Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Philippians 3:12
There are 25 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 472, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter IX.—There is but one author, and one end to both covenants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3906 (In-Text, Margin)
... Father, but that very same one, who always has more to measure out to those of His household. And as their love towards God increases, He bestows more and greater [gifts]; as also the Lord said to His disciples: “Ye shall see greater things than these.” And Paul declares: “Not that I have already attained, or that I am justified, or already have been made perfect. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, the things which are in part shall be done away.”[Philippians 3:12] As, therefore, when that which is perfect is come, we shall not see another Father, but Him whom we now desire to see (for “blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”); neither shall we look for another Christ and Son of God, but Him who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 222, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The Name Children Does Not Imply Instruction in Elementary Principles. (HTML)
... gnostics, with ideas of themselves above the apostle, inflated and boastful, when Paul even owned respecting himself, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.”[Philippians 3:12-14] And yet he reckons himself perfect, because he has been emancipated from his former life, and strives after the better life, not as perfect in knowledge, but as aspiring after perfection. Wherefore also he adds, “As many of us as are perfect, are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 562, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
Sundry Passages of St. Paul, Which Speak of a Spiritual Resurrection, Compatible with the Future Resurrection of the Body, Which is Even Assumed in Them. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7439 (In-Text, Margin)
... writes to the Galatians: “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” He says “we wait for it,” not we are in possession of it. By the righteousness of God, he means that judgment which we shall have to undergo as the recompense of our deeds. It is in expectation of this for himself that the apostle writes to the Philippians: “If by any means,” says he, “I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.”[Philippians 3:11-12] And yet he had believed, and had known all mysteries, as an elect vessel and the great teacher of the Gentiles; but for all that he goes on to say: “I, however, follow on, if so be I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 45, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
To His Wife. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Of the Apostle's Meaning in 1 Cor. VII. 12-14. (HTML)
... not bound?” I will answer, if the Spirit give (me ability); alleging, before all (other arguments), that the Lord holds it more pleasing that matrimony should not be contracted, than that it should at all be dissolved: in short, divorce He prohibits, except for the cause of fornication; but continence He commends. Let the one, therefore, have the necessity of continuing; the other, further, even the power of not marrying. Secondly, if, according to the Scripture, they who shall be “apprehended”[Philippians 3:12] by the faith in (the state of) Gentile marriage are not defiled (thereby) for this reason, that, together with themselves, others also are sanctified: without doubt, they who have been sanctified before marriage, if they commingle themselves ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 47, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
To His Wife. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Case of a Heathen Whose Wife is Converted After Marriage with Him Very Different, and Much More Hopeful. (HTML)
If these things may happen to those women also who, having attained the faith while in (the state of) Gentile matrimony, continue in that state, still they are excused, as having been “apprehended by God”[Philippians 3:12] in these very circumstances; and they are bidden to persevere in their married state, and are sanctified, and have hope of “making a gain” held out to them. “If, then, a marriage of this kind (contracted before conversion) stands ratified before God, why should not (one contracted after conversion) too go prosperously forward, so as not to be thus harassed by pressures, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 312, footnote 4 (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 1816 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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.” 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.”[Philippians 3:12-13] Since, however, our hope is sure, because of the truth of the promise, when he said elsewhere, “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death,” he adds these words, “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 21, footnote 2 (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)
Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three are One God, and How, Working Indivisibly, They Yet Perform Some Things Severally. (HTML)
... investigating the truth, then they require of us, by the law of charity, to make known to them what we have herein been able to find out. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect” (for, if the Apostle Paul, how much more must I, who lie far beneath his feet, count myself not to have apprehended!); but, according to my measure, “if I forget those things that are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before, and press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling,”[Philippians 3:12-14] I am requested to disclose so much of the road as I have already passed, and the point to which I have reached, whence the course yet remains to bring me to the end. And those make the request, whom a generous charity compels me to serve. Needs must ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 52, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Paul Worthy to Be the Prince of the Apostles, and Yet a Sinner. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 540 (In-Text, Margin)
... to refuse credence to himself. He extends the passage which we have quoted, and says: “Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may comprehend that for which also I am apprehended in Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”[Philippians 3:12-14] Here he confesses that he has not yet attained, and is not yet perfect in that plenitude of righteousness which he had longed to obtain in Christ; but that he was as yet pressing towards the mark, and, forgetting what was past, was reaching out to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 165, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
The Commandment of Love Shall Be Perfectly Fulfilled in the Life to Come. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1420 (In-Text, Margin)
... Therefore they say, “Forgive us,” because they have not yet arrived at the end of their course. Hence the apostle says, “Not as if I had already attained, either were already perfect. . .Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.”[Philippians 3:12-15] In other words, let us, as many as are running perfectly, be thus resolved, that, being not yet perfected, we pursue our course to perfection along the way by which we have thus far run perfectly, in order that “when that which is perfect is come, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 202, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Twelfth Item in the Accusation. Other Heads of Cœlestius’ Doctrine Abjured by Pelagius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1741 (In-Text, Margin)
For it was objected that in the sixth chapter of Cœlestius’ work there was laid down this position: “Men cannot be called sons of God, unless they have become entirely free from all sin.” It follows from this statement, that not even the Apostle Paul is a child of God, since he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.”[Philippians 3:12] In the seventh chapter he makes this statement: “Forgetfulness and ignorance have no connection with sin, as they do not happen through the will, but through necessity;” although David says: “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my sins of ignorance;” although too, in the law, sacrifices are offered for ignorance, as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 409, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
The Perfection of Apostles and Prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2736 (In-Text, Margin)
... part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” But it is plain that the Pelagians, these modern heretics, seem to themselves to be religious lovers and praisers of the saints, since they do not dare to say that they were of an imperfect virtue; although that elected vessel confesses this, who, considering in what state he still was, and that the body which is corrupted drags down the soul, says, “Not that I have already attained or am yet perfect; brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”[Philippians 3:12-13] And yet a little after, he who had denied himself to be perfect says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded,” in order that he might show that, according to the measure of this life, there is a certain perfection, and that to that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 411, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
In What Sense the Righteousness of Man in This Life is Said to Be Perfect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2749 (In-Text, Margin)
From this it results that the virtue which is now in the righteous man is named perfect up to this point, that to its perfection belong both the true knowledge and humble confession of even imperfection itself. For, in respect to this infirmity, that little righteousness of man’s is perfect according to its measure, when it understands even what it lacks. And therefore the apostle calls himself both perfect and imperfect,[Philippians 3:12] —imperfect, to wit, in the thought of how much is wanting to him for the righteousness for the fulness of which he is still hungering and thirsting; but perfect in that he does not blush to confess his own imperfection, and goes forward in good that he may attain. As we can say that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 412, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That Righteousness is Never Perfected in This Life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2759 (In-Text, Margin)
... Christ, who says in another place, “Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known”? And how had he already perfectly known the power of His resurrection, to whom it remained to know it yet more fully by experience at the time of the resurrection of the flesh? And how had he perfectly known already the fellowship of His suffering, if he had not yet experienced for him the suffering of death? Finally, he adds and says, “If in any manner I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”[Philippians 3:11-12] And then he says, “Not that I have already received or am already perfected.” What, then, does he confess that he has not yet received, and in what is he not yet perfected, except that righteousness which is of God, which he desired, not willing to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 413, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Nature of Human Righteousness and Perfection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2762 (In-Text, Margin)
... which I am treating, “And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ, which is from God.” He confessed that he had not yet received the perfection of this righteousness, which will not be except in that excellent knowledge of Christ, on account of which he said that all things were loss to him; and he confessed, therefore, that he was not yet perfect. “But I follow on,” said he, “if I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”[Philippians 3:12] “I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended,” is much the same as, “I may know, even as I also am known.” “Brethren,” says he, “I count not myself to have apprehended: but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 432, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
The Testimonies of Ambrose on the Imperfection of Present Righteousness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2906 (In-Text, Margin)
... regenerated in the pure sense of the soul to life eternal; so that every quality of regeneration may be purer than of that washing, so that no suspicion of sins can fall either on a man’s doings, or even on his very thoughts themselves.” Moreover, in another place in the same work he says: “We see it to be impossible that any person created in a body can be absolutely spotless, since even Paul says that he is imperfect. For thus he has it: ‘Not that I have already received, or am already perfect;’[Philippians 3:12] and yet after a little he says, ‘As many of us, therefore, as are perfect.’ Unless, perchance, there is one perfection in this world, another after this is completed, of which he says to the Corinthians, ‘When that which is perfect is come;’ and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 444, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
The Occasion and Argument of This Work. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2951 (In-Text, Margin)
... you be not disturbed by the obscurity of this question, I counsel you first to thank God for such things as you understand; but as for all which is beyond the reach of your mind, pray for understanding from the Lord, observing, at the same time peace and love among yourselves; and until He Himself lead you to perceive what at present is beyond your comprehension, walk firmly on the ground of which you are sure. This is the advice of the Apostle Paul, who, after saying that he was not yet perfect,[Philippians 3:12] a little later adds, “Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded,” —meaning perfect to a certain extent, but not having attained to a perfection sufficient for us; and then immediately adds, “And if, in any thing, ye be otherwise ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 399, 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. xxii. 42, where the Lord asks the Jews whose son they said David was. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3061 (In-Text, Margin)
... stretch ourselves out, that we may grow; and therefore do we grow, that we may reach them. Behold the Apostle Paul stretching himself out unto these suspended promises: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forth unto those things which are before, I press earnestly toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”[Philippians 3:12] He was running on the earth; the prize hung suspended from heaven. He ran then on the earth; but in spirit he ascended. Behold him thus stretching himself out, behold him hanging forth after the suspended prize. “I press on,” he says, “for the prize ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 536, 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 same words of the Gospel, John xiv. 6, ‘I am the way,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4238 (In-Text, Margin)
... now I should not exhort to charity, but with some charity. I exhort then that what is commenced may be filled up; and pray that what is begun may be perfected. And I beg that ye would offer this prayer for me, that what I advise may be perfected in me also. For we are all now imperfect, and there shall we be perfected, where all things are perfect. The Apostle Paul says, “Brethren, I do not reckon myself to have apprehended.” He says, “Not that I have already attained, either am already perfect.”[Philippians 3:12] And shall any man dare to vaunt himself on perfection? Yea rather let us acknowledge our imperfection, that we may attain perfection.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 113, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1034 (In-Text, Margin)
6. The “end” he speaks of, is that which the Apostle fixed his eye upon, in his course; and made confession of his own infirmity, perceiving in himself a different state of things from that which he looked for elsewhere. For he says, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”[Philippians 3:12-13] And that you might not say, “If the Apostle hath not apprehended, have I apprehended? If the Apostle is not perfect, am I perfect?”…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 114, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1040 (In-Text, Margin)
8. “That I may know what is wanting to me.” For while I am struggling here, “this” is wanting unto me: and so long as it is wanting unto me, I do not call myself perfect. So long as I have not received it, I say, “not that I have already attained, either am already perfect; but I am pressing towards the prize of God’s high calling.”[Philippians 3:12] This let me receive as the prize of my running the race! There will be a certain resting-place, to terminate my course; and in that resting-place there will be a Country, and no pilgrimage, no dissension, no temptation. Make me then to know “this number of my days, which is, that I may know what is wanting unto me;” because I am ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 120, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XL (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1097 (In-Text, Margin)
... that account it is that he says, “He hath set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Now “that Rock was Christ.” Supposing that we are “upon the rock,” and that our “goings are ordered,” still it is necessary that we continue to walk; that we advance to something farther. For what did the Apostle Paul say when now upon the Rock, when his “goings had now been established”? “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”[Philippians 3:12-13] What then has been done for thee, if thou hast not apprehended? On what account dost thou return thanks, saying, “But I have obtained mercy”? Because his goings are now established, because he now walks on the Rock?…Therefore, when he was saying, “I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 553, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5068 (In-Text, Margin)
... and defender.” Do perhaps spiritual persons (by whom carnal minds are built up in “the spirit of meekness,” because they pray as higher for lower minds) already see, and is that already to them reality which to the lower is hope? It is not so. For even “the house of Aaron hath hope in the Lord” (ver. 10). Therefore, that they also may stretch forward perseveringly towards those things which are before them, and may run perseveringly, until they may apprehend that for which they are apprehended,[Philippians 3:12-14] and may know even as they are known, “He is their helper and defender.” For both “fear the Lord, and have hoped in the Lord: He is their helper and defender” (ver. 11).
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 276, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3836 (In-Text, Margin)
... to be imperfect. “So likewise ye,” Christ says, “when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” If he is unprofitable who has done all, what must we say of him who has failed to do so? This is why the Apostle declares that he has attained in part and apprehended in part, that he is not yet perfect, and that forgetting those things which are behind he reaches forth unto those things which are before.[Philippians 3:12-13] Now he who always forgets the past and longs for the future shews that he is not content with the present.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 455, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5176 (In-Text, Margin)
A. I see you are much more disturbed than is your wont; so I will not ply you with arguments. But let me briefly ask what you think of the well-known passage of the Apostle when he wrote to the Philippians:[Philippians 3:12-16] “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have yet apprehended: but one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on towards the goal unto the prize of the high calling ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 69, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter II. The discussions among philosophers about the comparison between what is virtuous and what is useful have nothing to do with Christians. For with them nothing is useful which is not just. What are the duties of perfection, and what are ordinary duties? The same words often suit different things in different ways. Lastly, a just man never seeks his own advantage at the cost of another's disadvantage, but rather is always on the lookout for what is useful to others. (HTML)
... call God good and a man good; but it bears in each case quite a different meaning. We call God just in one sense, man in another. So, too, there is a difference in meaning when we call God wise and a man wise. This we are taught in the Gospel: “Be ye perfect even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” I read again that Paul was perfect and yet not perfect. For when he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend it.”[Philippians 3:12] Immediately he added: “We, then, that are perfect.” There is a twofold form of perfection, the one having but ordinary, the other the highest worth. The one availing here, the other hereafter. The one in accordance with human powers, the other with ...