ACC ~ 1 John 4 v8

WHAT KIND OF LOVE? CHRYSOSTOM: 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. CATENA.

THE INCREASE OF LOVE. AUGUSTINE: 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. SERMONS 260C.1.

THE GIFT OF GOD. AUGUSTINE: Love is so much the gift of God that it is called God. LETTERS 186.

OUR COMMON LOVE. AUGUSTINE: 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. LETTERS 219.

BREATHING THE AIR OF RESURRECTION. ISAAC THE SYRIAN: “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. ASCETICAL HOMILIES 46.

ONE WHO DOES NOT LOVE. BEDE: Let no one say that when he sins he sins against other people but not against God, for how can you not be sinning against God when you are sinning against love? ON 1 JOHN.

1 Jn