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1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
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[AD 155] Polycarp of Smyrna on 1 John 4:9
Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, "who bore our sins in His own body on the tree," "who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth," but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him. Let us then be imitators of His patience; and if we suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him. For He has set us this example in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case.

Source: Epistle to the Philippians 8
[AD 155] Polycarp of Smyrna on 1 John 4:3
"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;" and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Source: Epistle to the Philippians 7
[AD 155] Polycarp of Smyrna on 1 John 4:2
"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;" and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Source: Epistle to the Philippians 7
[AD 160] Shepherd of Hermas on 1 John 4:18
For, fearing the Lord, you will not do these deeds, but will refrain from them. For fears are of two kinds: for if you do not wish to do that which is evil, fear the Lord, and you will not do it; but, again, if you wish to do that which is good, fear the Lord, and you will do it.

Source: Shepherd of Hermas, Commandment 7
[AD 202] Irenaeus on 1 John 4:1
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit which separates Jesus Christ is not of God, but is of antichrist."

Source: Against Heresies Book III
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on 1 John 4:8
"God," then, being good, "is love," it is said. Whose "love worketh no ill to his neighbour," neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God. "Love is," then, "the fulfilling of the law;" like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands not to commit adultery, and not to covet one's neighbour's wife, are fulfilled.

Source: The Stromata Book 4
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on 1 John 4:18
He says, "Perfect love casteth out fear." For the perfection of a believing man is love.

Source: From the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on 1 John 4:16
And if "God be love "piety also is love: "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.".
It is not, then, without reason that we commanded boys to kiss their relations, holding them by the ears; indicating this, that the feeling of love is engendered by hearing. And "God "who is known to those who love, "is love"

Source: The Stromata Book 5
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on 1 John 4:16
He does not express the divine essence, but wishing to declare the majesty of God, he has applied to the Divinity what is best and most excellent in the view of men. Thus also Paul, when he speaks of "light inaccessible." [1 Timothy 6:16] But John himself also in this same Epistle says, "God is love:" [1 John 4:16] pointing out the excellences of God, that He is kind and merciful; and because He is light, makes men righteous, according to the advancement of the soul, through charity. God, then, who is ineffable in respect of His substance, is light.

Source: From the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:12
"And we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father; " that is, of course, (the glory) of the Son, even Him who was visible, and was glorified by the invisible Father.

Source: Against Praxeas
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:15
But "whosoever shall confess that (Jesus) Christ is the Son of God" (not the Father), "God dwelleth in him, and he in God. " We believe not the testimony of God in which He testifies to us of His Son.

Source: Against Praxeas
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:3
We must after all this turn our attention to those scriptures also which forbid our belief in such a resurrection as is held by your Animalists (for I will not call them Spiritualists), that it is either to be assumed as taking place now, as soon as men come to the knowledge of the truth, or else that it is accomplished immediately after their departure from this life... Who has yet beheld Jesus descending from heaven in like manner as the apostles saw Him ascend, according to the appointment of the two angels? [Acts 1:11] Up to the present moment they have not, tribe by tribe, smitten their breasts, looking on Him whom they pierced. [John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10] No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; [Malachi 4:5] no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist; [1 John 4:3] no one has as yet had to bewail the downfall of Babylon. [Revelation 18:2] And is there now anybody who has risen again, except the heretic? He, of course, has already quitted the grave of his own corpse — although he is even now liable to fevers and ulcers; he, too, has already trodden down his enemies — although he has even now to struggle with the powers of the world. And as a matter of course, he is already a king — although he even now owes to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's. [Matthew 22:21]

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Chapter 22
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:3
But in his epistle he especially designates those as "Antichrists" who "denied that Christ was come in the flesh," and who refused to think that Jesus was the Son of God.

Source: The Prescription Against Heretics
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:3
Well, but who is the man of sin, the son of perdition," who must first be revealed before the Lord comes; "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; who is to sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being God? " According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist; as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the Apostle John, who says that "already many false prophets are gone out into the world," the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh, and do not acknowledge Jesus (to be the Christ), meaning in God the Creator.

Source: Against Marcion Book V
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:3
In like manner, in the passage, "If even an angel of heaven preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema," he calls attention to the artful influence of Philumene, the virgin friend of Apelles. Surely he is antichrist who denies that Christ has come in the flesh. By declaring that His flesh is simply and absolutely true, and taken in the plain sense of its own nature, the Scripture aims a blow at all who make distinctions in it.

Source: On the Flesh of Christ
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:3
No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist; no one has as yet had to bewail the downfall of Babylon.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:1
Well, but who is the man of sin, the son of perdition," who must first be revealed before the Lord comes; "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; who is to sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being God? " According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist; as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the Apostle John, who says that "already many false prophets are gone out into the world," the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh, and do not acknowledge Jesus (to be the Christ), meaning in God the Creator.

Source: Against Marcion Book V
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:2
John, moreover, brands that man as "a liar" who "denieth that Jesus is the Christ; "whilst on the other hand he declares that "every one is born of God who believeth that Jesus is the Christ." Wherefore he also exhorts us to believe in the name of His (the Father's, ) Son Jesus Christ, that "our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Source: Against Praxeas
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:18
John, in fact, exhorts us to lay down our lives even for our brethren, affirming that there is no fear in love: "For perfect love casteth out fear, since fear has punishment; and he who fears is not perfect in love." What fear would it be better to understand (as here meant), than that which gives rise to denial? What love does he assert to be perfect, but that which puts fear to flight, and gives courage to confess? What penalty will he appoint as the punishment of fear, but that which he who denies is about to pay, who has to be slain, body and soul, in hell? And if he teaches that we must die for the brethren, how much more for the Lord,-he being sufficiently prepared, by his own Revelation too, forgiving such advice! For indeed the Spirit had sent the injunction to the angel of the church in Smyrna: "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ten days.

Source: Scorpiace
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:18
"There is no fear," says he, "in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear has torment"-the fire of the lake, no doubt. "He that feareth is not perfect in love" -to wit, the love of God.

Source: On Flight in Persecution
[AD 220] Tertullian on 1 John 4:18
But the man who does not fear to suffer, he will be perfect in love-in the love, it is meant, of God; "for perfect love casteth out fear." "And therefore many are called, but few chosen.

Source: On Flight in Persecution
[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on 1 John 4:1
Believe not every spirit, because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

Source: Dubious Hippolytus Fragments
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:4
He already crowned, while some are even now within reach of the crown of victory; but all whom the danger has shut up in a glorious company are animated to carry on the struggle with an equal and common warmth of virtue, as it behoves the soldiers of Christ in the divine camp: that no allurements may deceive the incorruptible stedfastness of your faith, no threats terrify you, no sufferings or tortures overcome you, because "greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world; ". John, in his epistle, proves this, saying: "Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world."

Source: Treatise XI Exhortation to Martyrdom Addressed to Fortunatus
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:3
How can either darkness illuminate, or unrighteousness justify? And when they say that "they are not of God, but are of the spirit of Antichrist"
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:2
But whosoever denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist."

Source: Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:16
The word of the blessed Apostle John is: "God "saith he, "is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.".
Also in the Epistle of John: "God is love l and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Source: Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:16
Those who have refused to be of one mind in the church of God cannot abide with God.

Source: Treatise I. On the Unity of the Church 14
[AD 258] Cyprian on 1 John 4:20
Also in the same place: "If any one shall say that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? "

Source: Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews
[AD 325] Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius on 1 John 4:15
Nor let the Jews, or philosophers, flatter themselves respecting the Supreme God. He who has not acknowledged the Son has been unable to acknowledge the Father.
[AD 325] Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius on 1 John 4:8
But perchance some one may ask of us the same question which Hortensius asks in Cicero: If God is one only,
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on 1 John 4:16
If God is love, as John says, then it must be that the devil is hatred. As he who has love has God, so he who has hatred has the devil dwelling in him.

Source: ASCETICAL DISCOURSES 2
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:12
Since God is invisible, nobody has ever seen him, since bodily sight cannot see things which have no bodies. But there are some heretics who say that the Old Testament speaks of a visible God, because occasionally people are said to have seen him, whereas the New Testament makes him completely invisible. So we have to ask what substance he is supposed to have which would make him visible. They would have to answer, unless they are out of their minds, that God is a body, even though it is not made of any perceivable substance. If that is what they think, they ought to consider how incongruous and full of ungodliness their beliefs are. For how can there be a body if there is no way of defining what it is?

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:15
This needs to be properly understood. God will not dwell in anyone who does not obey his commandments, however much he may confess him with his lips. Some people are confused by the various names of Jesus, because they do not interpret the Scriptures correctly. They think that because he came out of the womb of Mary according to the flesh and was given the name Jesus at that time, he is not to be identified with the eternal Son of God, who did not think it robbery to be considered equal with God. They restrict themselves to the human form which the Word of God assumed, even though the being of the Word was never changed into humanity. To confess the one Lord Jesus Christ is to confess him as God and man, not as a man only.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:3
If a spirit dissolves the divine-human unity of Christ and thinks that the pure Word of God is outside all flesh, and cannot really be a man, and states that everything done in his incarnation is a fantasy, then that spirit is not from God. But someone will say that there are many heretics who do accept the incarnation, the Montanists for instance. The answer to them is that just as no one says that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, so the Montanists do not accept all the implications of incarnational belief. For those who say that Jesus is Lord but who do not follow his commandments do not have the Holy Spirit. Although they honor him with their lips, their hearts are far from him.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:6
If we take the word hear literally, it is clear that this cannot be true, since everybody can pick up the sounds of the words. It is therefore clear that the word means something more than that—it means that we should do what we hear. If someone does not know that he is supposed to act, he has not really heard.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:1
Just as in ancient Israel there were some prophets who spoke the word of God and others who did not, so also, as soon as the apostles appeared, speaking in Christ and having the Holy Spirit whom the Lord had given to them, many false apostles were sent by the devil to counterfeit the teaching of the gospel. It is essential to have that gift of the Holy Spirit which is called the discernment of spirits in order to have the ability to test the spirits, to see which ones are to be believed and which ones are to be rejected.

Source: CATENA
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:7
Just as the person who does not choose what he ought to choose has done wrong and does not love what he ought to love, so those who love only those who are worthy of love receive only that level of praise due to them.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on 1 John 4:2
A spirit which comes from God will confess that Jesus Christ, although he was in the form of God, took upon himself the form of a servant and came in the flesh.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on 1 John 4:8
What kind of love are we talking about here? It is the true love and not simply what people use this word to mean. It comes from our attitude and knowledge and must proceed from a pure heart. For there is also a love of evil things. Robbers love other robbers, and murderers love each other too, not out of love which comes from a good conscience but from a bad one.

Source: CATENA
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:4
"Now are ye of God little children, and have overcome him:" whom but Antichrist? For above he had said, "Whosoever unmaketh Jesus Christ and denieth that He is come in the flesh is not of God." Now we expounded, if ye remember, that all those who violate charity deny Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh. For Jesus had no need to come but because of charity: as indeed the charity we are commending is that which the Lord Himself commended in the Gospel, "Greater love than this can no man have, that a man lay down his life for his friends." How was it possible for the Son of God to lay down His life for us without putting on flesh in which He might die? Whosoever therefore violates charity, let him say what he will with his tongue, his life denies that Christ is come in the flesh; and this is an antichrist, wherever he may be, whithersoever he have come in. But what saith the apostle to them who are citizens of that country for which we sigh? "Ye have overcome him." And whereby have they overcome? "Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in this world." Lest they should attribute the victory to their own strength, and by arrogance of pride should be overcome, (for whomsoever the devil makes proud, he overcomes,) wishing them to keep humility, what saith he? "Ye have overcome him." Every man now, at hearing this saying, "Ye have overcome," lifts up the head, lifts up the neck, wishes himself to be praised. Do not extol thyself; see who it is that in thee hath overcome. Why hast thou overcome? "Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." Be humble, bear thy Lord; be thou the beast for Him to sit on. Good is it for thee that He should rule, and He guide. For if thou have not Him to sit on thee, thou mayest lift up the neck, mayest strike out the heels: but woe to thee without a ruler, for this liberty sendeth thee among the wild beasts to be devoured!

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
"Hereby is known the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in this world." Our ears, so to say, are on the alert for discerning of the spirits; and we have been told something, such that thereby we discern not a whit the more. For what saith he? "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is of God." Then is the spirit that is among the heretics, of God, seeing they "confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh"?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
Aye, here perchance they lift themselves up against us, and say: Ye have not the Spirit from God; but we confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" but the apostle here hath said that those have not the Spirit of God, who confess not "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh." Ask the Arians: they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" ask the Eunomians; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" ask the Macedonians; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" put the question to the Cataphryges; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" put it to the Novatians; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the flesh." Then have all these heresies the Spirit of God? Are they then no false prophets? Is there then no deception there, no seduction there? Assuredly they are antichrists; for "they went out from us, but were not of us."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
What are we to do then? By what to discern them? Be very attentive; let us go together in heart, and knock. Charity herself keeps watch; for it is none other than she that shall knock, she also that shall open: anon ye shall understand in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already ye have heard that it was said above, "Whoso denieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, the same is an antichrist." There also we asked, Who denies? because neither do we deny, nor do those deny. And we found that some do in their deeds deny; and we brought testimony from the apostle, who saith, "For they confess that they know God, but in their deeds deny Him." Thus then let us now also make the enquiry in the deeds not in the tongue.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
What is the spirit that is not from God? That "which denieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." And what is the spirit that is from God? That "which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." Who is he that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Now, brethren, to the mark! let us look to the works, not stop at the noise of the tongue. Let us ask why Christ came in the flesh, so we get at the persons who deny that He is come in the flesh. If thou stop at tongues, why, thou shalt hear many a heresy confessing that Christ is come in the flesh: but the truth convicteth those men. Wherefore came Christ in the flesh? Was He not God? Is it not written of Him, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"? Was it not He that did feed angels, is it not He that doth feed angels? Did He not in such sort come hither, that He departed not thence? Did He not in such sort ascend, that He forsook not us?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
Wherefore then came He in the flesh? Because it behooved us to have the hope of resurrection shown unto us. God He was, and in flesh He came; for God could not die, flesh could die; He came then in the flesh, that He might die for us. But how died He for us? "Greater charity than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Charity therefore brought Him to the flesh. Whoever therefore has not charity denies that Christ is come in the flesh. Here then do thou now question all heretics. Did Christ come in the flesh? "He did come; this I believe, this I confess." Nay, this thou deniest. "How do I deny? Thou hearest that I say it!" Nay, I convict thee of denying it. Thou sayest with the voice, deniest with the heart; sayest in words, deniest in deeds.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
"How," sayest thou, "do I deny in deeds?" Because the end for which Christ came in the flesh, was, that He might die for us. He died for us, because therein He taught much charity. "Greater charity than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Thou hast not charity, seeing thou for thine own honor dividest unity. Therefore by this understand ye the spirit that is from God. Give the earthen vessels a tap, put them to the proof, whether haply they be cracked and give a dull sound: see whether they ring full and clear, see whether charity be there. Thou takest thyself away from the unity of the whole earth, thou dividest the Church by schisms, thou rendest the Body of Christ. He came in the flesh, to gather in one, thou makest an outcry to scatter abroad.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
This then is the Spirit of God, which saith that Jesus is come in the flesh, which saith, not in tongue but in deeds, which saith, not by making a noise but by loving. And that spirit is not of God, which denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh - denies, here also, not in tongue but in life; not in words but in deeds. It is manifest therefore by what we may know the brethren. Many within are in a sort within; but none without except he be indeed without.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2-3
Nay, and that ye may know that he has referred the matter to deeds, he saith, "And every spirit, qui solvit Christum, which does away with Christ that He came in the flesh, is not of God." A doing away in deeds is meant. What has he shown thee? "That denieth:" in that he saith, "doeth away" (or, "unmaketh"). He came to gather in one, thou comest to unmake. Thou wouldest pull Christ's members asunder. How can it be said that thou deniest not that Christ is come in the flesh, who rendest asunder the Church of God which He hath gathered together? Therefore thou goest against Christ; thou art an antichrist. Be thou within, or be thou without, thou art an antichrist: only, when thou art within, thou art hidden; when thou art without, thou art made manifest. Thou unmakest Jesus and deniest that He came in the flesh; thou art not of God.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:12
"No man hath seen God at any time." See, beloved: "If we love one another, God will dwell in us, and His love will be perfected in us." Begin to love; thou shalt be perfected. Hast thou begun to love? God has begun to dwell in thee: love Him that has begun to dwell in thee, that by more perfect indwelling He may make thee perfect.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:12
"No man hath seen God at any time:" He is a thing invisible; not with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God, let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the Gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But let no man imagine God to himself according to the lust of his eyes. For so he makes unto himself either a huge form, or a certain incalculable magnitude which, like the light which he sees with the bodily eyes, he makes extend through all directions; field after field of space he gives it all the bigness he can; or, he represents to himself like as it were an old man of venerable form. None of these things do thou imagine. There is something thou mayest imagine, if thou wouldest see God; "God is love." What sort of face hath love? what form hath it? what stature? what feet? what hands hath it? no man can say. And yet it hath feet, for these carry men to church: it hath hands; for these reach forth to the poor: it hath eyes; for thereby we consider the needy: "Blessed is the man," it is said, "who considereth the needy and the poor." It hath ears, of which the Lord saith, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." These are not members distinct by place, but with the understanding he that hath charity sees the whole at once. Inhabit, and thou shalt be inhabited; dwell, and thou shalt be dwelt in. For how say you, my brethren? who loves what he does not see? Now why, when charity is praised, do ye lift up your hands, make acclaim, praise? What have I shown you? What I produced, was it a gleam of colors? What I propounded, was it gold and silver? Have I dug out jewels from hid treasures? What of this sort have I shown to your eyes? Is my face changed while I speak? I am in the flesh; I am in the same form in which I came forth to you; ye are in the same form in which ye came hither charity is praised, and ye shout applause. Certainly ye see nothing. But as it pleases you when ye praise, so let it please you that ye may keep it in your heart. For mark well what I say brethren; I exhort you all, as God enables me, unto a great treasure. If there were shown you a beautiful little vase, embossed, inlaid with gold, curiously wrought, and it charmed your eyes, and drew towards it the eager desire of your heart, and you were pleased with the hand of the artificer, and the weight of the silver, and the splendor of the metal; would not each one of you say, "O, if I had that vase!" And to no purpose ye would say it, for it would not rest with you to have it. Or if one should wish to have it, he might think of stealing it from another's house. Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it, possess it: no need that ye should rob any man, no need that ye should think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what must it be when one has it?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:15
"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God." Now we may say it in not many words; "Whosoever shall confess;" not in word but in deed, not with tongue but with the life. For many confess in words, but in deeds deny.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:9
"In this was manifested the love of God in us." Behold, in order that we may love God, we have exhortation. Could we love Him, unless He first loved us? If we were slow to love, let us not be slow to love in return. He first loved us; not even so do we love. He loved the unrighteous, but He did away the unrighteousness: He loved the unrighteous, but not unto unrighteousness did He gather them together: He loved the sick, but He visited them to make them whole. "Love," then, "is God." "In this was manifested the love of God in us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him." As the Lord Himself saith: "Greater love than this can no man have, that a man lay down his life for his friends:" and there was proved the love of Christ towards us, in that He died for us: how is the love of the Father towards us proved? In that He "sent His only Son" to die for us: so also the apostle Paul saith: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not with Him also freely given us all things?" Behold the Father delivered up Christ; Judas delivered Him up; does it not seem as if the thing done were of the same sort? Judas is "traditor," one that delivered up, [or, a traitor]: is God the Father that? God forbid! sayest thou. I do not say it, but the apostle saith, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." Both the Father delivered Him up, and He delivered up Himself. The same apostle saith: "Who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." If the Father delivered up the Son; and the Son delivered up Himself, what has Judas done? There was a delivering up by the Father; there was a delivering up by the Son; there was a delivering up by Judas: the thing done is the same, but what is it that distinguishes the Father delivering up the Son, the Son delivering up Himself, and Judas the disciple delivering up his Master? This: that the Father and the Son did it in love, but Judas did this in treacherous betrayal. Ye see that not what the man does is the thing to be considered; but with what mind and will he does it. We find God the Father in the same deed in which we find Judas; the Father we bless, Judas we detest. Why do we bless the Father, and detest Judas? We bless charity, detest iniquity. How great a good was conferred upon mankind by the delivering up of Christ! Had Judas this in his thoughts, that therefore he delivered Him up? God had in His thoughts our salvation by which we were redeemed; Judas had in his thoughts the price for which he sold the Lord. The Son Himself had in His thoughts the price He gave for us, Judas in his the price he received to sell Him. The diverse intention therefore makes the things done diverse. Though the thing be one, yet if we measure it by the diverse intentions, we find the one a thing to be loved, the other to be condemned; the one we find a thing to be glorified, the other to be detested. Such is the force of charity. See that it alone discriminates, it alone distinguishes the doings of men.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:8
If God is love, it follows that the more companions and partners in the faith whom we see being born, in addition to ourselves, the more effusive will be the love in which we rejoice, since it is the possession of this love which is being set before us.

Source: SERMONS 260c.1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:8
Love is so much the gift of God that it is called God.

Source: LETTERS 186
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:8
Although your course of action is different from ours, our common love has made both courses necessary for the salvation of our brother, for one God has done it all, and God is love.

Source: LETTERS 219
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:8
Now see that to act against love is to act against God. Let no man say, "I sin against man when I do not love my brother, (mark it!) and sin against man is a thing to be taken easily; only let me not sin against God. How sinnest thou not against God, when thou sinnest against love? "Love is God." Do "we" say this? If we said, "Love is God" haply some one of you might be offended and say, What hath he said? What meant he to say, that "Love is God"? God "gave" love, as a gift God bestowed love. "Love is of God: Love Is God." Look, here have ye, brethren, the Scriptures of God: this epistle is canonical; throughout all nations it is recited, it is held by the authority of the whole earth, it hath edified the whole earth. Thou art here told by the Spirit of God, "Love is God." Now if thou dare, go against God, and refuse to love thy brother!

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:8
In what sense then was it said a while ago, "Love is of God;" and now, "Love Is God?" For God is Father and Son and Holy Ghost: the Son, God of God, the Holy Ghost, God of God; and these three, one God, not three Gods. If the Son be God, and the Holy Ghost God, and that person loveth in whom dwelleth the Holy Ghost: therefore "Love is God;" but "Is God," because "Of God." For thou hast both in the epistle; both, "Love is of God," and, "Love is God." Of the Father alone the Scripture hath it not to say, that He is "of God:" but when thou hearest that expression, "Of God," either the Son is meant, or the Holy Ghost. Because while the apostle saith, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us:" let us understand that He who subsisteth in love is the Holy Ghost. For it is even this Holy Spirit, whom the bad cannot receive, even He is that Fountain of which the Scripture saith, "Let the fountain of thy water be thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee." For all who love not God, are strangers, are antichrists. And though they come to the churches, they cannot be numbered among the children of God; not to them belongeth that Fountain of life. To have baptism is possible even for a bad man; to have prophecy is possible even for a bad man. We find that king Saul had prophecy: he was persecuting holy David, yet was he filled with the spirit of prophecy, and began to prophesy. To receive the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord is possible even for a bad man: for of such it is said, "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself." To have the name of Christ is possible even for a bad man; i.e. even a bad man can be called a Christian: as they of whom it is said, "They polluted the name of their God." I say, to have all these sacraments is possible even for a bad man; but to have charity, and to be a bad man, is not possible. This then is the peculiar gift, this the "Fountain" that is singly one's "own." To drink of this the Spirit of God exhorteth you, to drink of Himself the Spirit of God exhorteth you.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:3
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in this world." Therefore he saith in the Gospel: "Whoso shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." What is this breaking? What this teaching? A breaking in the deeds and a teaching as it were in words. "Thou that preachest men should not steal, dost thou steal?" Therefore he that steals breaks or undoes the commandment in his deed, and as it were teaches so: "he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven," i.e. in the Church of this present time. Of him it is said, "What they say do ye; but what they do, that do not ye."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:3
"But he that shall do, and shall teach so, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." From this, that He has here said, fecerit, "shall do," while in opposition to this He has there said solverit, meaning non fecerit, "shall not do, and shall teach so" - to break, then, is, not to do - what doth He teach us, but that we should interrogate men's deeds, not take their words upon trust?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:6
"We are of God." Let us see why; see whether it be for any other thing than charity. "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and of error:" namely by this, that he that heareth us hath the spirit of truth; he that heareth not us, hath the spirit of error. Let us see what he adviseth, and let us choose rather to hear him advising in the spirit of truth, and not antichrists, not lovers of the world, not the world. If we are born of God, "beloved," he goes on-see above from what: "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and of error:" aye, now, he makes us eagerly attentive: to be told that he who knows God, hears; but he who knows not, hears not; and that this is the discerning between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:21
"For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." Marvellous fine talk it was, that thou didst say, "I love God," and hatest thy brother! O murderer, how lovest thou God? Hast thou not heard above in this very epistle, "He that hateth his brother is a murderer"? Yea, but I do verily love God, however I hate my brother. Thou dost verily not love God, if thou hate thy brother.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:21
And now I make it good by another proof. This same apostle hath said, "He gave us commandment that we should love one another." How canst thou be said to love Him whose commandment thou hatest? Who shall say, I love the emperor, but I hate his laws? In this the emperor understands whether thou love him, that his laws be observed throughout the provinces. Our Emperor's law, what is it? "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another." Thou sayest then, that thou lovest Christ: keep His commandment, and love thy brother. But if thou love not thy brother, how canst thou be said to love Him whose commandment thou despisest?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:21
Brethren, I am never satiated in speaking of charity in the name of the Lord. In what proportion ye have an insatiable desire of this thing, in that proportion we hope the thing itself is growing in you, and casting out fear, that so there may remain that chaste fear which is for ever permanent. Let us endure the world, endure tribulations, endure the stumbling-blocks of temptations. Let us not depart from the way; let us hold the unity of the Church, hold Christ, hold charity. Let us not be plucked away from the members of His Spouse, not be plucked away from faith, that we may glory in His coming: and we shall securely abide in Him, now by faith, then by sight, of whom we have so great earnest, even the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:1
"Beloved, believe not every spirit." Because he had said, "In this we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." But how this same Spirit is known, mark this: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be from God." And who is he that proves the spirits? A hard matter has he put to us, my brethren! It is well for us that he should tell us himself how we are to discern them. He is about to tell us: fear not.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:1
The Holy Spirit is spoken of in the Gospel by the name of water; where the Lord "cried and said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." But the evangelist has expounded of what He said this: for he goes on to say, "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him should receive." Wherefore did not the Lord baptize many? But what saith he? "For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Then seeing those had baptism, and had not yet received the Holy Ghost, whom on the day of Pentecost the Lord sent from heaven, the glorifying of the Lord was first waited for, so that the Spirit might be given.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:1
The water of the sacrament is one thing: another, the water which betokens the Spirit of God. The water of the sacrament is visible: the water of the Spirit invisible. That washes the body, and betokens that which is done in the soul. By this Spirit the soul itself is cleansed and fed. This is the Spirit of God, which heretics and all that cut themselves off from the Church, cannot have. And whosoever do not openly cut themselves off, but by iniquity are cut off, and being within, whirl about as chaff and are not grain; these have not this Spirit.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:1
This Spirit is denoted by the Lord under the name of water: and we have heard from this epistle, "Believe not every spirit;" and those words of Solomon bear witness, "From strange water keep thee far." What meaneth, "water"? Spirit. Does water always signify spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some places it signifies baptism, in some places signifies peoples, in some places signifies counsel: thus thou findest it said in a certain place, "Counsel is a fountain of life to them that possess it." So then, in divers places of the Scriptures, the term "water" signifies divers things.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:14
"And we have seen, and are witnesses, that God hath sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world." Set your minds at rest, ye that are sick: such a Physician is come, and do ye despair? Great were the diseases, incurable were the wounds, desperate was the sickness. Dost thou note the greatness of thine ill, and not note the omnipotence of the Physician? Thou art desperate, but He is omnipotent; Whose witnesses are these that first were healed, and that announce the Physician: yet even they are made whole in hope rather than in the reality. For so saith the apostle: "For by hope we are saved." We have begun therefore to be made whole in faith: but our wholeness shall be perfected "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality." This is hope, not the reality. But he that rejoiceth in hope shall hold the reality also: whereas he that hath not the hope, shall not be able to attain unto the reality.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:13
"In this we know that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." It is well: thanks be to God! We come to know that He dwelleth in us. And whence come we to know this very thing, to wit, that we do know that He dwelleth in us? Because John himself has said this: "Because He hath given us of His Spirit." Whence know we that He hath given us of His Spirit? This very thing, that He hath given thee of His Spirit, whence comest thou to know it? Ask thine own bowels: if they are full of charity, thou hast the Spirit of God. Whence know we that by this thou knowest that the Spirit of God dwelleth in thee? "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:7
To practice righteousness and judgment means to live virtuously, and to live virtuously means to obey God’s law, the purpose of which is to help us to base our lives on the principle of love. This is the love which comes from God, as John says.

Source: City of God 17.4
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:7
Love is from God, as have declared those whom he has made not only his great lovers but also his great preachers.

Source: ON THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE 21.56
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:7
"Beloved, let us love one another." Why? Because a man adviseth? "Because love is of God." Much hath he commended love, in that he hath said, "Is of God:" but he is going to say more; let us eagerly hear. At present he hath said, "Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God." Why? "For God is love." What more could be said, brethren? If nothing were said in praise of love throughout the pages of this epistle, if nothing whatever throughout the other pages of the Scriptures, and this one only thing were all we were told by the voice of the Spirit of God, "For Love is God;" nothing more ought we to require.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:5
"These are of the world." Who? The antichrists. Ye have already heard who they be. And if ye be not such, ye know them, but whosoever is such, knows not. "These are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." Who are they that "speak of the world"? Mark who are against charity. Behold, ye have heard the Lord saying, "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your trespasses. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It is the sentence of Truth: or if it be not Truth that speaks, gainsay it. If thou art a Christian and believest Christ, He hath said, "I am the truth." This sentence is true, is firm. Now hear men that "speak of the world." "And wilt thou not avenge thyself? And wilt thou let him say that he has done this to thee? Nay: let him feel that he has to do with a man." Every day are such things said, They that say such things, "of the world speak they, and the world heareth them." None say such things but those that love the world, and by none are such things heard but by those who love the world. And ye have heard that to love the world and neglect charity is to deny that Jesus came in the flesh. Or say if the Lord Himself in the flesh did that? if, being buffeted, He willed to be avenged? if, hanging on the cross, He did not say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"? But if He threatened not, who had power; why dost thou threaten, why art thou inflated with anger, who art under power of another? He died because it was His will to die, yet He threatened not; thou knowest not when thou shall die, and dost thou threaten?

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:17
He tells how each may prove himself, what progress charity has made in him or rather what progress he has made in charity. For if charity is God, God is capable neither of proficiency nor of deficiency: that charity is said to be making proficiency in thee, means only that thou makest proficiency in it. Ask therefore what proficiency thou hast made in charity, and what thine heart will answer thee, that thou mayest know the measure of thy profiting. For he has promised to show us in what we may know Him, and hath said, "In this is love made perfect in us." Ask, in what? "That we have boldness in the day of judgment." Whoso hath boldness in the day of judgment, in that man is charity made perfect. What is it to have boldness in the day of judgment? Not to fear lest the day of judgment should come.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:17
Some man has begun to believe in a day of judgment: if he has begun to believe, he has also begun to fear. But because he fears as yet, because he hath not yet boldness in the day of judgment, not yet is charity in that man made perfect. But for all that, is one to despair? In whom thou seest the beginning, why despairest thou of the end? What beginning do I see? That very fear. Hear the Scripture: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Well then, he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him correct himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him begin to come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the earth.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:17
Now in proportion as this man who has begun to fear the day of judgment, mortifies his members which are upon the earth, in that proportion the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. But the heavenly members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise up, he begins to desire that which once he feared. Once he feared lest Christ should come and find in him the impious whom He must condemn; now he longs for Him to come, because He shall find the pious man whom He may crown. Having now begun to desire Christ's coming, the chaste soul which desires the embrace of the Bridegroom renounces the adulterer, becomes a virgin within by faith, hope, and charity. Now hath the man boldness in the day of judgment: he fights not against himself when he prays, "Thy kingdom come."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:17
Thou hast heard the ground of thy boldness: "Because as He is," saith the apostle, "are we also in this world." Does he not seem to have said something impossible? For is it possible for man to be as God? I have already expounded to you that "as" is not always said of equality, but is said of a certain resemblance. For how sayest thou, As I have ears, so has my image? Is it quite so? and yet thou sayest "so, as." If then we were made after God's image, why are we not so as God? Not unto equality, but relatively to our measure. Whence then are we given boldness in the day of judgment? "Because as He is, are we also in this world." We must refer this to the same charity, and understand what is meant.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:17
The Lord in the Gospel saith, "If ye love them that love you, what reward shall ye have? do not the publicans this?" Then what would He have us do? "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you." If then He bids us love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us? From God Himself: for He saith, "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." How doth God this? He loveth His enemies, "Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust." If this then be the perfection unto which God inviteth us, that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our boldness in the day of judgment, that "as He is, so are we also in this world:" because, as He loveth His enemies in making His sun to rise upon good and bad, and in sending rain upon the just and unjust, so we, since we cannot bestow upon them sun and rain, bestow upon them our tears when we pray for them.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:10
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us:" we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that we may love Him: "And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins:" "litatorem," i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:10
This we have said in the case where the things done are similar. In the case where they are diverse, we find a man by charity made fierce; and by iniquity made winningly gentle. A father beats a boy, and a boy-stealer caresses. If thou name the two things, blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses, and decline the blows? If thou mark the persons, it is charity that beats, iniquity that caresses. See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2
The Manichaean denies that Christ has come in the flesh. There is no need to labor the point or to persuade you any further that this error is not from God.

Source: SERMONS 183
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:2
There remains then the test by which it is to be proved to be the Spirit of God. He has indeed set down a sign, and this, be-like, difficult: let us see, however. We are to recur to that charity; it is that which teacheth us, because it is the unction. However, what saith he here? "Prove the spirits, whether they be from God: because many false prophets have gone out into this world." Now there are all heretics and all schismatics. How then am I to prove the spirit? He goes on: "In this is known the Spirit of God." Wake up the ears of your heart. We were at a loss; we were saying, Who knows? who discerns? Behold, he is about to tell the sign.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
What John said is true. So if you do not want to have any fear, first of all see whether you have that perfect love which turns fear out of the door. But if fear is pushed out before such perfection is achieved, it is a matter of pride puffing up, not of charity building up.

Source: SERMONS 348.1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
Now therefore concerning this same boldness, let us see what he says. Whence do we understand that charity is perfect? "There is no fear in charity." Then what say we of him that has begun to fear the day of judgment? If charity in him were perfect, he would not fear. For perfect charity would make perfect righteousness, and he would have nothing to fear: nay rather he would have something to desire; that iniquity may pass away, and God's kingdom come. So then, "there is no fear in charity." But in what charity? Not in charity begun: in what then? "But perfect charity," saith he, "casteth out fear." Then let fear make the beginning, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Fear, so to say, prepares a place for charity. But when once charity has begun to inhabit, the fear which prepared the place for it is cast out. For in proportion as this increases, that decreases: and the more this comes to be within, is the fear cast out. Greater charity, less fear; less charity, greater fear. But if no fear, there is no way for charity to come in.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
As we see in sewing, the thread is introduced by means of the bristle; the bristle first enters, but except it come out the thread does not come into its place: so fear first occupies the mind, but the fear does not remain there, because it enters only in order to introduce charity. When once there is the sense of security in the mind, what joy have we both in this world and in the world to come! Even in this world, who shall hurt us, being full of charity? See how the apostle exults concerning this very charity: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
The consciousness of sins torments the heart: justification has not yet taken place. There is that in it which itches, which pricks. Accordingly in the Psalm what saith he concerning this same perfection of righteousness? "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing to thee, and that I be not pricked." What is this, "That I be not pricked?" That there be not that which shall goad my conscience. Fear doth goad: but fear not thou: charity enters in, and she heals the wound that fear inflicts. The fear of God so wounds as doth the leech's knife; it takes away the rottenness, and seems to make the wound greater.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
Then let fear occupy thine heart, that it may bring in charity; let the cicatrice succeed to the leech's knife. He is such an Healer, that the cicatrices do not even appear: only do thou put thyself under His hand. For if thou be without fear, thou canst not be justified. It is a sentence pronounced by the Scriptures; "For he that is without fear, cannot be justified." Needs then must fear first enter in, that by it charity may come. Fear is the healing operation: charity, the sound condition. "But he that feareth is not made perfect in love." Why? "Because fear hath torment;" just as the cutting of the surgeon's knife hath torment.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
But there is another sentence, which seems contrary to this if it have not one that understands. Namely, it is said in a certain place of the Psalms, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring forever." He shows us an eternal fear, but a chaste. But if he there shows us an eternal fear, does this epistle perchance contradict him, when it saith, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear?" Let us interrogate both utterances of God. One is the Spirit, though the books two, though the mouths two though the tongues two. For this is said by the mouth of John, that by the mouth of David: but think not that the Spirit is more than one.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
It is not without cause that in the one place there is added that word, chaste, in the other it is not added: but because there is one fear which is called chaste, and there is another fear which is not called chaste. Let us mark the difference between these two fears, and so understand the harmony of the flutes. How are we to understand, or how to distinguish? Mark, my beloved. There are men who fear God, lest they be cast into hell, lest haply they burn with the devil in everlasting fire. This is the fear which introduces charity: but it comes that it may depart. For if thou as yet fearest God because of punishments, not yet dost thou love Him whom thou in such sort fearest. Thou dost not desire the good things, but art afraid of the evil things. Yet because thou art afraid of the evil things, thou correctest thyself and beginnest to desire the good things. When once thou hast begun to desire the good, there shall be in thee the chaste fear.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
What is the chaste fear? The fear lest thou lose the good things themselves. Mark! It is one thing to fear God lest He cast thee into hell with the devil, and another thing to fear God lest He forsake thee. The fear by which thou fearest lest thou be cast into hell with the devil, is not yet chaste; for it comes not from the love of God, but from the fear of punishment: but when thou fearest God lest His presence forsake thee, thou embracest Him, thou longest to enjoy God Himself.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
One cannot better explain the difference between these two fears, the one which charity casteth out, the other chaste, which endureth for ever, than by putting the case of two married women, one of whom, you may suppose, is willing to commit adultery, delights in wickedness, only fears lest she be condemned by her husband. She fears her husband: but because she yet loves wickedness, that is the reason why she fears her husband. To this woman, the presence of her husband is not grateful but burdensome; and if it chance she live wickedly, she fears her husband, lest he should come. Such are they that fear the coming of the day of judgment.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:18
Put the case that the other loves her husband, that she feels that she owes him chaste embraces, that she stains herself with no uncleanness of adultery; she wishes for the presence of her husband. And how are these two fears distinguished? The one woman fears, the other also fears. Question them: they seem to make one answer: question the one, Dost thou fear thine husband? she answers, I do. Question the other, whether she fears her husband; she answers, I do fear him. The voice is one, the mind diverse. Now then let them be questioned, Why? The one saith, I fear my husband, lest he should come: the other saith, I fear my husband, lest he depart from me. The one saith, I fear to be condemned: the other, I fear to be forsaken. Let the like have place in the mind of Christians, and thou findest a fear which love casteth out, and another fear, chaste, enduring for ever.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
By God's grace we love him who first loved us, in order to believe in him, and by loving him we perform good works, but we have not performed the good works in order to love him.

Source: LETTERS 186
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
"Let us love, because He first loved us." For how should we love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if, being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned, she love a beautiful man? By loving can she become beautiful? Can he by loving become handsome? He loves a beautiful woman, and when he sees himself in a mirror, he is ashamed to lift up his face to her his lovely one of whom he is enamored. What shall he do that he may be beautiful? Does he wait for good looks to come? Nay rather, by waiting old age is added to him, and makes him uglier.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
But our soul, my brethren, is unlovely by reason of iniquity: by loving God it becomes lovely. What a love must that be that makes the lover beautiful! But God is always lovely, never unlovely, never changeable. Who is always lovely first loved us; and what were we when He loved us but foul and unlovely? But not to leave us foul; no, but to change us, and of unlovely make us lovely. How shall we become lovely? By loving Him who is always lovely. As the love increases in thee, so the loveliness increases: for love is itself the beauty of the soul. "Let us love, because He first loved us."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
Hear the apostle Paul: "But God showed His love in us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us:" the just for the unjust, the beautiful for the foul. How find we Jesus beautiful? "Thou art beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men; grace is poured upon thy lips." Why so? Again see why it is that He is fair; "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men:" because "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But in that He took flesh, He took upon Him, as it were, thy foulness, i.e. thy mortality, that He might adapt Himself to thee, and become suited to thee, and stir thee up to the love of the beauteousness within.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
Where then in Scripture do we find Jesus uncomely and deformed, as we have found Him comely and "beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men?" where find we Him also deformed? Ask Esaias: "And we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." There now are two flutes which seem to make discordant sounds: howbeit one Spirit breathes into both. By this it is said, "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men:" by that it is said in Esaias, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." By one Spirit are both flutes filled, they make no dissonance.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:19
Let us ask the apostle Paul, and let him expound to us the unison of the two flutes. Let him sound to us the note, "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men.-Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Let him sound to us also the note, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness.-He made Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and in fashion found as man. He had no form nor comeliness," that He might give thee form and comeliness. What form? what comeliness? The love which is in charity: that loving, thou mayest run; running, mayest love. Thou art fair now: but stay not thy regard upon thyself, lest thou lose what thou hast received; let thy regards terminate in Him by whom thou wast made fair. Be thou fair only to the end He may love thee. But do thou direct thy whole aim to Him, run thou to Him, seek His embraces, fear to depart from Him; that there may be in thee the chaste fear, which endureth for ever. "Let us love, because He first loved us."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:16
The Holy Spirit is commonly shared in some way between the Father and the Son. But this communion is itself consubstantial and coeternal. If it can appropriately be described as friendship, let it be so called—but it is better to call it love. It is a substance, because God is a substance, and God is love.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 6.5.7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:16
When we come to the subject of love, which is what God is called in Scripture, the Trinity begins to dawn a little, for there is the Lover, the Beloved and Love.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 15.10
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:16
"And we have known and believed the love which God hath in us." And again, by what hast thou come to know this? "Love is God." He hath already said it above, behold he saith it again. Love could not be more exceedingly commended to thee than that it should be called God. Haply thou wast ready to despise a gift of God. And dost thou despise God? "Love is God: and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." Each mutually inhabiteth the other; He that holdeth, and he that is holden. Thou dwellest in God, but that thou mayest be holden: God inhabiteth thee, but that He may hold thee, lest thou fall. Lest haply thou imagine that thou becomest an house of God in such sort as thine house supports thy flesh: if the house in which thou art withdraw itself from under thee, thou fallest; but if thou withdraw thyself, God falleth not. When thou forsakest Him, He is none the less; when thou hast returned unto Him, He is none the greater. Thou art healed, on Him thou wilt bestow nothing; thou art made clean, thou art new-made, thou art set right: He is a medicine to the unhealthy, is a rule for the crooked, is light for the bedarkened, is an habitation for the deserted. All therefore is conferred on thee: see thou imagine not that ought is conferred upon God by thy coming unto Him: no, not so much as a slave.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:20
He who does not love his brother is not in love, and he who is not in love is not in God, for God is love.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 8.11
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:20
"If any man say, I love God." What God? wherefore love we? "Because He first loved us," and gave us to love. He loved us ungodly, to make us godly; loved us unrighteous, to make us righteous; loved us sick, to make us whole. Ask each several man; let him tell thee if he love God. He cries out, he confesses: I love, God knoweth. There is another question to be asked. "If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." By what provest thou that he is a liar? Hear. "For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?"

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:20
What then? does he that loves a brother, love God also? He must of necessity love God, must of necessity love Him that is Love itself. Can one love his brother, and not love Love? of necessity he must love Love. What then? because he loves Love, does it follow that he loves God? Certainly it does follow. In loving Love, he loves God. Or hast thou forgotten what thou saidst a little while ago, "Love is God"? If "Love is God," whoso loveth Love, loveth God. Love then thy brother, and feel thyself assured. Thou canst not say, "I love my brother, but I do not love God." As thou liest, if thou sayest "I love God," when thou lovest not thy brother, so thou art deceived when thou sayest, I love my brother, if thou think that thou lovest not God. Of necessity must thou who lovest thy brother, love Love itself: but "Love is God:" therefore of necessity must he love God, whoso loveth his brother.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:20
But if thou love not the brother whom thou seest, how canst thou love God whom thou seest not? Why does he not see God? Because he has not Love itself. That he does not see God, is, because he has not love: that he has not love, is, because he loves not his brother. The reason then why he does not see God, is, that he has not Love. For if he have Love, he sees God, for "Love is God:" and that eye is becoming more and more purged by love, to see that Unchangeable Substance, in the presence of which he shall always rejoice, which he shall enjoy to everlasting, when he is joined with the angels.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:20
Only, let him run now, that he may at last have gladness in his own country. Let him not love his pilgrimage, not love the way: let all be bitter save Him that calleth us, until we hold Him fast, and say what is said in the Psalm: "Thou hast destroyed all that go a-whoring from Thee" -and who are they that go a-whoring? they that go away and love the world: but what shall thou do? he goes on and says:-"but for me it is good to cleave to God." All my good is, to cling unto God, freely. For if thou question him and say, For what dost thou cling to Him? and he should say, That He may give me-Give thee what? It is He that made the heaven, He that made the earth: what shall He give thee? Already thou are cleaving to Him: find something better, and He shall give it thee.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 9
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:11
"Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another." "Peter," saith He, "lovest thou me?" And he said, "I love." "Feed my sheep."

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on 1 John 4:11
If any of you perchance wish to keep charity, brethren, above all things do not imagine it to be an abject and sluggish thing; nor that charity is to be preserved by a sort of gentleness, nay not gentleness, but tameness and listlessness. Not so is it preserved. Do not imagine that thou then lovest thy servant when thou dost not beat him, or that thou then lovest thy son when thou givest him not discipline, or that thou then lovest thy neighbor when thou dost not rebuke him: this is not charity, but mere feebleness. Let charity be fervent to correct, to amend: but if there be good manners, let them delight thee; if bad, let them be amended, let them be corrected. Love not in the man his error, but the man: for the man God made, the error the man himself made. Love that which God made, love not that which the man himself made. When thou lovest that, thou takest away this: when thou esteemest that, thou amendest this. But even if thou be severe at any time, let it be because of love, for correction. For this cause was charity betokened by the Dove which descended upon the Lord. That likeness of a dove, the likeness in which came the Holy Ghost, by whom charity should be shed forth into us: wherefore was this? The dove hath no gall: yet with beak and wings she fights for her young; hers is a fierceness without bitterness. And so does also a father; when he chastises his son, for discipline he chastises him. As I said, the kidnapper, in order that he may sell, inveigles the child with bitter endearments; a father, that he may correct, does without gall chastise. Such be ye to all men. See here, brethren, a great lesson, a great rule: each one of you has children, or wishes to have; or if he has altogether determined to have no children after the flesh, at least spiritually he desires to have children:-what father does not correct his son? what son does not his father discipline? And yet he seems to be fierce with him. It is the fierceness of love, the fierceness of charity: a sort of fierceness without gall after the manner of the dove, not of the raven.

Source: Ten Homilies on 1 John 7
[AD 435] John Cassian on 1 John 4:1
First we must scrutinize thoroughly anything that appears in our hearts, as well as anything that is said to us. Has it come purified by the divine and heavenly fire of the Holy Spirit? Or does it lean toward Jewish superstition? Is its surface piety something which has come down from bloated worldly philosophy? We must examine all this most carefully, doing as the apostle bids us.

Source: CONFERENCE 1.20
[AD 435] John Cassian on 1 John 4:10
The perfect love with which God first loved us will come into our hearts, for our faith tells us that this prayer of our Savior will not be in vain.

Source: CONFERENCE 10.7
[AD 449] Hilary of Arles on 1 John 4:4
God’s power to save is always much greater than the devil’s power to do harm.

Source: INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 449] Hilary of Arles on 1 John 4:17
In this world we must do our best to be generous, godly, merciful and patient, imitating God as closely as we can.

Source: INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 461] Leo the Great on 1 John 4:18
The apostles had to ensure that no other truth would creep in and that no other doctrine would be taught. To do this, it was necessary to increase the capacity of those who were being taught and to multiply the constancy of that love which drives out all fear, not dreading the rage of persecutors.

Source: SERMONS 76.5
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:4
The one who is in you is God the Father, through the Son and the Paraclete. The one in the world is Satan, for “world” here refers to evil people.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:12
This is how God’s love works. God comes to dwell in us, though no one has ever seen him.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:21
The person who loves God keeps his commandments, and loving one’s brother is the fulfillment of those commandments. The person who does not love his brother has not kept the commandments and by not keeping them has not loved God. The one who says he loves but does not do so is a liar.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:7
What does it mean to say that love is from God? Surely this refers to the man who came from God, who was revealed according to the image and likeness of the one who made him? For when this man appeared, he was revealed as the beloved and as worthy of being loved. Now since this Savior has been sent into the world because of the Father’s great love for the things which he has made, those who have received this blessing and who are thus beloved ought to love one another. For each of us is loved and is called to love, having the command that we should love our neighbor.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:5
Who are these but the heretics and Manichaeans? For they blaspheme, speaking evil words out of their evil minds.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:17
Jesus said: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he shall find nothing in me.” We ought to be the same, so that nothing of this world may be found in us either.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:2
It is characteristic of the antichrist, who is coming into the world and has indeed already come, to deny Christ through false prophets and spirits by saying that he never came in the flesh. There are many different heretics, but on this point they all speak with the same voice. To confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh does not just mean that he has come in his own flesh but that he enters my flesh as well.

Source: CATENA
[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on 1 John 4:19
God loves us so much that even the hairs of our head are numbered, as it says in the Gospels. It is not that God goes around numbering hairs but rather that he has exact understanding and complete foreknowledge of everything to do with us.

Source: CATENA
[AD 700] Isaac of Nineveh on 1 John 4:8
“God is love.” Wherefore, the man who lives in love reaps the fruit of life from God, and while yet in this world, he even now breathes the air of the resurrection.

Source: ASCETICAL HOMILIES 46
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:4
You are from God, little children, and you have conquered him. You have conquered the Antichrist by confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is, by having the charity that Jesus Christ taught when he came in the flesh, which he also commends in the Gospel, saying: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John XV). For how could the Son of God lay down his life for us, unless he was clothed in flesh, where he could die? Therefore, anyone who violates charity, no matter what he says with his tongue, by his life denies that Christ has come in the flesh, and he himself is the Antichrist. And you have conquered him, he says. But how have they conquered? Was it by the power of free will? Certainly not. Let Pelagius be silent, let John himself speak:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:4
Because greater is he who is in you, etc. He thus teaches them to maintain humility, so that they do not attribute victory to their own strength, and are overcome by the arrogance of pride. He teaches them to always have confidence and hope of victory in the midst of adversities, retaining in their memory that the Lord is greater to protect than the devil to attack.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God. A greater discussion is needed, since the Lord promises that the pure in heart will see God, and He says of the saints that their angels always see the face of the Father in heaven. John also stated this in his Gospel, where he consequentially adds how God can be seen, saying: The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John I). Blessed Father Ambrose explained it thus: "And no one has ever seen God, because the fullness of the divinity dwelling in God has been seen by no one, comprehended by neither mind nor eyes. For 'seeing' must be referred to both. Hence when it is added: The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him, it is a vision of the mind rather than of the eyes being spoken of. The form is seen, the power is narrated. The former is comprehended by eyes, the latter by the mind." Likewise, blessed Augustine in his book on seeing God, discussing the same question: "Therefore (he says), with the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, narrating with ineffable narration, a rational, pure, and holy creature is filled with the ineffable vision of God. We will achieve this when we have become equal to the angels, for we shall see face to face (I Cor. XIII). As visible things are seen by the senses of the body, no one has ever seen God: because if He was ever seen in any way, it was not as a natural object is seen, but He willed to be seen in the form He chose, with His nature remaining hidden and unchangeable in Himself. But in the way He is seen as He is (I Cor. XIII), perhaps He is now seen by some of His holy angels. But by us, He will be seen in that way when we shall have become equal to them." And after some propositions, expounding the sentence of Saint Ambrose, Augustine says, "No one has ever seen God, either in this life as He is, or even in the life of angels, as these visible things are perceived by bodily vision, because the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Therefore, it pertains not to the vision of bodily eyes, but to the vision of minds." And after these many words: "To that vision (he says) by which we will see God as He is (I Cor. XIII), He admonished pure hearts. Because, indeed, bodies are by customary speech called visible, thus God is called invisible so that He may not be believed to be a body. It does not mean that He would deprive pure hearts of the contemplation of His substance, since this great and highest reward is promised to those who honor and love God, as the Lord Himself said when He visibly appeared to bodily eyes, and He promised to show Himself invisibly to pure hearts: Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and show myself to him (John XIV). For His nature is equally invisible with the Father, just as it is equally incorruptible. Paul listed these consecutively, saying: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, he commended the divine substance in a manner he could to humans through preaching. Therefore, God is an invisible reality, to be sought not with the eye but the mind. But just as if we wanted to see the sun, we would purify the eye of the body from which light can be seen; so also, wanting to see God, let us purify the eye of the heart with which God can be seen: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew V). But since this vision is hoped for in the future, what must we do now, while still in the body, wandering away from the Lord? What solace should we use when divine vision is not yet permitted to us?"

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:12
If we love one another, God abides in us. But let no one think that this love, in which God abides, is preserved by a certain lax and lazy gentleness, indeed not by gentleness but by leniency and negligence. This is not charity, but languor; charity should burn fervently to amend and correct. But if morals are good, let them delight; if they are bad, let them be amended and corrected. Therefore, if we love one another with sincere and disciplined charity, God abides in us, manifested indeed by the works of that very charity, even though He does not yet appear visibly.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:12
And His charity is perfected in us. However, it must be inquired how he says that the perfection of divine charity consists in mutual love, since the Lord in the Gospel pronounces that it is not a great thing if we love those who love us, unless that same love extends also to enemies, about whom he here seems completely silent? Unless perhaps we should love even these enemies with the gaze of fraternal love, so that they do not always remain enemies, but repent from the snares of the devil and join us in a genuine covenant. If we love one another, he says, God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us. Begin to love, you will be perfected. You have begun to love, God has begun to dwell in you, so that by dwelling more perfectly He may make you perfect.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:15
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, etc. He speaks of the perfect confession of the heart, which can neither be corrupted by the deceit of heretics who wrongly persuade, nor be shattered by the tortures of pagan persecutors, nor falter by the examples of fleshly brothers, nor waver by the sluggishness of one's own weakness. For there are those who even deny by words that Jesus is the Son of God, of which many are reported to have been at that very time when John wrote this. Likewise, there are those who confess in words, but deny in actions. Hence it is well stated now: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God, he said a little above: If we love one another, God abides in us, surely insinuating that whoever has love for his brothers, he truly testifies that Jesus is the Son of God.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:9
In this God's love appeared in us, etc. As the Lord himself says: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John XV); and thus the love of Christ for us is proven, because he died for us. The Father's love is also proven in us, because he sent his only Son to die for us. Thus also the Apostle Paul says: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things (Rom. VIII)?

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:3
And every spirit that dissolves Jesus is not from God. He dissolves Jesus who denies either His divinity, or His soul, or His flesh, which the Catholic faith teaches that He truly has. He also dissolves Jesus who, by perversely interpreting or by perverse sight, corrupts the commands and words of Jesus. But also he who disturbs the unity of the holy Church, which Jesus came to gather, strives, as far as is in him, to dissolve Jesus. Nor is it surprising if such are not from God, who disband the works, words, or sacraments of God. For they are so far from God, that some of them who wished by evil doctrine to separate the divinity of Christ from human dispensation, have also erased this verse, where it is said, "And every spirit that dissolves Jesus is not from God," from this Epistle, lest their error be convicted by the authority of blessed John. Finally, Nestorius revealed that he did not know this sentence was inserted into the authentic copies, and therefore he did not fear to dissolve Jesus, and thus render himself foreign to God, saying that the blessed Virgin Mary was not the mother of God, but only of a man, such that he made another person of the man, another of the Deity; nor did he believe in one Christ in the Word of God and in flesh and soul, but preached separately another Son of God, another of man.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:3
And this is the Antichrist of whom you have heard that he comes, etc. He comes with the imminent day of judgment, born into the world as that man more wicked than all others, the son of iniquity. And now he is already in the world, dwelling in the minds of those who resist Christ either by profession or by deed, without the remedy of repentance.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:6
We are of God. He who knows God, etc. For the carnal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Therefore, he who does not want to hear the preachers of charity is undoubtedly known not to know God, nor to be of God, because he has neglected to imitate the charity that God has exercised towards men.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:6
In this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. In this, indeed, because he who listens to us has the Spirit of truth; he who does not listen to us has the spirit of error. And this is the distinction of spirits, about which he warned above, saying: "Test the spirits to see whether they are of God." But let us see what he is about to admonish, in which we should hear him:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:21
And this commandment we have from God, etc. For how can you love him whose command you hate? Who is it who says: I love the emperor, but I hate his laws? Not so the true lover of God, but: See (he says) that I have loved your commands, O Lord (Psalm CXVIII). And therefore he confidently adds: Quicken me in your mercy (Ibid.).

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:14
And we have seen and testify, etc. Let no one despair of salvation, because although the diseases of crimes that weigh one down are great, the omnipotent physician has come to save. Yet let each remember that the same Son of God who came gently to save, will come sternly to judge.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:13
In this we know that we abide in Him, etc. This very thing, because He gave His Spirit to you, how do you know? Ask your own inner parts. If they are full of charity, you have the Spirit of God, as Paul attests, who says: Because the charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom. V).

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, etc. He has highly recommended charity, which he said is from God; he is about to say more, let us listen attentively:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:7
And everyone who loves is born of God, etc. What more could be said? God is charity. Therefore, to act against charity is to act against God. Let no one say: I sin against man when I do not love my brother, and it is an easy sin against man, if I do not sin against God alone. How do you not sin against God, when you sin against charity? God is charity.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:5
They are from the world, etc. The Antichrists, that is, the heretics, even if they invoke the name of Christ or mark themselves with the sign of Christ, still they are from the world, that is, from the number of those who think worldly thoughts, who seek the lowly things, who are ignorant of celestial matters. And thus they speak of the world, namely by the reason of worldly wisdom opposing the Christian faith, saying that it cannot be that the Son of God is coeternal with the Father, that an untouched virgin gives birth, that flesh rises from dust, immortal, that a man brought forth from the earth perceives a dwelling in the heavens, that a newborn infant is held bound by the guilt of the first man unless reborn in Christ through the water of baptism is saved.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:5
And the world listens to them. For the hearts of the spiritual cannot be recalled to worldly and carnal senses from the simplicity of faith. But even the Catholics who, hearing that saying of the Lord: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you" (Matthew V); and again: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew VI), say they cannot in any way leave their injuries unavenged: these indeed are proved to be of the world, and hence they speak of the world. And because they do not have the bowels of charity, they keep the inviolate mysteries of faith in vain. Nor can they be without the name of Antichrist, who are shown to be opposed to the commands of Christ.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:17
In this, love is perfected with us, etc. He says how each one may test how much he has progressed in love. Whoever has confidence on the day of judgment, love is perfected in him. What is it to have confidence on the day of judgment? It is to not fear the coming of the day of judgment. For when someone first converts himself from wicked deeds by repenting, he begins to fear the day of judgment, lest, namely, when the Just Judge appears, he himself, being unjust, be condemned. However, encouraged by a good life in the process, he learns not to fear what he once feared, but rather to wish for the coming of the awaited one for all nations, hoping that he will be crowned with the saints by the merit of good actions. From where we can have confidence on the day of judgment, he explains more fully by adding:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:17
Because as He is, so are we in this world. Can a man indeed be as God? But it should be remembered what was said above, that “as” does not always refer to equality, but it refers to a certain similarity. For when you say, "As I have ears, so too does the image," is it entirely so? Yet still you say "as." So if we are made in the image of God, why are we not as God? Not in equality, but in our own measure. Therefore, confidence is given to us on the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world—namely by imitating the perfection of love in the world, of which He daily provides us an example from heaven. Concerning this, the Savior in the Gospel says, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you and slander you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5).

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:10
We come to God not by our own merits but by the bestowal of his grace alone, as John bears witness when he says that we did not love God but rather he loved us.

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 2.3
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:10
In this is love, etc. We did not love him first. For he loved us to the extent that we might love him. Grace indeed goes before man, that he may love God, by which love he works good things. Whence the Psalmist says: My God, his mercy shall anticipate me (Ps. LVIII).

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:10
And he sent his Son to be the propitiation, etc. And this is the greatest sign of divine love for us, because when we did not yet know how to ask him for forgiveness for our sins, he sent his Son to us, who, to those believing in him, would grant pardon freely and call us to the fellowship of paternal glory. In some Codices, this verse is read thus: And he sent his Son to be the altar sacrifice for our sins. The altar sacrifice means a sacrificer. For the Son of God sacrificed for our sins not by offering cattle, but by offering himself. Hence Paul rightly admonishes, saying: Therefore be ye imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor (Eph. V). In agreement with this is what John also here adds in exhortation, saying:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:2
In this is known the Spirit of God, etc. Confession in this place is understood not only as the Catholic faith but also as the good operation which is done through charity. Otherwise, some heretics confess, many schismatics, many false Catholics, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, but they deny their confession by their deeds, not having charity. For charity brought the Son of God to the flesh. And therefore, whoever does not have charity denies that He has come in the flesh, such a one is convicted of not having the Spirit from God. But He is the Spirit of God, who says that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, who says it not with the tongue, but with deeds, not by sounding, but by loving.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. In that particular love which, in imitation of divine goodness, knows how to do good even to enemies and to love them.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:18
But perfect love casts out fear. This fear, of course, of which it is said: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm CX). By which anyone fearing begins works of justice, lest the strict Judge come, and finding himself less chastened, be condemned. This fear is cast out by the love which, on account of its merit of justice, has confidence on the day of judgment. But also the fear of present adversities, perfect love expels from the soul. The one who supplicates to the Lord sought to have, saying: Deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy (Psalm LXIII). The one who had it said: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? etc. (Romans VIII).

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:18
Because fear has torment. The heart is tormented by the conscience of sins, because justification has not yet been made. Therefore, in the Psalm, concerning this very perfection of justice, "You have turned (he says) my mourning into joy for me; you have removed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness, that my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent" (Psalm XXIX), that is, there may not be anything to pierce my conscience. Fear pierces, but do not be afraid: love enters, which heals what fear wounds.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:18
But whoever fears is not perfect in charity. Because clearly fear has punishment, as a doctor’s surgery has punishment; although just as the doctor’s surgery brings hoped-for health, so fear follows desired charity. Nor should it be thought that the words of Blessed John are contrary to what the Psalmist says: "The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring forever and ever" (Psalm 19). For there are two fears: one by which men fear God lest they be cast into hell; this is the fear that introduces charity, but it comes so that it may go out. For if you still fear God because of punishments, you do not yet love whom you thus fear; you do not desire good things, but you avoid bad ones; but because you avoid bad things, you correct yourself, and begin to desire good things. When you begin to desire good things, that holy fear will be in you, namely lest you lose those good things, not so that you may not be cast into hell, but lest the presence of the Lord whom you embrace may desert you, whom you wish to enjoy forever.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:19
Therefore, let us love God, etc. Let us love because He first loved us. For how could we love unless He had first loved us? Hence He Himself says in the Gospel: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15). Thus, we will be perfect in charity if, just as He first loved us for the sake of our own salvation, so we also love Him solely for the sake of love. But because there are those who love God only in words, it is wisely added:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. We have known that Jesus is the Son of God, and that the Father sent him as the Savior of the world. And we believe the love that God has in us, because evidently when He had His only Son, He did not want Him to be alone, but so that He might have brothers, He adopted those who would possess eternal life with Him.

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:16
God is love. He already said that above, behold he says it again. Love could not be commended to you more than by saying God. Perhaps you were going to scorn the gift of God: will you scorn God as well?

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:16
And he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him. Conversely, those who contain and those who are contained live in each other. You dwell in God, but so that you may be contained; God dwells in you, but so that He may contain you lest you fall, because as the Apostle says of love itself: Charity never fails. How does he fall whom God contains?

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:20
If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ etc. How do you prove that he is a liar? Listen:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:20
For he who does not love his brother, etc. He who loves his brother loves God. It is necessary to love God in order to love love itself. For God is love. And lest anyone dare to say: "And what does it hinder to love God, even if I do not love my brother?" it is rightly added:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 735] Bede on 1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, etc. What then follows:

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
[AD 850] Ishodad of Merv on 1 John 4:16
There is no Scripture which calls God only love, but John says this in order that we might seek him who is love, from whom the commandment to show mercy came.

Source: COMMENTARIES
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was revealed in us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Again, after the aforementioned, John resumes the discourse on love. For when he had shown whom one ought to love, namely those who are conformed in character, he adheres to what was said at the beginning, stating that both love and the one who loves are from God, and that only he who loves is born of God and knows God: while he who does not have love also does not know God, confirming opposites with opposites. How, then, does he who does not love not know God? He proves it in this way: "God is love." And how will this be revealed? From the fact that he sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might have true life through Him, and that we might live through Him. For just as goodness is said to exist because it has produced the intellectual and sensible world for the sake of goodness, so that He who truly is, might have some participants in Himself; likewise, also for the love with which He sent His Only Begotten into the world for us, He shows, even through this, that love exists. Therefore, He Himself adds: "By this, is love," that is, in this it is shown that God is love. Then, praising the goodness of God's love, he says: Not that we have loved Him, but that God did this, giving His Son for us, as if He ought to repay the beloved with an equal affection; but through love, first anticipating the benefit towards us, He sent His Son; and not only did He send Him, but also, for our sins, He was an atoning sacrifice by His own blood.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:1-3
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
After John has completed his discourse on love for one's neighbor, and has demonstrated that this is a sign of the permanence of the Spirit we have received, he now adds a judgment concerning those who are truly brothers and neighbors, so that having this, we do not fall into the occasion of the commandment of love concerning false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets, bringing great harm upon ourselves from this.
Indeed, by embracing them as if they were of similar character, we will first harm ourselves while we communicate with those who are faithless, and we present holy things to dogs (Matt. 7:6): then, to those who associate with us, our love towards them will persuade many to take them as teachers and to believe what is said by them, while not observing, as if they were stealthily drawn away because of their conduct with us, and what is the indication of these, this is what follows:
"every spirit that confesses." Every spirit, whether of prophecy or the dignity of apostleship, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God: but whatever does not confess this is not from God, but this dignity is of the Antichrist, of which you have heard.
When? From these words which he said a little earlier, that many antichrists are in the world, (1 Jn. 2:18) that is, forerunners of the Antichrist. Furthermore, he says that the confession of the Lord's coming is not made by the tongue, but by works. How? As blessed Paul says: "Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made evident in our body." (2 Cor. 4:10) Therefore, whoever has Jesus working in him, and is dead to the world, no longer lives to the world but to Christ, and carries Him not only in the flesh of Christ, but also in his own, he is from God. But whoever lives not for Christ, but for the world, that is, for the pleasures of the world, such a person is not from God. Therefore, Paul says, "When there are contentions and factions among you, are you not carnal and walking according to man?" (1 Cor. 3:3) He who walks according to the flesh does not have the spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9); that is, he who does not live according to Christ, in such a way that he has died to the world, this one is not of Christ.
"and now it is already in the world." In the world, John says, the Antichrist is already present, not physically, but because of the presence of those who prepare the way for him, namely, false prophets, false apostles, and heretics. This Antichrist, however, will be a man who conveys Satan, exalted against all that is called God or divinity. (2 Thess. 2:4)
Therefore, he will also reject the worship of idols, which he signified as gods: moreover, by adding this: Every divine being also signifies Christianity: and he will only attempt to show himself as God.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:4-6
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Whereby he gave knowledge of the Lord to the prophets and apostles: he adds: But you, beloved, since you are of God, have overcome them, namely the false prophets. How? Because the God who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, according to whom the false prophets chose to live. Then John adds another sign of their false prophets, which also greatly saddened the simpler believers. For it was likely that some of these found it hard to accept, while they saw that many held them in esteem, but they themselves were despised, and John said: "Do not be affected by sorrow if you are despised by many; they are indeed accepted by these."
For a similar thing runs to its like. "They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world." They are of the world, and when they speak of the world, that is, they teach according to fleshly desires, they have those who obey them, the perverse with the perverse. But we, being from God and alienated from fleshly desires, cannot be received by them.
However, He listens to us who lives temperately, and whoever knows God, ready to give us hearing. Therefore, Christ also said: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," (Matt. 11:15) testifying that only he who is prepared for obedience has ears.
Having distinguished these, John then adds as a seal of those things already said, that through this (namely, what has already been said) we recognize those who have the spirit of truth or true prophetic dignity, and those who have the spirit of error or false prophecy.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear: for fear has torment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
He who genuinely loves God does so not out of fear of punishment, but because of a passionate love for morality and love towards God; yet he does not consider himself safe due to a noble fear, which is the love of what is honorable. Equally, he who acts out of fear of falling into torment is the same as the former; therefore, he adds: "for fear has torment."

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:19-21
We love him, because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.
"If anyone says, 'I love God.'" Where John shows with compelling reasons that love is transmitted from God to us, and from us to God, he adds again that if God has loved us in this way, we also must love one another: now referring again to this matter, he says that because it is our duty to love our brother, we fulfill the obligation by referring to the example of God's love for us, which we also return to God: it is necessary, he says, to love our brother exceptionally, as the most perfect sign of love towards God. For if this is not the case, neither would our love towards God be preserved, since the obligation that exists between us is interceding, which we have contracted out of love towards God.
"For he who does not love his brother." Moreover, he adds a most effective saying to convince those who attempt to corrupt divine love, saying: Love, in any case, consists of the habitual relations towards one another: relations, however, has the aspect of a brother, and from this, it is especially gathered to that love. If this is true, whoever does not act on what more strongly attracts to love, and does not love the brother whom he sees, how can he claim to love God whom he does not see, with whom he has neither conversed nor can be perceived in any sense, how will he be found to be truthful? Therefore, if anyone shamelessly says that he loves God, but hates his brother, is he not found not only to corrupt divine love but also to be a transgressor of His command? Of whom? Of Him who says: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (Jn. 13:35) Therefore, whoever loves God, and claims to be His disciple, must also love his brother according to His command.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:12-14
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son as the Savior of the world.
We have also said before that it is customary for this blessed man to repeat the same things about them, and to wish to instill the habits of what is said in those who are being taught, and to lead the discourse to what is clearer and more perfect. For by approaching in one way and another from those things that are seen in reality, and as if fulfilling what is lacking in the discourse, John makes a most perfect demonstration of what is said. According to this instruction, even now using discourse, he says:
"No one has ever seen God." For in making a discourse about love for the brethren, he had brought forth God as an example, who gave His only begotten Son to death, because of the love He had for us: it was therefore fitting that someone would say: And how or in what way do you say this about invisible and incomprehensible things, and you confirm to us what no one has ever known? Therefore, responding to those who would speak thus, John himself says: Indeed, no one has ever seen God, and I also assert: but from mutual love for us, we know that God is in us. And he speaks rightly. For we certainly perceive many things that are invisible to us through actions. Indeed, just as no one has seen the soul, yet we discern its existence through actions and movements within us: in the same way, we recognize God's love for us, as if through a certain motion and operation. If this is not absurd, then this man also shows God to be present in us through actions beyond dignity. And what is this operation? Pure and sincere love for one's neighbor.
For this is effective and has no defect, when it is pure. This is the sign that we abide in Him and He in us, which He has also given us through His Spirit. For He who is pure grants us purity and is perfect from all filth. Therefore, since we communicate with Him through pure love, we also, He says, who have seen Him according to the flesh, have known Him, and we testify that the Father sent Him as the Savior of the world. But besides our own knowledge, He also instructed us, leading us more perfectly into this understanding, when He said: "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world." (Jn. 16:28) This pertains to the fact that He sent His Only Begotten Son into the world for our love. Again, He made it clearer to others: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish.” (Jn. 3:16) And: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” (Jn. 12:47) Therefore, we have, from our own sight, He says, and from the teaching of the Only Begotten who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn. 1:18), as it is said in the Gospels, and from the operation through mutual love, that God is in us, and He has given us of His Spirit, and we participate with Him.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 990] Oecumenius on 1 John 4:15-17
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this, love is made perfect with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
This refers to what has been said a little earlier, namely that every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (1 Jn. 4:2) For John has sufficiently demonstrated that they are children of God and that God abides in them: this has been demonstrated through great love, which confirms that the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts have been given to them: again, he refers to those words and says: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him;" saying something of this kind: John said above, Everyone who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God (1 Jn. 4:2): furthermore, in the course of the conversation, something else was revealed, and therefore he proposed this: that those who confess these things also have the Spirit abiding in themselves, or God and his spiritual gifts, and they themselves abide in God. And this we do not say lightly, but with firm knowledge and faith through mutual love.
But having mentioned love, John also refers to all that he has said about love, attributing great faith to the discourse on love. "In this, love is made perfect." He wishes, he says, for us to be perfect in love, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, towards Him who was incarnate: for He himself will be the judge, according to his own statement, where he says: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." (Jn. 5:22) And that there will be confidence towards him who was incarnate, John signified through what he said in the following, that just as he is, we are in this world, saying this: Since it has been shown before that God abides in us, and we are in God, he says, we attest to the perfection of love for ourselves. Just as he was blameless and pure in the world, he also said: "The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me (Jn. 14:30):" so also we, John says, will be in the world. For there is and we are placed through άντιχρονιαν (where one time is taken for another time), as is the custom of Scripture. Or it signifies something deeper through this. For John has often said that God is in us and we are in God. If this is indeed the case, He is holy in us, that is, the Leader and Prince of holiness: so we should also refer to him in this world sacredly and purely, dead to the world, always bearing his mortification in the body. (1 Cor. 4:10) Furthermore, he says, living this way, we will have confidence towards him, and we will be without fear then. For the “perfect love6”, (1 Jn. 4:18) through good works, will be far from fear. And he adds this confirmation, namely that “perfect love casts out fear”. What fear? He himself says it is the “fear has torment”: for it happens that someone loves because of fear, lest he be punished: but this fear is not perfect, that is, it is not of perfect love. Having said these things about “perfect love”, he completely convinces that we should love God, for John himself first, he says, “loved us”. However, we must, since he has been the first good beginning for us, strive to repay, as has been said more broadly by us above. However, some have asked how, when David says: "Fear the Lord, all his saints, for nothing is lacking to those who fear him," (Ps. 34:9) he does not say: "perfect love casts out fear." Are the saints of God not perfect in love, to whom it is commanded to “fear”? And we say that there are two kinds of “fear”: one is indeed initial, which also brings with it “torment”, because of the evils perpetrated by oneself: fearing him because he approaches God, and therefore approaching lest he be punished, and this is indeed initial. “Perfect”, freed from such fear, is therefore called holy and endures forever: for "The fear of the Lord is holy," David says, "and endures forever." (Ps. 19:9) Since initial fear is neither holy nor enduring, but ceases to exist in “perfect love”. Who then and for what reason is fear called perfect? It is because, having been perfectly taken into love, it strives and fears that it may lack those things which are fitting for them to do towards the beloved, whom they love intensely.

Source: Commentary on 1 John
[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on 1 John 4:4
You have overcome the false prophets because the God who is in you is greater than the one by whom the false prophets have chosen to live. There is another sign of false prophets, which is that they make simple believers sad. There must be many who react very badly when they see the so-called prophets being given the highest honors while they themselves are treated with disrespect by the world.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on 1 John 4:3
The antichrist will be a man who bears Satan inside him and who exalts himself above everything which is called God or which is worshiped. For that reason he will spurn idolatry and demand that people worship him instead.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on 1 John 4:5
Those who teach what the world wants to hear will always find followers in it, for the perverted love each other. We on the other hand will never be accepted by them.

Source: COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN
[AD 1889] JB Lightfoot on 1 John 4:20
But I cannot dismiss this subject without calling your attention to the practical measures which flowed immediately from these gatherings for worship. The collection of alms to be distributed to the orphan and the prisoner, to the sick and the stranger, is regarded by Justin as an inseparable part of divine service. His narrative seems to put in a working shape the Apostle's maxim, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1 John 4:20) Without practical benevolence there can be no true worship. "He prayeth best who loveth best."

Source: Christian Life in the Second and Third Centuries, Lecture 2
[AD 1963] CS Lewis on 1 John 4:18
A perfect love, we know, casts out fear. But so do several other things—ignorance, alcohol, passion, presumption, and stupidity. It is very desirable that we should all advance to that perfection of love in which we shall fear no longer. But it is very undesirable, until we have reached that stage, that we should allow any inferior agent to cast out our fear.

Source: The World's Last Night (Essay)
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