ACC ~ John 13 v34
LOVE FULFILLS THE LAW
APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: He who then had forbidden murder now forbids anger without cause. [1] He who had forbidden adultery now forbids all unlawful lust. He who had forbidden stealing now pronounces him most happy who supplies those that are in want out of his own labors. [2] He who had forbidden hatred now pronounces him blessed who loves his enemies. [3] CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6.23. [4]
[1] The writer had just quoted Jn 13:34; see also Mt 5:22.
[2] Act 20:35.
[3] Mt 5:7.
[4] ANF 7:460*.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS THOSE WHO ARE GODâS
AUGUSTINE: The Lord Jesus declares that he is giving his disciples a new commandment, that they should love one another. ⌠But was not this already commanded in the ancient law of God, where it is written, âYou shall love your neighbor as yourselfâ? [1] Why, then, is it called a new one by the Lord, when it is proven to be so old? Is it a new commandment because he has divested us of the old and clothed us with the new person? For it is not indeed every kind of love that renews him that listens to it, or rather yields it obedience, but that love regarding which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from all carnal affection, added, âas I have loved you.â⌠For this they hear and observe, âA new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another,â not as those who are corrupt love one another or as human beings who love one another only in a human way. Instead, they are to love one another as those who are Godâs. All of them are to love as children of the Highest, who are siblings, therefore, of his only Son. They are to love with that mutual love by which he loved them when about to lead them on to the goal where all sufficiency should be theirs and where their every desire should be satisfied with good things. [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65.1. [3]
[1] Lev 19:18.
[2] See Ps 103:5 (102:5 LXX, Vg).
[3] NPNF 1 7:317-18*; CCL 36:490-91. See also Sermon 33.2 (CCL 41:413-14; WSA 3 2:154-55) and Sermon 140A (WSA 3 4:409).
LOVE GOD IN THE OTHER
AUGUSTINE: But do not think that that greater commandment that requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul and with all our mind is overlooked. ⌠For, if we understand the two commandments correctly, each is implied in the other. One who loves God cannot despise his commandment that he should love his neighbor. And he who loves his neighbor in a heavenly spiritual way, what does he love in that neighbor but God? That is the love that our Lord distinguishes from all human love when he adds, âAs I have loved you.â For what was it but God that he loved in us? Not because we had him, but in order that we might have him and that he may lead us on ⌠to where God is all in all. ⌠And so, let each of us so love the other in such a way that by this working of love we make each other the dwelling place of God. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65.2. [1]
[1] NPNF 1 7:318**; CCL 36:491-92.
CHRISTâS LOVE GOES FURTHER THAN ANYTHING PREVIOUS
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He plainly indicates the novelty involved in his command hereâand the extent to which the love he enjoins here surpasses the old idea of mutual love [1] âby adding the words âEven as I have loved you, you also should love one another.â⌠The law of Moses mandated the necessity of loving our brothers as ourselves, yet our Lord Jesus the Christ loved us far more than he loved himself. Otherwise, he would have never descended to our humiliation from his original exaltation in the form of God and on an equality with God the Father, nor would he have undergone for our sakes the exceptional bitterness of his death in the flesh, nor have submitted to beatings from the Jews, to shame, to derision, and all his other sufferings too numerous to mention. Being rich, he would never have become poor if he had not loved us far more than he loved himself. It was indeed something new for love to go as far as that! Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation, wealth or anything else before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be, we even need to be prepared to face death for our neighborâs salvation as our Saviorâs blessed disciples did, as well as those who followed in their footsteps. To them the salvation of others mattered more than their own lives, and they were ready to do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [2]
[1] Deut 6:5.
[2] LF 48:217-19*.
A LOVE THAT IS NOT OWED
CHRYSOSTOM: Or think of âas I have loved youâ this way: For my love has not been the payment of something owing to you but had its beginning on my side. And in a similar way you ought to do one another good, though you may not owe it. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 72.5. [1]
[1] NPNF 1 14:266**.
Jn