CHAPTER 3 VER. 1. _Behold what great love the Father hath bestowed on us_ (unworthy, enemies and sinners as we are), _that we should be called, and be the sons of God._ Love, actively, His wondrous love to us, and passively, as communicated and infused into us. "How much He loved us," says Vatablus,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him._ Not in nature but in quality, in happiness, in eternal glory. The world which knows us not now, because it beholds not our inward beauty will then know us... [ Continue Reading ]
_And every one that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself even as He is pure._ The Apostle next shows us the way to attain this likeness to Christ. We must put our whole trust in Him. To be like Him in glory, we must strive to be like Him in holiness, in suffering, and in passion. For no one will... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins._ That is Christ. "And He takes away our sins," says Bede, "by forgiving the sins which have been done, by keeping us from doing, and by leading us to that life where they cannot be committed." The word _αίζνιν_ and the Syriac _nasa_, both of... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he cannot sin, because he is born of God._ Hence Jovinian, Luther, and Calvin taught that a man could not fall away, but was sure of his salvation. But S. John says, " _My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not_." Consequently they _could_ sin, faithful though they were... [ Continue Reading ]
_In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil._ The two tests are, the doing righteousness, and loving his brother. Righteousness and charity are of God, unrighteousness and hatred are of the devil. Righteousness is here taken in its widest sense, as including all virtues.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not as Cain._ For he loved himself only, and hated his brother because he saw that his offering was acceptable to God. As God says to Cain (according to LXX), "Hast thou not sinned, if thou offerest rightly, but dividest not rightly?" "For Cain did this," says S. Augustine (_de Civ._ xv. 7), "givin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hall you._ This is an inference from the previous antithesis of the children of God, and the children of the devil. Our Lord alludes to the hatred of wicked men against Christ in S. John xv. 18. Everything is opposed to and hates its contrary, as black is oppos... [ Continue Reading ]
_We know that we have passed from death unto life._ Not because we believe that we are predestinated, but as a moral certainty, by the testimony of a good conscience, by the innocency of our life, and the consolation of the Holy Spirit. S. John says this for their consolation and to keep them from d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hereby we know the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren_. S. John here goes back to the law and living pattern of perfect charity, even Christ, who by laying down His life for us, taught us in like manner to lay down our lives for th... [ Continue Reading ]
_But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?_ He deduces this as a consequence from the former verse. It is an argument from the less to the greater. If the love of Christ obliges us to la... [ Continue Reading ]
_My little children, let us not 1ove in word, and in tongue, but in deed and in truth_. He condemns here all false charity, which exhibits itself in words only, as S. James (Jam 2:15) does also. S. Gregory (_Moral._ xxi. 14) says that our charity must ever be exhibited in reverent words, &c., and in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hereby we know that we are of the truth_, that we have true love, that we are the sons of truth, of true and genuine charity. Secondly, we are of God, who is the chief and highest truth, and true charity. See John xiv. 6, xviii. 37. And accordingly S. Augustine rightly concludes (_de Moribus Eccl.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things._ If we cannot conceal our hypocrisy from our own hearts, much less can we conceal it from God, who is greater and deeper even than our own heart, who is more intimately acquainted with it, and is nearer to it than w... [ Continue Reading ]
_If_ _our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God_, viz., that we shall obtain from Him all that we ask. See Psalms 119:6. The contrary is the case with the wicked. See Proverbs 28:9, as S. Gregory says (_Mor._ x. 15, or 17), "He who remembers that he still refuses to listen to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him. _... [ Continue Reading ]