(1) Beloved, believe not every (a) spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1) Taking occasion by the name of the Spirit, lest love and charity should be separated from the worship of God, which chiefly depends on his true knowle... [ Continue Reading ]
(2) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: (b) Every spirit that confesseth that (c) Jesus Christ is come in the (d) flesh is of God: (2) He gives a certain and perpetual rule to know the doctrine of antichrist, that is, if either the divine or human nature of Christ, or the true uniting of them togethe... [ Continue Reading ]
(3) Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (3) He comforts the elect with a most sure hope of victory: but yet so, that he teaches them that they fight not with their own power, but with the virtue and power of God... [ Continue Reading ]
(4) They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. (4) He brings a reason why the world receives these teachers more willingly than the true: that is, because they speak nothing but that which is worldly: which is another note also to know the doctrine of anti... [ Continue Reading ]
(5) We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the (e) spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. (5) He testifies to them that his doctrine and the doctrine of his companions, is the assured word of God which of necessity we have boldly to se... [ Continue Reading ]
(6) Beloved, let us love one another: (7) for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (6) He returns to the commending of brotherly love and charity. (7) The first reason: because it is a very divine thing, and therefore very fitting for the sons of God: so that w... [ Continue Reading ]
He that loveth not knoweth not God; (8) for God is love. (8) A confirmation: for it is the nature of God to love men, of which we have a most manifest proof above all other, in that of his only free and infinite good will towards us his enemies, he delivered to death, not a common man, but his own... [ Continue Reading ]
(9) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (9) An other reason by comparison: if God so loved us, shall not we his children love one another?... [ Continue Reading ]
(10) No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is (g) perfected in us. (10) A third reason: Because God is invisible, therefore by this effect of his Spirit, that is, by charity, he is understood to be not out of us, but united with us and in us, in... [ Continue Reading ]
(11) And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world. (11) He underlays this charity with another foundation, that is, faith in Jesus, which joins us indeed with him, even as charity witnesses that we are joined with him. Furthermore he testifies of Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
Whosoever shall (h) confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. (h) With such a confession as comes from true faith, and is accompanied with love, so that there is an agreement of all things.... [ Continue Reading ]
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. (12) God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (12) A fourth reason: God is the fountain and wellspring of charity indeed charity itself: therefore whoever abides in it, has God with him.... [ Continue Reading ]
(13) Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because (i) as he is, so are we in this world. (13) Again (as before) he commends love, seeing that by our agreement with God in this thing, we have a sure testimony of our adoption, it comes to pass by this tha... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no (k) fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (k) If we understand by love, that we are in God, and God in us, that we are sons, and that we know God, and that everlasting life is in us: he concludes correctl... [ Continue Reading ]
(14) We love him, because he first loved us. (14) Lest any man should think that that peace of conscience proceeds from our love as the cause, he goes back to the fountain, that is, to the free love with which God loves us although we deserved and do deserve his wrath. From this springs another dou... [ Continue Reading ]
(15) If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: (16) for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (15) As he showed that the love of our neighbour cannot be separate from the love with which God loves us because this last give... [ Continue Reading ]
(17) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (17) A second reason, why God cannot be hated and our neighbour loved, because this same lawmaker commanded us both to love him and our neighbour.... [ Continue Reading ]