When considering what Augustine set out to do when he wrote the City of God one must realize he was not actually trying to write a historical account of the sacking of Rome or even its implications.

I don’t think it is possible to have a genuine relationship with someone without eventually conversing about suffering and sharing the ways that you have suffered in this life. We all suffer.

Paul knew full well the issues in the Corinthian church at that present moment. He did not set into writing this letter without full knowledge of the status of this congregation.

Slavery to sin is a slavery unlike any other. It is a bondage that is rivaled by no other form in any other time. It is a taskmaster that is more heinous, ruthless, relentless, conniving, deceiving, and destructive than any other that has ever or will ever exist. Sin demands more, and takes more than any slave on Earth has ever given.