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Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Home Quotation A Thought from Saint Augustine

A Thought from Saint Augustine

Posted on October 1, 2010 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment


St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo

In the Confessions, Saint Augustine describes a depraved soul as “falling away from security in you to destruction in itself.”

I like the way that Augustine puts this. When I make moral choices, I am choosing between God or self, light or darkness, building or destruction. There is no middle ground.

Yet there is hope. The first source of hope is found in Romans 8:1 – there is no condemnation for me if I am in Christ.

The second source of hope is that God can take my half-hearted attempts at obedience and use them for His purpose and His glory. Later on in Romans 8, Paul says, “all things work together for good.” In this context, I take the word good to mean good from God’s perspective, which too often is different than mine.


Filed Under: Quotation Tagged With: Christ, Christianity, God

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

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St. Augustine of Hippo

A Thought from Saint Augustine

In the Confessions, Saint Augustine describes a depraved soul as “falling away from security in you to destruction in itself.” I like the way that Augustine puts this. When I make moral choices, I am choosing between God or self, light or darkness, building or destruction. There is no middle ground. Yet there is hope. […]

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