(1 John 5:1-2)
22. One Christ, Loving Himself (1 John 5:1-2)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Who are they who don't believe that Jesus is the Christ? It's those who don't live as Christ commanded. Many say that they believe, but faith without works doesn't save anyone. The work of faith is love. The apostle Paul puts it this way: "faith that works through love." That Jesus is the Christ is what they believe who are not Christians in name only but also in their deeds and their lives. This is not how the demons believe, for "the demons believe—and shudder," as Scripture tells us. What more could the demons believe than to say, ""We know who you are, the Son of God." What the demons said, Peter said too: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." They used the same words, but their thoughts were different. How do we know that Peter was speaking with love? It's because a Christian's faith is accompanied by love and a demon's isn't. Peter said these words to embrace Christ; the demons said them to make Christ leave them. So you see, when John says everyone who believes, he means a particular kind of faith, not a faith held in common with many others. So, dear friends, don't let any heretic say to you, *We also believe." I've given you this example of the demons so that you won't be pleased with people's words but will look into their lives.
Let us see what it means to believe in Christ, to believe that Jesus is the Christ. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. But what does this belief mean? And everyone who loves the parent loves the child. John immediately links love and faith, because faith without love is empty. With love it's a Christian's faith, without love it's a demon's. As for those Who don't believe at all, they're worse than demons, duller than de-
ONE CHRIST, LOVING HIMSELF / 101 mons. People who refuse to believe in Christ haven't even reached a demon's level. Others believe in Christ but hate him. They make a profession of faith because they are afraid of punishment, not because they love the prize. They are like the demons who are also afraid of being punished. Add love to this kind of faith, so that it will be the kind the apostle Paul describes, the "faith that works through love." Then you have a Christian, a citizen of Jerusalem and fellow citizen of the angels, a pilgrim sighing as he makes his way. Join this person, this companion of yours, and run together—if this is what you are too.
Everyone who loves the parent loves the child. Who is the parent? God the Father. Who is the child? It is the Son. What does John mean, then? That everyone who loves the Father loves the Son. By this we know that we love the children of God. W hat is John saying here, my friends? He was just speaking of God's child, his Son, not of his children. It's Christ alone that he set before us for our contemplation. Now he says, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we expect him to say "the Son of God." He now says children of God, even though he was just speaking of the Son of God, because the children of God are the body of God's Son. Because he is the Head and we are the members of his body, the Son of God is one. Therefore whoever loves God's children loves God's Son, and anyone who loves God's Son loves the Father. No one can love the Father without loving the Son, and anyone who loves the Son loves the children of God too.
W hat are these children of God? They are the members of God's Son. It is by loving that they become his members; through love they become part of Christ's bodily structure. Then there is one Christ, loving himself. For the love of the members for one another is the love of the body for itself. "If one, member suffers, all the members suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." And what does Paul add to this? "Now you are the body of Christ and his members." John has just said to us regarding the love of our sisters and brothers, "He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?" If you love your sister or brother, can you do this without loving Christ? How is this possible, when it's Christ's member you love? When you love his members you love Christ; when you love Christ you love God's Son; when you love God's Son you love the Father too. Love can't be divided into parts. Choose for yourself what you'll love, and you get the others too. If you say, "I love God alone, God the Father," you're not being truthful. If you love, you don't love him alone; if you love the Father you love the Son too. Well," you say, "I love the Father and I love the Son, but that's all: God the Father; and God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, the Word through whom everything was made, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. That's all I love.' You're wrong again! If you love the He ad you love the members too, and if you don't love the members neither do you love the Head. Don't you tremble when you hear the voice of the Head crying from heaven on behalf of his members, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He calls the one persecuting his members his own persecutor. He calls the one who loves his members a lover of himself. And you already know what his members are, my friends: the Church of God.
By this we know that we love the children of God, because we love God. How is this so? Aren't the children of God and God himself two different things? But one who loves God loves his commandments. And what are his commandments? "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." You can't excuse yourselves from one love because of another. This love holds together! As it is itself joined together in one, so it makes all those who depend on it one single being. It fuses them together the way fire fuses gold into one lump. But unless the flame of love is kindled, the fusion of manv into one can't happen.