Colossians 2:5

3. Augustin replies: You warn against semi-Christians, which you say we are; but we warn against pseudo-Christians, which we have shown you to be. Semi-Christianity may be imperfect without being false. So, then, if the faith of those whom you try to mislead is imperfect, would it not be better to supply what is lacking than to rob them of what they have? It was to imperfect Christians that the apostle wrote, "joying and beholding your conversation," and "the deficiency in your faith in Christ." The apostle had in view a spiritual structure, as he says elsewhere, "Ye are God’s building;" and in this structure he found both a reason for joy and a reason for exertion. He rejoiced to see part already finished; and the necessity of bringing the edifice to perfection called for exertion. …

8. Who is the hireling that seeth the wolf coming, and fleeth? He that seeketh his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. He is one that does not venture plainly to rebuke an offender. Look, some one or other has sinned, grievously sinned; he ought to be rebuked, to be excommunicated: but once excommunicated, he will turn into an enemy, hatch plots, and do all the injury he can. At present, he who seeketh his own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s, in order not to lose what he follows after, the advantages of human friendship, and incur the annoyances of human enmity, keeps quiet and does not administer rebuke. See, the wolf has caught a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a believer into adultery: thou holdest thy peace, thou utterest no reproof. O hireling, thou hast seen the wolf coming and hast fled! Perhaps he answers and says: See, I am here; I have not fled. …

5. But to those who are still babes in mind, and who as carnal, the apostle says, require to be nourished with milk, all discoursing on such a subject, wherein we deal not only with the believing, but also with the understanding and the knowing of what is spoken, must be burdensome, as being still unable to perceive such things, and be more fitted to oppress than to feed them. Whence it comes to pass that the spiritual, while not altogether silent on such subjects to the carnal, because of the Catholic faith which is to be preached to all, yet do not so handle them as, in their wish to simplify them to understandings that are still deficient in capacity, to bring their discourse on the truth into disrepute, rather than the truth that is in their discourse within the perceptions of their hearers. …

But he had not seen either these people, or the Romans, or the Hebrews, when he wrote to them. That this is true of the others, he shows in many places; with regard to the Colossians, hear him saying, “And as many as have not seen my face in the flesh” ( Col. ii. 1, 5 .): and again, “Though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.” So great a thing did he know his presence everywhere to be. And always, even though he be absent, he makes himself present. So, when he punishes the fornicator, look how he places himself on the tribunal; “for,” he saith, “I verily being absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present” ( 1 Cor. v. 3 .): and again, “I will come to you, and will know not the word of them which are puffed up, but the power” ( 1 Cor. iv. …

Ver. 5 . “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.” The direct thing to have said here was, “even though I be absent in the flesh, yet, nevertheless, I know the deceivers”; but instead he has ended with praise, “Joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” “Your order,” he means, your good order. “And the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” This is still more in the way of encomium. And he said not “faith,” but steadfastness, as to soldiers standing in good order and firmly. Now that which is steadfast, neither deceit nor trial can shake asunder. Not only, he saith, have ye not fallen, but no one hath so much as thrown you into disorder. He hath set himself over them, that they may fear him as though present; for thus is order preserved. …

And what means “above all,” what is the expression intended to show to us? That Christ hath need of nothing, but is Himself sufficient for Himself, and incomparably greater than all; of himself John speaks as being “of the earth, and speaking of the earth.” Not that he spake of his own mind, but as Christ said, “If I have told you of earthly things and ye believe not,” so calling Baptism, not because it was an “earthly thing,” but because He compared it when He spake with His own Ineffable Generation, so here John said that he spake “of earth,” comparing his own with Christ’s teaching. For the “speaking of earth” means nothing else than this, “My things are little and low and poor compared with His, and such as it was probable that an earthly nature would receive. In Him ‘are hid all the treasures of wisdom.’” ( Col. ii. 5 .) That he speaks not of human reasonings is plain from this. …

30. And though there are many other texts concerning the session of the Only-begotten on the right hand of God, yet these may suffice us at present; with a repetition of my remark, that it was not after His coming in the flesh that He obtained the dignity of this seat; no, for even before all ages, the Only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, ever possesses the throne on the right hand of the Father. Now may He Himself, the God of all, who is Father of the Christ, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down, and ascended, and sitteth together with the Father, watch over your souls; keep unshaken and unchanged your hope in Him who rose again; raise you together with Him from your dead sins unto His heavenly gift; count you worthy to be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air , in His fitting time; and, until that time arrive of His glorious second advent, write all your …