(1 John 2:3-11)
3. The Commandment of Love
And in this, John says, we know him, if we keep his commandments.
What commandments are these? One who says that he knows him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. You ask again, What commandments are these? John says that whoever keeps his word, truly in this one, love of God is perfected. Let us see whether this commandment isn't called love. We asked, What commandments? And he said, Whoever keeps his word, truly in this one love of God is perfected. Refer to the gospel and see if this isn't the commandment. *A new commandment," Jesus says there, "I give you, that you love one another." By this we know that we are in him, if in him we are perfect. Perfect in love is what he means. What is the perfection of love? It is to love our enemies, and to love them to this end: that they may be our sisters and brothers.
Our love shouldn't be unspiritual. It's fine to wish someone good health; but even if that's lacking, may the soul be safe! Do you pray for your friend's life? That's good. Do you rejoice in your enemy's death? That's bad. Maybe the life you wish for your friend is unprofitable, and your enemy's death, that you are happy about, is the best thing for him. You can't be sure whether this life is profitable to someone; but that true life which is with God is beyond any doubt profitable. Love your enemies in this way: that you want them to be your sisters and brothers, that you would call them into communion with you.
This is how Jesus loved. When he was hanging on the cross he didn't say, "Father, give them long life; they are putting me to death, but let them live." What did he ask? **Forgive them, for they know not what they do." It was eternal death he was thrusting away from them; he was doing it by his prayer,
THE COMMANDMENT OFLOVE /
which is full of mercy, and his surpassing power. Many of them believed and their shedding of Christ's blood was forgiven them. First they shed it in rage, and then they drank it in faith. By this we know that we are in him, if in him we are perfect. Our Lord is inviting us to this perfection which consists in loving our enemies when he says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
And so one who says he abides in him, in Christ, ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. And how did he walk, my friends? What is John teaching us? Does he want us to walk on the sea? Not at all. It's this: that we walk in the way of righteousness. And what way is that? I have already reminded you of it. Even when he was fastened to the cross he walked in this way, which is the way of love. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If you have learned to pray for your enemies, you are walking in the way of the Lord.
Dearly beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. What commandment was John calling old? It's the one which you had, he says, from the beginning. It's old, then, in the sense that you have already heard it. And it is new: ""A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." John shows how this commandment is also new when he says, Again it is a new commandment I am writing to you. It's not some other commandment but the very one he has called old that is also new. Why is this? Because it is one which is true in him and in you. Why is it old? Because you already know it. And why is it new? Because the darkness has passed and the true light is already shining. This is what makes it new: that darkness pertains to the old nature and light to the new. What is it Paul tells us? *You have put off the old nature and have put on the new." And what else does he say? "Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord."
One who says he is in the light. ... Now John is making his thought plain. One who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now. Friends, how long must I keep telling you, love your enemies? See that you don't do what is much worse and hate your own sisters and brothers! If these are the only people you love, you aren't perfect yet; but what are you if you hate them? Where does that put you? Look into your own hearts. Don't keep up hatred against your sisters and brothers for any hard word or for any quarrel on earth. No one who hates sister or brother can claim to walk in the light, no one can claim to walk in Christ. One who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now.
One who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Who are the people who themselves stumble or cause stumbling in others? It's those who stumble over Christ or his Church. Why is it that there is no cause for stumbling in those who love their sister or brother? It's because those who love their sister or brother bear everything for the sake of unity, and because it is in the unity of love that brotherly or sisterly love exists. You are offended by someone—someone wicked or someone you suppose is wicked or someone you pretend is wicked: will you separate yourself from so many who are good? If you loved your sisters and brothers, there would be no stumbling for you. Listen to what the psalmist says: "Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble." Who are the people the psalmist says do not stumble or cause stumbling in others? It is those who love God's law, those who are firm in love. But someone will object that the psalmist spoke of those who love God's law, not of those who love their sisters and brothers. Listen to what the Lord says: *'A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." What is a law if not a commandment? And how is it that they don't stumble if it isn't that they put up with one another, forbear one another as Paul says: *'forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"? And this is Christ's law, as Paul says in another place: "Bear one another's burdens," he says, "and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ."
One who hates his brother walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Who is as blind as those who hate their sisters and brothers? To prove this to you: they've stumbled against a mountain! Isn't Christ that "stone cut out of the mountain without hands," Christ who came from the kingdom of the Jews without a man taking part in his conception? Isn't this how we present the Church, my friends? Hasn't the Church reached every nation? Hasn't the promise made to Abraham so many years ago, that in his posterity all nations would be blessed, been fulfilled? This was promised to one believer, and a multitude of believers fills the world! See in this the mountain covering the whole face of the earth. See in this the city of which it was said, *A city set ona mountain cannot be hid." But people stumble on the mountain. When they are told to go up the mountain they say, "There is no mountain," and they dash their heads against it instead of seeking a dwelling place there.
Dear friends, what is more conspicuous than a mountain? But there are mountains that we don't know because they are situated in some other part of the earth. Which of you knows Mount Olympus? And people who dwell there don't know our mountains. These mountains are in different parts of the earth. But that is not true of the Mountain that covers the whole face of the earth. Who can get lost there? Who can break his skull by stumbling against it? Is there anyone who doesn't know the "city set on a mountain"? But don't be surprised that those who hate their sisters and brothers don't know it, because they walk in darkness; they don't know where they're going because the darkness has blinded their eyes. They don't see the mountain.
4. [ Am Writing to You (1 John 2:12-14)
Iam writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you through his name. John calls them "little children," because the forgiveness of sins is a birth. But through whose name is it that your sins are forgiven? My name—Augustine? No, and not through Paul or Peter either. There are people who would divide the Church for their own purposes, who are trying to fracture our unity. To them the Apostle's love is a fruitful mother— she shows her heart, she tears her breast, so to speak, by her words, she weeps over the children she sees come forth only for burial, she calls back to a single name those who want to give themselves many names, she turns love away from herself toward Christ, and she asks: '*Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?" What she is saying is, I don't want you to belong to me; I want you to belong along with me, all of us belonging to the One who died for us, who was crucified for us." And so John says here, your sins are forgiven you through Christ's name, not through any mere human's name.
Iam writing to you, fathers. Why did he write to the children first? Because your sins are forgiven you through his name, and because you have been reborn to a new life. That is why you are children. And why did he write to mothers and fathers? Because you know him who is from the beginning: "the beginning" is related to parenthood. Christ is new in his flesh but ancient in his divinity. How ancient do you reckon he is? How many years old? Do you think he is older than his mother? Surely he is, for "all things were made through him." If everything was made through him, then because he was ancient he made the mother who bore him as one new; and because he was ancient he exist-
IAM WRITING TO YOU / 15 ed even before his mother's ancestors. One of his mother's ancestors was Abraham, and the Lord said, **Before Abraham was Iam." Only before Abraham? Heaven and earth were made before there was any human being, and before them was the Lord— is the Lord, rather. It was entirely right that he said, Before Abraham was I am," and not, "Before Abraham I was." If we say of something that it was, then it no longer is; and if we say that it will be, then it doesn't yet exist. Christ knows only existence. Because he is God he knows only is, he doesn't know was or will be. In him there is only a single day, but it is an eternal day. It doesn't fall between yesterday and tomorrow, because when yesterday is over today begins, and today will end with the coming tomorrow. There isn't any darkness in that day or any night, no intervals or proportions or hours. Call it whatever you like: a day, if you like that, or a year; or years, because the psalm says of it that **your years shall have no end." When was it called a day? When it was said to the Lord, "Today I have begotten you." He was begotten by the eternal Father, begotten from eternity, begotten in eternity, without any beginning, with no bounds, no intervals in his existence. This is because he is what he is, because he is he who is." He told Moses that this was his name. "You shall tell them: He who is has sent me to you."
But why should we say, *before Abraham" or "before Noah" or "before Adam"? Listen to Scripture: Before the daystar have I begotten you." Ultimately he was before heaven and earth. And why? Because "everything was made through him and without him nothing was made." And so, mothers and fathers, acknowledge him. You came to be mothers and fathers by acknowledging "that which is from the beginning."
I am writing to you, young men. He calls them children, fathers, young men—children because they are born; mothers and fathers because they acknowledge the one who is "'the Beginning"; but why young women and men? Because you have overcome the evil one. There is birth in the children, antiquity in the mothers and fathers, strength in the young women and
16 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS men. If the evil one is overcome by the young women and men, then it is the evil one that is fighting against us, that assaults us but doesn't take us by assault. And why not? Is it because we are strong? Or is it because he is strong in us, the One who was weak in the hands of his persecutors? The One who didn't resist his persecutors has made us strong. '*He was crucified in weakness but he lives by the power of God."
I am writing to you, children. Why are they children? Because you have known the Father. I am writing to you, fathers, he says again, because you know him who is from the beginning. You must remember that you are mothers and fathers. If you forget him who is from the beginning, you have lost your parenthood. I am writing to you, young men. You must consider over and over again that you are vcung women and men: fight so as to conquer; conquer that you may be crowned in victory; be humble so that you don't fall in the fighting. I am writing to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
All these things, dear friends—that we have known that which is in the beginning, that we are strong, that we have known the Father—don't all of these commend to us a kind of knowledge and commend to us love as well? What John is saying is that if we have known, then let us love! Knowledge without love doesn't save anyone. "Knowledge puffs up, love builds up." If you have in mind to confess the truth without love, then you are starting to resemble demons. The demons acknowledged God's Son and asked, **What have you to do with us?" And Christ drove them away. You must acknowledge him and also embrace him. They were afraid of him because of their misdeeds; you must love the one who pardons your misdeeds!