(1 John 3:23-4:3)
13. Faith and Love
What are God's commandments? This, John says, is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, You see what his commandment is, and you understand that anyone who acts contrary to this commandment commits the sin from which everyone born of God is free. You know that all we are asked to do is love one another. One who keeps his commandment will abide in him, and he in that one. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. Isn't it evident that what the Holy Spirit does in us is cause us to have love and charity? Isn't what the apostle Paul says true: "God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us"? John has been speaking of love and saying that we must examine our hearts in God's sight. "If our hearts do not condemn us"—in other words, if our hearts confess that any good work is done out of love for our sister and brother—then comes our present passage, This is his commandment, and so on. If you find that you have love, then you have the Spirit of God to give you understanding—something truly necessary.
In the earliest times the Holy Spirit would fall upon believers, and they would speak in languages they hadn't learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This was a sign suited to the time. It was fitting that the Holy Spirit be signified by all languages, because the gospel of God was going to spread over the whole earth by means of those languages. The sign was given and then passed away. Do we still expect the people we lay hands on, so that they may receive the Holy Spirit, to speak in tongues? When we laid our hands on the neophytes last Easter, did éach of you watch to see whether they'd speak in tongues? And when
FAITH ANDLOVE /
you saw that they didn't, was any one of you so wrongheaded as to say that they hadn't received the Holy Spirit?
If the presence of the Holy Spirit isn't made known by the testimony of these miracles in our day, how is it now done? How do we recognize that we have received the Holy Spirit? Let us ask our hearts. If we love our sisters and brothers, the Spirit of God abides in us. Let us look, let us examine ourselves before the eyes of God. Let us see if we have in us a love of peace and unity, a love of the Church spread throughout the world. Don't take note only whether you love the sister or brother who is right in front of you. We have many sisters and brothers we don't see, and we are linked to them as well in the unity of the Spirit. Is it so strange that they aren't with us? We are all of us members of a single body, we have a single Head in heaven. My friends, no one's right eye can observe the left, and vice versa. You might say our eyes don't know each other. But can we say that they don't know each other in the love that holds our body together?
Let me show you that in the bond of love they do know each other. When both eyes are open, the right eye can't focus on something without the left one focusing on it too. Direct your right eye toward some object without the other if you can! They converge and they move together. They have one aim even though they are in different places. Accordingly, if all those who love God with you have one aim with you, don't consider that your bodies are in different places. You have the eyes of your hearts fixed together on the light of truth.
So then, if you want to know that you've received the Spirit, question your hearts. You may have the sacrament without having its power. Question your hearts! If there is love of your sisters and brothers there, be at peace. There can't be any love without the Spirit of God, for Paul calls out to you, ""God's love.has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God. In the gospel the Holy Spirit was called water when the Lord cried out and said, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." The Evangelist himself tells us what the Lord meant. *Now this," he says, "he said of the Spirit which those who were to believe in him would receive." Why was it the Lord didn't baptize many people? What does John tell us about this? ''For the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified." They had received a baptism, then, but they hadn't yet received the Holy Spirit, which the Lord sent from heaven on the day of Pentecost. The Lord had to be glorified before the Spirit could be given. But before he was glorified and sent the Spirit, he was calling people to prepare themselves to receive the water, about which he said, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink" and *He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."
What are these rivers of living water? What is this water? Don't question me, question the gospel. Now this," it says, "the said of the Spirit which those who were to believe in him would receive." The water of the sacrament is one thing, then, and the water which signifies the Spirit of God is another. The water of the sacrament is visible, and the water of the Spirit is not. The former washes the body and signifies what happens in the soul, but it is by the Spirit of God, which no heretics, none who cut themselves off from the Church, can have. Neither do they possess the Spirit who don't openly separate themselves, but who are cut off by their wrongdoing. These are not grain, but are ones whirled around inside the Church like chaff on the threshing floor.
We've read in this letter, Do not believe every spirit. This is confirmed by the words of Solomon: "Keep far from strange water." What does water mean? Here it means "Spirit." Does it always mean this? No, not always. In certain places it means "Spirit"; in others "baptism"; in the book of Revelation it means "peoples or nations" in another place it means "'counsel." Thus you find it said, *Counsel is a fountain of life for those who possess it." Therefore, in various places in Scripture, water means various things. But here you've heard the Holy Spirit called water, and this is not my interpretation but the testimony of the gospel: **This he said of the Spirit which those who were to believe in him would receive." If, then, the Holy Spirit is meant by water, and this letter tells us not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to see whether they are of God, we should understand that for this reason Solomon told us to "keep far from strange water, and from a strange fountain do not drink." What does this last phrase mean? Do not believe a strange spirit.
We still have to find out how the Spirit of God is tested. John has given us a sign, one we may find difficult. But let us see. Test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 'There you have indicated all the heretics and schismatics. How am I to test the spirits, then? John goes on: By this is known the Spirit of God. Prick up the ears of your hearts! We were troubled and asking, "Who knows, who discerns?" See, he is about to give us a sign. By this is known the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world.
We've pricked up our ears, so to speak, in order to discern the spirits. And what we've heard doesn't seem to help at all. Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. But is the spirit we find in heretics of God, then, because they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Do all heresies have the Spirit of God? Are they not false prophets, then? Surely they are antichrists: "They went out from us, but they were not of us." You have already heard us say that the one who denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is an antichrist. That's when we asked who it is who denies that Jesus is the Christ, because none will say they deny this. And we found that there are some who deny it by their deeds, and we brought testimóny from the Apostle, who said that "they profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds." So then, let us now again look at deeds, not at words.
Which is the spirit that is not of God? It's the one that denies that Jesus came in the flesh. Which is the one that confesses that Jesus came in the flesh? Here, my friends, is where we have to look at the works and not stop at the sounds people make. Let us ask why Christ came in the flesh, and then we'll find those who deny it. If you pay attention to words, you'll hear many heretics confessing it. But truth convicts them. Why did Christ come in the flesh? Wasn't he God? Wasn't it written of him, *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"? Isn't it he who fed the angels, and does it still? Didn't he come here to us without leaving heaven? Didn't he ascend without forsaking us? Then why did he come in the flesh? It's because he needed to put before us the hope of resurrection. He was God but he came in the flesh. Death is not possible for God, but for flesh it is. He came in the flesh, then, so that he could die for us. But why did he come to die for us? "Greater love than this no one has, that he lay down his life for his friends." It was love, therefore, that led him to become flesh. And so whoever does not have love denies that Christ came in the flesh.
Now, question all the heretics: Did Christ come in the flesh?—He did. This is what I believe and profess.—No, you deny it! —How do I deny it? Didn't you hear me say it! —No, I convict you of denying it. You say it with your voice, but deny it in your heart. You say it in words, but you deny it in your deeds. How, you ask me, do I deny it in my deeds? I answer: Because Christ came in the flesh, he was able to die for us. He died for us because in that way he taught us great love. **Greater love than this no one has, that he lay down his life for his friends." You do not have love, because for the sake of your own reputation you break unity.
Understand from this which spirit is of God. Strike these earthen vessels and see if they crack and give a dull sound; or see if they ring loud and clear, see if love is there. You withdraw from the unity of the whole world. You dividé#the Church by schisms, you rend Christ's body. He came in the flesh to gather people together; you make your outcry to disperse them. The Spirit of God is the one that says that Jesus came in the flesh, that says it by deeds not by words, by loving not by sounding off. That is not the Spirit of God which denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.
It denies here too, not by mouth but by life, not by words but by deeds. It is clear, then, how we may recognize our sisters and brothers. Many people seem to be inside the Church but aren't really; but no one is outside who isn't really so.