing to be preferred to all great and good things, in the words, “Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 270, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
Consolatory, to the clergy of Colonia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2931 (In-Text, Margin)
is so goodly and honourable before God and men as perfect love, which, as we are told by the wise teacher, is the fulfilling of the law?[Romans 13:10] I therefore approve of your warm affection for your bishop, for, as to an affectionate son the loss of a good father is unendurable, so Christ’s Church cannot bear the departure of a pastor and teacher. Thus, in your exceeding affection for your bishop, you are giving proof of a good and noble disposition. But this your good will towards your spiritual father is to be approved so long as it is shewn in reason and moderation; ...