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  "description": "The following citation comes from St. Augustine's On the Trinity, Book 1.. The blessed Augustine quotes Philippians 3:3 to prove that the Holy Spirit is given latreuo, which is the worship giveN to God alone. All emphasis will be mine.\n\n13. Similar evidence has been collected also concerning the Holy Spirit, of which those who have discussed the subject before ourselves have most fully availed themselves, that He too is God, and not a creature. But if not a creature, then not only God (for men l",
  "path": "/st-augustine-phil-3-3-the-spirit-latreuo/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-26T22:00:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://answeringislam.blog",
  "tags": [
    "On the Trinity",
    "Book 1",
    "Holy Spirit",
    "God",
    "Son",
    "love",
    "saints",
    "circumcision",
    "Spirit of God",
    "Spirit",
    "err",
    "know",
    "Holy Ghost",
    "Christ",
    "HOLY SPIRIT, MUHAMMAD & AHMAD REVISITED"
  ],
  "textContent": "The following citation comes from St. Augustine's On the Trinity, Book 1.. The blessed Augustine quotes Philippians 3:3 to prove that the Holy Spirit is given _latreuo_ , which is the worship giveN to God alone. All emphasis will be mine.\n\n13. Similar evidence has been collected also concerning the Holy Spirit, of which those who have discussed the subject before ourselves have most fully availed themselves, **that He too is** God**, and not a creature**. But if not a creature, then not only God (for men likewise are called gods ), **but also very** God**; and therefore absolutely equal with the Father and the** Son**, and in the unity of the Trinity consubstantial and co-eternal**. But that the Holy Spirit is not a creature is made quite plain by that passage above all others, where we are commanded not to serve the creature, but the Creator; **_not in the sense in which we are commanded to serve one another by_** love**_, which is in Greek δουλεύειν, but in that in which_** God**_alone is served, which is in Greek λατρεύειν_** . From whence they are called idolaters who tender that service to images which is due to God. For it is this service concerning which it is said,  _You shall worship the Lord your_ God_, and Him only shall you serve_. **For this is found also more distinctly in the Greek Scriptures, which have λατρεύσεις**. Now if we are forbidden to serve the creature with such a service, seeing that it is written,  _You shall worship the Lord your_ God_, and Him only shall you serve_ (and hence, too, the apostle repudiates those who worship and serve the creature more than the Creator), **_then assuredly the_** Holy Spirit**_is not a creature, to whom such a service is paid by all the_** saints**_; as says the apostle,_For we are the__** circumcision**__, which serve the__** Spirit of God**__,_ which is in the Greek λατρεύοντες_. For even most Latin copies also have it thus,  _We who serve the_** Spirit of God**_; but all Greek ones, or almost all, have it so_**. Although in some Latin copies we find, not  _We worship the_ Spirit of God, but,  _We worship God in the_ Spirit. But let those who err in this case, and refuse to give up to the more weighty authority, **tell us whether they find this text also varied in the mss**.:  _Do you not_ know_that your body is the temple of the_ Holy Ghost_, which is in you, which you have of God?_ Yet what can be more senseless or more profane, than that any one should dare to say that the members of Christ are the temple of one who, in their opinion, is a creature inferior to Christ? For the apostle says in another place,_Your bodies are members of_ Christ_._ **But if the members of Christ are also the temple of the** Holy Spirit**, then the** Holy Spirit**is not a creature;** because we must needs owe to Him, of whom our body is the temple, that service wherewith God only is to be served, which in Greek is called λατρεία . And accordingly the apostle says,  _Therefore glorify God in your body_.\n\n**Further Reading**\n\nHOLY SPIRIT, MUHAMMAD & AHMAD REVISITED",
  "title": "St. Augustine, Phil. 3:3, the Spirit & Latreuo",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-26T22:00:45.211Z"
}