(1 John 5:8, 16, 20)
24. Fragments (1 John 5:8, 16, 20)
I. I don't want you to make any mistake about the passage in the letter of John the apostle where he says, There are three witnesses, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three are one. You might be tempted to say that spirit, water, and blood are three different substances, but he says that the three are one. Accordingly, I'm giving you this warning. He is speaking here of sacraments, mysteries. In things of this kind you must always pay attention to what they reveal, not to what they are. Because they are signs or images of realities, what they are in themselves is one thing and what they mean is another. So if we comprehend what is meant by these things, we do find them to be of one substance. It's as if we should say that the rock and the water are one, meaning by the rock Christ and by the water the Holy Spirit. No one can doubt that rock and water are two different elements, but because Christ and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same nature, when someone says that the rock and the water are one, it can correctly be taken in the following sense: two things who natures are different are the signs of two other things whose nature is one.
We know that the three things mentioned in the text issued from the Lord's body while he hung on the cross. First there was his spirit: "And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." Then, when his side was pierced by the spear, "there came out blood and water." If we look at these three things in them-
Translator's note: Several passages from Augustine's works, in which he discusses three lines from John's first letter not covered in the homilies, were added by the translator of the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers edition. Some of these (in new translations) have been included here. The sources of these six passages are provided in the notes at the end of the volume.
FRAGMENTS /
selves, we see that each has its own distinct substance; therefore they are not one. But if we want to inquire into the meaning of each of them, not unreasonably the Trinity comes to our minds. The Trinity is the one, sole, true, supreme God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. We can say of it with perfect truth that there are three witnesses . . . and the three are one. Therefore we can take spirit to signify God the Father. It was about worshiping him that the Lord was speaking when he said that "God is spirit." By blood we signify the Son, because "the Word became flesh." By water we mean the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was talking about the water to be given to those who thirst, the Evangelist observed that "this he said about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive." And who that believes the gospel can doubt that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are witnesses? It is the Son who says, "Iam one who bears witness to myself; and the Father who sent me bears witness to me." Although he doesn't mention the Holy Spirit here, this doesn't mean that he is separated from them. In another place he shows clearly enough that the Spirit too is a witness, saying that he will bear witness to me." Here we have three witnesses . . . and the three are one, because they are of one substance.
But because the three signs by which the three Persons are signified issued from the Lord's body, they symbolized the Church as it preaches the Trinity, indicating that it has one and the same nature. This is because these Three that are signified in a threefold manner are One, and the Church which preaches them is Christ's body. If then the three things by which they are signified came forth from the Lord's body, so too did the words commanding that all nations be baptized ''in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." "In the name," Jesus said, not "the names," for these three are one and the one God is these Three.
If this deep mystery that we read in John's letter can be explained and comprehended in some other way that is still in conformity with our catholic faith, neither combining nor di-
108 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS viding the Trinity, neither denying the Three Persons nor believing them to be of different substances, we should not reject it for any reason. We should be glad if anything in Holy Scripture that is expressed obscurely for the purpose of exercising the minds of the faithful can be explained in more than one way, provided it is explained wisely.
II. If anyone knows that his brother is committing a sin that is not unto death he will ask and the Lord will give life to him whose sin is not unto death; but there is a sin unto death; I do not say that one is to pray for that. These words of the apostle John clearly show that there are some sisters and brothers we are instructed not to pray for. Yet our Lord commands us to pray even for our persecutors. This difficulty can be resolved only if we admit that there are some sins among brethren that are worse than persecution by our enemies. That brethren means Christians is shown by many texts in Scripture, of which the clearest is this one of the Apostle: 'For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in her brother." He didn't add our, but considered it clear that by brother he meant a Christian who had an unbelieving wife. Accordingly he goes on: "But if the unbeliever departs, let it be so: in such cases the brother or sister is not bound."
Therefore I take it that a sin of sisters or brothers is unto death when, after they have come to know God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, they fight against the community and are inflamed by malice to attack the very grace by which they are reconciled to God. They commit a sin... not unto death when through some weakness of soul they fail to perform the community services required of them, but without withdrawing their love from their sisters and brothers. The Lord, on the cross, said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," because they hadn't yet become sharers in the grace of the Holy Spirit and entered the holy community. And Saint Stephen, in the Acts of the Apostles, prayed for those who were stoning him, because they hadn't yet come to believe in Christ and weren't fighting against a grace they shared with others.
Also, in my opinion, the reason the apostle Paul did not pray for Alexander was that he was a brother and had sinned unto death by attacking the community out of envy. He did pray for the forgiveness of those who hadn't broken the bonds of love but had given in to their fear. This is what he says: Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will requite him for his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message." Then he shows whom he does pray for, saying, "At my first defense no one took my part, but they all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!"
Therefore the Lord's precept that we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute us may be taken to mean that for some sins, even of our sisters and brothers, we are not commanded to pray. Otherwise my ignorance may make holy Scripture seem self-contradictory, which it cannot be. But as there are some for whom we are not to pray, are there others we are to pray against, as we read in certain psalms? In general, this is what is said: '*Bless and do not curse" and "'Repay no one evil for evil." Not praying for someone is not praying against that one. You can see that their punishment is certain and their salvation utterly hopeless. So the reason you do not pray for them is not because you hate them, but because you feel you can do them no good. Further, you do not want your prayer rejected by the most just Judge.
III. Such is the liberty they receive by this grace, namely, that although as long as they are living here below they have to fight against sinful desires and are overcome by some sins (this is why they pray everyday, "Forgive us our debts"), yet they no longer serve the sin unto death of which John says, There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one is to pray for that. Because John doesn't tell us what this sin is, many different opinions can be held. It is my opinion that this sin is the abandonment all the way.up to death of "the faith that works by love."
IV. We read in Scripture the words, that we may be in his true Son Jesus Christ; he is the true God and eternal life. We must yield to such weighty evidence. Tell me then whether this true Son of God—who is distinguished by this word true from those who are children of God by grace—is of no substance or of some substance? You answer, "I don't say that he is of no substance, lest I say that he is of nothing. Therefore he is of some substance." And I ask you, '""Of what substance? If he's not of the Father's substance, then you have to find another. If you don't—and you don't—then acknowledge that he is of the Father's substance and confess that the Son is homousion, of one substance, with the Father."
V. As you speak of an unbegotten Father, I profess a Son who was begotten. But because one is unbegotten and the other begotten, they are not therefore of different natures and substances. Certainly if one is begotten, he is a Son. If he is a Son, he is a true Son because he is only-begotten. For we are also called sons, but are we who are so many only-begotten? He is an only-begotten Son in another way: he is son by nature, we by grace. He is the only-begotten of the Father. He is what the Father is with respect to nature and substance. Anyone who says that because he is begotten he is of another nature denies that he is a true Son. But we read in Scripture that we may be in his true Son Jesus Christ; he is the true God and eternal life. Why is he the true God? It's because he is the true Son of God. If by God's gift animals beget only their own kind, humans begetting humans and dogs begetting dogs, shouldn't God beget God?
Thus if the Son is of the same substance as the Father, why do you call him less than the Father? Is it because when a human father begets a son, even though they are both human beings, it is a greater who begets a lesser? Should we expect Christ to grow up, then, as humans begotten by humans do? But if Christ, ever since he was begotten (which was not in time but from eternity), is what he is and yet is less than the Father, as you say, then the human condition is preferable. Humans can grow and sooner or later come to the age and the strength of their fathers, but he never can do the same. How.is he then a true Son?
VI. Those who have said that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God, or is not the true God, or is not the one and only God with the Father, or is not truly immortal because he is mutable are convicted of their error by the clear and unanimous voice of holy Scripture where it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Evidently we accept this ""Word of God" as God's only Son, of whom Scripture says shortly after, *And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" because of his birth in flesh, which took place in time from the Virgin.
But John is asserting here not only that he is God but also that he is of the same substance as the Father. Having said ''and the Word was God," he adds that "'he was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him and without him nothing was made." He does not say "all things" simply but 'all things were made." That is every creature, and so clearly he through whom all things were made was not made. If he was not made, then he is not a creature. If he is not a creature, he is of the same substance as the Father. Every substance which is not God is a creature; what is not a creature is God. If the Son is not of the same substance as the Father, then he is a created substance. If this is true, then everything was not made through him. Yet *'all things were made through him," and therefore he is of one and the same substance as the Father and is not only God but even the true God. The same writer says this with great clarity in his letter: We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may come to know the true God and may be in his true Son Jesus Christ; he is the true God and eternal life.