Chapter 5

Chapter 5 — Exposition of the Fifth Chapter

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God; and everyone who loves Him who begot loves also Him who has been begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. This too confirms what was said above, since we have received a commandment from the Master to love one another, then surely, if we believe that our Master Jesus is the Christ—who is Christ in this, that He is both God and man—let us keep His commandments as well, as the commandments of a master and of God. And believing in God, that we are His, we are called His sons, as it has also been said in the Gospels: As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God[1] —that is, as many as believed in Him, these also were made His children. And if we have been begotten of Him, then assuredly we shall also render that which is due to Him who begot us. What is this? To love Him who begot us. And since this is so—since all we who have believed have been begotten of Him; and if we have been begotten of Him, we are bound to love one another, both as brothers and as those begotten of Him—he adds the proof of this, namely that “he who loves Him who begot loves also Him who has been begotten of Him”. Then again he says that love toward the brethren, that is, toward the children of God, confirms the love toward Him who begot them. For above he said: He who loves God loves also his brother; but now he says that he who loves the children of God loves God also. And he makes love toward one’s brother the proof of love toward God.

² For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. This is to be understood thus: For this is love, that we keep His commandments; for everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world. The phrase “they are not burdensome” has been inserted parenthetically. [2]

³ And His commandments are not burdensome, because everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. Since he had set forth the keeping of the commandments as the whole proof of love toward God, and since it seemed to some that the commandments of God were burdensome, for this reason he says: And His commandments are not burdensome. For what is burdensome in loving one’s brother? Or in visiting him in prison—what is burdensome in that? For he does not say to set free the one in prison, which is a hard thing, but only to visit him; nor to rid the sick man of his disease, but only to visit him; nor does he command us to set a costly table before the hungry, or to give the naked a garment elaborately wrought, but to supply the necessary need that the hungry and naked man seeks. Having spoken thus of this matter, he brings forward yet another inducement to love. What is it? Victory. For he says: Through love toward your brother, establishing yourselves as children of God, you have already, as a consequence of this good work, the further reward of overcoming the world. For that which has been begotten of God overcomes the world. Then he sets forth both the victory and that through which the victory comes, saying that faith is both—plainly the faith toward God, which, being itself begotten of God, has overcome all unbelief and driven it away; and neither Jew, nor Greek, nor heretic can prevail against it. And since faith does not overcome bare and by itself, but together with the one who possesses it, for this reason he adds: And who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? And—

⁴ Who is this Jesus? Jesus the Christ, who came by water and blood.

⁵ And who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ. Since he had made mention of the begetting that is of God, and of victory—having said that everything begotten of God overcomes the world, and that this is brought about all at once through holy baptism—for this reason he says that this is He who came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ, regenerating us and making us sons of God. For this too is understood as following upon the discourse, namely: And everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world. And how was it begotten? By water, he says, and blood. For Jesus Christ, who came, regenerates by water and blood. And he adds further, taking up the discourse again, declaring that He regenerates not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood. For he wishes first to show forth the manifestation of Christ, who adopts us as sons: that the man assumed in Him, having first been adopted as a son by God[3], in this way, through His own adoption, bestowed upon us also this same dignity—a dignity that was manifested at three seasons at the baptism in the Jordan, when from above the Father testified that He who was baptized was His beloved Son. And who was this? He who went down into the water, that is, the man taken up together with God the Word, the visible one united to the hidden One; for it was to this one that the testimony had to be borne. By the water, then—that is, in the baptism that is by water—Jesus was manifested as Son of God through the Father’s testimony. By the blood, when, being about to be crucified, He said: “Glorify Me, Thou, Father”; and a voice came: “I have both glorified, and will glorify again”[4] —which voice those who heard it took to be thunder. And by the Spirit, when, as God, He rose from the dead. For this belongs to God alone: to raise Himself. And that by “the voice of the Spirit” God is signified, the word “Spirit” itself, here used, suffices to show. [5] Therefore, three things bearing witness to the adoption of Jesus—the baptism, the cross, the resurrection—the Lord’s adoption is beyond dispute; and through this adoption He has bestowed upon us also, being as we are the firstfruits of the whole human lump, the gift of being sons of God. And these three are unto the one Christ. For this is what he signifies by saying: “The three are one”—that is, unto the one testimony concerning Christ. [6] It should be known that some of the Fathers understood the Spirit not with reference to the resurrection of Christ, but with reference to the Father, when He cried out in the Jordan: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”[7] —seeing that God too is Spirit, as we have said before. Having said these things, he adds a proof of what has been said, arguing from the lesser thus: If we accept the testimony of men about anything whatever, would we not much more justly accept the greater testimony that is from God? For is not this testimony concerning His Son, that is, concerning Christ, from God Himself? He, then, who believes in the Son of God, that He is God, as Son of God, has the testimony in Him—that is, in himself—namely, that he too, by believing, has been adopted as a son, through Jesus who was adopted as a son by God. But he who does not believe is guilty of two evils: of unbelief, making God a liar, and also of robbing himself of adoption, and thereby of eternal life as well—the life that Christ Himself also has in Himself, as it is written also in the Gospel: “In Him was life”.[8] So that he who has the Son through baptism has also the life; “for as many of us as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ”.[9] But whoever does not have the Son of God through baptism does not have the life either, and has been put to death. For He takes us up dead in our trespasses and raises us through holy baptism. How? Because he who has been buried together with Christ through the immersion in baptism is dead to the world—that is, to worldly desires—and no longer lives in himself, but lives to Christ.

⁶ Not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Christ is the truth. For there are three that bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. — The word “came” is to be supplied, so that the sense may be: He came not in the water only—that is, He furnished the proof by water.

⁷ And the three are unto the one. If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God, which He has testified concerning His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. And the three are unto the one—that is, unto the testimony concerning Christ, both that He was adopted as a son by God the Father, and that what He Himself possessed He imparted to us: His name. [10]

⁸ These things I have written to you who believe, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God. And this is the boldness that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.[11] These things he gathers up, as in an epilogue, and says: I have written to you as heirs of eternal life; for these things would not be written to those who do not live in hope of eternal life, since one ought not “to give holy things to dogs”, nor “to cast the precious pearls before swine”.[12] And he repeats, as we have said, reminding them of what was spoken: first, that one must “believe without wavering” in the name of the Son of God—that is, in the worship of God that was delivered to us by Him (for this is what “the name of the Son of God” signifies, as we have said); then, that the sign of this unwavering faith is nothing else than the boldness which, through faultless faith, we find toward Him, as we have said above; and that, again, the sign of such boldness he has laid down to be the not failing of all that is asked by us. But since not all obtain all the things they ask, nor are heard in what they ask, he adds the words “according to His will”; for he who asks contrary to the will of the Master will not even be heard, just as it was with the blessed James—since he too says: “You ask, and you do not receive, because,” he says, “you ask amiss”.[13] And turning this same sign into a clearer mark of recognition, he says: And if we know that He hears us in everything that we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him; meaning something like this: If we ask according to His will, He hears us; and if He hears us in what we ask, we know that we are making our petitions according to His will, and that we have within ourselves the petitions that we have asked. And these are His kingdom and His righteousness, which He Himself also commanded us in the Gospels to ask. [14]

⁹ If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He will give him life—life, that is, to those who sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he should make request concerning that one. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death. Having said the things we have set forth, he now expressly sets forth one of the things which he wishes us to ask among those that are according to the will of God. And since he is, through almost the whole Epistle, abundant in extolling love toward one’s brother, and in teaching that God wills this—that love toward one’s brother be kept unadulterated—he now says that this is one of His wills, and the most excellent: If anyone sees his brother sinning not unto death, let him ask, and He will give him life. And what will He give? Eternal life. To whom? To those who do not sin unto death. For he makes the division as it were from the genus of sin taken simply, and says: All unrighteousness is sin, both that which is unto death and that which is not unto death. But concerning that which is unto death, he says, let him not make request, that is, let him not ask; for he will not be heard, because he asks amiss—speaking of the one who shows no turning back. For this alone is a sin unto death: the one that has no regard to repentance, with which Judas too, falling sick, was brought down to eternal death. But those also who bear grudges sin unto death. For Solomon says: “The ways of the grudge-bearers are unto death”.[15] For neither do these repent and turn back, holding fast to their grudges and keeping up their anger “against their neighbor”, but they sin in a way that admits of no change of mind.

¹⁰ We know that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin; but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, that we may know the true God; and we are in the True One, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and the eternal life. Having fixed our attention upon what the sin unto death is, and what the sin not unto death is, he goes on to indicate also whose it is to sin unto death, and says that he who has been adopted as a son by God would never fall sick of sin, whether unto death or not unto death. For once he has given himself over to Christ, who dwells in him through the adoption, he remains untouched by sin. Yet, lest anyone suppose that such a one has been wholly transformed in his nature, so as to be henceforth incapable of being captured by sin, he adds the words “He keeps himself”—the meaning being that, if he does not keep himself and guard himself from the evil one, he will most certainly fall into sin. It is not by nature, then, that he advances into sinlessness, he says, but out of the great bounty of God, who, by adopting us as sons, has counted us worthy of this grace, so that, by guarding and keeping the gift that has been given us by Him, we may have also the not sinning. For otherwise, he says—the world lying in the evil one (and by “world” he means those who have not, through righteous works, transferred themselves into the adoption of God)—nothing would have hindered us from being numbered together with those who are perishing; “inasmuch as the mind of man is bent diligently upon evil things from his youth”,[16] as God declared at the time of the flood. But since, he says, the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding to know Him as the true God, and to be in His true Son Jesus Christ Himself, we have known, through this great bounty, that He is the true God and the eternal life ⟨…⟩ from the evil one and from his stumbling-blocks. [17]

¹¹ Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Some have inquired: For what reason, if these things were written to perfect believers, does he charge them to keep themselves from idols? We say, then, that since he was writing these things to the whole Church—which was not wholly made up of an approved people, but there was in it also someone of more sluggish disposition—it is to such as these that he addresses the charge, having regard to their proneness to stumble.

¹² The end of the Catholic Epistle of John. It was written from Ephesus: two hundred sixty-four stichoi.[18]