ACC ~ 1 John 3 v24

GOD’S CARE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Our assurance comes from his care for us and his provision for the future. ADUMBRATIONS.

ABIDE IN HIM. BEDE: Let God become a home to you, and he will dwell in you. Remain in him, and he will remain in you. God remains in you in order to hold you up. You remain in God in order not to fall. … In earlier times the Holy Spirit fell on believers, and they spoke in tongues which they had not learned. But nowadays the church has no lack of external signs, and anyone who believes in the name of Jesus Christ can have brotherly love, which John holds out to us as the sign that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. For the Spirit works in us to give us love. ON 1 JOHN.

DO UNTO OTHERS. OECUMENIUS: What does John mean by this? It is exactly what Jesus said: “Whatever you want others to do to you, do the same to them.”Therefore if we want our neighbors to be well-disposed toward us, we must be equally well-disposed toward them. If this is God’s command, how much more ought we to obey it if we dwell in him and are sealed by him? He cannot deny himself, and it must surely be the case that whatever he has asked us to do he has already done or become in himself. Therefore if we do what he says, we know that he will give us whatever we ask and that his gift will be sealed in us. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.

PERFECT LOVE 1 JOHN 4:1-21

OVERVIEW: There are many spirits in the world, but only the Spirit that confesses that the Son of God was incarnate in Jesus Christ is to be believed. Christians must not be afraid of those who deny this, because the Spirit in us has already overcome all denials. Instead, we should concentrate on loving one another, because it is by that love that we shall know God’s presence at work in us and refute the arguments of our opponents. Since false prophets abound (BEDE), it is essential to have that gift of the Holy Spirit that is called the discernment of spirits in order to have the ability to test the spirits thoroughly (JOHN CASSIAN). By this we will see which ones are to be believed and which ones are to be rejected (DIDYMUS). Any one who comes from God (OECUMENIUS) will confess through his or her behavior (BEDE) that Jesus Christ, although in the form of God, took upon himself the form of a servant and came in the flesh (DIDYMUS). The denial of this is evidence of antichrist (POLYCARP, AUGUSTINE, ANDREAS). If anyone dissolves the divine-human unity of Christ and thinks that the pure Word of God cannot really be a man, that person is not from God (DIDYMUS, OECUMENIUS).

The antichrist will be a man who bears Satan inside him and who exalts himself above everything that is called God (THEOPHYLACT). God’s power to save is always much greater than the devil’s power to do us harm (HILARY OF ARLES). We have already overcome the demonic by believing (BEDE) in the triune God (ANDREAS). False prophets make believers sad (THEOPHYLACT). Those who teach only what the world wants to hear will always find followers in it (AUGUSTINE, THEOPHYLACT, ANDREAS). The world listens to them, but they are unable to win spiritually minded hearts away from the simplicity of faith (BEDE). The carnal person does not hear (DIDYMUS) or accept the things that are of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him (BEDE).

Each of us is loved and is called to love (ANDREAS) as God loves us (DIDYMUS, AUGUSTINE). God is love (BEDE). Love is so much the gift of God that it is called God (CHRYSOSTOM, AUGUSTINE). We breathe the air of resurrection when we love (ISAAC THE SYRIAN). One who does not love does not know God (BEDE). Christ proved his love for us by dying for us (OECUMENIUS, BEDE). When we were not yet able to seek him because of our many sins, he sent his Son to us to be the expiation of our sins (JOHN CASSIAN), so that he might grant forgiveness to all who believe in him and call us back into the fellowship of his fatherly glory (BEDE). The love we show to one another ought to be like the love that God has shown to us (OECUMENIUS, BEDE). No one has ever seen the invisible God (DIDYMUS, ANDREAS) because no one has ever comprehended the fullness of the divinity that dwells in him (AUGUSTINE, BEDE). Examine your own heart and you will know whether or not God has given his Spirit to you. If you are full of love, you have the Spirit of God (BEDE, OECUMENIUS). To confess the one Lord Jesus Christ is to confess him as God and man, not as a man only (DIDYMUS, BEDE). The Trinity is revealed in the relation of the Lover, the Beloved and Love (AUGUSTINE). One who has love has God (CYPRIAN, BASIL), for God is love (AUGUSTINE, PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS). If love is God, there can be no progress or regress; love is said to make progress in you only inasmuch as you progress in love (AUGUSTINE), imitating God (HILARY OF ARLES, ANDREAS), and so have confidence in the last day (BEDE). If God dwells in us, we dwell in him and shall have no reason to be afraid when the day of judgment comes. God’s love is perfect, and it takes away all fear. If you do not want to have any fear, first of all see whether you have that perfect love that turns fear out of the door (AUGUSTINE, LEO, BEDE). The perfect expression of the faithful person is love (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA).

We love God for no other reason than that he first loved us (AUGUSTINE) and gave himself for us (BEDE), understanding us exactly (ANDREAS). This is why the incarnation and the atonement of Christ are so central, since without them we would not know what God’s love is like. The heart’s eye must be continually strengthened by love, in order to see that changeless being in whose presence the lover may always delight (AUGUSTINE).

1 Jn