Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Philippians 3:16

There are 13 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 116, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Philippians (HTML)

Chapter I.—Reason for writing the epistle. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1299 (In-Text, Margin)

Being mindful of your love and of your zeal in Christ, which ye have manifested towards us, we thought it fitting to write to you, who display such a godly and spiritual love to the brethren, to put you in remembrance of your Christian course, “that ye all speak the same thing, being of one mind, thinking the same thing, and walking by the same rule of faith,”[Philippians 3:16] as Paul admonished you. For if there is one God of the universe, the Father of Christ, “of whom are all things;” and one Lord Jesus Christ, our [Lord], “by whom are all things;” and also one Holy Spirit, who wrought in Moses, and in the prophets and apostles; and also one baptism, which is administered ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 448, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Good of Widowhood. (HTML)

Section 19 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2264 (In-Text, Margin)

... There are indeed on these three matters, of marriage, widowhood, and virginity, many winding recesses of questions, many perplexities; and in order by discussion to enter deeply into and solve these, there is required both greater care, and a fuller discourse; that either we may have a right mind in all those things, or, if in any matter we be otherwise minded, this also God may reveal unto us. However, what there also the Apostle saith next after, “Whereunto we have arrived, in that let us walk.”[Philippians 3:15-16] But we have arrived, in what relates to this matter on which we are speaking, so far as to set continence before marriage, but holy virginity even before widowed continence; and not to condemn any marriages, which yet are not adulteries but ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 428, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)

In which Augustin proves that it is to no purpose that the Donatists bring forward the authority of Cyprian, bishop and martyr, since it is really more opposed to them than to the Catholics.  For that he held that the view of his predecessor Agrippinus, on the subject of baptizing heretics in the Catholic Church when they join its communion, should only be received on condition that peace should be maintained with those who entertained the opposite view, and that the unity of the Church should never be broken by any kind of schism. (HTML)
Chapter 5 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1226 (In-Text, Margin)

... those who walk in the way of peace, and stray not aside into any schism? Not to such as those who have not known the way of peace, or for some other cause have broken the bond of unity. And so, when the apostle said, "And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you," lest they should think that besides the way of peace their own wrong views might be revealed to them, he immediately added, "Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule."[Philippians 3:16] And Cyprian, walking by this rule, by the most persistent tolerance, not simply by the shedding of his blood, but because it was shed in unity (for if he gave his body to be burned, and had not charity, it would profit him nothing), came by the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 53, footnote 3 (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 543 (In-Text, Margin)

... man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Although he was already a perfect traveller, he had not yet attained the perfect end of his journey. All such he would fain take with him as companions of his course. This he expresses in the words which follow our former quotation: “Let as many, then, of us as are perfect, be thus minded: and if ye be yet of another mind, God will reveal even this also to you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by that rule.”[Philippians 3:15-16] This “walk” is not performed with the legs of the body, but with the affections of the soul and the character of the life, so that they who possess righteousness may arrive at perfection, who, advancing in their renewal day by day along the straight ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 413, footnote 9 (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 2768 (In-Text, Margin)

... and advancing in the way of the faith, until that wandering be finished and they come to the actual vision? Whence following on, he added, “Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk therein.” Then he concludes that they should be bewared of, concerning whom this passage treated at its beginning. “Brethren, be imitators of me, and mark them which so walk as ye have our example. For many walk, of whom I have spoken often, and now tell you even weeping, whose end is destruction,”[Philippians 3:16] and the rest. These are the very ones of whom, in the beginning, he had said, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,” and what follows. Therefore all are enemies of the cross of Christ who, going about to establish their own righteousness, which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 444, footnote 4 (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 2953 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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, 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 minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.”[Philippians 3:16] For by walking in what we have attained, we shall be able to advance to what we have not yet attained,—God revealing it to us if in anything we are otherwise minded,—provided we do not give up what He has already revealed.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 464, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

The Reason Why One Person is Assisted by Grace, and Another is Not Helped, Must Be Referred to the Secret Judgments of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3222 (In-Text, Margin)

... bondage; and again, that one baptized person is left and forsaken in his present life, who God foreknew would be ungodly, while another baptized person is taken away from this life, “lest that wickedness should alter his understanding;” and be sure that you do not in such cases ascribe unrighteousness or unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom, but, as I have exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, “whereto you have already attained, walk therein,”[Philippians 3:16] and “even this shall God reveal unto you,” —if not in this life, yet certainly in the next, “for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.” When, therefore, you hear the Lord say, “I the Lord have deceived that prophet,” and likewise what ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 498, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

To What Extent the Massilians Withdraw from the Pelagians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3420 (In-Text, Margin)

... minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” For as yet they are in darkness on the question concerning the predestination of the saints, but they have that whence, “if in anything they are otherwise minded, God will reveal even this unto them,” if they are walking in that to which they have attained. For which reason the apostle, when he had said, “If ye are in anything otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you,” says, “Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, let us walk in the same.”[Philippians 3:16] And those brethren of ours, on whose behalf your pious love is solicitous, have attained with Christ’s Church to the belief that the human race is born obnoxious to the sin of the first man, and that none can be delivered from that evil save by the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 251, 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 X. 1–10. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 852 (In-Text, Margin)

... because of their great abstruseness, I have either myself failed to arrive at an understanding of them, or wanted the faculty of explaining what I do understand, or every one has been so dull as not to follow me, even when I give the explanation, yet should he not despair of himself; but continue in faith, walk on in the way, and hear the apostle saying, “And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk therein.”[Philippians 3:15-16]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 293, footnote 7 (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 XII. 37–43. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1081 (In-Text, Margin)

... to the admonition and to the words of Scripture: “Seek not out the things that are too high for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength.” Not that such things are forbidden us, since the divine Master saith, “There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed:” but if we walk up to the measure of our present attainments, then, as the apostle tells us, not only what we know not and ought to know, but also if we are minded to know anything else, God will reveal even this unto us.[Philippians 3:15-16] But if we have reached the pathway of faith, let us keep to it with all constancy: let it be our guide to the chamber of the King, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For it was in no spirit of grudging that the Lord Jesus ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 379, 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 XVI. 12, 13 (continued). (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1609 (In-Text, Margin)

... said, “Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” And that they might not rush into the hands of seducers, whose desire would be to turn them away from the faith by promising them the knowledge of the truth, and suppose such to be the meaning of the apostle’s words, “God shall reveal even this unto you,” he forthwith added, “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.”[Philippians 3:15-16] If, then, thou hast come to some understanding of what is not at variance with the rule of the Catholic faith, whereto thou hast attained as the way that is guiding thee to thy fatherland; and hast so understood it as to feel it a duty to dismiss ...

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 9, page 210, footnote 8 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1265 (In-Text, Margin)

... of our own, let us not reject the advance in knowledge through the gift of revelation. If we have hitherto used only our own judgment, let that not make us ashamed to change its decisions for the better. Guiding this advance wisely and carefully, the same blessed Apostle writes to the Philippians, Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you. Only, wherein we have hastened, in that same let us walk[Philippians 3:15-16]. Reason cannot anticipate with preconceptions the revelation of God. For the Apostle has here shewn us wherein consists the wisdom of those who have the perfect wisdom, and for those who are otherwise minded, he awaits the revelation of God, that ...

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