Good Gifts

Omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum... Postquam docuit vitia quibus tentamur, non a Deo nobis, sed a nobis ipsis inesse, ostendit e contra quia quidquid boni agimus, hoc Deo donante percipimus. Unde et eum Patrem luminum appellat, quem auctorem novit spiritalium charismatum. Cui consonat illud apostoli Pauli: Quid enim habes quod non accepisti? Apud eum non est transmutatio, nec viccisitudinis obumbratio. Quia in Dei natura mutabilitas non est, neque lumen ejus sicut lumen hujus mundi aliqua vicissitudinis umbra intercidit, liquet utique quia sola nobis dona lucis, et non etiam tenbras immittit errorum. Voluntatie enim genuit nos verbo veritatis. Et Dominus in Evangelio: Non vos me elegisits, sed ego elegi vos. Et in Osea propheta: Diligam eos spontanee. Quod ergo dixerat: Omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum a Deo descendere, consequenter astruit addendo, quia non nostris meritis, sed suae beneficio voluntatis, per aquam regenerationis, de filiis tenebrarum nos in filios lucis mutaverit. Sanctus Beda, Super Divi Jacobi Epistolam, Caput I Source: Migne PL 93.15b-c

Every good endowment and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights... 1 After teaching that the vices by which we are tested are not from God but are in ourselves, he shows that on the contrary whatever good we do, we receive it from the gift of God. Whence he names Him the Father of lights, whom he knows is the creator of spiritual benefactions. With which the Apostle Paul agrees: 'What do you have that you did not receive?' 2 With Him there is no change, nor shadow of alteration. Because there is no changeability in the nature of God, nor is His light like the light of this world, which alternates with shifting shadows, so it is clear that He sends only gifts of light to us and not the darkness of errors. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. And Lord says in the Gospel: 'You did not choose me, I chose you.' 3 And in the prophet Hosea: 'I shall love them of my own will.' 4 When therefore he says that every good gift and perfect gift comes down from God, he consequently emphasises it by adding that it is not by our own merits, but by the benevolence of His own will, through the water of regeneration, that He transforms us from sons of darkness into sons of light. Saint Bede, Commentary on the Letter of Saint James, Chapter 1 1 James 1.17 2 1 Cor 4.7 3 Jn 15.16 4 Hosea 14.5