Matthew 10:25

Because it should come to pass that His disciples among their other persecutions should suffer loss of character, which to many is the most grievous of all calamities, He consoles them from His own example, and those things that were spoken of Him; a comfort to which no other can be compared.

For the Lord, the Light eternal, the Captain of the faithful, the Parent of immortality, set before His disciples this solace of the sufferings that should come upon them, that we should embrace it as our glory when we are made like to our Lord in suffering; whence He says, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the slave above his lord."

Understand, so long as he is a disciple or servant, he is not above his master or lord by the nature of honour. And do not here object to me such cases as rarely happen, but receive this according to the common course of things.

He calls Himself master and lord; by disciple and servant He denotes His Apostles.

ord.: As much as to say, Be not indignant that ye suffer things, which I also suffer, because I am your lord, who do what I will, and your master, who teach you what I know to be profitable for you.

And because this sentence seemed not to agree with the foregoing words, He shews what they mean by adding, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more they of his household?"

He said not here, "slaves," but "those of his household," to shew how dear they were to Him; as elsewhere He said, "I will not call you slaves, but my friends." [John 15:15]

As much as to say, Ye therefore will not seek worldly honours and human glory, while you see me pursuing the redemption of mankind through mocking and contumely.

And He says not only, If they have reviled the master of the house, but expresses the very words of railing, for they had called Him Beelzebub.

Beelzebub is the idol of Accaron who is called in the book of Kings, the God of flies; [2 Ki 1:3] "Bel," signifying, "idol;" "zebub," a "fly". The Prince of the daemons He calls by the name of the foulest of idols, which is so called because of the uncleanness of the fly, which destroys the sweetness of ointment.

1. If the Father, then, does not exercise judgment, [it follows] that judgment does not belong to Him, or that He consents to all those actions which take place; and if He does not judge, all persons will be equal, and accounted in the same condition. The advent of Christ will therefore be without an object, yea, absurd, inasmuch as [in that case] He exercises no judicial power. For “He came to divide a man against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law;” and when two are in one bed, to take the one, and to leave the other; and of two women grinding at the mill, to take one and leave the other: [also] at the time of the end, to order the reapers to collect first the tares together, and bind them in bundles, and burn them with unquenchable fire, but to gather up the wheat into the barn; and to call the lambs into the kingdom prep …

As, then, Knowledge ( ἐπιστήμη ) is an intellectual state, from which results the act of knowing, and becomes apprehension irrefragable by reason; so also ignorance is a receding impression, which can be dislodged by reason. And that which is overthrown as well as that which is elaborated by reason, is in our power. Akin to Knowledge is experience , cognition ( εἴδησις ), Comprehension ( σύνεσις ), perception, and Science. Cognition ( εἴδησις ) is the knowledge of universals by species; and Experience is comprehensive knowledge, which investigates the nature of each thing. …

The apostle in his first Epistle to Timothy: “But if any take not care of his own, and especially of those of his own household, he denies the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Of this same thing in Isaiah: “If thou shalt see the naked, clothe him; and despise not those who are of the household of thine own seed.” Of which members of the household it is said in the Gospel: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much rather them of his household!”

9. Augustin replied: Your idea of taking any prophecies of Christ to be found in Moses, as a fish out of the sea, while you throw away the water from which the fish is taken, is a clever one. But since all that Moses wrote is of Christ, or relates to Christ, either as predicting Him by words and actions, or as illustrating His grace and glory, you, with your faith in the untrue and untruthful Christ from the writings of Manichæus, and your unbelief in Moses, will not even eat the fish. Moreover, though you are sincere in your hostility to Moses, you are hypocritical in your praise of fish. …

Chapter 7. 8. Whilst we bear the testimony of God to this and the like effect against the vain speaking of men, we are forced to undergo bitter insults from the enemies of the glory of Christ. Let them say what they will, whilst He exhorts us, saying, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." What He says in the first instance, "for righteousness’ sake," He has repeated in the words that He uses afterwards, "for my sake;" seeing that He "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." And when He says, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven," if I hold in a good con …

75. And this is perhaps the sin against the Holy Ghost, i.e. through malice and envy to act in opposition to brotherly love after receiving the grace of the Holy Ghost, a sin which our Lord says is not forgiven either in this world or in the world to come. And hence it may be asked whether the Jews sinned against the Holy Ghost, when they said that our Lord was casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils: whether we are to understand this as said against our Lord Himself, because He says of Himself in another passage, “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household!” or whether, inasmuch as they had spoken from great envy, being ungrateful for so manifest benefits, although they were not yet Christians, they are, from the very greatness of their envy, to be supposed to have sinned against the Holy Ghost? This latte …

7. Therefore, my Brethren, since we too are born of him, and as the Apostle says, “In Adam all die;” for we were all at first two persons if we were loth to obey the physician, that we might not be sick; let us obey Him now, that we may be delivered from sickness. The physician gave us precepts, when we were whole; He gave us precepts that we might not need a physician. “They that are whole,” He saith, “need not a physician, but they that are sick.” When whole we despised these precepts, and by experience have felt how to our own destruction we despised His precepts. Now we are sick, we are in distress, we are on the bed of weakness; yet let us not despair. For because we could not come to the Physician, He hath vouchsafed to come Himself to us. Though despised by man when he was whole, He did not despise him when he was stricken. …

8. “All day long my words they abhorred” ( ver. 5 ). Thus they are, ye know. Speak truth, preach truth, proclaim Christ to the heathen, proclaim the Church to heretics, proclaim to all men salvation: they contradict, they abhor my words. But when my words they abhor, whom think ye they abhor, save Him in whom I shall praise my discourses? “All day long my words they abhorred.” Let this at least suffice, let them abhor words, no farther let them proceed, censure, reject! Be it far from them! Why should I say this? When words they reject, when words they hate, those words which from the fount of truth flow forth, what would they do to him through whom the very words are spoken? what but that which followeth, “Against me all the counsels of them are for evil?” If the bread itself they hate, how spare they the basket wherein it is ministered? “Against me all the counsels of them are for evil …

18. “O God, the transgressors of the law have arisen up against me” ( ver. 14 ). Whom calleth he transgressors of the law? Not the Pagans, who have not received the law: for no one transgresseth that which he hath not received; the Apostle saith clearly, “For where there is no law, there is no prevarication.” Transgressors of the law he calls “prevaricators.” Whom then do we understand, brethren? If we take this word from our Lord Himself, the transgressors of the law were the Jews.…They did not keep the law, and accused Christ as if He transgressed the law. And we know what the Lord suffered. …

Allow me freely to say, that the very apostles, if not inferior to this blessed man, are at least not greater than he was. For they indeed were comforted by the suffering for Christ; and this medicine was so sufficient daily to relieve them, that the Lord puts it everywhere, saying, “for me, for my sake,” and, “If they call me, the master of the house, Beelzebub.” But he was destitute of this encouragement, and of that from miracles, and of that from grace; for neither had he so great power of the Spirit.

“The disciple,” saith He, “is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household? Fear them not therefore.”

And if these things are not sufficient for thee, consider that even thy Lordwas evil reported of both by Satan and by men, and that to those most loved by Him; and His Only-Begotten the same again. Wherefore He said, “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, much more shall they call them of His household.”