(1 John 4:9-12)
15. God Has Loved Us First
God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that he sent his only Son into this world, so that we might live through him. As the Lord himself said, **Greater love than this no one can have, that he lay down his life for his friends." Christ's love for us was proven in that he died for us. How is the Father's love for us proven? In that he sent his only Son to die for us. So too Paul the apostle says, He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, has he not given us all things with him?"
The Father "gave up" Christ, and so did Judas. Does it seem as if they did the same thing? Judas is a betrayer. Is God the Father also a betrayer? "'Of course not!" you say. But it's the Apostle who says it best: *He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for usall...."' The Father gave up his Son, and the Son gave himself up. The same Apostle writes of *the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." If the Father gave up his Son, and the Son gave himself up, what did Judas do? What is it that distinguishes the Father giving up his
Son, the Son giving up himself, and Judas the disciple giving up his Master? This is the difference: what the Father and the Son did in love, Judas did in treachery.
You see that it's not what people do that you have to consider, but the mind and intention with which they do it. We find God the Father and Judas doing one and the same thing. We bless the Father yet we detest Judas. Why do we bless the Father but detest Judas? We bless love, we detest wickedness. How great is the good that has come to the human race from the giving up of Christ! Was this what Judas was thinking. of
GOD HAS LOVED US FIRST /
when he betrayed him? In the mind of God was the salvation by which we were redeemed, but Judas thought of the price he got for his Lord. The Son had in mind the price he paid for us, and Judas the price he got for selling him. A difference in intention renders a difference in the deeds. The deed is one and the same, but if we measure it by the different intentions we find one thing to love and one to condemn, one to glorify and one to abhor. This is the power of love. Only love discriminates, only love distinguishes between human actions.
I've been speaking of similar actions. When they are different, we find that love makes one person fierce, and wickedness makes another charming and seductive. A parent may strike a child and a kidnapper may caress it. If you offered a choice between the two things, blows and caresses, who wouldn't choose caresses and run away from the blows? But if you look at the people they come from, it's love that strikes the blows and wickedness that offers the caresses. Do you see what I'm saying? Human actions can be distinguished only by the love in which they are rooted. There are many things that look good but don't come from the root of love. Thorns too have their flowers: some acts seem harsh and cruel, but they are done for the sake of discipline, and the motive is love. Once and for all, I give you a short precept: Love, and do what you will. If you keep silent, keep silent out of love. If you raise your voice, raise it out of love. If you correct, correct out of love. If you leave alone, leave alone out of love. Have love's root within you; nothing but good can spring from this root.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that he sent his only Son into this world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. We didn't love him first; he loved us so that we would love him. And he sent his Son as the Atoner for our sins. The atoner is the one who offers the sacrifice. He offered a sacrifice for our sins. Where did he find the sacrifice, the pure victim he would offer? Because he found nothing else, he offered himself.
74 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS
Beloved, if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. "'Peter," Jesus said, do you love me?" And he answered, "I do love you." "Feed my sheep," Jesus responded.
No one has ever seen God. God is an invisible reality. We must seek him with our hearts, not our eyes. But just as when we want to see the physical sun we cleanse our eyes, which are our means of seeing it, so also if we want to see God we have to cleanse the eyes which can see him. Which are these eyes? Listen to the gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But you mustn't imagine God to yourselves according to what your eyes desire. You may represent to yourselves a huge shape or some measureless immensity spread out in space like the physical light before our eyes, which you enlarge as much as you can in all directions. Or you may picture him as an old man of venerable appearance. But don't think this way. The following will give you a true idea, if you want to see
God: ''God is love." What is love's face like? What is its shape, its size? What kind of hands and feet does it have? No one can say. And yet it has feet, for they lead us to church; it has hands, for they reach out to the poor; it has eyes, for they consider the needy: 'Blessed is he who considers the needy and poor," as the psalm says. We know it has ears, because the Lord says of them: *He who has ears to hear, let him hear." These aren't parts set in different places; the person who has love sees the whole at once by thought. Live in love and love will live in you; abide in love and love will abide in you.
But what do you say, my friends, is there anyone who loves what he doesn't see? Take yourselves: why, when you hear love praised, do you stand up and shout out your praise? What have I shown you? Have I produced any colors? Or displayed gold and silver before your eyes? Or dug precious stones out of a treasure? Have I shown you anything like this? Has my face changed while I've been speaking? My body looks the same as it did when I came in, and so do your bodies. Love is praised and you shout applause. Certainly there's nothing for you. to see. But as you delight to hear love praised, take delight too in preserving it in your hearts.
Listen to me, dear friends. I exhort you, with the strength God gives me, to seek this great treasure. If someone showed you a little vase of wrought gold, made perfectly at great cost, which charmed you and made you want it, and if the artist's work and the weight of the metal and its luster delighted you, wouldn't every one of you say, "Oh, if I had that vase!" And it wouldn't do you any good to say it, because it wouldn't be in your power to possess it. Or if one of you wanted to have it, you'd have to think of stealing it from someone else's house. But you hear love praised, and if you want it, it is yours. You possess it. You don't need to steal it or buy it; it's free. Take it and embrace it; there is nothing more delightful. If love is as I say when it's only spoken of, ponder what it is like when you possess it.
If any of you want to preserve love, my friends, above all you must keep from thinking that it is something poor and inactive. Love isn't preserved by that kind of meekness which is really laziness and indifference. That's not the way. Don't think you're loving your servants when you never beat them, or your children when you never discipline them, or your neighbors when you never find fault with them. That isn't love, it's weakness. Let your love be zealous to reprove and correct. Be pleased by good behavior, correct and reprove what is bad. Don't love anyone's error but love the person. It's the person that God made, while we make our own errors. Love what God made, don't love what we ourselves have done. When you love the person, you remove the error; when you esteem the person, you correct the fault. If sometimes you have to be severe, let it be for love of what is better.
That is why love was made manifest by the dove that descended upon the Lord. In the form of a dove the Holy Spirit, the one who pours out love in us, came. And why was that? Because the dove has no gall. It fights for its nest with beak and
76 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS wings, but its violence is without bitterness. This is how parents act too. When they chastise their children, they do it for the sake of discipline. As I said, a kidnapper who would sell a child seduces it with bitterness; a parent who would correct a child chastises it without gall. You must be like this with everyone. My friends, here you have a good example, a good rule. All of you have children or want to have them; or if you've decided to have no children of your body, you want spiritual children. Do any of you not correct your children? Are there any of you whom your parents don't discipline? No doubt they seem severe. Love is severe, but it is a severity without gall, like the dove's, not like the raven's.