74. [82.] When he says: For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers, but that the Gentiles should glorify God for his mercy , he says this so that the Gentiles may understand that the Lord Christ was sent to the Jews, and may not be proud. For, the Jews rejecting what was sent to them, it came about that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles also—which is most clearly written in the Acts of the Apostles , when the Apostles say to the Jews: To you it was necessary that the word be preached first; but since you have judged yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn ourselves to the Gentiles . According also to the testimonies of the Lord himself, when he says: I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel , and again: It is not good to send the children's bread to the dogs . And if the Gentiles consider this well, they understand that, by this their own faith, by which they now believe that all things are clean to the clean , they ought not to insult those—if any perchance be weak among the circumcision—who, on account of association with idols, dare not touch any meats at all.
75. [83.] When he says: That I may be a minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles, consecrating the Gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit , this is understood: that the Gentiles are offered to God, as an acceptable sacrifice, when, believing in Christ, they are sanctified through the Gospel—as he also says above: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God .
76. [84.] When he says: I beseech you, brethren, to mark those who make dissensions and scandals contrary to the teaching which you have learned , he is understood to speak of those of whom he also wrote to Timothy, saying: As I asked you to remain at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain persons not to teach otherwise, nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which is in faith ; and to Titus: For there are many unruly, vain talkers and seducers of minds, especially those who are of the circumcision, who must be refuted, who subvert whole households, teaching things they ought not, for the sake of filthy gain; one of them, their own prophet, said: The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies . For to this refers what he also says here: For these do not serve Christ the Lord, but their own belly —of whom he says in another place: Whose God is their belly .
Notes
1 — Wis 13:9.
2 — Cf. Rom 1:21-23.
3 — Acts 17:28.
4 — Sir 10:13.
5 — Wis 2:12.
6 — Wis 12:18.
7 — 1 John 3:20-21.
8 — Rom 5:20.
9 — Rom 4:15.
10 — Rom 6:12.
11 — Rom 8:10-11.
12 — Luke 2:14.
13 — Rom 5:12.
14 — Deut 21:23.
15 — Cf. Isa 53:11.
16 — Cf. 2 Cor 5:21.
17 — Cf. Rom 8:3.
18 — Gal 5:24.
19 — Cf. Rom 7:25.
20 — Cf. 1 Cor 15:54.
21 — Cf. Rom 6:12.