ACC ~ 1 Timothy 1 v9a

VIRTUE ASSUMES CHOICE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Virtue can come only through voluntary choice. The law assumes this from the outset. Thus the commandments are not laid down for those who are already righteous. STROMATA 7.2.

ENCLOSED IN THE HEART OF THE JUST. AMBROSE: I consider not wealth but virtue as liberty, for it does not bow to the wishes of the stronger, and it is laid hold of and possessed by one’s own greatness of soul. The wise man is always free. He is always held in honor; he is always master of the laws. The law is not made for the just but for the unjust. The just man is a law unto himself, and he does not need to summon the law from afar, for he carries it enclosed in his heart, and it is said to him, “Drink water out of your own vessels and from the stream of your own well.”LETTERS 54.

RIGHTEOUS USE OF THE LAW. AUGUSTINE: “The law is not made for the righteous,” and yet “the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.” Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it. For how can it be that “the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,” if what follows is also true: “Knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous”? For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous. … The unrighteous man therefore lawfully uses the law, that he may become righteous. But when he has become so, he must no longer use it as a vehicle, for he has arrived at his journey’s end—or rather (that I may employ the apostle’s own simile, which has been already mentioned) as a schoolmaster, seeing that he is now fully instructed. ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 1.10.16.

THE JUDGMENT OF HIS WILL. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Avoid pride, into which it is natural for anyone to fall. Pursue humility, in which everyone ought to grow. Let your beloved self not be ignorant of the laws of the church, in order that you may keep the rights of your authority within the rules and regulations of the Fathers. To be sure, it is said “that the law is not aimed at the good man,” because he fulfills the norm of the precept already by the free judgment of his will. True love holds within itself both the authority of the apostles and the moral requirements. SERMONS 230.2.

BEYOND THE TITHE. JOHN CASSIAN: The righteous, upon whom no law need be imposed, spend no small part—as if a tithe—but the whole extent of their lives in spiritual works. They are free of the legal tax of tithing. If a good and holy need presents itself, they are free to relax their fasting without any scruple. For it is not a paltry tithe that is being subtracted by those who have offered their all to the Lord along with themselves. Certainly the person who offers nothing of his own will and is compelled by legal necessity, without recourse, to pay his tithes to God, cannot do this without being seriously guilty of fraud. Hence it is eminently clear that the one who is responding fully to grace cannot be a slave of the law, watching out for things that are forbidden and carrying out things that are commanded, and that the perfect are those who do not make use even of things permitted by the law. CONFERENCES 21.29.2.

1 Tim