Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
John Calvin
3. Atque in hoc cognoscimus quod cognovimus eum, si praecepta ejus servamus.
4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
4. Qui dicit, Novi eum, et praecepta ejus non servat, mendax est, et in eo veritas non est.
5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
5. Qui vero servat ejus sermonem, vere in ipso charitas Dei perfecta est; in hoc cognoscimus quod in ipso sumus.
6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
6. Qui dicit se in eo manere, debet, sicut ille ambulavit, ita et ipse ambulare. 3 And hereby, or by this. After having treated of the doctrine respecting the gratuitous remission of sins, he comes to the exhortations which belong to it, and which depend on it. And first indeed he reminds us that the knowledge of God, derived from the gospel, is not ineffectual, but that obedience proceeds from it. He then shews what God especially requires from us, what is the chief thing in life, even love to God. What we read here of the living knowledge of God, the Scripture does not without reason repeat everywhere; for nothing is more common in the world than to draw the doctrine of religion to frigid speculations. In this way theology has been adulterated by the Sorbonian sophists, so that from their whole science not even the least spark of true religion shines forth. And curious men do everywhere learn so much from God's word, as enables them to prattle for the sake of display. In short, no evil has been more common in all ages than vainly to profess God's name.
John then takes this principle as granted, that the knowledge of God is efficacious. He hence concludes, that they by no means know God who keep not his precepts or commandments. Plato, though groping in darkness, yet denied that ``the beautiful'' which he imagined, could be known, without filling man with the admiration of itself; so he says in his Phaedrus and in other places. How then is it possible for thee to know God, and to be moved by no feeling? Nor does it indeed proceed only from God's nature, that to know him is immediately to love him; but the Spirit also, who illuminates our minds, inspires our hearts with a feeling conformable to our knowledge. At the same time the knowledge of God leads us to fear him and to love him. For we cannot know him as Lord and Father, as he shews himself, without being dutiful children and obedient servants. In short, the doctrine of the gospel is a lively mirror in which we contemplate the image of God, and are transformed into the same, as Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Where, therefore, there is no pure conscience, nothing can be there but an empty phantom of knowledge.
We must notice the order when he says, We do know that we know him; for he intimates that obedience is so connected with knowledge, that the last is yet in order the first, as the cause is necessarily before its effect.