Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin (continued)
CHAPTER 3
earth is my will and my care.''
18. Let us not love in word There is a concession in this first clause; for we cannot love in tongue only; but as many falsely pretend this, the Apostle concedes, according to what is often done, the name of the thing to their dissimulation, though, in the second clause, he reproves their vanity, when he denies that there is reality except in the deed. For thus ought the words to be explained, --- Let us not profess by the tongue that we love, but prove it by the deed; for this is the only true way of shewing love. 464
1 John 3:19-22
1 John 3:19-22 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
19. Et in hoc cognoscimus quod ex veritate sumus, et coram ipso persuadebimus corda nostra.
20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
20. Quod si accuset nos cor nostrum, certe major est Deus corde nostro et novit omnia.
21. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
21. Dilecti, si cor nostrum non accuset, fiduciam habemus erga Deum: 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
22. Et siquid petierimus, accipimus ab eo, quia praecepta ejus servamus, et quæ coram co placent facimus.
19 And hereby we know, or, by this we know. The word truth, he takes now in a different sense; but there is a striking similarity in the words, --- If we, in truth, love our neighbors, we have an evidence that we are born of God, who is truth, or that the truth of God dwells in us. But we must ever remember, that we have not from love the knowledge which the Apostle mentions, as though we were to seek from it the certainty of salvation. And doubtless we know not otherwise that we are the children of God, than as he seals his free adoption on our hearts by his own Spirit., and as we receive by faith the sure pledge of it offered in Christ. Then love is accessory or an inferior aid, a prop to our faith, not a foundation on which it rests.
464Beza and others regard "only," or "merely," as understood in the first clause, according to a mode of speaking which often occurs in Scripture, as "Labor not," etc., (John 6:27.) "My dear children, let us love, not only by word, or with the tongue, but by work and in truth." That is, let us not love only by making in words fair promises, or by expressing sympathy with the tongue, but by giving effect to our sympathy by works, and by making our word true, by fulfilling it. Here we find the same arrangement as in many other instances; the "word" has its correspondence in "truth;" and "tongue in "work." It is justly observed by Macknight, that "the Apostle cannot be supposed to forbid our using affectionate speeches to our brethren in distress But he forbiddeth us to content ourselves with these." — Ed