What spirits are of God, and what are not. We must love one another, because God has loved us.
VVe may not beleeue al that boast of the spirit, but trie them, vvhether they teach Catholike articles of the faith (namely the incarnation of Christ:) vvhether their doctrine be not vvordly, and them selues disobedient hearers of the Apostles. 7 Vee must loue one an other, considering the exceding loue of God in sending his sonne to saue vs. 17 An argument of perfect charitie is, if vve haue nothing in our conscience to feare in the day of Iudgement. 19 And an argument that vve loue God is, if vve loue brethren.
1Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.Carissimi, non vogliate credere ad ogni spirito, ma private gli spiriti, se sono da Dio: conciossiaché molli falsi profeti sono usciti pel mondo.MY deerest, beleeue not euery spirit, but proue the spirites if they be of God: because many false prophetes are goue out into the vvorldCarissimi, nolite omni spiritui credere, sed probate spiritus si ex Deo sint: quoniam multi pseudoprophetæ exierunt in mundum. 2By this is the spirit of God known. Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:Da questo si conosce lo spirito di Dio: qualunque spirito, che confessi, che Gesù Cristo è venuto nella carne, egli è da Dio:In this is the spirit of God knovven. euery spirit that confesseth IESVS Christ to haue come in flesh, is of God:In hoc cognoscitur Spiritus Dei: omnis spiritus qui confitetur Jesum Christum in carne venisse, ex Deo est: 3And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God. And this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh: and he is now already in the world.Ma qualunque spirito, che divida Gesù, non è da Dio: e questi è un Anticristo, il quale avete udito, che viene, e già fin d'adesso è nel mondo.and euery spirit that dissolueth IESVS, is not of God: and this is antichrist, of vvhom you haue heard that he commeth, and novv he is in the vvorld.et omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum, ex Deo non est, et hic est antichristus, de quo audistis quoniam venit, et nunc jam in mundo est. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.Voi figliuolini, siete da Dio, e avete vinto colui, perché più potente è quegli, che è in voi, che colui, che sta nel mondo.You are of God, litle children, and haue ouercome him because greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the vvorld.Vos ex Deo estis filioli, et vicistis eum, quoniam major est qui in vobis est, quam qui in mundo. 5They are of the world. Therefore of the world they speak: and the world heareth them.Eglino sono del mondo: per questo parlano cose del mondo, e il mondo gli ascolta.They are of the vvorld: therfore of the vvorld they speake, and the vvorld heareth them.Ipsi de mundo sunt: ideo de mundo loquuntur, et mundus eos audit. 6We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.Noi siamo da Dio. Chi conosce Dio, ascolta noi: chi non è da Dio, non ci ascolta: con questo distinguiamo io spirito di verità dallo spirito di errore.Vve are of God. He that knovveth God, heareth vs. he that is not of God, heareth vs not. in this vve knovv the spirit of truth, and the spirit of errour.Nos ex Deo sumus. Qui novit Deum, audit nos; qui non est ex Deo, non audit nos: in hoc cognoscimus Spiritum veritatis, et spiritum erroris.
7Dearly beloved, let us love one another: for charity is of God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.Carissimi amiamoci l'un l'altro: perché la carità è da Dio. E chi ama, nato di Dio, e conosce Dio.My deerest, let vs loue one an other: because charitie is of God. And euery one that loueth, is borne of God, & knovveth God.Carissimi, diligamus nos invicem: quia caritas ex Deo est. Et omnis qui diligit, ex Deo natus est, et cognoscit Deum. 8He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is charity.Chi non ama, non ha conosciuto Dio: dappoiché Dio è carità.He that loueth not, knovveth not God: because God is charitie.Qui non diligit, non novit Deum: quoniam Deus caritas est. 9By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him.Da questo si rendette manifesta la carità di Dio verso di noi, perché mandò Dio il suo Unigenito al mondo, affinché per lui abbiamo vita.In this hath the charitie of God appeared in vs, because God hath sent his only begotten sonne into the vvorld, that vve may liue by him.In hoc apparuit caritas Dei in nobis, quoniam Filium suum unigenitum misit Deus in mundum, ut vivamus per eum. 10In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.Qui sta la carità: che non come se noi avessimo amato Dio, ma che egli il primo ci abbia amati, e abbia mandato il Figliuolo suo propiziazione pe' nostri peccati.In this is charitie: not as though vve haue loued him, but because he hath loued vs, and sent, his sonne a propitiation for our sinnes.In hoc est caritas: non quasi nos dilexerimus Deum, sed quoniam ipse prior dilexit nos, et misit Filium suum propitiationem pro peccatis nostris. 11My dearest, if God hath so loved us, we also ought to love one another.Carissimi, se Dio ci ha amati in tal guisa: noi pure dobbiamo amarci l'un l'altro.My deerest, if God hath so loued vs: vve also ought to loue one an other.Carissimi, si sic Deus dilexit nos: et nos debemus alterutrum diligere. 12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us: and his charity is perfected in us.Nissuno ha mai veduto Dio. Se ci amiamo l'un l'altro, Dio abita in noi, e la carità di lui è in noi perfetta.God no man hath seen at any time. If vve loue one an other, God abideth in vs, and his charitie in vs is persired.Deum nemo vidit umquam. Si diligamus invicem, Deus in nobis manet, et caritas ejus in nobis perfecta est. 13In this we know that we abide in him, and he in us: because he hath given us of his spirit.Da questo conosciamo, che siamo ti lui, e che egli è in noi: perché egli ha dato a noi del suo Spirito.In this vve knovv that vve abide in him, and he in vs: because he of his Spirit hath giuen to vs.In hoc cognoscimus quoniam in eo manemus, et ipse in nobis: quoniam de Spiritu suo dedit nobis.
14And we have seen and do testify that the Father hath sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.E noi abbiamo veduto, ed attestiamo, che il Padre ha mandato il suo Figliuolo Salvatore del mondo.And vve haue seen, and doe testifie, that the Father hath sent his Sonne the Sauiour of the vvorld.Et vos vidimus, et testificamur quoniam Pater misit Filium suum Salvatorem mundi. 15Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.Chiunque confesserà, che Gesù è Figliuolo di Dio, Dio abita in lui, ed egli in Dio.Vvhosoeuer shal confesse that IESVS is the Sonne of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.Quisquis confessus fuerit quoniam Jesus est Filius Dei, Deus in eo manet, et ipse in Deo. 16And we have known and have believed the charity which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.E noi abbiam conosciuto, e creduto alla carità, che Dio ha per noi. Dio è carità: e chi sta nella carità, sta in Dio, e Dio in lui.And vve haue knovven and haue beleeued the charitie, vvhich God hath in vs. God is charitie: and he that abideth in charitie, abideth in God, and God in him.Et nos cognovimus, et credidimus caritati, quam habet Deus in nobis. Deus caritas est: et qui manet in caritate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo. 17In this is the charity of God perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment: because as he is, we also are in this world.In questo è perfetta la carità di Dio in noi, se abbiamo fiducia pel di del giudizio: perché quale egli è, tali siam noi in questo mondo.In this is charitie perfited vvith vs, that vve may haue confidence in the day of iudgement: because as he is, vve also are in the vvorld.In hoc perfecta est caritas Dei nobiscum, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii: quia sicut ille est, et nos sumus in hoc mundo. 18Fear is not in charity: but perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain. And he that feareth is not perfected in charity.Il timore non istà colla carità: ma la carità perfetta manda via il timore, perché il timore ha tormento: e chi teme, non è perfetto nella carità.Feare is not in charitie: but perfect charitie casteth out feare, because feare hath painefulnes and he that feareth, is not perfect in charitie.Timor non est in caritate: sed perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem, quoniam timor pœnam habet: qui autem timet, non est perfectus in caritate. 19Let us therefore love God: because God first hath loved us.Noi adunque amiam Dio, dappoi ché egli il primo ci ha amati.Let vs therfore loue God, because God first hath loued vs.Nos ergo diligamus Deum, quoniam Deus prior dilexit nos.
20If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?Se uno dirà: io amo Dio; e odierà il suo fratello, egli è bugiardo. Imperocché chi non ama il suo fratello, che vede, come può amare Dio, cui egli non vede?If any man shal say, that I loue God: and hateth his brother, he is a lier. For he that loueth not his brother vvhom he seeth: God vvhom he seeth not, hovv can he loue?Si quis dixerit, Quoniam diligo Deum, et fratrem suum oderit, mendax est. Qui enim non diligit fratrem suum quem vidit, Deum, quem non vidit, quomodo potest diligere ? 21And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother.E questo comandamento ci è stato dato da Dio: che chi ama Dio, ami anche il proprio fratello.And this commaundement vve haue from God: that he vvhich loueth God, loue also his brother.Et hoc mandatum habemus a Deo: ut qui diligit Deum, diligat et fratrem suum.
4:1
Witham
Try the spirits; that is every doctrine that you hear: for now are many false teachers, false doctors, and false prophets. (Witham)
Challoner
Try, etc. viz. by examining whether their teaching be agreeable to the rule of the Catholic faith and the doctrine of the Church. For, as he says, (ver. 6) "He that knoweth God, heareth us: (the pastors of the Church) ...by this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (Challoner)
The Church only, not every private man, hath to prove and discern spirits.
4:2
Witham
By this is the Spirit of God known. He gives the new converts first this general mark, by which they might have good grounds to think that the teachers they met with in those days had a good spirit, were of God, if they confessed and acknowledged Jesus Christ to have come from heaven and to have been made flesh, or made man; that is to be truly God and truly man. But if (ver. 3) they met with teachers of such a spirit as dissolveth Jesus,[Ver. 2. Qui solvit Jesum. Kataluei is read in some manuscripts and must have been the reading which the Latin interpreter followed. We read the same in St. Irenaeus, lib. 3. ch. XVIII. p. 197. Ed. Feuardentii; in Tertullian, lib. 5. contra Marcion. ch. XVI. p. 481. Ed. Rigaltii; in St. Augustine in his commentary on these words, trac. 6, p. 871.] by denying him either to be the Messias or to be truly God, or to be a true man, they might conclude for certain that such men had not a true spirit, but were heretics, antichrists, and forerunners of the great antichrist. Such, even in St. John's time, was Simon the magician, who, according to St. Epiphanius, (haer. xxi. p. 55. Ed Petav.) pretended among his countrymen, the Samaritans, that he himself was God the Father, and among the Jews that he was God the Son, and that Jesus suffered death in appearance only. His disciple also, Menander, said he was sent from heaven for the salvation of men. See St. Epiphanius, haer. xxii. p. 61. 3. Cerinthus, as also Carpocras, held that Jesus was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary, and also different from Christ. See St. Epiphanius, haer. xxxvii. and xxix. p. 102. and 110. 4. Ebion held much the same. See the same St. Epiphanius, haer. xxx. p. 142. These heretics and divers of their followers divided Jesus, and destroyed the faith and mystery of the incarnation. (Witham)
Challoner
Every spirit which confesseth, etc. Not that the confession of this point of faith alone, is at all times and in all cases sufficient; but that with relation to that time, and for that part of the Christian doctrine, which was then particularly to be confessed, taught, and maintained against the heretics of those days, this was the most proper token by which the true teachers might be distinguished from the false. (Challoner)
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Challoner
That dissolveth Jesus, viz. either by denying his humanity or his divinity. (Challoner)
This is antichrist;[Ver. 3. Et hic est antichristus, kai touto (pneuma) to tou antichristou. By the Greek hic cannot agree with the man, and so the construction in Latin must be, hic est ille spiritus antichristi.] that is such is the spirit of antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, or is to come in the latter times.
Witham
And he is now already in the world, not the chief and great antichrist, but his precursors, in whom he may be said to come. (Witham)
Challoner
And he is now already in the world. Not in his person, but in his spirit and in his precursors. (Challoner)
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Witham
You....little children, born anew in Christ by baptism, have overcome him, (that is, every such antichrist) not by your own strength, but by the grace of Christ, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world; that is the Spirit of God in you is above all your enemies. (Witham)
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Witham
They are of the world. Such antichrists and heretics are guided by a worldly spirit, teaching men to follow the corrupt customs and inclinations of the world and the flesh, therefore the world heareth them, and men are more easily seduced by them. (Witham)
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We (Christians) are of God, have received the Spirit; we, the apostles of Christ, were lawfully sent by him.
He that knoweth God, heareth us, etc. That is, they who love and serve God, and comply with the doctrine of his Son, Jesus Christ, hear and follow the doctrine which we were commissioned by him to teach.
He that is not of God, heareth us not. They are not of God, who refuse to hear and obey the voice of the Church and those whom Christ appointed to govern his Church, as hath been observed elsewhere.
Witham
By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Here St. John gives them the second general mark and rule, to preserve them and all Christians from errors and heresies to the end of the world. He that knoweth God, heareth us Apostles, whom he sent, and heareth our successors, invested with the same mission and authority, whom Christ sent, as his heavenly Father sent him, whom he appointed to govern his Church, and with whom he promised to remain to the end of the world. (Witham)
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Let us love one another. This is the repeated admonition of St. John, the evangelist, both in this epistle and to the end of his life, as St. Jerome relates in his Epist. ad Galat. (cap. vi. tom. 4, part 1, p. 414) that the apostle being very old, and when carried to Church meetings of the Christians, being desired to give them some exhortation, he scarce said any thing, but "love one another;" and it being tedious to his disciples to hear always the same thing, they desired some other instruction, to whom (says St. Jerome) he gave this answer, worthy of St. John: that this was the precept of our Lord, and that if complied with, it was sufficient.
Charity is of God, is love, is the fountain and source of all goodness and mercy, infinitely good in himself, and in his love and mercy towards mankind. This love and charity of God hath appeared by his sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. See John 1:14.
Witham
Thus God having first loved us, (ver. 10) when we were sinners, and his enemies, let us not be so ungrateful as not to love him, and to love one another after his example. (Witham)
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Witham
No man hath seen God at any time. No mortal man hath seen God and the perfections of his divine Majesty in such a manner as the blessed in heaven, but we have powerful motives to love and serve him, and to love our neighbour for his sake. (Witham)
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Witham
The charity of God (which may either signify the love by which we love God, or by which God loves us) perfected with us, or in us, and so possesseth our souls, as to give us an humble confidence of our salvation, when we shall appear before his tribunal at the day of judgment: because as he is, we also are in this world. These words are differently expounded. They may signify, that as God is always loving us, and giving us marks and effects of his love, so we in this world by his grace are always loving him and our neighbour, and increasing in this love, which gives us a confidence of our salvation. Or they may bear this sense, that as Jesus Christ was suffering in this world for us, so we are suffering for his sake. (Witham)
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Witham
Fear is not in charity, etc. By the fear, which a perfect charity and love of God excludes, we may understand a fear of temporal losses in this world, of the loss of goods, of banishment, of torments, of death itself, which the love of God made so many glorious martyrs contemn; or an anxious servile fear of punishment in the next world, for the more perfect charity and the love of God is, so much the more doth it banish this imperfect and servile fear; but as perfect charity does not exclude a love, and constant desire of loving God as our last end, for whose enjoyment we were created, so it does not exclude a fear of displeasing, offending, and losing him by sin. (Witham)
Challoner
Perfect charity, or love, banisheth human fear, that is, the fear of men; as also all perplexing fear, which makes men mistrust or despair of God's mercy; and that kind of servile fear, which makes them fear the punishment of sin more than the offence offered to God. But it no way excludes the wholesome fear of God's judgments, so often recommended in holy writ, nor that fear and trembling with which we are told to work out our salvation. (Philippians 2:12.) (Challoner)
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Witham
He that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not? By this is signified, that it is more easy and natural to love the things that we see, and that enter by the senses. Pretend not then to love the invisible God, whose perfections are hidden from you in this life, unless you love your brother whom you see. But he adds another reason to prove that no man can love God unless he love his brother; because saith he, (ver. 21.) this is God's express command, that he who loveth God love also his brother: so that a man cannot love God unless he also love his neighbour. (Witham)
4:1
4:2
Every spirit which confesseth, etc.... Not that the confession of this point of faith alone, is, at all times, and in all cases, sufficient; but that with relation to that time, and for that part of the Christian doctrine, which was then particularly to be confessed, taught, and maintained against the heretics of those days, this was the most proper token, by which the true teachers might be distinguished form the false.
4:3
That dissolveth Jesus.... Viz., either by denying his humanity, or his divinity. He is now already in the world.... Not in his person, but in his spirit, and in his precursors.
4:18
Fear is not in charity, etc.... Perfect charity, or love, banisheth human fear, that is, the fear of men; as also all perplexing fear, which makes men mistrust or despair of God’s mercy; and that kind of servile fear, which makes them fear the punishment of sin more than the offence offered to God. But it no way excludes the wholesome fear of God’s judgments, so often recomended in holy writ; nor that fear and trembling, with which we are told to work out our salvation. Phil. 2.12.
4:1
1. Beleeue not euery spirit.] Heretical boasting of the spirit. That is, Receiue not euery doctrine of such as boast them selues to haue the spirit. For there be many false prophets, that is to say, Haeretikes, which shal goe out of the Church, and chalenge the spirit, and vaunt of Gods word, Scripture, and Gospel, vvhich in deede be seducers.
1. Proue the spirites.] The Church only, not euery priuate man, hath to proue and discerne spirites. It is not meant by this place, as the Protestants vvould haue it, that euery particular person should of him self examine, trie, or iudge who is a true or false doctor, and which is true or false doctrine. But the Apostle here would euery one to discerne these diuersities of spirites, by taking knovvledge of them to vvhom God hath giuen the gift of discerning spirites and doctrines (vvhich S. Paul expresly saith is giuen but to some, and not to euery one, 1 Cor. 12.) and by obeying the Church of God, to whom Christ hath giuen the Spirit of truth. Io. 14, 16. And this is onely the sure way to proue the spirites and doctrines of these daies. And al they that would bring vs from our Pastors and the Churches iudgement, to our owne priuate trial, seeke nothing els but to driue vs to miserable vncertainty in al our beleefe. Caluin. as Caluin doth, who vpon this place saith, that priuate men may examine the general Councels doctrines.
4:2
2. Euery spirit that confesseth.] To confesse or deny any article which the Cath. Church teacheth, is at al times a certaine marke of Catholike or heretike. The Apostle speaketh according to that time, and for that part of Christian doctrine which then vvas specially to be confessed, taught, & mainteined against certaine vvicked Haeretikes, Cerinthus, Ebion, and the like, that taught wickedly against the person and both natures of Christ IESVS. The Apostle therfore giueth the faithful people this token to knovv the true teachers of those daies from the false. Not that this marke vvould serue for al times, or in case of al'other false doctrines, but that it vvas then a necessarie note. As if a good Catholike vvriter, Pastor, or parents would vvarne al theirs, now in these daies, to giue care onely to such teachers as acknowledge Christ our Sauiour to be really present, and sacrificed in the B. Masse, & that al such are true preachers and of God, the rest to be of the Diuel, or to be counted the spirit of Antichrist. Vvhich spirit of Antichrist (he saith) was come euen then, and is no doubt much more novv in al Haeretikes, al being precursors of that great Antichrist vvhich shal come tovvards the later end.
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3. That dissolueth.] Many old heresies that dissolued Christ. To dissolue, loose, or separate IESVS a sunder, vvas proper to al those old Heretikes that taught either against his Diuinitie, or Humanitie, or the Vnitie of his person, being of two natures, as Cerinthus, Ebion, Nestorius, Eutyches, Manes or Manichaeus, Cerdon, Apelles, Apollinaris and the like. And this is one place by vvhich vve may see that the common Greeke copies be not euer authentical, The Greeke text corrupted by old heretikes. and that our old approued translation may not alvvaies be examined by the Greeke that novv is, vvhich the Protestants onely folow: but that it is to be presupposed, vvhen our old Latin text differeth plainely from the Greeke, that in old time either al or the more approued Greeke reading was othervvise, and that often the said Greeke was corrupted then or since by Heretikes or otherwise. For of the Greekes, S. Irenaeus li. 3. c. 18: among the Latin fathers, S. Augustine tract. 6. in fine, S. Leo ep. 10. c. 5, and Venerable Bede did reade as we doe. and this reading maketh more against the said Heretikes, then that vvhich the common Greeke novv hath, to vvit, Euery spirit that confesseth not Christ to haue come in flesh, is not of God. vvhich is also in effect said before vers. 2. And that therfore it vvas corrupted and altered by Heretikes, see the vvordes of Socrates also a Greeke vvriter, very agreable to this purpose. li. 9. 9. 3•. Nestorius (saith he) being eloquent by nature, vvhich is often in Heretikes, accounted him self therfore learned, & disdained, to study the old interpreters, counting him self better then them all: being ignorant that in S. Iohns Catholike epistle old (Greeke) copies had, EVERY ONE THAT DISSOLVETH IESVS, IS NOT OF GOD. So saith he, adding moreouer that such as vvould separate the diuinitie from the, dispensation of Christs humanitie, tooke out of the old copies this sense. for vvhich the old expositours noted that these which would loose IESVS, had corrupted this Epistle. See also the Tripartite li. 12. c. 4.
〈Greek〉
4:6
6. In this, vve knovv.] A sure marke of true of false teachers. This is the most sure & general marke to knovv the true spirites and prophets from the false: that those vvhich be of God, wil heare and obey their Apostles and lavvful pastors succeding the Apostles, and submit them selues to the Church of God: the other, that be not of God, wil not heare either Apostle, pastor, or Church, but be their ovvne iudges.
Concordance Io. 8, 47 10, 27.
4:7
In the liturgy The Epistle vpon the first Sunday after Pentecost.
4:8
Concordance Io. 3, 16.
4:11
Concordance Io. 1, 18. 1 Tim. 6, 16.
4:12
No man in this life, nor with corporal eies, cā see the proper essence or substāce of the Deitie. See S. August. ad Paulin. de vidēdo Deo. ep. 112.
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17. That vve may haue confidence.] Confidence called in Latin Fiducia, • Against the Protestāts special faith and presumptnoua securitie of saluation. is neither alone with faith, nor a persuasion infallible that maketh a man no lesse secure and certaine of his saluation, then of the things that vve are bound to beleeue, as the Protestants falsely teach: but it is onely a hope wel corroborated, confirmed, and strengthened vpon the promises and grace of God, and the parties merites. And the vvordes both folowing & going before, proue also euidently against the Protestants, that our confidence and hope in the day of iudgement dependeth not onely vpon our apprehension of Christs merites by faith, or vpon his grace and mercie, but also vpon our conformitie to Christ in this life, in charitie and good vvorkes. 2 Pet. 1, 10. And that is the doctrine of S. Peter vvhen he said, Labour, that by good vvorkes you may make sure your vocation and election. and S. Paules meaning, vvhen he said, I haue fought a good fight, 2. Tim. 4. 7. there is laid vp for me a crovvne of iustice, vvhich our Lord vvil render to me in that day, a iust iudge.
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18. Feare is not in charitie.] The feare of God in iust men, cōn̄fisteth with charitie. The Heretikes very falsly vnderstand this place so, that Christian godly men ought to haue no doubt, mistrust, or feare of hel and damnation. Vvhich is most euidently against the Scriptures, commending euery where vnto vs the awe and feare of God and his iudgements. Feare him (saith our Sauiour Mat. 10) that can cast body and soul into hel. And Psal. 118. Pearse my flesh vvith thy feare. Vvhich feare of Gods iudgements caused S. Paul & al good men to chastise their bodies, 1. Cor. 9. lest they should be reprobate and damned. Prou. 28. And the vvise man for this cause affirmeth him to be happie, that is euer fearful. And holy Iob faith, Iob c. 9. I feared al my vvorkes. And the Apostle, Vvith feare and trembling vvorke your saluation. Phil. 2. Vvhich kinde of feare is euen in the iustest men and most ful of charitie, consisting wel with the same vertue, and is called Filialis is timer, because it is such as the good childe ought to haue toward his father.
But there is a kinde of feare vvhich standeth not with charitie, Vvhat feare agreeth not with charitie. and is cleane against hope also, that vvhich bringeth such perplexitie and auxietie of conscience, that it induceth a man to mistrust or despaire of Gods mercies. That seruile feare also vvhich maketh a man often to leaue sinning and to doe the external vvorkes of iustice, not for any loue or delight he hath in God or his lawes, Seruile feare is not il. but onely for feare of damnation, though it be not il in it self, but very profitable, as that vvhich helpeth toward the loue of God, yet it standeth not with charitie neither, but is daily more and more lessened, and at length quite driuen out by charitie. Of these kinde of feares then the Apostle speaketh, and (as some expound) of the feare of men also, of vvhich our Sauiour saith, Feare not them that kil the body. Mat. 10.
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Concordance Io. 13, 34, 15, 12.
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.16.8
… Take heed to them, that ye lose not what ye have wrought.” And again does he say in the Epistle: “Many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit which separates Jesus Christ is not of God, but is of antichrist.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.16
… as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the Apostle John, who says that “already many false prophets are gone out into the world,” the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh,
St Hippolytus † AD 235 A discourse by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ 10
… and even now are there many antichrists; but go not after them. Believe not every spirit, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) 16
… “Lord, in Thy name did we not cast out demons, and in Thy name did many mighty works ?” He answered, “Verily I say unto you, I know you not;” for the Lord knoweth not the ways of the wicked. But we ought always to pray, as I said above, that we may receive the gift of discerning spirits; that, as it is written
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 To the Bishops of Egypt 1.3
… Therefore He suffered them not to speak such words, neither would He have us to suffer such, but hath charged us by His own mouth, saying, ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps’ clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves ;’ and by the mouth of His Holy Apostles, ‘Believe not every spirit
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 3.34
Chapter 34.— 39. Petilianus quotes also the warning of the Apostle John, that we should not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 55
… our next inquiry, which we must conduct with care, is, What faith it is which the apostle commends with so much earnestness? For indiscriminate faith is not good. Accordingly we find this caution: “Brethren, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.11
… of water is signified the Holy Spirit, and this epistle saith to us, “Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they be of God;” let us understand that of this it is said, “From strange water keep thee far, and from a strange fountain drink thou not.” What meaneth, “From a strange fountain drink thou not”? A strange spirit believe thou not.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 1.20
… And this we can do, if we carry out the Apostle’s advice, “Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.9
… “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, born of a woman.” Also in the Epistle of John: “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. But whosoever denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist.”
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 6.12.6
6. For having obtained this Gospel from others who had studied it diligently, namely, from the successors of those who first used it, whom we call Docetæ
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.2
… for knowledge is not perfect unless it confesses Jesus Christ from eternity to be only-begotten God, true Son of God, and, according to the flesh, begotten of a Virgin. Which also this very Evangelist has taught us elsewhere, saying: “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 11
[2.] Wherefore then does he use the expression, “was made”? To stop the mouths of the heretics. For since there are some
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.12
… Behold, he is about to tell the sign. “Hereby is known the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in this world.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.3
3. “In this we know that we love the sons of God.”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 7.32
… In fact he contemned the drudgery of an accurate examination of the ancient expositors: and, puffed up with his readiness of expression, he did not give his attention to the ancients, but thought himself the greatest of all. Now he was evidently unacquainted with the fact that in the First Catholic epistle of John it was written in the ancient copies,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
… But that you may know that they who deny the flesh of the Saviour are of the opposite spirit, hear the great John in his Catholic Epistle saying “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Anti-Christ.”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Letters 164
… “every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh is of God , and every spirit which dissolves Jesus is not of God , but this is antichrist
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 34
… about which the blessed Apostle John has forewarned us in no doubtful utterance, saying, “every spirit which confesses Christ Jesus to have come in the flesh is of God : and every spirit which destroys Jesus is not of God , and this is Antichrist
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Antiochians 5
… He also that confesseth Christ, yet not as the Son of the Maker of the world, but of some other unknown being, different from Him whom the law and the prophets have proclaimed, this man is an instrument of the devil. And he that rejects the incarnation, and is ashamed of the cross for which I am in bonds, this man is antichrist.
St Polycarp † AD 155 Epistle to the Philippians 7
“For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Prescription Against Heretics 33
… John, however, in the Apocalypse is charged to chastise those “who eat things sacrificed to idols,” and “who commit fornication.” There are even now another sort of Nicolaitans. Theirs is called the Gaian heresy. But in his epistle he especially designates those as “Antichrists” who “denied that Christ was come in the flesh,”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.16
… as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the Apostle John, who says that “already many false prophets are gone out into the world,” the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh, and do not acknowledge
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Flesh of Christ 24
… Surely he is antichrist who denies that Christ has come in the flesh.
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 22
… Up to the present moment they have not, tribe by tribe, smitten their breasts, looking on Him whom they pierced. No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist;
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 72.15
… And when they say that there can be no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, no communion between light and darkness, how can either darkness illuminate, or unrighteousness justify? And when they say that “they are not of God, but are of the spirit of Antichrist,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Dialogue Against the Luciferians 1
… the Galatians had been led away to the observance of the law, and the Apostle was a second time in travail with them; the Corinthians did not believe the resurrection of the flesh, and he endeavoured by many arguments to bring them back to the right path. Then came
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.7
7. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 8
… that no allurements may deceive the incorruptible stedfastness of your faith, no threats terrify you, no sufferings or tortures overcome you, because “greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world;”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus 10
John, in his epistle, proves this, saying: “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.11
… “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Of this same thing to the Romans: “And they worshipped and served the creature, forsaking the Creator. Wherefore also God gave them up to ignominious passions.” Of this thing also in John: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.2
2. “Now,” saith he, “are ye of God little children, and have overcome him:”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 7.8
… Wherefore as there is in them ample power of inciting, so in us there is a supply of power of rejection, and of liberty of acquiescing. But if we are afraid of their power and assaults, we may also claim the protection and assistance of God against them, of which we read: “For greater is He who is in us than he who is in this world:”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 26
… your Father which is in heaven ?” We know indeed, as the Apostle John says that “the whole world lieth in the evil one ,” and that by the stratagems of the Devil and his angels numberless attempts are made either to frighten man in his struggle upwards by adversity or to spoil him by prosperity, but “greater is He that is in us, than he that is against us
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 39
… But “stronger is He that is in us than He that is against us
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 5.19
… Wherefore let thy Love be in nothing afraid. All things that you see to be lofty in this world against the truth in behalf of the truth despise; trust in the grace of Almighty God , and the help of the blessed Apostle Peter. Remember the voice of the Truth, which says, Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world (
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.3
… if, hanging on the cross, He did not say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”? But if He threatened not, who had power; why dost thou threaten, why art thou inflated with anger, who art under power of another? He died because it was His will to die, yet He threatened not; thou knowest not when thou shalt die, and dost thou threaten?
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 8.7
… whereas the Law and the prophets hang on both precepts. But this, too, is because he who loves his neighbor must needs also love above all else love itself. But “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.4
… “For God is love” [Love is God]. What more could be said, brethren? If nothing were said in praise of love throughout the pages of this epistle, if nothing whatever throughout the other pages of the Scriptures, and this one only thing were all we were told by the voice of the Spirit of God, “For Love is God;” nothing more ought we to require.
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.40
… because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth.” And again, “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. But we know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him: for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.4
… Now, he does judgment and justice who lives aright. But he lives aright who yields obedience to God when He commands. “The end of the commandment,” that is, to which the commandment has reference, “is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” Moreover, this “charity,” as the Apostle John testifies, “is of God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 8.8
… whence it may be gathered that these two commandments cannot exist unless interchangeably. For since “God is love,” he who loves love certainly loves God; but he must needs love love, who loves his brother. And so a little after he says, “For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.17
… Therefore God the Holy Spirit, who proceedeth from the Father, when He has been given to man, inflames him to the love of God and of his neighbor, and is Himself love. For man has not whence to love God, unless from God; and therefore he says a little after, “Let us love Him, because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.22
That love, however, which is a virtue, comes to us from God, not from ourselves, according to the testimony of Scripture, which says: “Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God: for God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.21
… Accordingly, there would be no desire of good in man from the Lord if it were not a good; but if it is a good, we have it not save from Him who is supremely and incommunicably good. For what is the desire for good but love, of which John the apostle speaks without any ambiguity, and says, “Love is of God”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.14
For that very pride has so stopped the ears of their heart that they do not hear, “For what hast thou that thou hast not received?” They do not hear, “Without me ye can do nothing;” they do not hear, “Love is of God;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 37
… For indeed, if it be not of God but of men, the Pelagians have gained the victory; but if it come from God, then we have vanquished the Pelagians. Let, then, the Apostle John sit in judgment between us; and let him say to us, “Beloved, let us love one another.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 40
… The true faith, however, and sound doctrine declare that both graces are from God; the Scripture says, “From His face cometh knowledge and understanding;” and another Scripture says, “Love is of God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace 9
… What do we do, we who have not received?” They who say this wish to appear without blame in respect of their not obeying God, because assuredly obedience itself is His gift; and that gift must of necessity be in him in whom dwells love, which without doubt is of God,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 2.56
Wherefore if I am unwilling to appear ungrateful to men who have loved me, because some advantage of my labour has attained to them before they loved me, how much rather am I unwilling to be ungrateful to God, whom we should not love unless He had first loved us and made us to love Him! since love is of Him,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.4
… he that heareth not us, hath the spirit of error. Let us see what he adviseth, and let us choose rather to hear him advising in the spirit of truth, and not antichrists, not lovers of the world, not the world. If we are born of God, “beloved,”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 2 Timothy 6
… Dost thou fast every day? So also did those virgins, but it availed them nothing. Dost thou pray? What of that? prayer without alms-giving is unfruitful, without that all things are unclean and unprofitable. The better part of virtue is destroyed. “He that loveth not his brother,” it is said, “knoweth not God.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 148.18
18. It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt,—that God shall be seen by the inward man, which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, “God is love;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 219.2
… Receive, then, with the love of fathers and of brethren, him whom we have with merciful severity corrected. For although one part of the work was done by you and another part by us, both parts, being indispensable to our brother’s salvation, were done by the same love. The same God was therefore working in both, for “God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 7.3
6. The Holy Spirit also, whether we are to call Him that absolute love which joins together Father and Son, and joins us also from beneath, that so that is not unfitly said which is written, “God is love;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 8.7
… but He says, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” For humility, which is most solid, is more powerful and safer than pride, that is most inflated. And so He goes on to say, “And ye shall find rest unto your souls,” for “Love is not puffed up;” and “God is Love;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of Holy Virginity 52
… As though truly it were any kind of virginity, and not that which is after God, which we had undertaken to set forth. And this good, by how much I see it to be great, by so much I fear for it, lest it be lost, the thief pride. Therefore there is none that guardeth the virginal good, save God Himself Who gave it: and God is Charity.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 67.2
… for one star differeth from another star in glory; and so also the resurrection of the dead. The saints, like the stars in the sky, obtain in the kingdom different mansions of diverse degrees of brightness; but on account of that one penny no one is cut off from the kingdom; and God will be all in all in such a way, that, as God is love,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.10
… He must of necessity love God, must of necessity love Him that is Love itself. Can one love his brother, and not love Love? Of necessity he must love Love. What then? because he loves Love, does it follow that he loves God? Certainly it does follow. In loving Love, he loves God. Or hast thou forgotten what thou saidst a little while ago, “Love is God”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 80.2
… “The fulness of the Law is love.” Do not run after many things, and strain thyself. The amplitude of the branches doth terrify thee: hold by the root, and of the greatness of the tree think not. Be there in thee love, and the fulness of knowledge must needs follow. For what doth he not know that knoweth love? Inasmuch as it hath been said, “God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 99.4
… But, now that it is clear that Sion is the city of God; what is the city of God, but the Holy Church? For men who love one another, and who love their God who dwelleth in them, constitute a city unto God. Because a city is held together by some law; their very law is Love; and that very Love is God: for openly it is written, “God is Love.”
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St Polycarp † AD 155 Epistle to the Philippians 8
Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, “who bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.21
… Accordingly it is nowhere written in the Scriptures, ‘the first-born of God,’ nor ‘the creature of God;’ but ‘Only-begotten’ and ‘Son’ and ‘Word’ and ‘Wisdom,’ refer to Him as proper to the Father . Thus, ‘We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father ;’ and ‘God sent His Only-begotten Son
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.7
7. “In this was manifested the love of God in us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.9
9. “In this is love—in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into this world, that we may live through Him.—In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us:”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.17
… For the Father only is so God as not to be of God; and hence the love that is so God as to be of God, is either the Son or the Holy Spirit. But when, in what follows, the apostle had mentioned the love of God, not that by which we love Him, but that by which He “loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiator for our sins,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 4
… And with regard to God Himself, its object is that, even if it were an irksome task to love Him, it may now at least cease to be irksome for us to return His love, seeing that “He first loved us,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Patience 18
… If then, being already just, the Apostles were elected by Christ, they would have first chosen Him, that just men might be chosen, because without Him they could not be just. But it was not so: as Himself saith to them, “Not ye have chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” Of which the Apostle John speaks, “Not that we loved God, but that He loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.27
… For what merits could we possibly have had at the time when we loved not God? In order, indeed, that we might receive that love whereby we might love, we were loved while as yet we had no love ourselves. This the Apostle John most expressly declares: “Not that we loved God,” says he, “but that He loved us;”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.9
… “And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins: “ litatorem ,” i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered. “Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another.
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Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 15
… as he had said that the Word of God was God, in order that he might give no help to the presumption of the adversary, (which pretended) that he had seen the Father Himself and in order to draw a distinction between the invisible Father and the visible Son, he makes the additional assertion, ex abundanti as it were: “No man hath seen God at any time.”
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 18
Behold, the same Moses tells us in another place that “God was seen of Abraham.” And yet the same Moses hears from God, that “no man can see God and live.” If God cannot be seen, how was God seen? Or if He was seen, how is it that He cannot be seen? For John also says, “No man hath seen God at any time;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 148.6
… We have seen the Spirit, but in a bodily form: let us see the Father also; but since we cannot see Him, let us hear Him.” A little after he says: “Let us hear the Father, then, for the Father is invisible; but the Son also is invisible as regards His Godhead, for ‘no man hath seen God at any time;’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.10
… Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it, possess it: no need that ye should rob any man, no need that ye should think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what must it be when one has it?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.12
12. “No man hath seen God at any time.” See, beloved: “If we love one another, God will dwell in us, and His love will be perfected in us.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 4.5
… and so through the indifferent use of either title, since God is joined to man, whatever is God and man, can be termed altogether God. And so the same Apostle well adds the words: “Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and the love of God is perfected in him.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.25
… ‘Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.9
95. In like manner that you may recognize the Unity, it is also said of the Spirit: “For he that soweth in the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.” And John says: “Hereby we know that He is in us because He hath given us of His Spirit.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 2.10
… “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven.” But the Evangelist John, who had drunk in wisdom from the breast of Christ, agrees herewith, and says:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.12
… thou shalt be perfected. Hast thou begun to love? God has begun to dwell in thee: love Him that has begun to dwell in thee, that by more perfect indwelling He may make thee perfect. “In this we know that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.13
13. “And we have seen, and are witnesses, that God hath sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 4.4
… and so since Christ and the Word were united in the mystery of the Incarnation, Christ and the Word of God became one Son of God in either substance. And when the Apostle John was anxious to state this clearly, he said “God sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 31
… and they deny the Son, when they suppose Him to be the same as the Father, by assigning to Them things which are not Theirs , and taking away from Them things which are Theirs . But “whosoever shall confess that (Jesus) Christ is the Son of God” (not the Father), “God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.25
… so that our being in the Father is not ours, but is the Spirit’s which is in us and abides in us, while by the true confession we preserve it in us, John again saying, ‘Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Unity of the Church 14
… He who has not charity has not God. The word of the blessed Apostle John is: “God,” saith he, “is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.4
… If thou wouldest offer thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave thou thy gift before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift at the altar.” Also in the Epistle of John: “God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 73.10
… for “God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 148.5
… “And if in anything we be diversely minded, God shall reveal even this unto us,” if we abide in Him. Now he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, for “God is love,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 6.5
… Therefore the Holy Spirit, whatever it is, is something common both to the Father and Son. But that communion itself is consubstantial and co-eternal; and if it may fitly be called friendship, let it be so called; but it is more aptly called love. And this is also a substance, since God is a substance, and “God is love,” as it is written.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 8.8
… and with what is he full, who is full of love, except with God? Well, but you will say, I see love, and, as far as I am able, I gaze upon it with my mind, and I believe the Scripture, saying, that “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 9.1
… Even as now our wish is to see whether the Holy Spirit is properly that love which is most excellent which if He is not, either the Father is love, or the Son, or the Trinity itself; since we cannot withstand the most certain faith and weighty authority of Scripture, saying, “God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.3
… and by means, too, of love, which in the Holy Scriptures is called God,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.6
… only we discerned it in a sense, because there was no bulk wherein we must needs think the magnitude of two or three to be more than that of one. But when we came to treat of love, which in the Holy Scriptures is called God,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.17
… The Scriptures, accordingly, have not said, The Holy Spirit is Love. If they had said so, they would have done away with no small part of this inquiry. But they have said, “God is love;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 121
… For this love embraces both the love of God and the love of our neighbor, and “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” we may add the Gospel and the apostles. For it is from these that we hear this voice: The end of the commandment is charity, and God is love.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 9
… To this is added another testimony which the Apostle John offers, when he says, “For God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Patience 15
15. For, as the Divine utterances testify, “God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 3.5
… Let no one say, I will follow such an one, for it was even he that made me a Christian; or, I will follow such an one, for it was even he that baptized me. For "neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." And "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 40
… even as the apostle knew when he said, “But we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” John says, “God is love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 17.8
… “No man hath seen God at any time”? And, that you may not suppose yourself to be wholly estranged from seeing God, he saith, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.1
… Let us now come back to the order which was interrupted; and what remains, holy brethren, receive ye with all attention. I know not whether charity could be more magnificently commended to us, than that it should be said, “Charity is God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 149.3
… do we already see God? and how are we Israel, if we see not? There is one kind of sight belonging to this present time; there will be another belonging to the time hereafter: the sight which now is, is by faith; the sight which is to be will be in reality. If we believe, we see; if we love, we see: see what? God. Ask John: “God is love;”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 10.7
… “that they all may be one as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us,” when that perfect love of God, wherewith “He first loved us”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 16.13
Finally so highly is the virtue of love extolled that the blessed Apostle John declares that it not only belongs to God but that it is God, saying: “God is love: he therefore that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God in him.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.2
2. “Herein is our love made perfect in us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 11.9
… “that ye may be,” says He “sons of your Father which is in heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise on the good and evil, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust:” and this feeling the blessed John knew that he had attained when he said: “that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is so are we also in this world.”
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Clement of Alexandria † AD 215 The Stromata, or Miscellanies fragments-of-clemens-alexandri
Chap. iv. 18 . He says, “Perfect love casteth out fear.” For the perfection of a believing man is love.
Tertullian † AD 220 Scorpiace 12
… yet (if any man suffer) as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.” John, in fact, exhorts us to lay down our lives even for our brethren, affirming that there is no fear in love: “For perfect love casteth out fear, since fear has punishment; and he who fears is not perfect in love.”
Tertullian † AD 220 De Fuga in Persecutione 9
… Finally, mindful of his own Revelation, in which he had heard the doom of the fearful, (and so) speaking from personal knowledge, he warns us that fear must be put away. “There is no fear,” says he, “in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear has torment”—the fire of the lake, no doubt. “He that feareth is not perfect in love”
Tertullian † AD 220 De Fuga in Persecutione 14
… but recall that God has said, “He who receives it, let him receive it,” that is, let him who does not receive it go his way. He who fears to suffer, cannot belong to Him who suffered. But the man who does not fear to suffer, he will be perfect in love—in the love, it is meant, of God; “for perfect love casteth out fear.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.26
… up hence.” For though the little one even be an heir, yet as being a child he differs nothing from a servant when he is a child, and to the extent to which he is little “has the spirit of bondage to fear;” but he who is not at all any longer such has no longer the spirit of bondage, but already the spirit of adoption, when “perfect love casteth out fear;”
St Phileas † AD 307 Fragments of the Epistle of Phileas to the People of Thmuis, Part I 1
… and though the guards showed their fury against them not only by threatenings in word, but also by deeds of violence, they did not swerve from their resolution, because perfect love casteth out fear .
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 8.10.3
… not once only, but some also a second time. And although the guards vied with each other in threatening them in all sorts of ways, not in words only, but in actions, they did not give up their resolution; because ‘perfect love casteth out fear.’
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… And the Angel says to them again, Fear not ye ; I say not to the soldiers, fear not , but to you ; as for them, let them be afraid, that, taught by experience, they may bear witness and say, Truly this was the Son of God ; but you ought not to be afraid, for perfect love casteth out fear
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 82.3
… and not only a parent but a bishop ought to be loved by his children. Neither ought to be feared. There is an old saying: “whom a man fears he hates; and whom he hates, he would fain see dead.” Accordingly, while for the young the holy scripture makes fear the beginning of knowledge, it also tells us that “perfect love casteth out fear.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.5
… and will you on the shores of Libya, yourself an exile, accept an exile for a husband? Where will you find a matron to be present at your bridal? Whom will you get to escort you home? No tongue but a harsh Punic one will sing for you the wanton Fescennine verses. Away with all hesitations! ‘Perfect love’ of God ‘casteth out fear.’
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 133.6
… For I have read the song of the psalmist: “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Every good thing that we have is a tasting of the Lord. When I fancy myself to have finished the book of virtue, I shall then only be at the beginning. For “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and this fear is in its turn cast out by love.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 145.4
… For the man who only fears the flames of hell is afraid not of sinning, but of being burned; but the man who hates sin as much as he hates hell is afraid to sin. This is the “fear of the Lord,” which “is pure, enduring for ever.” For the fear of punishment has torment, and is not in love; and love, when it is perfect, casts it out.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 218.2
… because even the love of God, which, when it is perfect, “casteth out fear,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.9
For that fear of which the Apostle John says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.24
… They have not tasted it. For they hope in themselves, not in Him; and therefore God’s abundant sweetness is hidden from them. They fear God, indeed, but it is with that servile fear “which is not in love; for perfect love casteth out fear.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 9
… For we are not reconciled unto Him except through that love in virtue of which we are also called sons: as we are no more “under fear, like servants,” because “love, when it is made perfect, casteth out fear;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of Holy Virginity 39
… “Fear,” indeed, “there is not in charity, but perfect charity,” as it is written, “casteth out fear:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Correction of the Donatists 6
But, moreover, holy Scripture has both said concerning the former better class, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Nature and Grace 67
… Accordingly he here says: “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” So far, indeed, as any man is led by the Spirit, he is not under the law; because, so far as he rejoices in the law of God, he lives not in fear of the law, since “fear has torment,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 21
… They, however, are oppressed by the commandments of God, who try to fulfil them by fearing. “But perfect love casteth out fear;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 33
… Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” This love the Apostle Peter did not yet possess, when he for fear thrice denied the Lord. “There is no fear in love,” says the Evangelist John in his first Epistle, “but perfect love casteth out fear.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 43.5
… For how does God tempt not any man , and how does the Lord your God tempt you, to know whether ye love Him? It is also written, “There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 43.16
16. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw, and was glad.” Abraham’s seed, Abraham’s Creator, bears a great testimony to Abraham. “Abraham rejoiced,” He says, “to see my day.” He did not fear, but “rejoiced to see it.” For in him there was the love that casteth out fear.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 85.3
… for it is only the Lord that so enables us, and by such means only do we attain to His friendship. For just as there are two kinds of fear, which produce two classes of fearers; so there are two kinds of service, which produce two classes of servants. There is a fear, which perfect love casteth out;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 88.1
… if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you”? It is clear, therefore, that when it is said, “Henceforth I call you not servants,” He is to be understood as speaking of that servant who abideth not in the house for ever, but is characterized by the fear which love casteth out;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 92
… And that certainly was still wanting to Peter, when, terrified by the question of a lady’s maid, he could give no true testimony; but, contrary to his own promise, was driven by the greatness of his fear thrice to deny Him. But there is no such fear in love, for perfect love casteth out fear.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 95.1
… But in my opinion, because there was to be shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit that love which casteth out the fear,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.4
4. Now therefore concerning this same boldness, let us see what he says. Whence do we understand that charity is perfect? “There is no fear in charity.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 5.9
… But that this may come to a happy issue, “I will” first, he says, “worship at Thy holy temple.” And perhaps on this account he added, “in Thy fear;” which is a great defence to those that are advancing toward salvation. But when any one shall have arrived there, in him comes to pass that which is written, “perfect love casteth out fear.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 19.10
… but that chaste fear wherewith the Church, the more ardently she loves her Spouse, the more carefully does she take heed of offending Him, and therefore, “perfect love casteth” not “out” this “fear,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.33
… But in sufferings of tribulations the thing itself is sorrowful, but the hope is strong. For, “if that which we see not we hope for, through patience we wait for it.” But breadth the shedding abroad of love in the heart doth give. For “love perfected casteth out fear:” which fear “hath torment,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.6
… For fear doth prevail in the law. “But the end of the law is Christ for righteousness to every one believing;” at whose bestowing “love is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which hath been given to us:” and love made perfect doth cast out fear,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.5
… but it is stablished in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore stablisheth His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He giveth the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle saith, “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;” for “perfect love casteth out” this “fear,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 149.10
… Wherefore then are they bonds of iron and not bonds of gold? They are iron so long as they fear: let them love, and they shall be golden. Observe, beloved, what I say. Ye have heard just now the Apostle John, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 4.39
… ninthly, if he governs his tongue, and is not over talkative; tenthly, if he is not easily moved or too ready to laugh. For by such signs and the like is true humility recognised. And when this has once been genuinely secured, then at once it leads you on by a still higher step to love which knows no fear;
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 11.7
… for fear hath torment, but he who fears is not perfect in love. We therefore love because God first loved us.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 11.12
… “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear: for fear hath torment. But he that feareth is not yet perfect in love.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 11.13
… “O fear the Lord, all ye His Saints: for they that fear Him lack nothing.” For where a man fears the Lord with this fear it is certain that nothing is lacking to his perfection. For it was clearly of that other penal fear that the Apostle John said that “He who feareth is not made perfect in love, for fear hath punishment.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.13
… They are to be admonished that, if they desire to be truly free from evils, they should dread eternal punishments; nor yet continue in this fear of punishments, but grow up by the nursing of charity to the grace of love. For it is written, Perfect charity casteth out fear (
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.27
… In order, indeed, that we might receive that love whereby we might love, we were loved while as yet we had no love ourselves. This the Apostle John most expressly declares: “Not that we loved God,” says he, “but that He loved us;” and again, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.55
… and nothing but God’s grace alone, through Him who is the Mediator between God and men, and our Almighty Physician, succours it. Now, since we have already prolonged this work too far in treating of the assistance of the divine grace towards our justification, by which God co-operates in all things for good with those who love Him, and whom He first loved
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 38
Let no one, then, deceive you, my brethren, for we should not love God unless He first loved us. John again gives us the plainest proof of this when he says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 82.2
… continue ye in my love.” Here, then, you see, is the source of our good works. For whence should we have them, were it not that faith worketh by love? And how should we love, were it not that we were first loved? With striking clearness is this declared by the same evangelist in his epistle: “We love God because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 102.5
5. “For the Father Himself,” He says, “loveth you, because ye have loved me.” Is it the case, then, that He loveth, because we love; or rather, that we love, because He loveth? Let this same evangelist give us the answer out of his own epistle: “We love Him,” he says, “because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.9
9. “Let us love, because He first loved us.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.17
… “O look Thou upon me,” he saith, “and be merciful unto me: according to the judgment of those that love Thy Name” ( ver. 132 ): that is, according to the judgment Thou has dealt unto all who love Thy Name; since Thou hast first loved them, to cause them to love Thee. For thus saith the Apostle John, “We love God, because He first loved us.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.4
… For he who hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” Also in the same place: “If any one shall say that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 17.8
… Thou however, as thou dost not yet see God dost earn to see Him by loving thy neighbor; by loving thy neighbor thou purgest thine eye for seeing God, as John evidently says, “If thou lovest not thy brother whom thou seest, how canst thou love God, whom thou dost not see?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.10
… For if thou question him and say, For what dost thou cling to Him? and he should say, That He may give me—Give thee what? It is He that made the heaven, He that made the earth: what shall He give thee? Already thou are cleaving to Him: find something better, and He shall give it thee.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.11
11. “For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.1
1. I Suppose ye remember, those of you who were present yesterday, to what place in the course of this epistle our exposition has reached: namely, “He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.3
… “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” And then he goes on to say, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members.” John was speaking just before of brotherly love, and said, “He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 35
… for this is the message which we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” Then he says again, “This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.” Once more: “And this commandment have we from Him that he who loveth God love his brother also.”
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1. Most dearly beloved, &c. By the word spirit he means suggestion, inspiration, impulse, teaching or rather the person himself who suggests, inspires, teaches, &c. He means, do not give credit to everything which every teacher or adviser teaches and advises you. For there are diverse, yea contrary teachers, who are influenced by contrary spirits. Wise and orthodox teachers are moved by the good Spirit of God, wicked and erring teachers, such as heretics, by the evil spirit of the devil. And so, as Dionysius says, the good, or evil spirit, speaks by the mouth of doctors. Thus the devil, speaking by the mouth of the serpent, tempted and seduced Eve. There is a reference to sailors, who do not trust every spirit, or breath, or blast of wind, for if they did, they would miss their destined port, and would be often driven upon rocks and quicksands. Wherefore he bids us examine and search out by what spirit teachers are led before we give them our confidence. This is the forewarning which Paul gives 1Ti 4: i. "The Spirit speaketh expressly," &c.
But try ye (as gold is tried by the Lydian stone), Syriac, discern Ye between: because, as saith Ambrosiaster, "unclean spirits are wont by imitation to say good things deceitfully, and so to superinduce evil things, that by means of the things which are good the evil things may be accepted, so that they should be supposed to be the words of one and the same spirit, and that they should not be discerned the one from the other, but that which is unlawful should be commanded by that which is lawful." Moreover, that Lydian stone by which spirits and doctrines are to be tried is not every one's own private spirit. For this may be, and often is, moved by the devil, as when one is contrary to another: (for from this have been generated as many sects conflicting with themselves, as the poets have feigned heads to Cerberus but it must be the doctrines of the Apostles and the Church. For this is the certain and common heritage of all the faithful. Such was that teaching which S. John suggests as suitable and necessary for his own age, saying, "Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." Falsely therefore do the heretics argue from this passage that their heresies ought to be tried and examined. For they have been examined and condemned by the Church. So there is no need, nor indeed is it right for each private Christian to try them. Thus S. Jerome says to Pammachium, "Why after 4000 years dost thou strive to teach what we have not known before? Has the Christian world been without this doctrine until to-day?" And S. Augustine says (contra Crescen. lib. 2. c. 35), "The Church, ye say, hath perished, and ye show of whom ye are sprung." And Vincent of Lerius says, "If novelty is to be shunned, antiquity is to be held fast: if novelty is profane, antiquity is sacred." And Primasius says acutely, "The spirits have been already tried by the Church. Why dost thou wish to prove that which hath been already disproved?" Moraliter: S. John here teaches that no Christian ought to trust all his inward motions, impulses, inspirations, desires, reasons seemingly good, but ought carefully to examine their origin and their author. Thus a man of a melancholy temperament perceives motions and impulses to sadness, pusillanimity, suspicion. Let him not give way to them. For if he examine their origin, he will find that they arise from the evil spirit of melancholy, which is false and deceitful. The choleric man is agitated by blasts of anger, revenge, indignation. He thinks he is moved by a zeal for justice. But let him with a calm mind and reason search into their origin, and he will find they spring from the evil spirit of bile and anger. Thus when the Samaritans would not receive Christ, and James and John said, "Lord, wilt thou that we call down fire from heaven to consume them?" He answered, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of." For ye think ye are moved by the Spirit of God, and ye are acted upon by the human spirit of impatience. Thus many think they are led by the Spirit of God, that is to say by the Spirit of truth, sobriety, chastity, charity; whereas, if they would thoroughly and sincerely, as in the presence of God, examine the ground of their heart, they would find that they are led by the spirit of the devil, that is to say, of vanity, gluttony, lust, &c. Wherefore in those blasts, passions, and tumults of the mind, the judgment ought to be suspended. And most especially ought the Holy Spirit to be invoked, that He would bestow upon us the gift of discernment of spirits.
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In this is known the Spirit of God. He means, This is the pledge of the true faith and doctrine, which the Spirit of God teaches and suggests, that is to say, every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. This therefore was in the time of S. John as it were the pledge and the symbol of the true Christian faith, namely, to believe and confess the Incarnation of Christ the Son of God, and the rest of the Dispensation in the flesh. For all the heretics and heresies at that time fought against this article of the faith as something new and strange. Some denied Christ's Divinity, and taught that He was a mere man, as Cerinthus and others denied Christ's humanity, and said that it was not real, but a phantasm. Such were Simon Magus, Manes, and many others. S. Augustine adds that all heresies reject Christ Incarnate, because they oppose His doctrine, Church, Sacraments, Pontiff, or priestly order, which He established. Thus Pelagius, in denying the grace of Christ, although with his lips he confessed His Incarnation, in reality overthrew it, because the Incarnation of Christ took place for the very purpose of giving us grace. You may say the same of Luther, Calvin, and the rest of the sectaries. For which cause S. John calls all heresiarchs antichrists, because they are all opposed to Christ's doctrine and His Church. Mystically: Œcumenius understands this confession of the coming of Christ in the flesh "to be made not with the tongue, but by works." For not many heretics only, but bad Catholics also, confess Christ in words, but deny Him by their deeds. It means, he who confesses Christ, both by living rightly, as well as by believing truly concerning Him, this man is of God. So Bede. As S. Augustine says, "Let us confess that Christ has come in the flesh, both by speaking the truth in words, and by living well in deeds. For if we confess in words, and deny by deeds, the faith of such is very nigh the faith of devils." Ver. 3. And every spirit which dissolves (solvit) Jesus, is not of God. (Vulg.) It means that Jesus is composed of the Godhead and the manhood by the bond of the hypostatic union. He therefore who loosens this bond, by denying that Christ is God, as do the Arians, or that He is man, as other heretics, is not of God, but of the devil. For such deny that Christ the Son of God came from heaven in the flesh, and say that He is God only or man only. This is what is set forth to be believed in the Athanasian symbol concerning Christ. "For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man are one Christ;" where observe that the word as signifies union and unity, not the same but similar. For the rational soul and flesh make our composite being, our man. But the Godhead and the manhood united in Christ make one composite Being, not essentially, but substantially, or hypostatically. Nor indeed does the Godhead inform the Humanity in the same way that the soul informs the body, but subsists whole and immingled. It unites the Manhood to Itself in the same hypostasis of the Word. Wherefore Nestorius truly dissolves Christ, teaching that in Him are two Persons, as there are two Natures, and that therefore in Christ the man is diverse and distinct from God. Christ therefore as God in the Humanity is as the pearl in the shell, conceived and formed of virgin matter, and the dew of the Holy Ghost, most fair by the innocency of His life, most bright by the light of His wisdom, rounded by the possession of all perfection, having the weight of constancy, the polish of meekness, the price of blessedness. So Salmeron. Observe: the Greek and Syriac read here, Every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. So also reads S. Cyprian (l. 2. contr. Jud.), Tertullian (lib. de Carne Christ, c. 24), though they, instead of does not confess, read who denies. But the rest of the Latin Fathers have generally which dissolves, as above. So S. Leo (Epist. 10 c. 5), Tertullian also (lib. contr. Psych. c. 1), and Irenæus (lib. 3 c. 18), and S. Augustine on this passage, who also brings forward and explains the other reading. Moreover, in the Greek, instead of ὸμολογε̃ι, i.e., confess, it was formerly read α̉ναλύει, i.e., dissolves. This we learn from Didymus and S. Cyril (de Fide ad Regin.). And from him Socrates writes (l 7 c. 32), speaking of Nestorius, who denied that the Blessed Virgin was the Mother of God, as follows: "He was ignorant that in ancient copies of the Catholic Epistle of John, it is written, 'Every spirit which dissolves Jesus is not of God.' For those who wished to separate the Godhead from the dispensation of the Manhood took away this sentence out of the ancient codices." Allegorically: he dissolves Christ, who by schism rends the Church, which is the Body of Christ. "Christ," says S. Augustine, "came to gather together: thou comest to dissolve. How dost thou not deny that He came in the flesh, when thou breakest in pieces the Church which He gathered together?"
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And this is Antichrist: The Greek reads, And this is of Antichrist; the Syriac, This is from the false Christ himself. And S. Cyprian reads (contr. Jud. lib. 2 c. 7 vol. 8), He who denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist. In a similar manner, John the Baptist is called Elias, not in person, but in office and spirit.
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Because he comes (Vulg.), i.e., will surely come.
And now already he is in the world, not in person, but in spirit; that is to say, in his forerunners. This is what Paul says, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." (2Th 2:7.) Thus Luther paved the way for Mahometanism, and consequently for Antichrist, by teaching, amongst other things, that the Turk ought not to be resisted. This he attempted to prove by the following sophistical argument We must not resist the scourge of God, for that is the same thing as resisting God scourging us. But the Turk is the scourge of God. Therefore the Turk ought not to be resisted. The same argument would prove that thieves and robbers ought not to be resisted, for they are all a scourge of God. But there are scourges that ought to be scourged by the magistrates, for they are not by the direct, but the permissive will of God. And what other effect would such an argument have but to subject all Christians to the Turks, and make them Turks? Wherefore when the Turkish Sultan Solyman asked the imperial ambassador how old Luther was, and received in reply that he was forty-eight, he said he was sorry that on account of his impending old age he would not be able to assist him as much in the time to come as he had done. Luther makes a boast of this Solyman's good opinion of him (lib. Symposiac), and glories in his entire good-will towards him. Ver. 4. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because ye, O Christians, are of God, who is the prime and eternal Truth, therefore ye have overcome him; namely, the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of error and heresy. Hence the Greek and Syriac read them, i.e., ye have overcome the false prophets, and spirits of error. S. Cyprian (lib. de Simp. Prelat.) reads νικα̃τε, i.e., overcome them, as a voice exhorting to battle and victory. The present Greek text has νενικήκατα, ye have overcome them, the voice of congratulation on account of victory.
For greater is He that is in you, &c. He gives the reason of victory, namely Christ and His Spirit of truth, which rules the faithful, and who is greater than the devil, and his spirit of error, who rules over the world, i.e., worldly men, heretics and impious persons. He says this to impress humility upon the faithful, that they should ascribe their victory, not to their own strength, but to the grace of God. The same principle may be extended to every temptation. Wherefore S. John says (Rev 12:11), "They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony." And the Church sings in her hymn for martyrs, "Thou conquerest in the martyrs." 3. S. Ambrose (Hom. 1 de Elisæo) extends the same principle to hostile armies: "I remember that I have often said that we ought by no means to fear the warlike assaults of enemies, nor dread their numbers, however vast. For, as the Apostle says "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." Christ is more powerful to protect His servants than the devil is to urge their enemies on. For although the devil collects his multitudes, and arms them with cruel rage, yet are they soon destroyed, because the Saviour encompasses His people with better defenders. For the prophet says, "The Lord shall send His angel round about them that fear Him, and deliver them." But if the angel of the Lord rescues them that fear Him out of dangers, they who fear the Saviour cannot fear barbarians. Neither can he who keeps the precepts of Christ fear the attack of an enemy." He gives the reason, the arms of Christ. "The commands of Christ are the arms of Christians. And the fear of God drives out the enemies' fear. Our arms are those with which the Saviour has provided us, prayer, mercy, and fasting. Fasting is a better defence than a wall. Mercy more easily delivers than rapiers. Prayer hath a longer flight than an arrow." Then he confirms what he says by the example of Elisæus when he was encompassed by the hosts of Syrians. He said to his trembling servant, "Fear not, for more are they that are with us, than they that are with them."
4. S. Prosper (lib. 1 de Vocat. Gent.) extends it to the daily temptations of the faithful. He shows, in opposition to Pelagius, that there is need of the grace of God to overcome them. "The victory of the saints," he says, "is the work of God dwelling in the saints."
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5. Some extend it to every arduous work, so that each Christian should animate himself by saying to himself, "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." And with S. Paul, "I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me." And with S. Cyprian, "He who is greater than the world cannot desire anything of the world." (lib. 2, Eph 2). And he adds, "He becomes greater and stronger in might, so that with imperial authority he rises superior to all the hosts which attack him." "Let us despise therefore everything under heaven as vain and deceitful, and unworthy of our love." And with S. Hilary, "Let us be lowly in heart, but lofty in mind," for we bear upon our head the strength and omnipotence of Christ. I once saw in Belgium a colonel who said to the heretics who were menacing hi, "I fear none of you, for I bear the crown of Spain upon my head." So let the Christian say, "I bear upon my head, not the crown of Spain, but the crown of God. Therefore I fear not all the power of men and devils; no, not all the might of hell. I challenge them all to battle." Thus did S. Athanasius challenge all the Arians and the whole world. For "if God be for us, who can be against us?" What great things by the power of God did S. Paul, S. Antony, S. Simeon Stylites, S. Francis, and all the virgins, heroes, and martyrs! We can do likewise through the same God "who triumphs," i.e., "who makes us to triumph in Christ." (2Co 2:14). And God Himself has made us this promise (Isa 58:24), saying, "I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth," so that like an eagle dwelling in heaven thou mayest there despise whatsoever is in the world. This Seneca saw as in a shadow, when he said, "We must seek for that which does not become more worthless day by day. And what is that? It is the mind. But this must be a mind right, and good, and great. And what else can you call this but God dwelling as a guest in a human body?" (Epist. 54.)
5. They are of the world, &c. For heretics are not of God but of the world, because they love the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world. Whence worldly people, who care only for what is of the world, gladly hear them. "A heretic," says S. Augustine (de util. credendi), "is he who for the sake of some temporal advantage, but especially of glory, and the pre-eminence which it gives, either brings forth or follows new and false opinions." "All heretics," says Tertullian, "are puffed up, all make profession of science." "What heretic," says S. Jerome, "does not swell with pride?" And again, S. Augustine says, "One mother, pride, hath brought forth all heresies, even as our own mother, the Catholic Church, all faithful Christians dispersed throughout the world." Ver. 6. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us, &c. Even as Christ saith, "He that heareth you, heareth Me: he that despiseth you, despiseth Me," We, i.e., all the faithful, who have been born again in baptism, and are endued with charity. We, viz. the predestinated. 3d. And last: We, i.e., the Apostles. For, as Œcumenius says to heresiarchs, who, he said, spoke of the world, and from the world i.e., who teach worldly and carnal cupidity to them he opposes the Apostles, who being born of God, and imbued with heavenly doctrine, and being sent by God, teach men to covet things spiritual, divine, and heavenly. Wherefore he who practically knows God, i.e., he who loves Him, heareth us, i.e., me John, and the rest of the Apostles, and Apostolic men. But he who does not love God, and therefore is not of God, but of the world, this man heareth not us. Wherefore he adds, By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error; by this, namely, "because he that heareth us hath the spirit of truth, he that heareth not us hath the spirit of error," as S. Augustine saith. For heretics, who are led by the spirit of error, teach the things of the world: but the Apostles and Apostolic Doctors, who are born of God, teach things Divine. Ver. 7. Dearly beloved, let us love one another. These words are rightly connected with what preceded. He means that the spirit of error is the spirit of cupidity, but the Spirit of truth is the Spirit of love and charity. Erroneous and heretical doctrine teaches men to love honours, wealth, gluttony; but the Apostles teach us to love God and our neighbour. He subjoins the reason:
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For love is of God. The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of charity, that we may love one another; because as truth is from God, so also is charity. Yea, God, who is the chief and eternal Truth, is also the highest and uncreated Love. Wherefore it follows as a necessary consequence, that any one who loveth (not by natural, but by supernatural charity) is born of God. Being born again of faith and charity, which are from God, he is made a child of God. For charity is a supernatural faculty, giving to the soul the ability to love God and our neighbour. That he may know God, not merely theoretically, but practically, because he supremely loves God whom he knows to be the Highest Good. Again, love causes a man more fully to know, and to have taste and experience of God, as it were by spiritual taste. And this taste and experience grow continually, even as love increases. Especially is this so, because God manifests Himself to him who loves, and more clearly reveals Himself to him by interior illuminations, inspirations, and consolations, according to that promise of Christ, "He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him." (Joh 14:21). Observe: Love is of God, 1st. Because the essential, uncreated charity flows naturally from the Divine Essence Itself, like heat from fire. Indeed, the Divine Essence Itself is Love. 2d. Because the Holy Spirit is Itself substantial or essential (notionalis) Love. For He, as essential Love, proceeds from the Father and the Son by that act of love by which they love one another with an infinite love. 3d. Charity was created by God, because it is the highest and noblest gift of God, according to the words (Rom. v. 5), "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts;" not as if the charity wherewith we love God were itself God, or the Holy Spirit. For this is an exploded error. But because God, who is uncreated Love, inspires and kindles in us that created charity with which we love Him. As the light illuminating produces the light illuminated, as S. Augustine says (Confess. 12. 15). And this is precisely S. John's meaning in this place, in which he tacitly intimates that this gift is not to be ascribed to our own strength, but is to be asked of God by constant prayer. 4th. Charity is of God, because God first loved us (1Jo 4:19), and by loving us inflames us to love Him in return. 5th. Charity is of God, because it is sanctioned by the law of God, and frequently and especially commanded by it. For the whole Decalogue is nothing else but the law of love to God and our neighbour. From hence it follows that God is in Himself formal charity, and in us causal charity, and that as respecting every kind of cause: material, because He Himself is the object of our love; formal, because He is the pattern of the same; efficient, because He produces it in us; He is the final cause, because He is our end, and the end of our love. Lastly, natural love is from nature, carnal love from the flesh, worldly love from the world; but supernatural love, or charity, is from God alone. Ver. 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God. S. John having said just above, Every one that loveth is born of God, now proves the same thing from the contrary. He means, he who loveth not God and his neighbour, although he may know God speculatively, does not know Him practically, that is, experimentally. Just as no one knows experimentally the savour and sweetness of honey unless he taste it. For as taste is known by tasting, so is love known and tasted by actually loving. Wherefore, although S. John might in a similar manner have said, He who is not wise doth not know God, because God is Wisdom; or he who is not patient, knows not God, because God is Patience; or he who is not humble, knows not Christ, because Christ is Humility, and so on nevertheless, preferred to say, He that loveth not, knoweth not God, because God is Love. This was (1.) Because he is treating of charity, not of wisdom, patience, &c. (2.) Because being full of the love of God and Christ, he breathes and delights in nothing else. For, as S. Bernard says, "Between the bridegroom and the bride, i.e., between lovers, no union need be sought but to love and be loved, for that Spouse is not only loving, but Love Itself." This is what Jeremiah says (Jer 31:3), "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee."
For God is love: both formal and uncreate, and so essential, and also causal and created. For in God and the Divine Essence, on account of Its perfection and simplicity, there are no accidents, but those things which in us are accidents, are in God inseparable from His Essence. Wisdom, goodness, love, and power are themselves the Divine Essence. So the Council of Rheims defined against Gilbert. Moreover, God is charity, or love, both in the abstract and the concrete. For He is supreme affection, and loves supremely, and therefore ought to be supremely loved by us in return. God, then, is Love, because He hath supremely loved us. And He hath given us this most clear proof of His love in that He sent His only Begotten Son to save us. Hence S. Augustine and Bede teach that he who loves not his neighbour sins against God, because God is Love. Again, S. Chrysostom teaches that nothing can be compared with charity, because God Himself, who is incomparable, is Charity. Gagneius declares that we are certain that God loves us with an infinite love because He is very Love Itself. Hence the Fathers infer that Charity commands and embraces all the other virtues, for God commands and includes them. Ver. 9. In this love appeared: He now declares why he said, God is Love. It is because God hath declared His infinite love towards us by sending Christ in the flesh for our salvation, that by this means He might invite us to love Him back. There is an allusion to the words in 8. John's Gospel (Joh 3:19), "So God loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "Behold," says S. Augustine, "how we have an exhortation to love God. How could we love Him unless He had first loved us? If we were slow to love, let us not be slow to love again." Pathetically and learnedly does S. Paulinus write about S. Mary Magdalene (Epist. 4 ad Sever.): "Therefore, let us love Him whom it is our duty to love. Let us kiss Him whom to kiss is purity. Let us be joined to Him whose marriage-bond is virginity. Let us be subject to Him, at whose feet to lie is to stand above the world. Let us fall down because of Him for whom to fall is resurrection. Let us die for Him in whom is life. In whom we live though we are dead."
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In this, i.e., in the love of God wherewith He loved us. S. John, the beloved of Christ, lays special stress upon this, that God, moved by no love or duty on our part, but offended by our many provocations and wickednesses, first loved us. And when we were sinners and enemies, fleeing from Him, and fighting against Him, He followed us, and turned us by His love, that He might bring us back and save us. "For to this end He loved us," says S. Augustine, "that we might love Him." And therefore He sent his Son to be a propitiation, i.e., to be a propitiator, and a propitiatory victim for our sins. S. Augustine reads libatorem, a pourer of libations, and explains it to mean Sacrificer. As S. Augustine says again, "He loved the wicked, that He might make them holy. He loved the unjust, that He might make them just. He loved the sick, that He might make them whole." See in this how high the ways of God are above the ways of men. For with men, if any one despise them, vex or spoil them, straightway they hate him, and think how they may do him some greater injury. But God despised, contemned, robbed of His honour, injured in a thousand ways enlarges the bowels of His love towards us. With love He fights against man's hate. By hatred He is stirred up to love. Hatred is the whip of His love. He overcomes hatred by His infinite love, swallows it up, drowns and extinguishes it, as a mighty conflagration extinguishes a little drop of water. The love of God therefore towards His enemies is so wonderful, that by it He makes them His friends, His sons and heirs, and turns the greatest sinners into the greatest saints. Out of the thief upon the cross He made a preacher of Himself. Out of Saul He made S. Paul. Out of the sinful Magdalene He made a mirror of penitence and holiness. This is what Paul celebrates and admires (1Ti 1:15), "This is a faithful saving, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief; but therefore I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might shew all patience, for the instruction of those who should hereafter believe in Him unto eternal life."
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Ver. 11. Dearly beloved, if God so loved us, &c. If here is not a particle expressive of doubtfulness. It is not conditional, but causal, and is equivalent to because. It means, Because God so loves us. Christ uses a similar construction, when He says, "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet." S. John says if, rather than because, for the sake of greater weight and pathos, as it were lost in amazement at the infinite love of God. Wherefore it is advisedly and intentionally that he says after the antecedent, if God so loved us, not we therefore ought so to love God, which is impossible, but, we ought also to love one another. As much as to say, Since we cannot render equal love in return for Divine love, let us at least love one another according to our slender capacity. For what we do to our neighbour God accounts as done to Him. The word us includes also our neighbours. If God, who is not a partaker, vouchsafes to love all who participate in our nature, how much more does it become us to embrace with our love all who are of the same nature, and in respect of it are equals? Truly does S. Augustine say on this passage (Tract. 7): "Love, and do what thou wilt. For if thou art silent, thou keepest silence through love. If thou criest out, thou criest out in love. If thou correctest, thou correctest lovingly. If thou sparest, thou sparest in love. Let this be the root of love within. From that root nothing but love can spring." Ver. 12. No man hath seen God at any time. Why does S. John here introduce these words? It is because these words partly give the reason why from the antecedent, if God so loved us the inference is drawn we also ought to love one another, not God (as might seem to be the conclusion that should be drawn), because we cannot see God, and benefit Him by loving Him. Hence, in the place of God, we testify our love towards Him whom we cannot see and do good to, by doing good to our neighbour whom we can see and benefit. Partly the words invite us to love our neighbour, and cohere with what follows. As though he said, Zealously love your neighbour. For this love God reckons as given to Himself. For although we cannot see Him, yet, if we love our neighbour, He, the Invisible, will be most truly present with us, and thus abiding in our soul, will place His seat and throne there. Yea, His love will be fully imprinted and perfected in our soul. The reason is because indivisible and Divine charity conjoins and confederates us with the invisible God. Moreover, God, who is invisible in Himself, seems visible in our neighbour. For he is God's image. Observe, no one hath seen God at any time, viz., in His Essence, or face to face, in this life. Whence the Doctors teach, with probability, that neither Moses, nor Paul, nor any other mere man (for Christ saw God, but He was the God-man), hath seen the Divine Essence in this life, according to the words in Exod. xxxiii. "No man shall see Me and live." Yet S. Augustine holds a contrary opinion, and from him S. Thomas. Again, no man hath seen God, for neither is he able to see Him by the powers of his nature, as the Anomæans and Eunomæans supposed. Whom S. Chrysostom and S. Basil (lib. contr. Eunom.) refute. For the Blessed in heaven see God, but by the power of grace. For their mind is there elevated, and receives as it were another eye of a Divine order, even the light of glory, by which it sees God. By this sentence, then, S. John signifies that the majesty of God is so sublime, and so transcends, not only all other created things, but also the intelligence both of men and angels, that although He Himself is the most glorious Light, yet on account of His purity, subtilty, and sublimity, He cannot be perceived by any mind, or any created eye. S. John says the same thing in his Gospel (i. 18). But there he applies it to the knowledge of God, as here to the love of God. It is as though he said, "God is invisible, and therefore cannot (in Himself) receive any office of love from man, because He far transcends all human wealth, as well as human sight and action. Yet He makes so much account of love, and of those who love their neighbour, that He stoops to them from the topmost height of heaven, and as it were comes down, dwells and abides in their hearts. This is that which S. Paul speaks of (1Ti 6:16), "Who only hath immortality, and dwelleth in the inaccessible light, whom no man hath seen or can see." Lastly, S. Cyril of Jerusalem (Cateches. 9) thinks that God cannot be seen with the bodily eyes, because He Himself is incorporeal; and that therefore He stretches out the heaven itself as a veil before our eyes, lest the brightness of the Godhead should blind us, or kill us. But this is not true unless it be thus explained, that God, although dwelling Himself incorporeally in the empyrean, which is corporeal, and manifesting Himself and His glory to the bodies of the Blessed, there produces so great sensible light, which in some way sets forth His majesty, that it would blind the eyes of the Blessed, yea destroy them, unless they were fortified and preserved by the Divine power. Hence S. Epiphanius (in vii. Synod. Actor. 6) teaches that God as He is in Himself cannot be expressed by any image. Moreover also, Moses, forbidding the Jews to make an image of God, gives the reason. "Ye heard the voice of His words, but ye saw no shape, &c. Ye saw no similitude, lest being deceived ye should make a graven image." (Deu 4:12.)
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His love is perfected in us: perfected, because it is perfect and complete in all its parts. Now the parts and offices of charity are two-fold 1st. Love of God; 2d. Love of our neighbour. Wherefore, if there were only that part of charity that we loved God, it would be imperfect; but it is perfected and completed if the second be added, and charity extends to our neighbour. Again, the charity with which we love God is perfected by charity towards our neighbour, because we love our neighbour for no other reason than for God's sake. The love therefore of our neighbour for God's sake perfects the love of God, because that which is the reason why other things are loved is Itself much more loved. When therefore we love our neighbour for God's sake, much more do we love God Himself. 2d. The words may be understood of charity not ours, but God's. For this is the meaning of the word His: thus Although God be invisible, yet He abides in us by love. Moreover, He shows that He loves us with a perfect love, since abiding in us, He forms, preserves, and augments in us the charity with which we love, not only Himself, but our neighbour for His sake. This meaning is alluded to in the next verse. Moreover, charity is chiefly perfected by the love of our enemies, extending itself beyond our friends to our rivals, enemies, and persecutors. "The fire of charity," says S. Augustine, "first seizes upon our neighbours, and so extends itself further, from our brethren to strangers, from thence to our adversaries." Further on he teaches us to love our enemies, just as a physician loves the sick and insane. "When any one rages against thee, let him rage, but do thou entreat. When he hates, do thou pity. It is his fevered soul which hates thee. As soon as he is well, he will give thee thanks. How do physicians love the sick? Do they wish them always to be sick? They love the sick in order to make them whole. How much do they suffer from the insane! What reproaches! How often they are struck! The physician attacks the fever, he forgives the man." Ver. 13. In this we know that we abide in Him... by His Spirit, &c. By His Spirit, i.e., the participation of the Spirit, the communication of grace and charity, which are the gifts of the Spirit. In the preceding verse S. John said that God abides in us, and consequently we in God by charity. For so loving He abides in the lover and the beloved. For so God loves us and we God. He here inculcates the same thing, repeats it, and as it were enforces it by a reason. The reason is this, He who hath the Spirit of God abides in God, and God in him: but he who hath charity hath the Spirit of God. Therefore he who hath charity abides in God and God in him. The major premiss is self-evident, because where the Spirit of God is, there is God Himself. But where God is, there He unites to Himself the subject in which He is, and by, as it were, the infinity of His Essence incorporates and absorbs it, so that the subject should be more in God than God in it. He therefore who hath experience in himself of the Spirit of God, i.e. of charity, this man feels God's presence and liberality. He feels God to be in him and himself in God, in such wise that God is bestowing His gifts upon him, and printing His perfect image in him, according to the words, "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." (1 Cor. xii.) Ver. 14. And we have seen and do testify, &c. These words have reference to the 9th verse, where he saith that God hath shown His love to us by sending His Son. This he now proves and confirms by his own testimony, and that of the other Apostles. For they were the eye and ear witnesses, who saw, heard, and conversed with Christ Incarnate, as he said in the beginning of the Epistle. This is an allusion to S. John's Gospel (Joh 3:17). "For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that through Him the world might be saved." Whence S. Bernard saith (de amor Dei, c. 8), "Christ Himself is our Love, by whom we attain to Thee, by whom we embrace Thee: for how otherwise, O incomprehensible Majesty, couldest Thou appear comprehensible to the soul that loveth Thee? For although no understanding of any soul or spirit can comprehend Thee, yet the love of the loving soul comprehends Thee wholly as thou art." Ver. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, &c. He here maintains the Divinity of Christ because Ebion, Cerinthus, and many others at that time impugned it. This is as it were a conclusion drawn from the preceding verse. As though he said, Christ is the Saviour of the world. Whosoever therefore believeth in Him, and stedfastly confesses His faith, God abideth in him, and he in God. He abides, I say, by a true, living faith and confession, which includes charity, and which works by love. As S. Augustine says, "Whosoever shall confess, not in word, but in deed, not in tongue, but in life. For many confess in words, but deny by their deeds." Ver. 16. And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. In these words S. John confirms and inculcates what he has said in the two preceding verses. His meaning is, "We have seen and do testify of Christ incarnate, who is the Love of God, because we know Him by experience and conversation to be really such. And we have believed in Him by faith. Therefore we have believed the love which God hath in us, i.e., towards us, because we have believed that God in his infinite love towards us hath given to us Christ the Saviour. The Vulg. has in us, but the Syriac translates towards us. (So also the Eng. Version.) Observe: S. John moves in a circle. From God he leaps to Christ, from Christ to charity, from charity to love of our neighbour, from charity and love he returns to God, thence to Christ, and so on. For all these things have reference to this one point, that we should love one another. And this is his argument, God in His infinite charity hath loved us, i.e. all men, by giving Christ His Son for our salvation. Therefore it is just that we should imitate His charity, and answer to His love by loving our neighbours and doing good to them in His love, because we cannot do good to God Himself. Observe: the Vulgate renders more significantly, we have trusted in the charity (credidimus chatitate) than it is in the Greek (we have believed the charity [ credidimus charitatem ]), signifying that we are joined to the love of God, not only by faith, but likewise by hope and charity. We have not only known, and by faith believed the mystery of the Incarnation, in which God's peculiar love to us shines forth, but we have wholly trusted and committed ourselves to the Divine charity. We have fixed our whole faith, hope, and love upon it. We rest securely upon it in all things, certain that it can never fail us, and saying with the Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth which I desire in comparison of thee. God is the God of my heart, and my portion for eternity."
God is love: the Syriac reads, for God is love, giving the reason why he had said, and we have believed the love, and why God hath love towards us. The reason is because God Himself by His Essence is love. Therefore He cannot deceive him who believes, hopes in, and loves Him. Now the reason why God is essentially love is because He Himself in His Essence is pure, perfect, and highest goodness, whose nature it is to be plainly and fully communicative and diffusive of Himself. This, says S. Dionysius, is an attribute of love. For God is a sea of honey, an ocean of goodness and charity. God is as it were a fire always burning, kindling all things and transforming them into Itself. For "our God is a consuming fire." (Heb 12:29.) Listen to S. Bernard (Serm. 83 in Cant.): "I read," he says, "that God is love, not that He is honour, or dignity. It is not that God does not wish to be honoured, for He saith, 'If I be a Father, where is My honour?' Honour is the due of a father. But if he manifest Himself as a bridegroom, I think He will change His voice and say, 'If I be a Husband, where is My love?' For before this He had spoken, and said, 'If I be a Master, where is My fear?' God therefore requires to be feared as a master, to be honoured as a father, to be loved as a husband. What is it which shines pre-eminently amongst these? Surely it is love. Without love fear hath torment, and honour hath no grace. Fear is slavish until it be manumitted by love. And the honour which springs not from love is mere flattery. And indeed to God alone belong honour and glory: yet will He accept of neither unless they be flavoured with the honey of love." Therefore God is love, because love is as it were a spiritual flame, kindling all, and like light shining everywhere, and illuminating all things. Hence S. Dionysius (de Div. Nom. c. 24, part 1) says that "Divine love is a motive force drawing things upward to God, who alone is Himself of Himself beautiful and good." On these words of S. Dionysius our Lessius comments thus (de Div. Attrib. lib. 9, c. 2 and 3): "For by this very thing that God beholds His own infinite beauty and excellence, there arises in Him an infinite fire of love, by which he loves them as they are worthy to be loved, i.e. with an absolutely infinite love. For that which is beautiful and good, as soon as it is perceived, kindles love. Wherefore what is infinitely beautiful and good, when it is infinitely known, will excite infinite love; infinite, I say, both as to its warmth, and as to its appreciation, or, as the Schoolmen say, infinite intensively and appreciatively. 2d. That which is beautiful and good extends Itself and descends to the creatures, that It may communicate the same to them, either fully, or else some of Its rays and adumbrations, according to each one's capacity and merits. For of what we supremely love, we desire to make known to all the excellency and beauty, and that its sweetness should be perceived by all, so that all may praise it. Love does the same in God. A third effect of this love is that it raises creatures upward, and turns them to the beautiful and good. This especially obtains with angels and men: for other things cannot take in the Divine goodness and beauty. But in man other things are drawn in some way to God, both because all the other steps of nature are in him, and also because all other things are for him. 4th. The Divine love is ecstatic, because it draws the lover out of itself to the thing loved. For it causes God in a sense to forget His loftiness, and inclines Him to our humility, and makes Him to be wholly occupied in the business of our salvation. The token of which is the Incarnation, preaching, miracles, His passion, death, sacraments, the sending of the Holy Ghost, the perpetual and wonderful government of His Church, the care and direction of individuals. In like manner it sets man outside himself, making him think not of himself and his own advantage, but only of God, and the good things of God. Wherefore a great lover of God denies himself, renounces his own desires, is careless about benefits for himself; forgets himself, and is wholly taken up with the things of God. In thought and affection he is wholly outside of himself, and is translated to his beloved. Such was S. Ignatius the Martyr, who said, 'My Love is crucified.' Such was the Apostle S. Paul, who said, 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' There is an illustrious figure of this in the sun. For in things corporeal the sun is the highest beauty and greatest. Wherefore S. Gregory Nazianzen in a certain place saith, 'As is the sun in things sensible, so is God in things intellectual.' From the sun heat descends to lower things. It descends also by light. And things are illuminated before they receive heat. Receiving heat they become light, and are carried up to the sky. The sun is an emblem of God, and light of wisdom, warmth of love, and earthly things of souls and spirits. Love descends from God by wisdom. For first the mind is enlightened by the knowledge of the Divine beauty and goodness: then through that knowledge it conceives love. Love conceived makes the soul spiritual, heavenly, and presently draws it upward, and unites it to God, and makes it like to Him, the only and eternal One, as it were a parhelion, which is an express image of the sun."
And he that abideth in love, &c. And, i.e., therefore. For this is as it were the conclusion from the premisses. God is love, therefore he that remaineth in love, remaineth in God, because God and Love are one and the same thing. And God in him, as in a sort of temple of love. Thus love has united God to man, not only in affection and care, but also effectually and substantially, by, in truth, an hypostatic union. But it unites man to God, so that, wholly departing out of himself, he passes into God, and as it were loses himself, no longer thinking of anything, understanding or feeling anything b t God. Not seeking, or desiring any other thing, having joy in no other thing but the good things of God. He who is thus joined to God is made one spirit with Him, because he puts off himself, and puts on God. Wherefore, as if he was altogether transformed into the Divine nature, he is in thought and affection wholly in God. Thus all the Saints in heaven will be one with God (this the Lord prays for them, Joh 17:17-21.), because they all acknowledge their own nothingness, as they are in themselves, and value themselves at nothing, except so far as they belong to God, and are for Him. And in this way they altogether cease from themselves. For why should they abide in nothing? Thus by the intellect and the will they will be most powerfully borne to Him, and will be wholly in Him. And they will, as it were, flow into Him, and be transformed, feeling and tasting nothing else but God, valuing nothing but His good, altogether as if they themselves were changed into God. Listen to S. Augustine He who abideth in love, &c.: "They dwell one in the other, both that which contains and that which is contained." Again he saith, "Let God be thy house. be thou the house of God. Abide in God, and let God abide in thee. God abides in thee that He may contain thee. Thou abidest in God that thou mayest not fall. For thus speaks the Apostle of charity, 'Charity never falls.' How can he fall whom God holds?" For this cause, namely for a symbol of love, Christ instituted, and left to us by His testament, His very Self in the Eucharist, that indeed He might remain in us, and we in Him, not by a figure, as the heretics say, but really, substantially, personally, according to the words, "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him." (S. Joh 6:54.) The Eucharist therefore is the fuel and incentive of love, which S. John in his whole epistle commends. For by it, as S. Chrysostom says (Hom. 54 in Joan.), "Not only in love, but in reality let us be changed into that Flesh." By the Food which he has bestowed upon us this is brought about. For when He would show His love towards us, by means of His Body He commingled Himself with us, and brought Himself to be one with us, that body might be united with body. For this is the great desire of lovers." Pope Leo teaches the same thing. "The participation of the Body and Blood of Christ does this very thing, that we should pass into that which we receive." Lastly, S. Cyril of Jerusalem says, "Thus we shall be Christophus, i.e., Christ-bearers, when we have received His Body and Blood into our members: and thus, as Blessed Peter saith, we shall 'become partakers of the Divine nature.'" Wherefore S. Irenæus (lib. 5 c. 6), explaining 1Th 5:26, "that your whole spirit, soul, and body may be preserved," declares that the perfect man is renewed by the Body and Soul (of Christ) and the Holy Ghost dwelling in him. Beautifully does S. Bernard say (Serm. 71 in Song), "Who is he who is perfectly joined to God but he who remains in God, as beloved by God? He has drawn God to himself by loving Him again. Therefore since man and God are wholly united between themselves, they are united by a close and mutual, as it were, bosom affection. And that in this way God is in man, and man is in God, I say without any doubt. But man indeed has been eternally in God, as being eternally loved, but God has been in man since He has been loved (by man)." Herein is that saying of Cato true, "Those who love are in a manner dead in their own bodies, but live in another's." Therefore God by love willed to bring us back to our first beginning, to unite us, that is, to His own goodness and beauty, to transform us into Himself. This could not be done by nature, therefore He found a method whereby He might perfectly accomplish this by love, that by its warmth we might flow into and be absorbed in Him. As S. Bernard says (de Delig. Deo), "In that what is felt is wholly Divine, to be thus affected is to be deified. As a little drop of water infused in a great quantity of wine seems wholly to lose itself whilst also it takes the colour and flavour of wine. And as iron made red-hot in the fire becomes exactly like (fire), and ceases from its own original appearance. And as the atmosphere suffused with the solar light is transformed into the brightness, so that it seems to be not so much illuminated, as light itself. Thus it will be necessary that all human affection in the Saints should in an ineffable manner cease from itself, and be wholly transfused into the will of God." This indeed will be perfectly accomplished in the glory of heaven, but it is begun on earth by charity and grace. The same S. Bernard (Serm. 83 in Cant.) says, "Love is its own merit, its own reward. Beyond itself it requires neither cause nor enjoyment. Its enjoyment is experience. I love because I love. I love that I may love. A mighty thing is love. Yet if it recur to its origin, if it be brought back to its beginning, if it flow back to its fountain-head, it can always take of itself that wherewith it may flow. Love is the only one of all the motions, senses, and affections of the soul in which the creature can, although not upon an equality, yet in some likeness, respond to its Creator." Moreover, God abiding by love in the faithful soul produces in it these effects. First, it purifies it from earthly desires, so that it only seeks for and accomplishes heavenly things. Thus king Josaphat, when he was converted by Barlaam, burned with so great a fire of love that he left his kingdom, in his pleasures and honours; and as he went away into solitude he exclaimed, "Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul cleaveth unto Thee, O Christ. Let Thy right hand uphold me." (Damas. Hist. cap. 37.) 2d. The soul draws all its powers, senses, affections, love, faculties, thoughts, intentions Godward, so that it thinks only of God, sighs for Him, according to those words of S. Basil, "Have continually imprinted in thee the remembrance of God, as it were an indelible mark." For what does he seek for without who has God within? 3d. Love causes the soul to desire to do great and heroic things for God her beloved, and to endure many things, and to be made like unto Christ crucified. Thus while the Spouse saith in the Canticles, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His," she also saith, "A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved unto me, He shall dwell between my breasts." Which words S. Bernard explains thus (Serm. 43), "Myrrh is a harsh and bitter thing, and signifies the harshness of tribulations. Looking with joyfulness at such things impending over her for the sake of her Beloved, the Bride speaks thus, being confident that she can bravely endure them all. 'The disciples,' it says, 'went with joy from the presence of the Council because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus' name.' Lastly, the Bride speaks not of a bunch, but a little bunch (fasciculus), of myrrh, because she reckons all labours and sorrows light in comparison with love. Truly 'a little bunch,' because 'the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.'" 4th. It causes the soul to increase in love day by day. Listen to S. Bonaventura speaking of the charity of S. Francis (Lib. 1, Vit. ejus): "As it were a living coal of fire he seemed altogether absorbed in the Divine love. For as soon as he heard speak of the love of the Lord he was affected, roused up, inflamed, as though the inner chord of his heart were struck by the bow of the voice. In the midst of beauty he beheld Him the most beautiful, and by means of His footsteps impressed on visible things He followed His Beloved everywhere, making of all things a ladder for himself by which he might mount up to apprehend Him who is altogether desirable." And again, "He was inflamed with love towards the Sacrament of the Lord's Body with a thrill in every pulse, being lost in utter amazement at that most loving condescension of the Divine love." In chap. 13 he treats of the sacred stigmata. "The furnace of the love of the Blessed Jesus had grown in him to lamps of fire and flames. Since therefore he was drawn to God by the ardour of seraphic desires, and was transformed into Him by the fellowship of His sufferings who, out of his exceeding love, willed to be crucified, he beheld a seraph having six burning and glorious wings. There appeared between the wings the likeness of one crucified. He understood from, this that he should be wholly transformed, not by the martyrdom of the flesh, but by the inflaming of his mind into the likeness of Christ crucified. When the vision disappeared it left in his heart a marvellous ardour: in his flesh also it left a no less wonderful impress of the signs (of Christ crucified)." 5th. It causes the soul which is kindled with the love of God to be in earnest to kindle the whole world with the same love. Thus the Blessed Jacoponus, when he heard of some sin by which God was offended, burning with charity, was wont to be greatly troubled, and would straightway weep. When he was asked "why?" he would answer, "Because Love is not loved." Love is burning and hath wings. There is no tarrying in love. As S. Bernard says, "Love is nothing else than a burning will for good. He therefore who hath no zeal hath no love." 6th. It causes that the soul which loves God should, by its love and confidence in Him, as it were rule over Him, and obtain from Him everything it asks. Thus it becomes as it were almighty, as Jacob struggling with the angel, God's vicar, prevailed over him, and so was called Israel, i.e. "ruling God." Hence the paradox, "To a believer belongs the whole world of riches." Wherefore S. Francis says, "Fly from the creatures, if you wish to possess the creatures." 7th. God makes the loving soul like unto Himself in character and virtues, and so makes it to be conscious of His secrets. He reveals to it the secrets of hearts, and things distant, and yet to come, as He did to His Apostles and Prophets. 8th. This love tranquillises the soul, makes it calm and imperturbed, yea glad and joyful in adversity as well as prosperity. Thus it always exults in God, and gives Him thanks. It praises and blesses Him, singing with the Psalmist, "I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall ever be in my mouth" (xxxiv. 1). And it saith, "As oft as I breathe, I breathe unto Thee, O my God." Lastly, this love so increases in very eminent saints that it brings on a sort of languor, and at last death itself, according to the words of the Spouse (Song ii. 15), "Prop me up with flowers, support me with apples, for I am sick through love. His left arm shall be under my head, and His right arm shall embrace me." Thus the Blessed Virgin, languishing and panting for her Son, breathed out her soul into His hands, not from any disease, but from love and desire of enjoying Christ her Son. So teach Suarez, Canisius, and others.
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Ver. 17. In this is the love of God perfected, that we should have confidence, &c. Conf. Greek παζζησίαν, i.e., liberty, boldness in speaking. 1st. In this, i.e., with this end and fruit. Perfect charity produces this result, viz., confidence in the day of judgment both the particular and the general judgment. Hence the righteous desire the coming of the Lord, and desire like Paul to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. As S. Augustine says, "They live with patience, and die with delight." John descends from charity to its fruits. Of these he enumerates thus: (1.) Confidence to live and die trustfully. (2.) That the loving soul becomes without fear. (3.) That she obtains of God whatever she asks. 2d. And more powerfully. In this, i.e., God hath loved us and doth love us to such a purpose, and we in our turn are so allured by this precious love that we fully and perfectly love Him back again. And He so abides, I say, in us, that when we shall be examined by Him in the day of judgment concerning charity, we shall answer with confidence that we have loved, not the world, but Him, with our whole heart, and therefore He will award us the bliss of heaven. 3d. Others explain the words in this as follows: By this sign we know that we have perfect love, if casting fear away we can anticipate the judgment day with great hope and confidence. From hence S. Augustine draws this conclusion, "Therefore, brethren, take heed, strive inwardly with yourselves that ye desire the day of judgment. In no other way is charity proved to be perfect except when that day begins to be longed for."
Because as He is, so are we in this world. Who is He ? First, God, whom shortly before he had spoken of. It means Therefore shall we have confidence in the day of judgment because we are in charity, and live in this world perfected in it, so that we love even our enemies. So too God in His perfect love makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust. 2d. And more profoundly: He, namely Christ, whom, as my love, I always carry in my mind and my mouth. For this reason, S. John when he says He is, means Christ. Moreover Christ is, i.e. in this world, as the Syriac version renders. And even now He is by the providence, charity, and friendship by which He dwells in the minds of His saints endowed with charity. The meaning then is this: As He, Christ, lived in this world holy and immaculate, and being full of the love of God, was, and is, dead to the world, and so abides in us; so let us, in imitation of Him, strive to live holily and without spot in this world. Yea, as being dead to the world, and always bearing about in our body with Paul the death of Christ, we are full of love even to our enemies, and abide in Christ. Therefore we have confidence that in the day of judgment we shall not be confounded, but shall be glorified. For we have that day ever before our eyes, and we daily dispose ourselves for it by works of charity and every kind of holiness. Yea, we pant for it, knowing that here we are pilgrims, and guests for a day; according to the words, “Every one that hath this hope, purifieth himself in Him even as He is holy.” Ver. 18.—Fear is not in charity, but perfect charity, &c. From the confidence which is begotten of love the Apostle passes to that banishment of fear which is the child of confidence. You will ask, What is this fear which perfect charity drives away? I answer, Manifold. For S. John’s declaration is general, and may cover every kind of fear. It means, charity hath no fear whatsoever. It is devoid of fear, free, joyful, spirited and liberal. First then, “Fear” says Vatablus, “is here put for despair and the confusion of conscience: the fear by which sinners dread damnation, and despair of salvation.” 2d. It is the fear by which those newly converted are tormented, those whom the remembrance of their past sins vexes and troubles, lest it may be they are not entirely forgiven. 3d. It is servile fear by which mere servants and the imperfect do the commandments of God from fear of punishment, not from love of justice. Pure, sincere, and liberal charity drives away this fear. For it keeps God’s commands by the love of God. This fear, says S. Augustine on this passage, induces love, as the bristle brings on the thread of the cordwainer. Wherefore it is said (Ecclus. i. 28), “He that is without fear cannot be justified.” For chastened and filial fear abides with charity, and increases as charity increases. The more perfect and holy any one is, the more he fears and reverences God with filial love and fear, and fears to offend Him in the very slightest degree. This is the fear with which the just are bid to fear God. (Ps. xxxiii. 10.) For this fear endureth for ever and ever. (Ps. x 10.) 4th. This fear may be taken to mean that worldly fear by which, through dread of parents, relations, &c, any one breaks the commandments of God. These are the fearful whose portion is in the lake of fire. (Apoc. xxi. 8). Love drives away such fear as this. 5th. This fear may be taken to mean that anxious fear with which those who are scrupulous and fearfully anxious dread in trifles to offend God. For perfect love banishes scrupulosity. It is not scrupulous, but free, bold, and magnanimous. As it is said (Rom. viii 15), We have not received the spirit of bondage, &c. 6th. This fear may be taken for the fear of punishment and damnation. This too charity puts to flight. For the saints are thoughtful about their reward rather than full of dread of punishment. So our Lessius, to one who told him about a certain worthy man who wished to undergo purgatory until the day of judgment, if so be he might thereby obtain everlasting salvation, replied that Christians ought to have more hope than to purchase the certainty of heavenly glory by so long purgatorial pains. However, the saints always have in this life fear, if not actual, yet potential, mingled with their hope, because they are not certain of salvation. 7th. This fear may be understood of the fear of persecutors, loss, or shame which meet us in heroic works of charity. This fear the Magdalene drove away by her burning love for Christ when she fearlessly sought Him at His tomb in the midst of the soldiers. Whence the Church sings concerning her, “Love drives away fear.” As our Saviour saith, “Fear not them which kill the body.” 8th. This fear may be understood of that initiatory fear, by which any one fears to commit a fault, as he fears punishment. This charity drives away, as far as the fear of punishment is concerned. Perfect charity dreads the fault, not the punishment. Perfect charity overcomes all these kinds of fear, but especially that servile fear with which we timidly and pusillanimously fear punishment, and the judgment and vengeance of God. For this kind of fear originates in self-love, which the love of God conquers and drives away. Perfect charity looks upon God, not as a judge and an avenger, but as a Father and a Husband. As Sarah, Abraham’s spouse, drove away her slave Agar, so does charity banish servile fear. Observe: usually the beginning of justification in a sinner commences with the fear of punishment and hell. Being struck with this by God he begins to think about his salvation, and to dispose himself to repentance, as the Council of Trent teaches (Sess. 6, cap. 6). Then being justified, this fear ceases by degrees. “Fear,” says S. Augustine, “is the servant of charity.” And again, “Fear is the guardian and schoolmaster of the law until charity comes.” Finally, S. Augustine (de Civit. lib. 14, c. 9) applies these things to the heavenly glory. For thus the security of love excludes all fear. “By a good life,” he says, “a good conscience is prepared, so that having a good conscience there is no fear of punishment. Wherefore let the man who does not wish to fear learn to fear. Let him who would be secure eternally learn to be careful in time.” And again, “The nearer we get to the country whither we are going the less is our fear. Greater ought to be the fear of the wayfarers, less the fear of those who are drawing nigh to their journey’s end, none at all the fear of those who have reached their destination. Thus fear leads to charity, and perfect charity casts fear out of doors.” But this is the anagogical meaning. S. John asserts that literally those who have perfect charity banish fear even in this life. So S. Antony said, “I do not now fear God, but I love Him, because perfect love casts fear out-of-doors.” And S. Ignatius, the Founder of our Society, was wont to say, that if God were to give him his choice either of dying, and going certainly to Heaven, or of living and augmenting the glory of God, but with uncertainty of salvation, he would choose the latter alternative. For, said he, if I so love God, that for love of Him I expose myself to peril of salvation, surely He, who is far above me in love, will not suffer Himself to be surpassed in love, but will take all the peril upon Himself, and will secure my salvation. Thus St. Salvius, who was already dead and about to enter heaven, heard a voice saying, “Let him return to the body, he is still necessary to My Church.” When he heard it he answered with groans, “Lord, if I return, I shall be exposed to peril, and perhaps shall never return hither.” Then he heard the words, “Go. I will be thy keeper, and will surely bring thee back hither.” (S. Greg. Turon. lib. 7, Hist. c. 1.) For fear hath torment. The meaning is, Fear begets the torment of the mind with which a man torments himself when he thinks of, and dreads, impending evil and punishment. But charity has no fear or torment, but joy and gladness. Ver. 19.—Therefore let us love God, &c. This is the conclusion, in which he repeats and inculcates zeal for charity, because God first loved us, and by loving has inspired us with this love, and made us lovers of Himself. (S. Augustine, lib. de Gratia Christi, c. 26.) Ver. 20.—If any man shall say, I lave God, &c. Because the love of God extends itself to love of our neighbour, who is the image of God, and contains and embraces it. This he shows by two arguments. The first is,
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For he who loveth not his brother whom he sees (Greek ε̉ώζακε, hath seen), &c. Because it is a provision of nature that love and affection should be carried to sensible things which we see. For the eyes are guides in love. For, as S. Gregory says (Hom. 11 in Evang.), “From the things which the mind knows let it rise to the things unknown, that from the love of what it knows it may learn to love also the things unknown.” Ver. 21.—(The second reason.) And this commandment have we from God, &c. For, as S. Augustine says; “If he is thy brother, and thou lovest him not, how dost thou love God, whose commandment thou despisest?” And again, “O merciful Lord, what am I to Thee, that Thou shouldest bid me love Thee? Who threatenest me with huge miseries, being angry if I love Thee not, and giving me many promises if I do love Thee? And what, O my Love, what pleasure dost Thou find in me? What king saith to his slave, Let us be friends, and I will give thee a province?”
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1. Carissimi, nolite omni spiritui credere. Munit fideles adversus seductores, id est haereticos, qui inter illos, sub nomine Christiano, prava sua dogmata spargebant, jactitantes, se spiritum Dei habere. De quibus egit etiam supra cap. 2. Id vero nunc agit, ut tales a fidelibus cognoscantur, et cogniti vitentur. Nomen spiritus variae significationis est in Scripturis. Hoc loco sumitur vel pro revelatione seu doctrina, quasi a Spiritu Dei profecta; vel pro ipso homine ejusmodi revelationem sive doctrinam proferente; ut sensus sit: Ne fidem adhibeatis cuilibet doctrinaej quae ad vos adfertur tamquam profecta a Spiritu Dei; vel: Ne fidem habeatis cuilibet homini doctrinam adferenti tamquam a Spiritu Dei revelatam. Ejusmodi spiritus etiam hodie plurimi sunt, quorum quisque suam doctrinam pro verbo Dei venditat.
Sed probate spirituSy si ex Deo sint. Id est, doctrinas, revelationes, aut ipsos homines doctrinam et revelationem tamquam a Dei spiritu profectam adferentes, probate, discernite ac dijudicate, num vere sint ex Deo ipsi doctores seu eorum doctrinae. Quaeritur, quomodo praecipiat Apostolus omnibus fidelibus (nam ad omnes haec dicuntur), ut probent spiritus, num ex Deo sint; cum Paulus 1 Cor. 12. dis' cretionem spirituum numeret inter ea Spiritus sancti charismata, quae non omnia dantur omnibus, sed alia aliis. Ad hoc quidam respondent, ex mente B. Joannis omnes fideles probare spiritus, num ex Deo sint, dum illis credunt. qui spirituum habent discretionem. Sicut enim in corpore solus oculus videt, sed non sibi soli, ita in Ecclesia, qui dis^retionem habent spirituum, dogmata probant atque discernunt non sibi solis, sed et aliis, imo toti Ecclesiae; in quibus proinde, et per quos etiam alii illi probant ac discernunt, qui in semet ipsis donum hujusmodi non habent. Verum objici potest, Joannem non remittere fideles ad eos, qui habeant donum discretionis spirituum; sed ipsosmet instruere velle, quo signo spiritus discernant. In hoc, inquit, cognoscitur Spiritus Dei: Omnis spiritus, qui confitetur, etc. Qua ratione nec illorum sufficit responsio, qui verba Joannis ad totam congregationem dicunt pertinere, non ad singulos fideles. Nam et singuli incidunt in eos subinde, qui doctrinam novam adferant, ideoque singuli in promptu habere debent instructionem, qua in illis dignoscendis utantur. Potius itaque dicendum est, Joannem non dicere, quod omnes fideles de una- Gall. Estii Couim. Toui. Ul. quaque doctrina sibi proposita probationem et examen instituere debeant ex propriis Christianae doctrinae principiis; quod est doctorum Ecclesiae, de quibus Paulus, ubi supra: Numquid omnes doctores? sed tradere fidelibus, ad quos scribit, duos probandi modos, unum particularem, alterum generalem; quorum prior continetur illis verbis: Omnis spiritus, qui confitetur, Jesum Christum in carne venisse, etc; alter assignatur infra, cum v. G. dicitur: Qui novit Deum, audit nos; qui non novit Deum, non audit nos. Pertinet ad priorem modum illud ejusdem Apostoli in 2 Epist.: Si quis venit ad vos, et hanc doctrinam non adfert, nolite recipere eum in domum. Nam et illic contra eos agit, qui non confitebantur, Jesum Christum venisse in carne. Nec vero S. Joannes hoc suo praecepto potestatem judicandi de controversis fidei quaestionibus attribuit omnibus et singulis Christianis, quod volunt sectarii; sed unam et alteram regulam praescribit, ad quam possint ac debeant fideles, ad quos scribit, etiam singuli, judicio quodam rationis explorare doctrinas, quae forte novae ad eos perferrentur. Quae res ex sequentibus manifestior evadet. Interim lector videat orationem nostram tertiam de prohibita lectione librorum haereticorum.
Quoniam multi pseudoprophetae exierunt in mundum. Ratio praecedentis admonitionis, quia multi jam exorti erant ac prodierunt in mundum falsi doctores, jactantes spiritum et revelationem divinam. Hos enim vocat pseudopro^ phetas. Nam ut generali nomine Propheta dicebatur apud Judaeos, qui ei inspiratione divina cognoscebat ac proferebat occulta qaaedam doctrinae sacrae, quamvis futura nulla praenuntiaret, quomodo de Prophetis et Prophetia loquitur Paulus 1 Cor. 12. 13. et 14.: ita pseudoprophetes erat, qal, cum verus ejusmodi Propheta non esset, pro tali tamen se ingerebat, doctrinam suam falsam et perniciosam vcnditans hominibus tamquam divinitus acceptam. Tales fuere jam tum, tempore Joannis, Simon, Nicolaus, Cerinthus, Ebion et alii non pauci. Nam multos fuisse, testatur etiam supra cap. 2. dicens: Nunc Antichristi multi facti suntj et in Epistola 2.: Multi seductores exierunt in mundum. Mirum vero, quid secutus Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 18. diversa praepositione legat: exierunt de saeculo; nisi mendum fuit in codice. Nam locum secundae Epistclae refert, ut nos habemus: exierunt in mundum.
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2. In hoc cognoscitur Spiritus Dei. Graece: cognoscite Spiritum Dei. Interpres legisse videtur: ytvwoxsTai, pro: livcooxsTS. Quamquam et Syrus vertit: cognoscetur. Sed id sensum non variat. Hoc, inquit, argumento sive signo potestis cognoscere, imo cognoscite et probate, spiritum quempiam esse Dei, id est, doctrinam a Dei Spiritu profectam; nempe eo, quod sequitar:
Omnis spiritus, qui confitetur, Jesum Christum in carne venisse, ex Deo est. Sensus: Omnis doctrina, quae tradit, Jesum Christum, in principio Deum ac Doi Filium, postea venisse in carne, id est, inter homines conversatum in vera humana natura, et omnis doctor, qui id confitetur et docet, ex Deo est; doctrina quidem ex Deo, quia a Deo inspirata; doctor autem ex Deo, ratione doctrinae. Carnem posuit pro natura humana per synecdochen, sicut alibi pro homine, ut Joan. 1.: Verbum caro factum est; acceptione videlicet in Scripturis usitatissima. Dicet aliquis, multos esse, qui coniiteantur, Jesum Christum in carne venisse, ut olim Pelagianos, et hodie Lutheranos et Calvinianos, aliosque permultos, quos tamen ex Deo non esse, constet, sed ex diabolo. Quod et de malis Catholicis objici potest: Omnis enim, qui non est justus, non est ex Deo; et qui facit peccatum, ex diabolo est, supra cap. 3. Quidam respondent, Joannem loqui de iis, qui Filium Dei incarnatum confitentur, non ore tantum et fi5e, sed etiam opere, servantes scilicet omnia, quaeDeus homo factus servanda praecepit; contra quam illi, de quibus ad Tit. 1.: Confitentur y se nosse Deum; factis autem negant. Ita locum hunc Interpretantur Didymus, Augustinus et Beda. Sed rectius alii, qui dicunt, Joannis intentionem hoc loco proprie dirigi adversus haereses sui temporis, eorum scilicet, qui doctrinam de Filio Dei incarnato non recipiebant, quorum principes erant Valentinus, Cerinthus et alii. Ut sensus Apostoli sit, omnem doctrinam, adeoque omnem doctorem, qui confitetur ac docet, Dei Filium vere hominem factum, et hunc esse Jesum, Messiam promissum, esse ex Deo; nimirum ea parte, qua hoc docet. Sic enim et tempore Arianorum dicere licebat, omnem eum, qui confitetur, Dei Filium esse Patri coaeternum et consubstantialem, esse ex Deo. Item hoc nostro saeculo, omnem eum, qui confitetur, Christi corpus et sanguinem esse realiter in Eucharistiae Sacramento, esse ex Deo. Quod non est aliud dicere, quam hujusmodi doctrinam esse ex Deo, nec non eum, qui ita confitetur et docet, ca parte doctrinae ex Deo esse. Nam certe nec haeretici circa veros fidei articulos, quos adhuc retinent, ac docent atque defendunt, supernaturali dono fidei prorsus carent; quamvis integram, et proinde Catholicam, fidem non habeant. Id quod Augustinus haud obscure docet compluribus locis, ut ostendimus in dictatis super Magistrum, lib. 3. diei. 23.
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3. Et omnis spiritus, qui solvit Jesum, ex Deo non est, Loco hujus sententiae in Graeco et Syriaco legitur membrum priori oppositum: Et omnis spiritus, qui non confitetur, Jesum Christum in carne venisse, ex Deo non est. Nisi quod Syrus non addit: Christum. Graecae lectioni suffragatur Cyprianus, qui lib. 2. adversus Judaeos, cap. 8., sic legit: Qui autem negat, in cnrne venisse (supple ex priori membro: Jesum Christum), de Deo non est. At vero L&tinam lectionem diserte refert Irenaeus Cypriano antiquior, addito tamen vocabulo: Christum, lib. 3, cap. 18. Sic et caeteri Latini legerunt, nominatim Leo Pontifex Epist. 10. ad Flavianum, cap. 6., Prosper lib. 1. de vocat. gent. cap. 23., Cassianus lib. 5. de incarn. cap. 10. et Beda in comment. Quibus addo Cyrillum Graecum lib. de recta fide ad reginas. Caeterum Augustinus, hunc locum tractans, utramque lectionem exponit; ut satis appareat, utrumque ei lectum fuisse. Sane valde verisimile est, maxime ex Irenaeo, Graecos codices olim id habuisse, quod est in nostris. Idque perspicue testatur Socrates lib. 7. suae historiae, cap. 32. Dicit enim, hoc scriptum fuisse in vetustis hujus Epistolae exemplaribus, utique Graecis. Sed, inquit, hanc sententiam omnes, qui divinitatem ab humanitate Christi sejungere studehantj ex vetustis exetnplarihus delere tollereque non dubitarunt. Et addit: Quapropter veteres interpretes idem ipsum significarunt, quosdam videlicet esse, qui illam Epistolam depravassent, quo in Christo hominem a Deo separarent. Haec ille. Qui cum dicit, deletam atque sublatam fuisse e codicibus eam sententiam, non autem pro ea aliam repositam, locum facit suspicioni, quod utrumque scriptum fuerit a Joanne; et quidem priore loco id, quod habentGraeci codices, utpote membrum '^praecedenti oppositum. Id enim congruity ut annotat Erasmus, cum phrasi Joannis Apostoli, cui peculiare est, contrariam sententiam succinere priori, quo magis infigat animis, quod dictum est. Atque eam suspicionem auget, quod diximus, utrumque Augustino lectum etexpositumfuisse. Nam et apud Tertullianum utraque lectio reperitur; Graeca quidem lib. de carne Christi, cap. 24. et lib. 3. contra Marcion. cap. 8.; Latina vero lib. contra Psychicos, cap. 2. Imo utraque conjuncta lib. 5. contra Marcionem, cap. 16. Porro Graeca lectio sensum habet apertum et indubitatum, sive doctrinam, sive doctorem nomine spiritus intelligas. Nam ut doctrina, qua negatur Jesus Christus iucarnatuB, non est a Deo, ita nec ille, qui tradit ejusmodi doctrinam, ex Deo est; maxime quatenus eam doctrinam tradit. Verum in Latina lectione exponendum, quid sit solvere Jesum. Neque enim solvere hic opponitur ei, quod est ligare, sed huic, construere, componere, aedificare. Itaque solvere Jesum, est, eum dissolvere sive destruere; quomodo dixit ipse Judaeis: Solvite templum hoc, id est destruite, Joan. 2. Solvitur autem Jesus, id est dissolvitur ac destruitur per doctrinam de eo falsam, non qualemcumque, sed separantem in eo duas naturas, id est negantem in una Jesu persona duas convenisse naturas, divinam et humanam. Quod quidem fit tribus potissimum modis. Primo, si dicantur iu Christo duae esse personae, sicut sunt duae naturae. Quomodo solverunt Jesum, temporo Joannis Apostoli, Cerinthus et Ebion, docentes, Jesum non esse Christum, nec Dei Filium; sed Christum in specie columbae intrasse in Jesum, quando baptizatus est; ac rursus ab eo, quando passus est, avolasse Quam haeresim notavit Apostolus supra cap. 2., dicens: Quis est mendax, nisi is, qui negat, quoniam Jesus est Christus. Atribuunt autem Cerintho et Ebioni Irenaeus lib. 1. contra haereses, cap. 25., et lib. 5. cap. 1., et Epiphanius haeresi 28. et 30. Solvit eodem modo Jesum quarto post illos saeculo Nestorius, dividens in Jesu Christo filium Mariae a Filio Dei, atque illum affirmans passum esse et crucifixum ac mortuum, hunc vero pati non potuisse. Haec enim dicentem Nestorium solvisse Jesum, testantur Cyrillus et Socrates, et alii supra citati. Secundo solvunt Jesum, qui divinitatem simpliciter ab eo removent; ut Paulus Samosatenus, qui negabat, Jesum ante Mariam fuisse; nec non Arius, substantiam Dei Patris a Filio alienans. Tertio solvunt Jesum, qui humanam ab eo naturam auferunt; ut olim Cerdon, Basilides, et aliquanto post Manes, dicentes, Christum non veram carnem, sed phantasticam assumpsisse, in qua non solum passionem et mortem, verum et resurrectionem mentiretur. Hoc etiam modo Jesum solvit Eutyches, qui naturam humanam in Christo virtute divinitatis in ipso conceptu dicebat esse consumptam. De quo Leo Pontifex iu Epistola snpradicta: Quid est, inquit, solvere Jesum, nisi humanam ab eo separare naturam, et sacramentum fidei, per quod unum salvati sumus, impudentissimis evacuarefigmentis? Ad hunc tertium modum solvendi Jesum pertinent et illi, qui partem aliquam humanae naturae Christo subtraxerunt; ut Arius, qui animam humanam ademit, et Apollinaris, qui mentem, dicens, Verbum divinum illi pro mente fuisse. Nam sine mente et anima non consistit humana natura. Quoniam vero corpus Christi mysticum est Ecclesia, cujus ipse est caput, vere dixerimus, etiam illos solvere Jesum, qui caput hoc a suo corpore divellunt, dicentes, Christum suam Ecclesiam propter scandalorum multitudinem deseruisse, et novam sibi fingere Ecclesiam novumque corpus, videlicet ex iis, qui se Reformatos appellant. Denique Jesum solvunt omnes illi, qui corpus ejus, quod est Ecclesia, solvunt, id est lacerant ac dividunt, sectas et schismata facientes, et per hoc inconsutilem Christi tunicam scindentes.
Et hic est Antichristus. Graece: Antichristi, genitivo casu. Sic autem Graeca legunt, cum appositis articulis: xai TOUTO loTi t6 tou dvTtxp^-^^Toa. Et hic (nempe spiritus) est ille ipsius Antichristi. Obliquum casum reddunt veteres, nt Irenaeus et Cyprianus supra citati; quorum ille legit: ex Antichristo, iste: de Antichristi spiritu. Item Tertullianus adversus Marcion. lib. 5. cap. 16., praecursorem Antichristi spiritum hunc vocans. Cassianus quoque genitivum scribit et exponit lib. 5. de incarnatione cap. 11. Consonat et Syra paraphrasis: Sed hic est ab ipso pseudochristo. Sensus autem est: Hic spiritus, qui non confitetur, Jesum Christum in carne venisse, sed solvit Jesum, spiritus est illius Antichristi, id est, haec doclrina cum suo doctore praecurrit satellitio Antichristum, cujus omne studium atque conatus in hoc erit, ut solvat ac destruat Jesum Christum et regnum ejus.
De quo audistis, quoniam venit. Graece: o dxYjxoaTS, neutro genere, quod ad Tiveu/Jia refertur, id est spiritum; ut vertendum sit: quem audistis, hoc est, de quo spiritu audistis, sitque sensus hujusmodi: Spiritus ille solvens Jesum quodammodo spiritu.s est ipsius Antichristi, nempe per consensum doctrinae; de quo spiritu Antichristi traditum accepistis, quod sit venturus. Sciendum tamen, exstare Graeca, quae sic habeant: OTi dxYjxoa^sv, OTi epy^Btai, quoniam (seu quandoquidem) audivimus ^ quod venturus sit, scilicet Antichristus. Sed et fieri potuit, ut scioli, non capientes, quomodo verum sit, Antichristum venire, et (quod sequitur) nunc jam esse in mundo, parumque memores ejus, quod supra cap. 2. dixit B. Joannes: Sicut audistis, quia Antichristus venit, mutaverint hoc loco ov masculinum in o neutrum, ut ad spiritum Antichristi, non ad ipsum Antichristum fiat relatio. Verum, quo sensu de Antichristo dicatur: venit, Graece: ep/STat^ verbo praesenlis temporis, satis eodem cap. 2. a nobis explicatum est, dictumque, verbo Graeco non tam significari praesentiam advenientis, quam procinctum ac praeparationem quandam ad hujusmodi praesentiam, etiamsi tempus ipsum, quo sit adfuturus, qui exspectatur, in longum procrastinetur. Unde et Erasmus utroque loco vertit: Quod venturus sit.
Et nunc jam in mundo est. Hoc est: Jam nunc inter homines versatur, vel spiritus Antichristi, vel ipse Antichristus, juxta variam lectionem partis superioris. Nam spiritus Antichristi jam a temporibus Apostolorum in haereticis exstitit, semina quaedam spargens futuri regni Antichvisti. Ipse etiam Antichristus jam in mundo est, et olim esse coepit secundum membra sua et praecursores haereticos, regnum ipsius promoventes. Quae duae expositiones in eundem sensum recidunt; tametsi locus ille cap. 2. magis suadet, ut ad Antichristum haec pars referatur. Nam pro eo, quod hic dicitur: Et nunc jam in mundo est, illic dicebatur: Nunc Antichristi multi facti sunt. Igitur Antichristus ipse nunc in mundo esse dicitur propter multos, quos habet, praecursores ac satellites, eosdemque participatione sui nominis Antichristos, qui doctrinis et factis viam sternunt illius adventui, falsa atque impia de Christo docentes, et Christum in membris suis persequentes. Vide dicti loci commentarium ad cap. 2.
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4. Vos ex Deo estis, filioli. Ex Deo estis geniti, id est filii Dei. Id ipsum exprimit paulo post: Omnis, qui diligit, ex Deo natus est; quo sensu dixit capite praecedenti: Omnis, qui non est justus, non est ex Deo. Alloquitur Ecclesiam fidelium, cujus praecipua membra sunt filii Dei.
Et vicistis eum. Scilicet Antichristum in praecursoribus ejus, haereticis. In Graeco et Syriaco plurale est: et vicistis eos, id est Antichristos, vel, quod ante praecessit, pseudoprophetas. Quae pluralis lectio quorundam etiam est codicum Latinorum. Auctor lib. de singul. cleric. legit praeceptive: Vificite illos. Porro vicistis, intellige per fidem. Haec enim est victoria, quae vincit mundum, fidis nostra, infra cap. 5. Maxime vero per fidem vincuntur haeretici, dum perplexis eorum rationibus et argumentis fidei simplicitas opponitur. Quae ratio vincendi haereticos omnibus fidelibus est communis.
Quoniam major est, qui in vobis est, quam qui in mundo. Victoriam refert ad suum auctorem Deum, quemadmodum et Paulus 1 Cor. 15.: Deo gratias, inquit, qui dedit nobis victoriam per Do~ minum nostrum Jesum Christum. Senbus: Deus, qui in vobis habitat, regens vos atque conservans, potentior est ad confirmandum vos in fide et protegendum adversus hostiles insidias, quam diabolus, impios inhabitans, ad impugnandum vos atque fallendum. Haecpotissima fidelium in omni tentatione consolatio est, Deum habere rectorem et protectorem. Simul haec sententia nos docet veram et Christianam humilitatem, qua victoriam tentationum non nostris viribus adscribendam noverimus, sed potentiae et misericordiae Dei. Quod et Christus no8 docuit, quando praecepit orare: Ne nos inducas in tentationem. Diabolus in mundo esse et habitare dicitur, quia in genere humano, in quo plurimi sunt impii, dominatur et regnat, adeo ut mundus totus in maligno positus dicatur sub finem hujus Epistolae.
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5. Ipsi de mundo, vel: e mundo sunt, ut habent Graeca. Antichristos intelligit, qui de mundo esse dicuntur, quia pertinent ad partem generis humani illam multo maximam, quae servit peccato et concupiscentiis ejus. De talibus Apostolus Paulus Rom. 16.: Hujuscemodi Chri-^ sto Domino non serviunt, sed suo ventri.
Ideo de mundo loquuntur, Graece rursus: e mundo. Non enim sensus est: Loquuntur de rebus aut concupiscentiis mundanis, quas diligunt, secundum illud: Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, Luc. 6. Multi enim hodie sunt Antichristi, qui assidue in ore habent ea, quae a mundo maxime videantur aliena, ut Evangelium, verfeum Dei, fidem ac fiduciam in Christum, dilectionem fraternam; summopere vero caveant, ne suas prodant concupiscentias. Sed loqui dicuntur e mundo, quia falsam doctrinam proferunt, quae non est ex Deo, sed ex mundo et diabolo, principe mundi et patre mendacii; sive ea doctrina probet, quae sensibus sunt jucunda, cujusmodi fere dogmata sunt haereticorum nostri temporis; sive quae delectationi sensuum contraria sint, quales haereses fuerunt quorundam antiquorum, wi prohibentium nubere, abstinentium a cibis, quos Deus creavit, 1 Tim. 4., et aliorum similium. Nam et hujus generis doctrinae e mundo sunt. Unde Paulus ibidem vocat eos doctrinas daemoniorum.
Et mundus eos audit. Hic repetenda est rationalis particula: et ideo mundus eos audit. Nempe quoniam illi ex mundo loquuntur. Est enim duplex illatio: De mundo sunt; ergo de mundo loquuntur. Item: De mundo loquuntur; ergo mundus 608 audit. Ratio posterioris est, quia quisque libenter audit ea, quae suae sunt sectae et scholae. Communicant autem omnes impii in schola diaboli, licet alii aliis cupiditatibus aut sectis addicti. Ita Dominus ad discipulos Joan. 15.: Si de mundo fuissetis, munduSf quod suum eraty diligeret. Addit autem Apostolus hoc postremum: et mundus eos audit, ne fideles turbentur ob multitudinem eorum, qui haereticis adhaerent; quasi dicat: Etsi multi sint, qui eos audiunt, nullius tamen sunt pretii, quia non sunt, nisi mundus, id est humani generis colluvies, videlicet ea pars, quae peccato servit et diabolo. Melior est autetn unus timens Deum, quam mille filii impii, Eccles. 16.
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6. Nos ex Deo sumus. Hac parte et sequente loquitur Joannes ex Apostolorum persona, quorum ipse unus erat. Nam post signum particulare, tempori illi congiuons, nunc intendit proponere fidelibus generale qucddara signum, quo vera doctrina discernatur a falsa. Nos Apostoli, inquit, non ex mundo sumus, sed exDeo, cujus sumus Apostoli. Ut enim a Deo missi sumus ad praedicandum Evangelium Christi, ita doctrinam ab eo acceptam tenemus et aliis tradimus.
Qui novit Deum, audit nos. Hanc partem opponit ei, qua dixit de Antichristis: Et mundus eos audit; ac si dicat: Qui de mundo sunt, audiunt doctores, qui sunt de mundo. Qui vero Deum noverunt -et ex Deo sunt, nos Dei Apostolos audiunt. Joanni eodem recldunt, noiisse Deum, et ex Deo esse, ut patet ex parte sequenti. Dicuntur autem nosse Deum, et esse ex Deo, qui Deum diligunt et cum eo societatem habent. Sequitur membrum oppositum:
Qui non est ex Deo, non audit nos. Intellige, quatenus ex Deo non est. Potest enim quis absolute non esse ex Deo, qma^[conjunctionem amicitiae cum Deo non habeat, qui tamen a Deo moveatur ad credendum ejus Apostolo. Nam fides etiam informis Dei donum est.
In hoc cognoscimus Spiritum veritatis, et spiritum erroris. Loquitur nunc ex persona fidelium. Hoc, inquit, signo et argumento nos fideles cognoscimus et cognoscere debemus Spiritum veritatis, et spiritum erroris, id est discernimus inter doctrinam veram et falsam, et consequenter inter dootores veros et falsos. Signum illud est, quod jam dixit, nempe nos Apostolos audire, vel non audire. Igitur hoc loco tradit Apostolus alteram regulam, eamque generalem, probandi spiritus, num ex Deo sint, id est explorandi doctrinas religionis, an sint verae et a Deo profectae. Cum enim prior regula specialis fuerit, nec omni tempore usum habeat, nec ad omnes haereses accommodari possit: idcirco generalis haec regula adjicienda fuit, in qua quidem respicere videtur Apostolus ad verba Domini Luc. 10.: Qui vos audit y me audit; et qui vos spernity me spernit. Nam id non solum de praeceptis Apostolorum accipiendum est, verum etiam de doctrina ab illis tradenda. Loquitur autem Joannes in persona Apostolorum et omnium eorum, qui Apostolis jam successerant, aut successuri erant, et, ut semel dicam, in persona praelatorum Ecclesiae, jam per Apostolos fundatae, penes quos doctrinam a Christo acceptam Apostoli deposuerunt. Quod enim ad ipsos attinet Apostolos, jam illi vita defuncti erant, et solus fortassis supererat Joannes; sed manebat, et usque hodie manet, et manebit, quod Apostolis a Domino dictum fuerat: Ecce, ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi, Matth. 28. Manet, inquam, in eorum successoribus, Ecclesiae praelatis. Signum ergo certissimum, a Joanne fidelibus omnibus eommonstratum, est istud, si quis Ecclesiam audit, et ejus doctrinam sequitur, hic ex Deo est; si quis eam non audit, sed ab ejus doctrina recedit, hic non est ex Deo. Hinc porro consequens est, Ecclesiam in suis praelatis (quos Scriptura pastores et doctoree vocat, Eph. 4.) esse judicem quaestionum et controversiarum omnium, quae circa doctrinam fidei euboriuntur. Quocirca fideles, sicubi dubitant de spiritu quopiam, num ex Deo sit, propterea quod nesciant, utrum de doctrina, quae adfertur, definitum aliquid Ecclesia teneat, Ecclesiae praelatos consulere debent, atque eorum exspectare et audire judicium; utpote ad quos, velut ad suos successores, Apostoli simul cum doctrina potestatem de ea judicandi tranbmiserunt. Consule orationem nostram tertiam de prohibita librorum haereticorum lectione.
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7. Carissimi, diligamus nos invicem. Post interpositam de probandis spiritibus instructionem, redit ad exhortationem dilectionis fraternae, sine qua nihil prodest, rectum et incorruptum de doctrina fidei tenuisse judicium.
Quia caritas ex Deo est. Haec aetiologia duplicem continet rationem exhortationis ad caritatem seu dilectionem fraternam. Una est ab excellentia hujus operis, quod est diligere fratres. Est enim hoc opus a Deo, non vulgariter, sed ut opus quoddam eximium, quod Dens per singularem suam gratiam in nobis operatur, ita ut omnis, qui diligit, quemadmodum verbis sequentibus dicitur, sit ex Deo natus ac Dei filius. Altera ratio a possibilitate et facilitate praecepti, secundum illud, quod dicit capite sequenti, de praeceptis caritatis loquens: Et mandota Ejus gravia non sunt. Dicere enim quis poterat: Praeceptum dilectionis, quod nobis assidue inculcas, admodum grave sentimus, nec infirmitati nostrae possibile, praesertim erga eos, qui nos odio prosequuntur et injuriis afficiunt. Respondet Joannes dilectionem ex Deo esse, et proinde ab eo petendum auxilium, ut dile?tionis praeceptum a nobis impleatur. Nam eo auxiliante, non solum possibilis, sed tandem et facilis erit nobis hujus praecepti impletio. Hanc secundam rationem tradit et explicat Augustinus lib. de gratia et libero arbitrio, cap. 18.: Cur, innuit, dictum est: Diligamus invicemj quia dilectio ex Deo est; nisi quia praecepto admonitum est liberum arbitrium, ut quaereret Dei donum? quod quidem sine sui fructu admoneretur, nisi prius acciperet aliquid dilectionis; ut addi sibi quaereret, unde, quod jubebatur, impleret. Haec ille.
Et omnis y qui diligit, ex Deo natus est, et cognoscit Deum. Complet priorem rationem, declarans, dilectionem ita ex Deo esse, ut eum, qui fratrem diligit, Dei filium constituat. Eadem enim Bunt, ex Deo natum esse, et esse Dei filium. Et hoc quidem absolute praestat ea caritas, quae homini, dum justificatur, infunditur, haeredem eum faciens vitae aeternae. Praestat tamen etiam quadantenus et secundum inchoationem quandam ea caritas, sive habitualis, sive actualis, qua quis, nondum regeneratus aut nondum reconciliatus, fratrem sincere ac Christiane diligit. Unde et, qui sic diligit, tamquam adoptionis jam aliquo modo particeps, dicere potest Deo: Pater noster, qui es in coelis. Addit autem Joannes: et cognoscit Deum, notitia videlicet affectiva, ut fructum adoptionis ostendat, qui est, Deum nosse ut aiaicum, hoc est, amicitiae societatem cum Deo habere.
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8. Qui non diligit, non novit Deum. Proprie nosse Deum, non est diligere Deum, cum alterum sit intellectus, alterum voluntatis; tametsi nosse Deum, ut hic accipitur, etiam affectum dilectionis Dei in se includit. Facit autem etiam haec pars ad exhortationem fraternae dilectionis. Nam si Deum non novit, qui fratrem non diligit, utique studendum nobis est dilectioni fraternae, ut Deum cognoscamus, id est amicitiam cum eo habeamus.
Quoniam Deus caritas est. Potest haec propositio referri vel ad probandum, quod proxime praecessit; ac si dicat, eum, qui fratrem non diligit, ideo non novisse Deum notitia amicabili, quia non potest inter tam dissimiles amicitia consistere, id est inter hominem, qui fratrem non diligit, et Deum, qui est ipsa dilectio: vel ad caput exhortationis, iit sit vehementior commendatio fraternae caritatis ex sua origine; quod nimirum caritas non solum ex Deo sit, sed etiam sit ipse Deus. Nam si Deus caritas est, utiqn.e caritas est Deus. Potest autem tribus modis intelligi, Deum esse caritatem; essentialiter, causaliter, et objective. Essentialiter quidem, quomodo Deus dicitur esse sapientia, potentia, bonitas et caetera hujusmodi per essentiam; nam in Deo, qui totus est essentia simplex ac prorsus incomposita, qualitates a eubstantia non distinguuntur. Causaliter, quomodo Deus est justitia et fortitudo nostra, quia facit nos justos ac fortes. Obiective, quomodo dicitur esse spes et desiderium et gaudium nostrum, quia in eum speramus, eum desideramus, et de eo gaudemus; qua ratione etiam ei dicitur: Tu es patientia mea, id est sustinentia mea, Psalm. 70. Vide nostra in 1. dist. 10. et 17. Verum quia non dicit Joannes: Deus est caritas nosfra, sicuti dicitur fortitudo, spes nostra et gaudium nostrum; sed absolute: Deus est caritas, quod et infra repetit vers. 16.; iricirco solus primus intelligendi modus convenit huic Apostolico pronuntiato. Quem et tradiderunt Augustinus aliique Patres. Est autem et Pater caritae, et Filius caritas, et Spiritus sanctus caritas, et omnes tres una caritas. Hoc autem loco Deo Patri attribuitur, cujus caritas erga nos declarata est in eo, quod Filium suum misit in mundum, ut per eum viveremus; quemadmodum proxime dicitur. Quamquam solet hoc nomen accommodari Spiritui sancto, qui, ex Patre Filioque procedens, quodammodo nexus est Patris et Filii. Unde et omnia Dei charismata, ad humani geaeris reparationem et salutem ordinata. passim in Scripturis attribuuntur Spiritui Fancto. Sed quia caritas excellentissimum est Dei donum, in cujus commendatione versatur hoc loco Joannes, ideo peculiariter ab co dictum est de Patre: Quoniam Deus caritas est, Certe et Ecclesia in Antiphona prima tertii Nocturni, Festo SS. Trinitatis, ita recitat: Caritas Pater est, Gratia Filius, Communicatio Spiritus sanctus.
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9. In hoc apparuit caritas Dei in nobis, quoniam Filium suum unigenitum misit Deus in mundum, ut viva^ musper eum. Exemplo Dei Patris, quem dixerat esse caritatem, urget fideles ad diligendum se mutuo. Cum autem multifariam Deus suam erga genus humanum ostenderit caritatem, in eo tamen effectu singulari et eximio manifestata est, quod Filium suum unigenitum miserit in mundum, id est in humana carne visibilem mundo exhibuerit; ut, qui mortui eramus, hoc est, aeternae morti addicti propter peccatum, per eum, velut mediatorem, qui debitum omne nostrum patiendo et moriendo in se susciperet, a morte liberati, viveremus vita aeterna atque beata. Sententiam hanc hausit Joannes a suo magistro, cujus ad Nicodemum fere eadem sunt verba, dicentis: Sic Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unige^ nitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam, Joan. 3. Utroque loco exprimitur nomen unigeniti, tum ad exaggerandam Dei caritatem erga nos, qua ratione laudatur obedientia Abrahae, quod, filium unigenitum immolare jussus, prompte paruerit, Gen. 22.; tum ut inteUigatur Christus esse Filius Dei naturalis, non adoptivus, quales alii multi. Jam enim Cerinthus et Ebion docere coeperant, Jesum non natura Dei Filium esse, sed aliorum more sanctorum, ob insignem profectum virtutum, appellatione filii Dei honoratum.
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10. In hoc est caritas, non guasi nos dilexerimus Deum, sed quoniam Ipse dilexit nos. Ostendit his verbis, Dei caritatem erga nos omnino fuisse gratuitam, ut qui, nullo nostrae erga se dilectionis obsequio provocatus, ultro nos dilexerit. Pro: quasi, Graece est: ozi, quia, seu potius quod. Nam sensus est: Per hunc modum exercetur et commendatur caritas Dei erga nos, quod nos dilexerit, quum essemus ab eo penitus aversi; non autem ideo dilexerit, quod nos eum prius diligeremus, quomodo solent homines diligere eos, a quibus se diligi animadvertunt. Probat hic locus, ut et alii similes, quam vorum sit illud a Patribus definitum, gratiam Dei non ex meritis dari; et, quod inde consequens est, electionem, qua no8 elegit Deus ad salutem, non niti praevisione nostrorum operum, sed esse mere gratuitam. Ita Paulus Rom. 5.: Cowmendat caritatem suam Deus in nobis, quoniam, cum adhuc peccatores essemus, Christus pro nobis mortuus est; et iterum: Cum inimici essemus, reconciliati sumus Deo per mortem Filii ejus. Unde et hic sequitur:
Et misit Filium suum propiUationem pro peccatis nostris. Propitiationem, Graece: tXaojuiov, dixit pro sacrificio propitiatorio. Significat Apostolus, Deum misisse Filium suum, qui esset sacrificium, quo in ara crucis iraraolato, ipse, ob peccata nostra nobis iratus, reconciliaretur. Augustinus hunc locum tractans lib. 15. de Trinitat. cap. 17, loco vocabuli: propitiatiunem, legit: lifatorem; cujus lectionis etiam Beda meminit. Est autem Christus litator, id est sacrificator, quia sacrificavit se ipsum, nt Patrem redderet nobis propitium. Graeca vox tXaanjioc ntroqne sensu potest accipi, sed melius priori. Vide, quae supra diximus ad illud capitis secundi: Et ipse est propitiatio pro peccatis nostris.
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11. Carissimi, si sic Deus dilexit nos, et nos debemus alterutrum diligere. Concludit ab exemplo proposito et omnibus imitando, juxta praeceptum Salvatoris: Estote perfecti, sicut et Pater vester coelestis perfectus est, Matth. 5. Si, inquit, Dens sic dilexit nos a se aversos et inimicos, ut Filium suum unigenitum pro nobis daret in mortem; utique et nos, tanto exemplo admoniti, debemus alii alios diligere; nec amicos colum et benefactores, sed et alienos, et inimicos et persecutores, sicut Panlns Deum et Christum nobis exempla proponit, Ephes. 5. dicens: Estote imitatores Dei, et ambulate in dilectione, sicut et Christus dilexit no3 et tradidit semet ipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam etc.
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12. Deum nemo vidit umquam. Habetur haec eadem sententia apud eundem Joannem cap. 1. sui Evangelii, licet aliorsum illuc allata. Quae quidem intelligi non potest de visione per oculos corporeos, quomodo quidam intellexerunt. Sic enim nec Filius Deum vidit, de quo tamen, tamquam qui Denra viderit, subjungitur eo loco: Unigenitus, qui est in sinu Patris, ipse enarravit. Deinde, quid mirum, si Deum nemo vidit oculis corporeis, quando nec angelos, nec animas, imo nec hunc aerem corporeum corporeis oculis videre possumus. Igitur de visione, quae fit oculis mentis, accipienda est sententia, nec de ea qualicumque; nam mentis oculis Deum aspexerunt, id est cognoverunt et cognoscunt, omnes fideles, alii magis, alii minus; sed de ea visione, qua Deus videtur, sicuti est, et, ut Paulus loquitur, facie ad faciem. Sentit enim Joannes, neminem mortalium esse, qui Deum viderit aut videat (nam praeteritum: vidit, Hebraeo more dixit pro praesenti: videt^ absoluto a tempore), qui proinde vel arcana Dei consilia, taraquara apud Deum, quem viderit, cognita, possit ad nos perferre et nobis enarrare, qua de re loquitur in Evangeh*o; vel Deum, uti decet, redamare, sicut amamus ac redaraaraus araicura, quem videmus et cum quo familiariter agimus; ad hunc enim diligendum ipso conspectu et familiari cum eo conversatione excitamur. Quo respicit hoc loco, nimirnra insinuans, Deum, qui in se ipso a nobis videri non potest, ideoque nec digne diligi, diligendum esse in fratribus, quos videmus. Unde, et infra sic ratiocinatur: Qui non diligit fratrem suum, quem videt, Deum, quem non videt, quomodo potest diligere? Per neminem seu nullum intelligi neminem mortalium, ut interpretati sumus, docetur ex eo, quod simili sensu dictum est a Paulo 1 Tim. 6.: Quem nullus hominum viditj sed nec videre potest. Unde non bene hinc colligas, bonos angelos et sanctorum hominum animas Deum non videre. Recte autem statuitur, nec Paulum in hac vita Deum vidisse. Tametsi Cajetanus ita scribit in hunc locum: Joannes dicit: Deum nemo vidit umquam. Tu, sectator doctorum credentium quod Moses et Paulus viderunt Deum, utere his verbis tamquam regula patiente exceptionem. Ita ille. Atqui, Cajetane, melius est exceptionem non facere; quum ipse, quem tu vis excipere, Paulus eam regulam absolute tradat atque confirmet, addendo: sed nec videre potest.
Si diligamus invicem, Deus in nobis manet. Quamvis, inquit, Deum nullus hominum videat, si tamen nos invicem dih*gamus: Deum, a quo mandatum habemus, ut fratres diligamus (uti dicitur infra versu ult.), habebimus in nobis manentem per gratiam ejus et amicitiam; quasi dicat: Erimus Deo cari et amici.
Et caritas Ejus in nobis perfecta est. Graece: Et caritas Ejus perfecta (seu consummata) est in nobis. Est enim participium: TeT£A£'.a)/jL£VYj, et illud: in nobis, ad hoc participium referri debet. Copulam et causaliter quidam exponunt, et caritatem Dei intelligunt, qua Deus nos diligit; ut sensus sit: Si nos invicem diligamus, Deus in nobis manet per gratiam suam, quia perfecta caritate nos diligit. Sed sciendum est, Joannem, qui perfectae caritatis aliquoties meminit, non illam tribuere Deo, tamquam et imperfecta caritas in eo locum inveniat; sed nobis, qui et imperfecte, et perfecte Deum diligere possimus. Vocat autem caritatem perfectam, sinceram, Christianam et legi divinae conformem caritatem; sicut eam exposuimus supra ad illud capitis secundi: Qui servat verbum Ejus, vere in hoc caritas Dei perfecta est. Sunt, qui caritatem perfectam dici putent ad differentiam caritatis inefficacis, quam vocant, qualis sit in multis peccatoribus, qui scientes, Deum super omnia diligendum esse, desiderium quoddam habent ac velleitatem hujus dilectionis, nec re ipsa tamen omnia Deo postponunt, nec a peccatis suis recedunl. Verum, quamvis eadem sit caritas perfecta et efficax, ea nimirum, quae est in voluntate efficace et absoluta diligendi Deum super omnia, et nihil anteponendi mandatis ejus, cujusmodi caritas est in omnibus et solis sincere Deum colentibus: non videtur tamen hoc discrimen, quod isti ponunt, a Joanne spectari, quoties caritatem vocat perfectam; sed potius eam vocare perfectam, quatenus opponitur caritati imperfectae illi, qua Deus diligitur non propter se, sed nostri commodi causa; quomodo diligebant eum carnales Judaei. Ut caritas perfecta sit amor amicitiae, caritas autem imperfecta amor concupiscentiae praevalens amori amicitiae, qualis est plurimorum erga Deum et proximos, videlicet, eorum, qui sic diligunt, ut, quae sua sunt, quaerant; cum de caritate vera et sincera scriptum sit: Non quaerit, quae sua sunt, 1 Cor. 13. Sensus igitur Apostoli est: Ita demum existimemus, nos sincera caritate Deum diligere, et Deum nobis amicum habere, si nos invicem sincera caritate diligamus.
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13. In hoc cognoscimus, quoniam in Eo manemus, et Ipse in nobis; quO' niam de Spiritu suo dedit nobis. Quo~ niam, Graece: oit, priori loco determinativum est, po.steriori causale. Clarius hoc modo vertas: In hoc cognoscimus, nos in Eo manere, et Eum in nobis, quia de Spiritu suo dedit nobis. Dicit: de Spiritu suo, non quod Spiritus Dei, id est Spiritus sanctus, dividi possit ac distribui in partes, quarum aliam alius accipiat; sed propter ipsius dona, quae distribuuntur hominibus. Divisio- \ nes enim gratiarum sunt, idem autem Spiritus, dividens singulis, prout vult, 1 Cor. 12. Quidam exponunt hunc locum de dono caritatis fraternae, de qua superius disseruit; quasi sensus sit: Eo argumento cognoscimus, nos intime Deo conjunctos esse, quod ab ejus Spiritu, quem nobis dedit, moveamur ad diligendos fratres. Obstat huic intellectui, quod non dicit Joannes: Spiritum suum dedit nobis, sed: de Spiritu suo. Quo locutionis modo significatur donorum partitio, dura aliis alia dantur; caritas autem unum donum est, quod omnibus debet esse commune. Deinde magis etiam obstat hoc, qaod sequitur: Et nos vidimus, etc. Quod ad illum sensum non quadrat. Potius ergo dicendum est, Apostolum loqui de varietate charismatum Spiritus sancti, effusa super fideles. Cum enim dixisset, Deum in nobis manere, si diligamus invicem, nunc alio signo evidentiore docet, non de singalis, sed de Ecclesia fidelium, quod intimam cum Deo societatem habeat (id enim significatur illis verbis: in Eo manemus, et Ipse in nobis), quia nimirum de spiritu suo dedit nobis, id est varia Spiritus sui charismata distribuit nobis; cujusmodi longo ordine recensentur a Paulo 1 Cor. 12. Loquitur autem Joannes in persona Ecclesiae illius primitivae, quae in Apostolis et aliis multis fidelibus de Spiritu Dei, juxta hunc sensum, copiose acceperat. Quod erat certissimum argumentum, eos in Deo manere, et Deum in ipsis. Unde Paulus 1 Cor. 14. de infideli intrante in Ecclesiam, in qua conspiciuntur hujusmodi dona, sic ait: Cadens in faciem adorabit Deum, pronuntians, quod vere Deus in vobis sit, Confer cap. praeced. v. ult.
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14. Et nos vidimus, et testificamur, quoniam Pater misit Filium suum Salvatorem mundi. Dicens: Et nos, declarat, nunc specialius se loqui, scilicet in persona Apostolorum, quomodo locutus est initio hujus Epistolae. Nam sensus est: Et nt amplius intelligatur, Deum in nobis esse, et nos in Deo, nos Apostoli, quorum magisterio fidem Christianam suscepistis, vidimus oculis nostris et manibus contrectavimus (haec enim d icuntiir primo capite) Eura, in quem c redidistis; et sicut vidimus, ita testificati sumus, et adhuc testificamur signis cooperantibus, quod Deus Pater misit Filium suum, ut esset mundi Salvator, id est, ut homines toto orbe in se credentes a peccatis et morte salvos faceret. Unde et Jesum, id est Salvatorem, illum appellari praecepit Matth. 1. et Luc. 1., et praesignari voluit per Joseph Patriarcham, quem, mutato nomine, rex Pharao vocari jussit Aegyptiaca lingua: Salvatorem mundi, Gen. 41.
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15. Quisquis confessus fuerit, quoniam Jesus est Filius Dei, Deus in eo manet, et ipse in Deo. Haec pars illative accipienda est, et ex praecedenti supplenda hoc modo: Quisquis igitur confessus fuerit, quod Jesus est Filius Dei, Salvator mundi, etc; quasi dicat Apostolus: Quum et testimonio Spiritus sancti, qui multa et varia charismata effudit in Ecclesiam per nos fundatam, et praedicatione nostra, id est Apostolorum, qui sumus oculati testes, certissime constet, Deum Patrem misisse Jesum Filium suum, qui omnes in se credentes salvos faceret; ergo quicumque hocipsum integra fide confessus fuerit, intimam obtinet cum Deo conjunctionem; qua in re salus nostra consistit, imperfecte quidem in hac vita, perfecte autem in futura. Conferendus est hic locus cum eo, qui est ad Rom. cap. 10.: Si confitearis in ore tuo Dominum Jesum, et in corde tuo credideris, quod Deus illum suscitavit a mortuis, salvus eris. Corde enim creditur ad justitiam; ore autem confessio fit ad salutem. Nam sicut ille locus, sic et iste confessionem requirit ex fideli corde perfectam, et conjunctam cum ea voluntate, qua paratus sit homo facere, quae facienda per fidem cognoverit.
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16. Et nos cognovimus et credidimus caritati, quam habet Deus in nobis. Caritati, Graece: caritatem. Commendaverat Apostolus caritatem fidelibus, proposito Dei Patris exemplo, qui Filium suum misit pro mundi salute; nunc, instituti sui nequaquam oblitus, eodem revertitur, ostensurus, quanto studio nobis exercenda sit mutua ae fraterna caritas, quibus tale et tantum propositum est caritatis exemplum. Videtur autem hic rursus loqui generalius, scilicet in persona populi fidelis; ut sensus sit: Itaque nos per Apostolorum praedicationem, perque Spiritus sancti testimonia cognovimus ac fide complexi sumus caritatem illam immensam, quam Deus habet erga nos, ut pro quibus vivificandis et salvandis Filium suum miserit in mundum.
Deus caritas est. Cum, iaquit, tantam ostenderit Deus caritatem erga genus humanam, quantam supra phiribus verbis exposui, merito vobis inculco ac repeto, Deum esse ipsam caritatem, nimirum proprie et essentialiter; sicuti proprie et essentialiter est potentia, sapientia, bonitas.
Et qui manet in caritate, in Deo manet y et Deus in eo. Copnlantem particulam et pro illativa sumere videtur, ut hoc sitenthymema Apostolii Deus caritas est; ergo, qui manet in caritate, manet in Deo, et consequenter Deus in eo. Cum enim, ut supra declaratum est, haec immansio sit per societatem etamicitiam, quae necessario est mutua, conseqoens est, ut, si homo maneat in Deo, Deus quoque vicissim maneat in eo. Sciendum, quosdam Theoh>gos, ac nominatim Petrum Lombardum, ex hoc praecipue loco conatos stabilire suam opinionem, qua docebant, eam caritatem, qua homo diligit Deum et proximum, non esse qualitatem creatam, sed ipeam essentiam divinam. Quod enim dicitur: et qui manet in caritate, de caritate increata volunt accipiendum esse, de qua dictum esl: Deus cnritas est; ut constet Apostoli argumentatio, quae alioqui vitiosa foret propter homonymiam vocabuli caritatis. Quibus primo respondendum, non esse consequens, si totus hic locus accipiatur de caritate increata, propterea excludi ac negari caritatom creatam. Hanc enim aliae Scripturae frequenter et aperte nobis tradunt atque commendant, tamquam donum quoddam et fructum Spiritus sancti, connumerantes eam aliis doQis et fructibus et virtutibus, ut fidei, spei, patientiae, modestiae, castitatis, velut 1 Cor. 13., Gal. 5., Ephes. 6. Quemadmodum et illae Scripturae, quae significant, eam augeri posse, nt Joan. 15., Phil. 1., 2 Thess. 1., et quae, minui posse, ut Matth. 24. et Apoc. 2. Nam augmentum et diminutionem caritati increatae competere. impossibile est. Deinde respondetur, nihil obstare, quo minus et hoc, quod dicit Joannes: et qui manet in caritate: de caritate creata accipiatur, sicut accipiendum omnino putamus. Non enim Joannes syllogismum facere intendit, in quo necesse sit, eundem terminum eadem accipi significatione; sed, cura Deus essentialiter sit caritas, ideoque fons omnis dilectionis, quae esse potest in creaturis, optime colligit, eum. qui manet in dilectione fraterna, manere in Deo, quia per caritatem creatam, qua fratrem diligit, Deo, qui per essentiam caritas est, similis efficitur, eidemque societate conjungitur. Quod vero ad dictam opinionem pertinet, ea sane jam satis damnata videtur in Concil. Trid. Sess. 6. cap. 7. doctrinae. Quo loco absolute definitur, in justificatione impii per Spiritum sanctum diffundi caritatem Dei in cordibus eorum, qui justificantur, eamque ipsis inhaerere. Etiterum ejusdem Sess. can. 11., quo anathema diciturei, qui dixerit, hominem justificari absque ea gratia et caritate, quae in cordibus eorum per Spiritum sanctum diffundatur atque illis inhaereat. Vide, quae de hoc argumento plenius a nobis disputata sunt super 1. cent. dist. 10. et 17.
4:17
17. In hoc perfecta est caritas Dei noMscum, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii. Dei non legitur in Graecis, nt nec apud Augustinum et Bedam, nec in textu glossae et Lirani. Multi praeterea Latini codices, iique emendatiores, tam impressi, quam MSS., non habent. At Syrus interpres loco Dei posuit pronomen: Ejus. In hoc, Graece: iv touto), in hac re, quemadmodum supra aliquoties. Potest autem bifariam hic locus intelligi. Xam si legamus aut suppleamus: caritatem Dei, qua scilicet Deus nos diligit, erit iste sensus: Hic effectus est et fructus illius perfectissimae caritatis, qua nos ut filios suos diligit Deus, quod Dei judicium non admodum timeamus, sed cum bona fiducia parati simus ei judicaturo occurrere, et ad ejus tribunal nos sistere. Non enim condemnabit, quos ut filios diligit, et quibus haereditatem regni praeparavit. Quod si nec legamus, nec suppieamus: Dei caritatem y sed fraternam caritatem intelligamus significari, sensus eiit hujusmodi: Caritas nostra mutua ac fraterna, si sit perfecta, id est germana, sincera ac Christiana (sic enim caritatem perfectam intelligendam esse, jam supra docuimus), parit nobis hunc fructum, ut bene confidamus, in die judicii nos aggregandcs numero filiorum Dei. Sensum hunc prae altero probabilem facit locus ille cap. praecedentis, quo ad sinceram fratrum. dilectionem hortabatur: Si cor nostrum nonreprehenderitnos, fiduciam habeamus ad Deum. Huc etiam facit verbum Graecum TSTsXetoTai, perfecta (participialiter), consummata est ^ id est, perfecta evasit. Quod de dilectione Dei, cui nulla perfectio potest accrescere, dici nequit. Quidam sic exponunt: In hoc, id est 60 signo et argumento, ostenditur esse in nobis perfecta caritas, sive erga Deum, sive erga proximos, si fiduciam in nobis sentiamus, quod in die judicii non simus condemnandi. Ita Beda et Hesselius. Sed obsistit huic intellectui particula ut, quae finalis aut consecutiva esse solet, non autem conditionalis, sicut eam isti interpretantur. Quia j sicut Ille est, et nos sumus in hoc mundo, Probatio est sententiae praecedentis, qua dixerat, caritatem fraternam gignere in nobis fiduciam in die judicii. Nam caritas, inquit, illa nos Deo similes facit. Qui autem in se Dei similitudinem agnoscit per imitationem caritatis, merito confidit, in ejus judicio se recepturum mercedem promissam. Itaque valet hic locus pro fiducia bonorum ac per Spiritum Dei factorum operum apud Deum, adversus haereticos, qui solam fidem misericordiae praedicant. Ubi tamen primo ac certissime statuendum est, opera nostra bona nobis a Deo esse, cujus tanta est bonitas, ut nostra velit esse merita, quae sunt ipsius dona. Per quod retunditur haereticorum calumnia, qui Catholicos, ex operibus bonis salutem exspectantes, criminantur, tamquam non totam fiduciam collocent in gratia et misericordia Dei. Neque enim solummodo fatentur et credunt Catholici, quidquid boni operantur, divini esse muneris; verum etiam Dei misericordiam in eo sibi necessariam esse confitentur, ut quotidiana sibi delicta remittantur, ac ne deserantur a Deo; quum vel maxime perseverantia sit gratuitum Dei donum. Quod ad explicationem attinet hujus loci, quidam ad Christum, alii ad Deum referunt particulam: sicut Ille est. Qui ad Christum, est per fuit exponunt, ut sensus sit: Quia, sicut Ille versatus est in hoc mundo, caritatem per omnia nobis exhibens, et animam suam pro nobis ponens, ita et nos in hoc mundo versamur, proximos diligentes et animas quoque pro eis ponere parati. Respondet huic sensui, quod supra dixit cap. 2.: Qui dicit, se in Ipso manere, debet, sicut Ille ambulavit, et ipse ambulare. Et cap. 3.: Omnis, qui habet hanc spem in Eo, sanctificat se, sicut et Ille sanctus est. Qui ad Deum referunt, interpretantur hoc fere modo: Quia, sicut Deus est, id est, qualis Deus est, nimirum caritas per essentiam, qua nos adeo dilexit, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret nobis propitiaturem 5 tales et nos sumus per imitationem, officia caritatisfratribus impendentes, idque in hoc mundo, ubi variae et frequentes occurrunt necessitates exercendi caritatem erga proximos. Hunc intellectum exigere videntur ea, quae paulo ante dixii Apostolus de caritate Dei erga genus humanum; ex quibus illam inferebat conclasionem: Si sic Deus dilexit nos, et nos debemus alterutrum diligere. Huc refert Augustinus Scripturam Matth. 5., ubi Dominus, commendans inimicorum dilectionem, adjecit: Ut sitis filii Patris vestri, qui in coelis est, qui solem suum facit oriri super bonos et malos, et pluit super justos et injustos. Et tandem infert: Estote ergo perfecti, sicut et Pater vester coelestis perfectus est. Nec solus Augustinus, sed ot alii plerique tradunthancexpositionem. Illud vix opus, ut admoneam, adveibio sicut, tam hic, quam apud Matthaeum, non aequalitatem significari, sed similitudinem et imitationem, ut passim alibi.
4:18
18. Timor non est in caritate. Quae toto hoc versu de timore dicuntur, eo spectant, ut probetur, quod dictum est, eos, qui caritatem exercent, habere fiduciam in die judicii. Nam ablegato per caritatem timore, jam locus est fiduciae, cui timor adversabatur. Ut haec sit probatio a remotione contrarii. Cum autem multiplex apud Theologos sit timor, non hic de filiali timore sermo est, quo filius metuit, ne peccando patrem offendat. Nam in hoc saeculo, quanto quis amplius profecerit in caritate, tanto magis sollicitus est, ne quid committat, quod eum a Dei Patris amicitia separet. At neque sermo est de timore mundano, dum quis metuit amittere bonum aliquod temporale, et eo metu legem Dei transgreditur; licet ad ejusmodi timorem extendant hunc locum Ambrosius Epist. 74. et Tertullianus in fine libri de fuga in persecut. Verum non de timore hominum, quo quis impellitur ad peccandum, loquitur Joannes, sed de timore Dei, quo retrahitur a peccato, puniendus, si peccaverit. Igitur Joanni sermo est de timore Dei, ut judicis; sive, quod idem est, de timore judicii divini, quo poena gehennae peccatoribus infligitur. Hic enim timor oppositus est spei atque fiduciae (quam dixit) in die judicii. Comprehendit autem sub se timorem servilem et initialem. Nam et initialis timor, quamvis sit filiorum caritatem habentium, tamen et ipse pro objecto poenam habet eandem, quam servilis: ideoque caritate crescente minuitur ille timor, uti bene docet Augustinus et alii post eura, et nos ostendimus super 3. sent. dist. 34. Utrum vero de timore solo servili loquatur Apostolus, an etiam initialem comprehendi velit, pendet praecipue ex acceptione caritotis in hoc eodem versu. Quidam enim totum exponunt de caritate perfecta, qualis est eorum, qui iu hac vita perfecti dicuntur, ut distincti ab incipientibus et proficientibus. Subjungit enim Joannes: Sed perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem. Alii vero caritatem et caritotem perfectam pro eadem accipiunt, ut perfecta caritas Joanni dicatur perfectione essentiali (quemadmodum explicatum est in versu praeced. et cap. 2. vers. 5.), id est caritas vera, sincera, Christiana, qualis est etiam incipientium et proficientium. Nam certe in perfectorum gradu sunt admodum pauci. Unde sequeretur, doctrinam Joannis de caritate foras mittente timorem et praestante fiduciam in die judicii, in paucis admodum Christianis veritatem habere. Proinde videtur exponendus hic locus do timore servili, quem vera caritas, etiam imperfectorum, excludit; praesertim cum ne perfecti quidem timore judicii divini prorsus careant, sed cum Psalmista dicere debeant: Confige timore tuo carnes meas; a judiciis enim tuis timui, Psalm. 118. Sensus igitur hujus partis est: Timor ille, quo quis sibi male conscius timet condemnari in judicio divino, non consistit cum caritate, sive non est in eo, qui caritatem habet Dei et proximi, veram scilicet atque sinceram, de qua sequitur:
Sed perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem. Quam dicat perfectam caritatem, jam exposuimus. Ea foras ejicit timorem profectum ex conscientia peccatorum, propter quae quis meretur in Dei judicio condemnari; et consequenter fiduciam parit salutis in die judicii tanto ma-' jorem, quanto ipsa perfectior fuerit. Eadem ratio est de eo, qui vel solum, vel principaliter timore gehennae abstinet a peccatis. Nam talis cum sit extra caritatem, non potest habere bonam conscientiam. Neque enim vere a peccatis abstinet, qui nondum Deum super omnia diligit. Quare et eum timorem perfecta caritas ejicit foras.
Quoniam timor poenam habet. Poenam, Graece: xoXaoiv^ punitionem, cruciatum, tormentum, ut legit Augustinus. Plerique sensura hunc reddunt: Timor suppliciorum, quem mala gignit conscientia, cruciat animncn; quemadmodum e diverso spes et fiducia, quam bona conscientia parit, animum laetificat. Quamquam et sic inlelligi recte potest: Timor poenam habet pro objecto; quasi dicat: Qui sibi male conscius timet, is poenam, quam commeruit, semper animo versat; ideoque fiduciam in die judicii habere non potest. Nam, ut ait Augustinus in praefatione super Psalm. 31.: Mala conscientia tota in desperatione esty sicut bona conscientia tota in spe.
Qui autem timet, 7ion est perfectus in caritate. Perfectus participialiter, ut supra vers. 17. Est enim idem Graecum verbum: TSTeAsicoxat, consummatus est. Multi sic intelligunt hanc partem: Qui adhuc timet poenam seu cruciatum, et hoc timore facit, quae Deus praecipit, nondum eo profecit in caritate, ut inter perfoctos censeri possit; sed adhuc haeret in classe vel inchoantium, vel proficientium. At si hic esset Apostoli sensus, vel nulli, vel admodum pauci essent in caritate perfecii. Quis enim est tam caritate perfectus in hac vita, ut in eo mala concupiscentia timore divini judicii, velut freno, non sit cohibenda? Quocirca putamus, Apostolum de eo loqui, qui timet serviliter, id est, eo timore, de quo dixit: Timor non est in caritate, quod de timore servili, non initiali docuimus intelligendum. Ut sensus hujus loci sit: Qui timet poenam a Deo judice irrogandam, et eo timore principaliter movetur ad faciendum bonum et abstinendum a malo, nondum ost assecutus caritatem perfectam, id est, veram atque germanam, qualem lex Christiana requirit; et proinde fiduciam veram habere non potest in die judicii. Id enim est, quod Joannes probare intendit. Dixerat enim: In hoc perfecta est caritas nobiscum, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii. Ubi si caritas intelligeretur ea tantum, quae perfectorum est, ut ab incipientibus et proficientibus distinguitur, sequeretur, solos perfectos habere fiduciam in die judicii, et ab ejuemodi fiducia tam proficientes, quam incipientes excludi, donec ad ordinem perfectorum promovissent. Quod absurdum est dicere. Denique confirmat expositionem nostram illa sententia cap. superioris: Si cor nostrum non reprehenderit nos, fiduciam habemus ad Deum. Quod sine dubio pertinet etiam ad incipientes et proficientes. Veruntamen, ut recte dictum est ab Augustino locum hunc exponente: Timor, de quo Joannes agit, quamvis non sit in cnritate, tamen quasi locum praeparat caritati. Cum autem coeperit caritas habitare, pellitur timor, qui ei praeparavit locum. Quod vero subjungit: Quantum enim illa crescit, ille decrescit; et quantum illa fit interior, ille pellitur foras; major caritas, minor timor; minor caritas, major timor; hoc, inquam, non jam de timore servili dictum intelligi debet; sed de eodem timore poenae per ingressum caritatis mutato in timorem initialem, qui jam servilis dici non potest, quia servitutem caritas, quae filiorum est, exclusit. Initialem hunc vocanc Theologi, quemadmodum et Oecumenius in commentario, quia maxime necessarius est incipientibus Deo per veram caritatem servire; juxta illud in eum sensum a Patribus usurpatum: Initium sapientiae timor Domini, Ps. 110., Prov. 1. et Eccl. 1.
4:19
19. Nos ergo diligamus Deum, quoniam Deus prior dilexit nos. Graeca sine particula illativa sic habent: Nos diligamus Eum, quia Ipse primus (seu prior) dilexit nos. Potest etiam verti: diligimus, nt fecit Erasmus. Nam Graecum ayaTcoiiisv anceps est ad utrumque modum. Quamquam melius est, quod habet vulgata versio. Redit enim Apostolus ad superiorem exhortationem, ubi, commeniorata tanta Dei caritate erga nos, ut etiam Filium miserit propitiationem pro peccatis nostris, ita concluserat: Carissimi, si sic Deus dilexit nos, et nos debemus alterutrum diligere. Hoc igitur est, quod nnuc repetit, utens exLortandi modo; nisi quod illic intulit, diligendos esse fratres, hic autem infert, Deum vicissim diligendum esse, eo nimirum argumento, quia benefactori rependendus est amor eo magis, quo majus praestiterit beneficium; quale nobis utique summum et inaestimabile praestitit Deus, ut proinde summe nobis diligendus sit. Ex hoc autem debito caritatis erga Deum consequens est, ut et fratres diligere debeamus, quia sic ille praecepit. Unde, si quis fratrem non diligit, ostendit, se Deum, ut oportet, non diligere. Et hoc est, quod sequitur:
4:20
20. Si quis dixerit: Quoniam diligo Deum; et fratrem suum oderit, mendax est. Quoniam, redundat Hebraeo more. Sensus est: Si quis dixerit, se diligere Deum, scilicet ea dilectione, qua diligendus est: et interim fratrem suum aut oderit, aut omnino non diligat, sed ab aflfectu suae dilectionis excludat: is mendax est, id est, falsum loquitur, etiamsi persuasum forte habeat, se diligere Deum. Nam quod dicit, facto negat; dictum est autem supra cap. 3.: Non diligamus verbo, neque lingua, sed opere et veritate. Porro mendacem esse, probat duabus subjectis rationibus, quarum prior haec est:
Qui enim non diligit fratrem suum, quem videt, Deum, quem non videt, quomodo potest diligere? In Graecis utrobique praeteriti temporis est verbum: Iwpaxs^ vidit, quod et in vetustis quibusdam Latinis legitur; tametsi res eodem redeat. Nam quod ad sensum attinet, praesens comprehendit praeteritum. Sumpta est autem haec ratio a faciliori et promptiori, id est, ab eo, quod prius diligendum occurrit, utpote sensibus expositum; ac si dicat: Qui non exhibet officia caritatis erga fratrem, quem vi~ det, id est, hominem sibi notum, et cujus novit necessitates, ut iis conspectis naturaliter moveri debeat ad commiserationem et subsidium praestandum: is quomodo Deum, quem numquam vidit, sed tantum credit, diligere poterit, eo scilicet dilectionis modo, qui ei debetur? Quamvis enim trater a nobis diligendus sit propter Deum, prior tamen est natura, quam gratia; et secundum naturam prius amamus visa, quam non visa. Nam sicut omnis nostra notitia, sic et omnis amor a sensu d^ucit originem. Isto fere modo S. Thomas explicat hunc locum in 2. sec. q. 26. art. 2. ad 1. Ubi videatur Bannes.
4:21
21. Et hoc mandatum habemus a Deo, ut, qui diligit Deum, diligat et fratrem suum. A Deo, Graece et Sy« riace: ab Eo. Sic ct Augustinus legit, et non pauci codices MSS. Quod quidem ad Christum referunt, cujus mandatum habemus in Evangelio, ut fratres diligamus. Verum quia de Christo nihil praecessit, satius est, ut, juxta vulgatos codices, ad Dtum referamus. Est autem haec altera ratio ad probandum eum mendacem, qui, cum non diligat fratrem, affirmat, se diligere Deum; yumpta videlicet ex lege Dei, qua fratres diligere jubemur; quam qui violat, vere dicere non potest, se Deum diligere. Nam dilectio Dei consistit in observatione mandatorum ejus. Unde Christus in Evangelio: Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate, Joan. 14. Est autem huic loco simile, quod dixit Petro: Diligis me? Pasce oves meas, Joan. 21.; quasi nobis omnibus similiter a Deo dicatur: Si diligitis me, diligite fratres. Id enim praecepi vobis; et id faciendo ostendetis, vos me diligere. Quod ergo dicit Joannes, ut, qui diligit Deum etc, sic intellige: Ut dilectionem Dei prodat ac probet opere dilectionis fraternae, quam illi Deus praecepit.
4:1
… Woman needs to feel and find in man a being whom she venerates and admires; man feels the need of the gentle and solicitous, prudent and beneficent influence of woman. b) Man, created in the image and likeness of God, who is "love" (1 Jn. 4:1), is himself, in his inmost being, love. …
… It is a spirit of falsehood, he explains, like Paul, an antichrist, whoever alters the doctrine about Jesus: qui soluit Christum (1 Jn. 4:1-6; 2:22-25; 1 Cor. 12:3). "If anyone does not bring you the word of Christ, do not receive him into your house, do not greet him" (2 Jn. 7, 11).
4:2
… "Whoever confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God" (I Jn. 4:2). St. Ignatius the martyr manifests the same concern when he writes that "there is only one physician, carnal and spiritual, begotten and not made, God subsisting in the flesh, true …
4:4
… the powers (al ēbōnōn), the rulers of this world of darkness, the spirits of wickedness (that fly) in the lower atmosphere (ἐν τοῖς ἐσονρανίοις)" (Eph. 6:12; cf. Rom. 8:38; I Cor. 15:24), who govern all those who do not belong to God (Io. 15:19; 17:14; I Io. 4:4-5). As ruler of this world, S. has nothing in Jesus, who is not of the world (Io. 8:23; 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 17:14-16); S. cannot harm the children of God (I Io. 5:18). S. confesses …
4:5
John, Apostle, Evangelist, Saint
… ἀλήθειαν (I Jn. 1:6 = Jn. 8:44); οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐν τινι (I Jn. 1:8; 2:4 = Jn. 8:44); ἐκ τῆς ἀληθείας εἶναι (I Jn. 2:21 = Jn. 18:37); ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου εἶναι (I Jn. 3:8 = Jn. 8:44); ἐκ θεοῦ εἶναι (I Jn. 3:4, 1 = Jn. 7:17; 8:47); ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου εἶναι (I Jn. 4:5 = Jn. 3:23); ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου λαλεῖν (I Jn. 4:5 = Jn. 3:31); τῆς γῆς, ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ, ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατεῖν (I Jn. 2:11 = Jn. 8:12; 12:35). Likewise "life" (α) is Christ (Jn. 1:4; [6:48]; …
4:6
… Man, however, can also be deceived, and since he can be subject to the motions of both good and evil angels, he must diligently examine the inspirations (I Io. 4, 6). Generally those that strengthen one in good, in humility, in obedience to authority, in charity, etc., come from the good spirit. …
4:7
… With an even stronger term, St. John in his I Letter calls Christians "born of God," having within themselves a seed of him (σπέρμα αὐτοῦ: I Io. 3:9; cf. ibid., 2:29; 3:13; 4:7 and P. De Ambroggi, op. cit., p. 227).
… Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 23, a. 1) through the bestowal, on God's part, of sanctifying grace, to which there corresponds, on man's part, the act of charity toward God (Prov. 8:17; I Io. 4:7 and 16). As in every friendship, in the love of benevolence there is a mutual communion of goods (Io. 15:14), an intimacy of presence (Io. 14:23), a life unified in the participation …
… It is further demonstrated by those texts of Sacred Scripture, both of the Old and of the New Testament (Prov. 8:17; Lk. 10:27-28; Jn. 14:21-23; 1 Pt. 4:8; 1 Jn. 4:7) in which it is said that to the love of God, from which precisely contrition proceeds, is joined the friendship of the Lord, the remission of sins with all the other goods that follow.
4:8
… who is a "son of peace" (Lk. 10:6) resembles him and belongs to him. The elect will be, in the age to come, "sons of God" (Lk. 20:36); already now they enjoy divine sonship because the ἀγάπη of God is in their hearts (Rom. 5:2b, 5; 8:14; I Jn. 3:1; 4:8, 16), and after the teaching of Jesus, εἰρήνη without ἀγάπη cannot be conceived.
… and historical criticism, which, taken together, seemed to arrive at pulverizing the person of Jesus and the transcendent value of "his message." Christianity is not only doctrine, it is at the same time life: "whoever does not love does not know God" (1 Jn. 4:8). Human, natural erudition alone, even the most serious and powerful, can provide only formless materials, however precious they may be in themselves. …
Religions, Comparative Study of
… DSp, II [1950], cols. 1727-38). Among the mystics favored by the Roman Church, and among the flower of Muslim sūfīs, such as al-Ghazālī (v.) and al-Hallāj, it is the loving union with Him whom the Evangelist defined as Love itself: Deus caritas est (I Jn. 4:8; L. Gardet, Mystique naturelle et mystique surnaturelle en Islam, in Rech. de science relig., 37 [1950], pp. 321-365). b) Differences as to technique. …
4:9
… Dogma in the Catholic Church effectively remains the foundation of morality, of mysticism, of action, according to the constant apostolic tradition (Gal. 2:19 ff.; Rom. 14:15; I Io. 4:9 ff. [cf. A. Gardeil, Le donné révélé et la théologie, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, p. 319 ff.; E. Krebs, Dogma und Leben, I, 3rd ed., Paderborn 1930; II, 2nd ed. ibid. 1925; A. Rademacher, Religion …
4:10
… Jesus' conception of his messianic kingdom is universalistic: he commanded the Apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations (Mt. 28:18); he is the light that enlightens every man (Jn. 1:9); he died for all (I Jn. 2:1-2, cf. 4:10; I Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; II Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 5:15-19).
4:12
… In classical Latin the term immanens is lacking, while the concept of in-manere is found in 1 Jn 4:12 ff.: "Deus in nobis manet, et charitas eius in nobis perfecta est. In hoc cognoscimus quoniam in eo manemus, et ipse in nobis, quoniam de spiritu suo dedit nobis." Evidently the Johannine …
4:13
… dwelling as actually present in the soul, there are others that rather indicate either its coming to be (the Holy Spirit sent to us: ibid. 14:26; Gal. 4:6; given to us: Io. 7:39; 14:16; Act. 5:32; 8:18; Rom. 5:5; I Thess. 4:8; I Io. 3:24; 4:13; received as a gift: Act. 2:38; I Cor. 2:12), or our transformation, soul and body, into a temple of God (ibid. 3:16 ff.; 6:19; II Cor. 6:16).
4:16
… Now the final end of human life is God, and it is c. that unites us with him, according to the words of St. John: 'He who remains in c. remains in God and God remains with him' (I Io. 4, 16). Therefore it is more especially in c. that the perfection of the Christian life consists" (Sum. …
Religions, Comparative Study of
… or less familiar with the New Testament, do not fail to refer, in this connection, to the words of Christ and his apostles: "Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 15, 12); "If anyone says: I love God, but then hates his brother, he is a liar" (I Jn. 4, 16-21). To proclaim such a solution aloud is equivalent to forgetting that freedom of thought carries with it freedom of action: new religions, sects and sub-sects have always formed a separate …
… Postugière, La révélation d'Hermis Trémégiste, II, Parigi 1949, p. x, n. 1) non è affatto identico al Dio della Rivoluzione cristiana: non è l'Infinito di tutte le perfezioni sia fisiche che morali, lo stesso Amore (I Io. 4, 16), la cui sapienza, santità e bontà spiegano nello stesso tempo il fine ed il modo della redenzione (mediante la morte del proprio suo figlio; Gal. 2, 20; Eph., 2, 4; 5, 2; Io. 3, 16 …
4:19
… God's charity toward man: the first gift, in which God communicates to man not only created being, but further the divine Being in supernatural Grace (I Io. 3:1). Charity toward God will therefore be fundamentally a return of the love shown in Grace (ibid. 4:19). Thanksgiving will give its name to Christian worship (the Eucharist), its value to humility (Rom. 5:1-11), its ardor to penance (Lk. 7:47), to faith its eloquence (Ps. 115:1-10), …
4:20
… St. John delights in fusing them into a single commandment (1 Jn. 4:20-21), while St. Paul recapitulates the whole substance of the Christian law in the second precept (Gal. 5:14; 6:2; Rom. 13:8).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.