ACC ~ 2 Timothy 2 v19b

ONLY GOD KNOWS. TERTULLIAN: You are human, and so you know other people only from the outside. You think as you see, and you see only what your eyes let you see. But “the eyes of the Lord are lofty.” “Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.” So “the Lord knows those who are his.” He roots up the plant which he has not planted in his garden. He shows the last to be first. He carries a fan in his hand to purge his floor. Let the chaff of cheap faith fly away as it pleases before every wind of temptation. So much the purer is the heap of wheat which the Lord will gather into his barn. PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST HERETICS 3.

THE “KNOWING” AND “NOT KNOWING” OF GOD. ORIGEN: God ignores those who are alienated from him. … We say these things, however, not thinking anything blasphemous about God … not ascribing ignorance to him, but thus we understand that these whose activity is considered unworthy of God are also considered to be unworthy of knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who has turned away from him and does not know him. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6.

NOT TO BE SNATCHED AWAY. ORIGEN: Those who have been made one with and united with something know that with which they have been made one and have been united. Yet before such unity and participation, even if they objectively grasp something of the explanations given about a thing, they still do not know it. … For, in our view, the Lord has known those who are his because he has been made one with them and has given them a share of his own divinity and has taken them up, as the language of the Gospel says, into his own hand, since those who have believed in the Savior are in the Father’s hand. For this reason also, unless they fall from his hand—thereby removing themselves from the hand of God, they will not be snatched away, for no one snatches anyone from the Father’s hand. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 19.22, 25.

GOD DRAWS HIS SAINTS TO HIMSELF. AMBROSE: The Lord considered and knew who were his, and he drew his saints to himself. And those whom he did not choose he did not draw to himself. LETTERS 59.

THOSE WHO ARE NOT. AMBROSE: And if there is some disturbance here, lift up the footstep of your spirit to the things which are to be, and you will discover that the wicked whom you believed to be here will not be there. For one who is nothing is not. Indeed, “the Lord knows those who are his.” He does not recognize those who are not, because they have not recognized him who is. THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 3.7.22.

GOD WILL SEPARATE GOLD FROM STRAW. AUGUSTINE:The abundance of bad people in the world is the big heap of stuff needed for refining the good. Although the good can’t be seen, mixed up in the vast multitude of the bad, the Lord knows who are his own. Under the hand of such a great craftsman, the speck of gold cannot get lost in the huge pile of straw. How much straw is there, how little gold! But have no fear: the craftsman is so great that he can refine it and cannot lose it. SERMONS 15.5.

THE OLIVE PRESS. AUGUSTINE: Something is always going on in this olive press. The world is the press; there is no end to its pressures. Be oil, not dregs. Let each of you be converted to God and change your manner of life. The oil goes by hidden channels to its own secluded vats. Others sin, mock, blaspheme, make loud accusations in the streets—the dregs are oozing out. Yet the Lord of the press does not cease from operating it through his workmen, the holy angels. He knows his oil; he knows how much it can take, the exact pressure needed to squeeze it out. “The Lord knows,” you see, “who are his own.” Avoid the dregs. They are murky, out in the open for all to see. SERMONS 19.6.

MYSTICAL CHOOSING. THE VENERABLE BEDE: This statement of the Lord … can also be understood mystically with regard to the choosing of the spiritual Israel, that is, the Christian people, since the Lord mercifully deigned to see them when they did not yet see him, when they had not yet been called by his apostles to the grace of faith, but they were still concealed under the covering of oppressing sin. … And sometimes in the Scriptures, to be sure, the fig tree suggests the sweetness of divine love. … Those placed under it can be his elect even when they do not yet recognize the grace of their election—just as the Lord saw Nathanael when he was situated under the fig tree though Nathanael did not see him. For the Lord knows who are his, and the very name Nathanael is most suitably appropriate to their salvation. For Nathanael is interpreted “gift of God.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.17.

2 Tim