Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
2 Corinthians 5:7
There are 29 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 274, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter II.—Against Embellishing the Body. (HTML)
And he anointed not him that was comely in person, but him that was comely in soul. If, then, the Lord counts the natural beauty of the body inferior to that of the soul, what thinks He of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood? “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:7] Very clearly the Lord accordingly teaches by Abraham, that he who follows God must despise country, and relations, and possessions, and all wealth, by making him a stranger. And therefore also He called him His friend who had despised the substance which he had possessed at home. For he was of good parentage, and very opulent; and so with three hundred ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 440, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XXIII.—The Same Subject Continued. (HTML)
... and on no occasion turning back; giving thanks for his sojourn, and blessing [God] for his departure, embracing the mansion that is in heaven. “For we know, that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we walk by faith, not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] as the apostle says; “and we are willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with God.” The rather is in comparison. And comparison obtains in the case of things that fall under resemblance; as the more valiant man is more valiant among ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 452, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture. (HTML)
... admit as in the department of existence, actions and processes of generation, and the whole of the unseen. For such are those who keep by the five senses. But the knowledge of God is a thing inaccessible to the ears and like organs of this kind of people. Hence the Son is said to be the Father’s face, being the revealer of the Father’s character to the five senses by clothing Himself with flesh. “But if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” “For we walk by faith, not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] the noble apostle says. Within the veil, then, is concealed the sacerdotal service; and it keeps those engaged in it far from those without.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 576, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
No Disparagement of Our Doctrine in St. Paul's Phrase, Which Calls Our Residence in the Flesh Absence from the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7566 (In-Text, Margin)
In the same way, when he says, “Therefore we are always confident, and fully aware, that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not be sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] it is manifest that in this statement there is no design of disparaging the flesh, as if it separated us from the Lord. For there is here pointedly addressed to us an exhortation to disregard this present life, since we are absent from the Lord as long as we are passing through it—walking by faith, not by sight; in other words, in hope, not in reality. Accordingly he adds: “We are indeed confident and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 374, footnote 7 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
... resurrection—that is, our souls shall be with God, until we shall receive the new house which is prepared for us, and which shall never fall. Whence also “we groan,” “not for that we would be unclothed,” as to the body, “but clothed upon” by it in the other life. For the “house in heaven,” with which we desire to be “clothed,” is immortality; with which, when we are clothed, every weakness and mortality will be entirely “swallowed up” in it, being consumed by endless life. “For we walk by faith, not by sight;”[2 Corinthians 5:7] that is, for we still go forward by faith, viewing the things which are beyond with a darkened understanding, and not clearly, so that we may see these things, and enjoy them, and be in them. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 194, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)
That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1218 (In-Text, Margin)
14. But as yet “by faith, not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] for “we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope.” As yet deep calleth unto deep but in “the noise of Thy waterspouts.” And as yet doth he that saith, I “could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,” even he, as yet, doth not count himself to have apprehended, and forgetteth those things which are behind, and reacheth forth to those things which are before, and groaneth being burdened; and his soul thirsteth after the living God, as the hart ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 201, footnote 14 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)
That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1384 (In-Text, Margin)
... Greek, nor bond nor free. Spiritual persons, therefore, whether those that are set over, or those who obey, judge spiritually; not of that spiritual knowledge which shines in the firmament, for they ought not to judge as to an authority so sublime, nor doth it behove them to judge of Thy Book itself, although there be something that is not clear therein; because we submit our understanding unto it, and esteem as certain that even that which is shut up from our sight is rightly and truly spoken.[2 Corinthians 5:7] For thus man, although now spiritual and renewed in the knowledge of God after His image that created him, ought yet to be the “doer of the law, not the judge.” Neither doth he judge of that distinction of spiritual and carnal men, who are known to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 312, 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 1815 (In-Text, Margin)
... this mortal shall be swallowed up in life, and death swallowed up in victory; when the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed; when we shall be changed, and made like the angels: for “we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed.” Again, the Lord saith, “They shall be equal unto the angels.” We now are apprehended by Him in fear by faith: then we shall apprehend Him in love by sight. For “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] Hence the apostle himself, who says, “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus,” confesses frankly that he has not attained to it. “Brethren,” he says, “I count not myself to have apprehended.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 533, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture (HTML)
Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1754 (In-Text, Margin)
... in with other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And if he admits that these statements are true and certain, then it follows that the meaning he had put upon the former passage cannot be the true one: and so it comes to pass, one can hardly tell how, that, out of love for his own opinion, he begins to feel more angry with Scripture than he is with himself. And if he should once permit that evil to creep in, it will utterly destroy him. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:7] Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 538, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Steps to Wisdom: First, Fear; Second, Piety; Third, Knowledge; Fourth, Resolution; Fifth, Counsel; Sixth, Purification of Heart; Seventh, Stop or Termination, Wisdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1768 (In-Text, Margin)
... God, so far as God can be seen by those who as far as possible die to this world. For men see Him just so far as they die to this world; and so far as they live to it they see Him not. But yet, although that light may begin to appear clearer, and not only more tolerable, but even more delightful, still it is only through a glass darkly that we are said to see, because we walk by faith, not by sight, while we continue to wander as strangers in this world, even though our conversation be in heaven.[2 Corinthians 5:7] And at this stage, too, a man so purges the eye of his affections as not to place his neighbor before, or even in comparison with, the truth, and therefore not himself, because not him whom he loves as himself. Accordingly, that holy man will be so ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 540, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1781 (In-Text, Margin)
... believe, ye shall not abide.” Now which of these is the literal translation cannot be ascertained without reference to the text in the original tongue. And yet to those who read with knowledge, a great truth is to be found in each. For it is difficult for interpreters to differ so widely as not to touch at some point. Accordingly here, as understanding consists in sight, and is abiding, but faith feeds us as babes, upon milk, in the cradles of temporal things (for now we walk by faith, not by sight);[2 Corinthians 5:7] as, moreover, unless we walk by faith, we shall not attain to sight, which does not pass away, but abides, our understanding being purified by holding to the truth;—for these reasons one says, “If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand;” but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 26, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the Father, Which Have Been Misunderstood. Christ Will Not So Give Up the Kingdom to the Father, as to Take It Away from Himself. The Beholding Him is the Promised End of All Actions. The Holy Spirit is Sufficient to Our Blessedness Equally with the Father. (HTML)
... way also: Lord, show Thyself to us, and it sufficeth us. For, that he might understand this, the Lord replied to him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” But because He intended him, before he could see this, to live by faith, He went on to say, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” For “while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] For contemplation is the recompense of faith, for which recompense our hearts are purified by faith; as it is written, “Purifying their hearts by faith.” And that our hearts are to be purified for this contemplation, is proved above all by this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 51, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church Only is the Place from Whence the Back Parts of God are Seen. The Back Parts of God Were Seen by the Israelites. It is a Rash Opinion to Think that God the Father Only Was Never Seen by the Fathers. (HTML)
... grace in Thy sight;” he immediately subjoined, on account of the love also of his neighbor, “And that I may know that this nation is Thy people.” It is therefore that “appearance” which hurries away every rational soul with the desire of it, and the more ardently the more pure that soul is; and it is the more pure the more it rises to spiritual things; and it rises the more to spiritual things the more it dies to carnal things. But whilst we are absent from the Lord, and walk by faith, not by sight,[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] we ought to see the “back parts” of Christ, that is His flesh, by that very faith, that is, standing on the solid foundation of faith, which the rock signifies, and beholding it from such a safe watch-tower, namely in the Catholic Church, of which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 118, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the Son, but that neither are both together anything greater than the Holy Spirit, nor any two together in the same Trinity anything greater than one, nor all three together anything greater than each singly. He also intimates that the nature of God may be understood from our understanding of truth, from our knowledge of the supreme good, and from our implanted love of righteousness; but above all, that our knowledge of God is to be sought through love, in which he notices a trio of things which contains a trace of the Trinity. (HTML)
God Must First Be Known by an Unerring Faith, that He May Be Loved. (HTML)
6. But it is by love that we must stand firm to this and cleave to this, in order that we may enjoy the presence of that by which we are, and in the absence of which we could not be at all. For as “we walk as yet by faith, and not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] we certainly do not yet see God, as the same [apostle] saith, “face to face:” whom however we shall never see, unless now already we love. But who loves what he does not know? For it is possible something may be known and not loved: but I ask whether it is possible that what is not known can be loved; since if it cannot, then no one loves God before he knows Him. And what is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 184, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He speaks of the true wisdom of man, viz. that by which he remembers, understands, and loves God; and shows that it is in this very thing that the mind of man is the image of God, although his mind, which is here renewed in the knowledge of God, will only then be made the perfect likeness of God in that image when there shall be a perfect sight of God. (HTML)
There is a Kind of Trinity in the Holding, Contemplating, and Loving of Faith Temporal, But One that Does Not Yet Attain to Being Properly an Image of God. (HTML)
4. Wherefore since, as it is written, “While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight;”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] undoubtedly, so long as the just man lives by faith, howsoever he lives according to the inner man, although he aims at truth and reaches on to things eternal by this same temporal faith, nevertheless in the holding, contemplating, and loving this temporal faith, we have not yet reached such a trinity as is to be called an image of God; lest that should seem to be constituted in things temporal which ought to be so in things ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 310, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)
Of Constancy in the Faith of the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1492 (In-Text, Margin)
... there shall be no want, whether on your own part, so that you should crave for relief, or on your neighbor’s part, so that you should be in haste to carry relief to him. God will be the whole enjoyment and satisfaction of that holy city, which lives in Him and of Him, in wisdom and beatitude. For as we hope and look for what has been promised by Him, we shall be made equal to the angels of God, and together with them we shall enjoy that Trinity now by sight, wherein at present we walk by faith.[2 Corinthians 5:7] For we believe that which we see not, in order that through these very deserts of faith we may be counted worthy also to see that which we believe, and to abide in it; to the intent that these mysteries of the equality of the Father, the Son, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 84, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
True Grace is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Which Kindles in the Soul the Joy and Love of Goodness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 720 (In-Text, Margin)
We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man’s being created with a free-will, and in addition to the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good which is God, even now while he is still “walking by faith” and not yet “by sight;”[2 Corinthians 5:7] in order that by this gift to him of the earnest, as it were, of the free gift, he may conceive an ardent desire to cleave to his Maker, and may burn to enter upon the participation in that true light, that it may go well with him from Him to whom he owes his existence. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 112, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
When the Commandment to Love is Fulfilled. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1090 (In-Text, Margin)
... believed, and yet not loved; but it is an impossibility that a thing can be loved which is neither known nor believed. But if the saints, in the exercise of their faith, could arrive at that great love, than which (as the Lord Himself testified) no greater can possibly be exhibited in the present life,—even to lay down their lives for the faith, or for their brethren, —then after their pilgrimage here, in which their walk is by “faith,” when they shall have reached the “sight” of that final happiness[2 Corinthians 5:7] which we hope for, though as yet we see it not, and wait for in patience, then undoubtedly love itself shall be not only greater than that which we here experience, but far higher than all which we ask or think; and yet it cannot be possibly more ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 113, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
In What Sense a Sinless Righteousness in This Life Can Be Asserted. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1097 (In-Text, Margin)
Forasmuch, however, as an inferior righteousness may be said to be competent to this life, whereby the just man lives by faith although absent from the Lord, and, therefore, walking by faith and not yet by sight,[2 Corinthians 5:7] —it may be without absurdity said, no doubt, in respect of it, that it is free from sin; for it ought not to be attributed to it as a fault, that it is not as yet sufficient for so great a love to God as is due to the final, complete, and perfect condition thereof. It is one thing to fail at present in attaining to the fulness of love, and another thing to be swayed by no lust. A man ought ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 234, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other Three. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1669 (In-Text, Margin)
... carnal fancies, and to attain to the serenest light of changeless truth, and to cleave constantly and unswervingly to that with a mind thoroughly estranged from the course of this present life, that man understands neither what he asks, nor who he is that put such a supposition. Let such an individual rather accept the authority, at once lofty and free from all deceitfulness, which tells us that, as long as we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord, and that we walk by faith and not by sight.[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] And thus, with all perseverance keeping and guarding his faith and hope and charity, let him look forward to the sight which is promised, in accordance with that earnest which we have received of the Holy Ghost, who shall teach us all truth, when ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 267, 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)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit:' etc., but especially on that, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1895 (In-Text, Margin)
... heart,” there is the vision of God promised. And not without good cause; for there, in the heart, are the eyes, by which God is seen. Speaking of these eyes, the Apostle Paul saith, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened.” At present then these eyes are enlightened, as is suitable to their infirmity, by faith; hereafter as shall be suited to their strength, they shall be enlightened by sight. “For as long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord; For we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] Now as long as we are in this state of faith, what is said of us? “We see now through a glass darkly; but then face to face.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 400, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 42, where the Lord asks the Jews whose son they said David was. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3070 (In-Text, Margin)
... to us while in our pilgrimage the form of a servant, reserveth for those that reach their country the form of God. With the form of a servant hath He laid down the way, with the form of God He hath prepared the home. Seeing then that it is a hard matter for us to comprehend this, but no hard matter to believe it; for Isaiah says, “Unless ye believe ye shall not understand;” let us “walk by faith as long as we are in pilgrimage from the Lord, till we come to sight where we shall see face to face.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] As walking by faith, let us do good works. In these good works, let there be a free love of God for His Own sake, and an active love of our neighbour. For we have nothing we can do for God; but because we have something we may do for our neighbour, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 488, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John v. 25,’Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God; and they that hear shall live,’ etc.; and on the words of the apostle, ‘things which eye saw not,’ etc., 1 Cor. ii. 9. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3795 (In-Text, Margin)
... ear hath not heard, neither hath it ascended unto the heart of man.” Be it believed and adored, when we believe, we adore; when we adore, we grow; when we grow, we comprehend. For as yet whilst we are in this flesh, as long as we are absent from the Lord, we are, with respect to the Holy Angels who see these things, infants to be suckled by faith, hereafter to be fed by sight. For so saith the Apostle, “As long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] We shall some day come to sight, which is thus promised us by John in his Epistle; “Dearly beloved, we are the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be.” We are the sons of God now by grace, by faith, by the Sacrament, by the Blood ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 202, footnote 1 (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 VIII. 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 633 (In-Text, Margin)
... light of life.” Yet He does not say, He that shall follow me; but, he that does follow me. What it is our duty to do, He put in the present tense; but what He has promised to them that do it, He has indicated by a word of the future tense. “He that followeth, shall have.” That followeth now, shall have hereafter: followeth now by faith, shall have hereafter by sight. For, “whilst we are in the body,” saith the apostle, “we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.”[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] When shall we walk by sight? When we shall have the light of life, when we shall have come to that vision, when this night shall have passed away. Of that day, indeed, which is to arise, it is said, “In the morning I will stand near thee, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 323, footnote 10 (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)
On the Same Passage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1272 (In-Text, Margin)
3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when, as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation, His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I explain it, Lord, as I can: it was surely this Thou didst signify by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by faith. For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding His countenance.[2 Corinthians 5:6-8] For “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;” and “He purifieth their hearts by faith.” The former we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 336, footnote 2 (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 XIV. 18–21. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1337 (In-Text, Margin)
... my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” In what day, but in that whereof He said, “Ye shall live also”? For then will it be that we can see what we believe. For even now is He in us, and we in Him: this we believe now, but then shall we also know it; although what we know even now by faith, we shall know then by actual vision. For as long as we are in the body, as it now is, to wit, corruptible, and encumbering to the soul, we live at a distance from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight.[2 Corinthians 5:7] Then accordingly it will be by sight, for we shall see Him as He is. For if Christ were not even now in us, the apostle would not say, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead indeed because of sin; but the spirit is life because of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 339, footnote 9 (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 XIV. 25–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1357 (In-Text, Margin)
... we ourselves are brought by Him to the Father. And what is it He leaveth with us, when ascending from us, save His own presence, which He never withdraweth? For He Himself is our peace who hath made both one. It is He, therefore, that becomes our peace, both when we believe that He is, and when we see Him as He is. For if, so long as we are in this corruptible body that burdens the soul, and are walking by faith, not by sight, He forsaketh not those who are sojourning at a distance from Himself;[2 Corinthians 5:6-7] how much more, when we have attained to that sight, shall He fill us with Himself?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 485, footnote 15 (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 II. 27–III. 8. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2228 (In-Text, Margin)
... sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” No marvel. We have not seen Him, but are to see; have not known Him, but are to know: we believe on One we have not known. Or haply, by faith we have known, and by actual beholding have not yet known? But then in faith we have both seen and known. For if faith doth not yet see, why are we said to have been enlightened? There is an enlightening by faith, and an enlightening by sight. At present, while we are on pilgrimage, “we walk by faith, not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] or, actually beholding. Therefore also our righteousness is “by faith, not by sight.” Our righteousness shall be perfect, when we shall see by actual beholding. Only, in the meanwhile, let us not leave that righteousness which is of faith, since ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 51, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 528 (In-Text, Margin)
12. “And hath made darkness His hiding place” (ver. 11). And hath settled the obscurity of the Sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers, where He may lie hid, and not abandon them. In this darkness too, wherein “we yet walk by faith, and not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:7] as long as “we hope for what we see not, and with patience wait for it.” “Round about Him is His tabernacle.” Yet they that believe Him turn to Him and encircle Him; for that He is in the midst of them, since He is equally the friend of all, in whom as in a tabernacle He at this time dwells. “Dark water in clouds of air.” Nor let any one on this account, if he ...