From his seminal work, On the Incarnation of the Word, the great Church Father Athanasius writes:

We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the self-same Word, who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the Father has employed the same agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word who made it first.

And all I add to that is a resounding, 'Amen!'

Saint Augustine, in his role as the bishop of Hippo, would frequently note that he understood his primary responsibility to be the preaching and exposition of Scripture. But on the anniversary of his ordination, he preached a sermon that gave a little more insight into his other pastoral responsibilites as bishop. He asked for their prayers, for the work of a bishop and a pastor was no small calling:

The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weary supported; the gospel's opponents need to be refuted, its insiduous enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be given your backing, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved.

I am in the middle of writing a paper on the relationship of the church and salvation, and it includes this, from John Calvin's seminal work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion:

Let us even learn from the simple title ‘mother’ how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels (Matt. 22:30). Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until have been pupils all our lives. Furthermore, away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation, as Isaiah (Isa. 37:32) and Joel (Joel 2:32) testify. Ezekiel agrees with them when he declares that those whom God rejects from heavenly life will not be enrolled among God's people (Ezek. 13:9). On the other hand, those who turn to the cultivation of true godliness are said to inscribe their names among the citizens of Jerusalem (cf. Isa. 56:5; Ps. 87:6). For this reason, it is said in another Psalm: "Remember me, O Jehovah, with favor toward thy people; visit me with salvation: that I may see the well-doing of thy chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the joy of thy nation, that I may be glad with thine inheritance" (Ps. 106:4-5; cf. Ps. 105:4). By these words God’s fatherly favor and especial witness of spiritual life are limited to his flock, so that it is always disastrous to leave the church (IV.1.iv).

Cyprian said it best: Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus—Outside of the church there is no salvation.

In the discussion on the ecclesiology of the early church in J.N.D. Kelly's book, Early Christian Doctrines, the following observation is made:

The Eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian sacrifice from the closing decade of the first century, if not earlier. Malachi's prediction (Mal. 1:10ff.) that the Lord would reject the Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to Him by the Gentiles in every place was early seized upon by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist (196).

I found this quite interesting for two reasons: first, I have never heard this line of thought before, and was surprised to see that many of the Church Fathers thought this way. Kelly here references the discussions of the Eucharist in the Didache and in the writings of Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Justin as all understanding the Eucharist in a sacrificial sense. Justin makes reference to the prophecy in Malachi several times in his writings, directly applying it to the Eucharist.

Second, my library does not contain a lot of commentaries, but in the two older ones I have the discussion of this passage in Malachi says absolutely nothing about the sacrament. I was not surprised, and do not consider this passage to apply to the Eucharist. But I am interested to know if there are any commentaries out there that make this point or allude to it. What do your commentaries say? Pull them off the shelf and let me know.