ACC ~ 1 Timothy 3 v16a

THE ECONOMY OF SALVATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Here he speaks of the economy of salvation given to us. Tell me not of the bells, nor of the holy of holies, nor of the high priest. The church is the pillar of the world. Consider this mystery, and you may be struck with awe. For it is indeed a “great mystery,” and a “mystery of godliness,” and that is “without controversy” or question, for it is beyond all doubt. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The “mystery” is the scriptural teaching concerning Christ. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

FOREORDAINED. THEODORET OF CYR: The “mystery” is the sacred object of reverence, namely, that what was foreordained from the beginning and afterward became manifest. INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

FROM ALL ETERNITY. LEO THE GREAT: No, indeed, it is not that God has just recently come up with a plan for attending to human affairs, nor that it has taken him this long to show compassion. Rather, he laid down from the very “foundation of the world”one and the same “cause of salvation” for all. For, the grace of God—by which the entire assembly of saints has always been justified—was not initiated at the time that Christ was born but augmented. This “mystery of great compassion,” with which the whole world has now been filled, was so powerful even in its prefigurations that those who believed it when promised attained to it no less than those who received it when actually given. SERMONS 23.4.

1 Tim