City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)
Augustine asserts that worship should be to God alone. This should be done by sacrifices, which is the offering of our body 'when we discipline it by temperance, provided that we do this as we ought for the sake of God, so that we may not offer our bodily powers to the service of sin as the instruments of iniquity, but to the service of God as the instruments of righteousness.'
Angel worship is then condemned because angels performed miracles to encourage worship to God, not them.
Finally in today's reading, we see the inconsistency of the Platonist philosopher Porphyry in his views on worship: 'For at one moment he is warning us to beware of such practices as fraudulent, fraught with danger in their performance, and prohibited by law, and the next minute he seems to be surrendering to the supporters of magic, saying that the art is useful for the purification of one part of the soul.'
What grabbed me
The last part is an excellent insight. If anyone benefits from sacrificing righteous living to God, it is the Christian!
Continue Book Ten by reading Chapters 12 to 26
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
1 comment:
This chapter had a few points that really made me sit and think.
The first was God's wonderful providence in establishing Greek as the language of the New Testament. Augustine really brought out the subtleties of the language in his opening section, and how easily worship due and given to God is expressed in Greek, whereas in Latin (and English!) we have to use more than one word.
The sections on sacrifices were also very thought-provoking. I've always seen the Mosaic sacrificial system as typical of Christ's great and perfect sacrifice for His people, and not seen it so much as typical of our living sacrifices due to God. But I very much appreciated Augustine's insight that the divine ordinances 'are to refer to the love of God, and our neighbour. For “on these two commandments,” as it is written, “hang all the law and the prophets.”' Christ perfect obedience to all the laws, and His atoning death for my sins are to be the only basis on which I am declared righteous and pleasing to God in both the covering for my sins of commission, and the perfect completion of my sins of omission. I tend to forget to ask forgiveness for all the things I've failed to do in a day, and this was a very good reminder that I fail just as frequently to do those things I ought to have done, as to do those things I ought not to have done. Thanks be to God for His great mercies to this forgetful and erring child!
Post a Comment