Chapter 3

Chapter 3 — Exposition of the Third Chapter

¹ See what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God — and we are. Having spoken of the onslaught of the antichrists and all their perverse teaching, and having sufficiently established his readers to hold unshakably to the things in which they had been instructed, he goes on now to set before them as well the reward laid up for these things, strengthening them, as it were, by the splendor of the prizes; and he says, “Abide in Him.” For what reason? “That we may have boldness in Him when He is made manifest.” For what is more glorious, or more to be desired, than boldness — when, in the presence of Him to whom we are about to display our labors in this life, we do so with boldness, in no way put to shame at His coming? [1] And since it is likely that some would ask what they must accomplish in order to become well-pleasing to Him, he teaches this also, saying: “If you have known Him, that He is righteous, you surely know this too, that everyone who does righteousness has been begotten of Him.” For the righteous one begets the righteous. [2] And how great this is toward your boasting and boldness no one is ignorant — nor yet of the love and kindness of Him who bestows it upon you, how great and of what sort it is. For you know that He has granted you both to become and to be reckoned His children. And if this is unclear to those in the world — I mean, that you are sons of God — do not marvel at it. For the world does not know you for this very reason, that neither did it know Him who adopted you; and by “world” he means the common rabble. Then, since he has built up the matter of the adoption, he speaks upon this still more plainly of the glory and boldness laid up for those who have been adopted.

² Beloved, now we are children of God. For this reason the world does not know you, because it did not know Him. — By “world” he means the common and swinish rabble, which is roused only toward this passion-ridden life, as a swine toward the mire.

³ Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been made manifest what we shall be. But we know that, if He is made manifest, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure. It is as though he were saying: You have surely come to know through what has gone before that we have been taken up to be sons of God. And if this has not yet been made manifest, do not be troubled;[3] for what is now unclear will become manifest when He is revealed. For appearing like Him, we shall display the splendor of the adoption; for sons are altogether like the father. But having boldness toward Him as sons, we shall see Him as He is — not according to His nature (for this is impossible for a created nature), but how? Pure, being pure; righteous, being righteous; for like things will cleave to the like. For this reason a little further back he said [4] that we are like Him, not according to nature. For otherwise he would have said, not “like,” but “the same.” But now, since this latter is not to be, he said like, that is, according to the quality of the glory. And it must be observed that above he did not say, “Everyone who has done righteousness,” nor “who will do it,” but “who does it.” For the active virtues have their being in the doing; once they have ceased, or are still to come, they do not even have being.

⁴ Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness also, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was made manifest in order to take away our sins; and in Him there is no sin. Having built up his discourse on righteousness through what precedes, from the goods that belong to righteousness, now he advances his demonstration from the contrary as well and from the things inherent in it, saying: “Everyone who commits sin.” He means something like this: You who have been adopted, work righteousness, and do not render yourselves idle in it. For just as, in the matter of sin, it is not the one who has sinned, nor the one who will sin, that is the sinner or the lawless one, but the one who is held fast by evil and is active in it — so too the righteous man is not the one who is inactive, but the one who is active. Yet by no means, he says, may you have any room for sinning; for since Christ has come for the abolition of sin, inasmuch as He had no share in sin, neither does it remain for you any longer to sin, you who have come to be in Him and have been confirmed in faith toward Him — which he signifies by the words “Everyone who abides in Him.” And it should be known that sin is the falling away from the good, while lawlessness is the transgression concerning the positive law. And each of these has this as its origin: the one, the falling away from the good; the other, the transgression concerning the positive law. But these coincide in the same point; for the one who sins has failed of the goal that is according to his nature and within his nature (for the goal for human nature is to live according to reason, far removed from unreason), and likewise the one who acts lawlessly transgresses concerning the law given within his nature, being carried away without self-control.

⁵ Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. That is, the one who unremittingly pursues the virtues and never leaves off their practice.

⁶ And everyone who sins has not seen Him, neither has he known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. Having said that He was made manifest, and the cause for which He was made manifest — namely, that, as one who had committed no sin, He might take away our sin, that is, do away with it — he adds: “Everyone who sins has not seen Him.” For if you, he says, who upon His being made manifest have seen Him, and have received as a sign of having seen Him the fact that you are not easily mastered by sin, as being perfectly established in Him — then surely those who sin have not seen Him, and therefore neither have they known Him. By “having seen” he does not mean the mere contact of bare sight, nor that they were active toward the object of knowledge by some ready-made fancy, but that they made their approach to Him with a certain discernment and understanding, as we have said above. And having said this, he proceeds in a confirming manner: “Let no one deceive you.” For it is no otherwise than thus: he who does righteousness has known the Righteous One and is righteous as He also is — that is, God; just as, conversely, he who commits sin is from the sinful one, who is the devil, who sins from the beginning. Therefore also God, caring for His own creature, being righteousness and sanctification, was made manifest — that is, appeared in the world — in order to do away with the works of the devil.

⁷ He who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God made manifest, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Since the devil, having been turned aside [5] into sinning, everyone who sins takes his name from him. For he takes the lead within the one who sins by the prompting of wicked thoughts, as in the case of Judas. But someone will say: How does the devil come to be in those who sin, when they have sinned before him, in giving him a place? To which it must be answered that to commit sin is the same as to sin by giving a place to the devil; for the one who sins gives him a place, being led under by desire together with receiving him, accomplishing the sin in deed. For this is what “to commit” it signifies. And it is well said, “He who commits,” but not “He who has committed,” since the one who has repented is no longer of the devil, but only the one who is still working it. For in this way too the one who commits sin is a slave of sin, but not the one who has committed it. For everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

⁸ Everyone who has been begotten of God does not commit sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are made manifest. Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not love his brother. Since everyone who commits sin is of the devil, in the very act of sinning, and is called a son of the devil — as the blessed Paul says to Elymas, “Son of the devil, will you not cease to pervert the ways of the Lord?”[6][7] — it is plain that the one begotten of God, as a son of God, does not sin, because the seed of God Himself is in him, that is, the Spirit which we received through the grace of which we were deemed worthy; and this, abiding in us, makes our mind unsusceptible to sin. Or it is Christ Himself who, dwelling in the faithful, makes them sons of God — just as Christ Himself is a son of Abraham in the seed of Abraham; and in the seed of Abraham, that is, in Christ, the nations are blessed. Chrysostom. As often as we sin, we are begotten of the devil; and again of God, as often as we accomplish virtue. “Because His seed abides in him.” By “seed” he means the Spirit, which we receive through baptism; and this, abiding in us, makes the mind unsusceptible to sin. But unless one is begotten of God, he does not receive the Holy Spirit. Another. The seed is divine — it is Christ, who, dwelling in the faithful, makes them become sons of God. Thus in the seed of Abraham, which again is Christ, all the nations are blessed. Otherwise: By “seed” he means the original lineage of the founding ancestor, which springs from an abundance of virtues; this ancestor, having as it were channeled to his clan the gift of praiseworthy things, in which he himself was illustrious, grants to these and to his own successors to take pride in them — provided especially that they keep the paternal advantages unblotted, advantages which procure no ordinary renown; even as the Jews too, though emptily, nonetheless said to Christ, “We are the seed of Abraham.”[8]

⁹ For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the Evil One and slew his brother. And for what cause did he slay him? Because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren. How great the evil of hating one’s brother is, he confirms by an example. For see, he says, how Cain, having himself hated his brother, killed him, and that though he was his own brother — but since he had the works of his father, the devil, which were wicked, whereas Abel, doing righteous deeds, was named a son of God. And the devil is set against God, and wicked works against good ones. For this reason Cain too, being set against his brother, killed him. Such is the course of the argument according to its natural sequence. The blessed John, however, altered the order, being ever governed by what was most pressing. For it pressed upon him, since he had made mention of the devil and of those who are adopted by him through wicked action, to put forward as an example the one who from the beginning of the world, through wicked works, ran off to become a child of the Evil One. And having done with Cain, and with the things which those who emulate him stand to inherit, he runs back again to love.

¹⁰ He who does not love his brother abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. In this we know love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the goods of this world, and beholds his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.[9] Having done with Cain and with the wicked works that pertain to him, he runs back again to love, and says that love persuaded the Lord to lay down His life for us, and that from this example we too ought to lay down our life for the brethren. And since this is a rare thing and found in but few, he begins, as though to shame them, to make his exhortation to brotherly love from the more moderate cases, ordering his discourse somewhat thus: Why do I speak of laying down one’s life for one’s brother, where we see men not even supplying the brethren’s need of necessities? And I do not mean those who are scant of livelihood, but even those who possess the wealth of a whole world’s substance. Let them therefore be ashamed; for if over these small things they have shut up their bowels of compassion and shown themselves unworthy of the love of God, what would they have displayed regarding the greater thing — to die for one’s brother? Then he brings to bear yet another thing to shame them — those who accept love in word and display it with the tongue alone.

¹¹ Let us not love in word and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.

¹² And in this we know that we are of the truth. — And from this — in what? In not loving one’s brother in word, but in deed and in truth. And what do we know? That we are of the truth. How so? For he who confesses one thing but does another, not having his action in agreement with his word, is a liar and not truthful.

¹³ And before Him we shall assure our hearts. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.[10] This he says: that through being truthful — and we shall be truthful when our deeds advance in keeping with our words — we shall assure our conscience. For this is what he means by “heart.” And how shall we assure it? By setting this before ourselves, that we make our words as under God for a witness. For this is what “before” signifies. For if, he says, we do not do thus, but our conscience — that is, our heart — condemns us, we do not escape notice in our sinning. For if we do not escape the notice of our own conscience, small as it is, as belonging to a small creature, in our sinning, much more shall we not escape the notice of the boundless God who is present everywhere. The discourse, then, is of this kind: Little children, let us not lie to one another in loving with the tongue alone, but let us display love in deed as well; for in this we shall know that we are of the truth, that is, of God. And whatever we say, let us say it as in the sight of God; and no one — not even were he more shameless than all the demons — would bring himself to lie with God for a witness. For if we do not act thus, but, while we say that we love, our heart condemns us of falsehood, we sin. How? By supposing that we escape the notice of God who is present everywhere. Thus, then, beloved, he says, having so prepared ourselves, uncondemned before our own selves — in being truthful, that is to say, toward one another — we shall come to have boldness toward God; and from this boldness, whatever we ask we shall surely receive from Him. For what reason?

¹⁴ Because we keep His commandments. For the greatest thing for summoning the one petitioned to obedience is the ready compliance on the part of those who petition, when it is rendered without ambiguity toward Him to whom the petition is made. Since, then, we too keep His commandments and do the things pleasing to Him, let us be confident that we shall not fail of our petitions, since the exact disposition on both sides loves to give in return, without delay, to the one who comes to the need of the other. [11] And which commandment of His have we kept? The one that says, “Have love among one another.”

¹⁵ And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. — The word “this” is to be understood as giving a reason: that we have, he says, a commandment to love one another by faith in the name of Jesus Christ His Son; and if we have done this, from it we know that the grace which is of His Spirit has been firmly established in us. Wherefore His commandment is to believe — since this is what He has given us. And it should be known that in many places of Scripture there stands the phrase “to believe in the name of our Lord.” And what does this signify? Nothing else at all than His will, His glory, His renown. The glory and renown, as in the verse, “How wondrous is Your name in all the earth”;[12] and the will, as here, and as in the verse, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus”,[13] in the sense of “in His will.” And what is the will of the Lord Jesus? To baptize all the nations into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. [14]

¹⁶ And let us love one another, even as He gave us commandment. And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him; and by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He gave us. That is to say: he means that we are to love one another with a true disposition. And where is this commanded? In the place where He says, “As you wish that men should do to you, do you likewise to them.”[15] If, then, we love our neighbors, truly and without guile to be disposed toward us, then in the very same way we ought surely also to be disposed toward them. But if this is a commandment of the Lord, much more, when we abide in Him, will He also offer Himself to us; for He cannot deny Himself — that is, He cannot have given His commandments to us upon empty terms, but rather He first confirms these things in Himself. [16] And if this is so, then surely, if we do the things He commands, we too shall have Him obedient to us in whatever we ask of Him, and His gift will be sure to us. The whole sense is thus: That we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another truly, as is His commandment. For he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And from this we know that He abides in us — from the Spirit, that is, the gift, which He gave us. For while this remains inviolate, we have it beyond dispute that His gift cannot be taken away. And how shall it be inviolate? In our doing no harm to ourselves through neglect of the things He commanded us concerning love.