I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
Read Chapter 1
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
God has decreed that a person who believes in Christ can be saved without works. By faith alone he receives the forgiveness of his sins. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. "For the grace," in Greek, ε̉πὶ τὴ χάÏιτι, that Isaiah , on account of the grace of God, which is given you in Christ, i.e, through Christ. See Can25. "The source," says S. Bernard (Serm13in Song), "of all the springs and rivers is the sea: but the source of all virtue and knowledge is the Lord Jesus Christ: the continence of the flesh, the energy of the heart, the rectitude of the will, all flow from that spring: let the heavenly stream be given back to its source" (by thanksgiving), "so that the farthest parts of the earth may be replenished; "I will not give my glory to another," saith God" ( Isaiah 48:11).
That is given you in, or by Christ Jesus. Where we may take notice with St. Chrysostom for the understanding of other places, that in, is many times put for by or through.
1. That which he exhorts others to do, saying, Philippians 4:6 Let your requests with thanksgiving be made known unto God, the same also he used to do himself: teaching us to begin always from these words, and before all things to give thanks unto God. For nothing is so acceptable to God as that men should be thankful, both for themselves and for others: wherefore also he prefaces almost every Epistle with this. But the occasion for his doing so is even more urgent here than in the other Epistles. For he that gives thanks, does so, both as being well off, and as in acknowledgment of a favor: now a favor is not a debt nor a requital nor a payment: which indeed every where is important to be said, but much more in the case of the Corinthians who were gaping after the dividers of the Church.
2. Unto my God. Out of great affection he seizes on that which is common, and makes it his own; as the prophets also from time to time use to say, Psalm 43:4; 62:1 O God, my God; and by way of en...
