Chapter 5
[1 John 5:1] -- Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, etc. Who is it who believes that Jesus is the Christ? He who lives as Christ commanded. Let no heretic, no schismatic say: And we also believe that Jesus is the Christ. For even demons believe and tremble, and they confessed, as we read in the Gospel, and knew that he was the Christ. But because they do not have love and works of truth, they are not from God.
[1 John 5:1] -- And everyone who loves the one who begot, loves also the one, etc. With marvelous skill in preaching, blessed John took care to incite us to the love of our neighbor, first noting that everyone who perfectly believes is born of God, then suggesting how just it is that the one who loves God should love also the one born of God. For if anyone is so slow as to neglect to love a man because he is a man, because he endures the same pilgrimage on earth with him, he should be admonished to at least love him for this reason, that he is born of God, that he is made a partaker with him of divine grace, that he expects the same rewards of heavenly life with him. Indeed, this exhortation particularly pertains to those who have not only become our brothers by the companionship of human nature but also by the profession of faith. However, because there are some who love their neighbors but because of kinship or for some temporal benefit, the holy evangelist rightly reveals what true neighborly love is by adding:
[1 John 5:2] -- In this we know that we love the children of God, etc. Therefore, he alone is proven to love his neighbor rightly who is known to burn with the love of the Creator. And lest anyone deceive himself about the love of the Creator, professing that he loves by word alone, after having said: In this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, he added, and we keep His commandments.
[1 John 5:3] -- For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. The Lord Himself says this: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word (John XIV). Therefore, the proof of love is the exhibition of work. For we truly love if we constrain ourselves to His commandments from our will. For he who still flows with illicit desires certainly does not love God, because he contradicts Him in his will.
[1 John 5:3] -- And His commandments are not burdensome. The Lord Himself says: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. XI). It should not appear contrary to the words of the Lord or blessed John that the Lord Himself says elsewhere that the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life (Matt. VII); and the prophet says to Him: For the words of your lips, I have kept hard ways (Psalm XVI); and the apostle: For through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts XIV). For what is inherently hard and rough, the hope of heavenly rewards and the love of Christ makes light. Indeed, it is hard to suffer persecutions for righteousness, but what makes it sweet is that for those who suffer thus, the kingdom of heaven belongs. Hence it is well added:
[1 John 5:4] -- For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Therefore, God's commandments are not heavy because all who devote themselves to them in true devotion equally despise the adversities and blandishments of the world with equal mind, even loving death itself as the entrance to the heavenly homeland. And lest anyone trust that he can overcome the world or its luxuries or labors by his virtue, it is deliberately added:
[1 John 5:4] -- And this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. Specifically, that faith which works through love; that faith by which we humbly seek the help of Him who said: In the world you will have tribulations, but take courage, I have overcome the world (John 16).
[1 John 5:5] -- Who is he that overcomes the world, etc.? He overcomes the world who, believing that Jesus is the Son of God, combines works worthy of that faith. But does the faith and confession of His divinity alone suffice for salvation? See what follows.
[1 John 5:6] -- This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. He who was the eternal Son of God became man in time, so that He who created us by His divine power might recreate us by the weakness of His humanity. He came by water and blood, namely the water of baptism and the blood of His passion. He not only deigned to be baptized for our cleansing to consecrate and deliver to us the sacrament of baptism, but also gave His blood for us, redeeming us by His passion, that we might be nourished unto salvation by the sacraments.
[1 John 5:6] -- And the Spirit is He who testifies because Christ is the truth. When the Lord was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, bearing witness to Him as the truth, that is, the true Son of God, the true mediator between God and men, the true Redeemer and Reconciler of mankind, who is indeed free from all stain of sin, truly able to take away the sins of the world. As also the Baptist, understanding when he saw the coming of the same Spirit, said: He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God (John 1). Therefore, since the Spirit testifies that Jesus Christ is the truth, He calls Himself the truth, the Baptist proclaims Him as the truth, the son of thunder evangelizes the truth, let the blasphemers be silent, who maintain that this is a phantasm; let the memory of those perish from the earth who deny that He is truly either God or man.
[1 John 5:7] -- Since there are three who bear witness on earth, etc. The Spirit has borne witness that Jesus is truth, when it descended upon Him at His baptism. For if he were not truly the Son of God, by no means would the Holy Spirit have come to Him with such a great manifestation. Water and blood also bore witness that Jesus is truth, when from His side on the cross, after He had died, they flowed out: which could not have happened at all, if He did not have a true nature of flesh. And also this that before His passion, when He prayed, His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22), gives testimony to the truth of the flesh He had assumed. Nor should it be ignored that in this also blood and water bore witness to Him, that from His side after death they flowed out vividly, which was against the nature of dead bodies, and therefore was apt for mysteries, and was fitting as a testimony of the truth, namely showing that the very body of the Lord would live more gloriously after being resurrected, and that His very death would grant us life. This too, that His sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood, bore witness to that holy mystery that He would wash the whole Church all over the world with His blood. Therefore, there are three who bear witness to the truth.
[1 John 5:7] -- And (he says) the three are one. For these remain indivisible, and none of them is separated from its connection, because divinity is not to be believed without true humanity, nor humanity without true divinity. But in us also these are one, not by nature of the same substance, but by the operation of the same mystery. For, as the blessed Ambrose says: "The Spirit renews the abiding, water leads to washing, blood pertains to redemption." For the Spirit has made us sons of God through adoption, the wave of the sacred font washes us, the blood of the Lord has redeemed us. Therefore, one invisible, the other visible testimony, follows the spiritual sacrament.
[1 John 5:9] -- If we accept the testimony of man, the testimony of God is greater, etc. Great is the testimony of man that he gives concerning the Son of God, saying: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand" (Psalm 109). And from the person of the Son himself: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son" (Psalm 2). And likewise from the person of the Father speaking about the Son: "He will call upon me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation'" (Psalm 88). "My Father," because I am the Son of God. "My God," because I am man. "The rock of my salvation," because I will suffer and be saved from death. "And I (he says) will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" (Ibid.). This is a great and true testimony, worthy of all acceptance. The testimony of man concerning the Son of God is great, but much greater is the testimony of God, who has testified himself about his Son when, speaking from heaven, he said: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Luke 3). Great is the testimony of the forerunner, who, bearing testimony about the Son of God, said: "I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 3). Greater is the testimony of the Father, who sent the Holy Spirit upon him, whom he was always full of, even visibly.
[1 John 5:10] -- He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in himself. He who thus believes in the Son of God, so as to practice in work what he believes, has the testimony of God in himself. Surely this is because he also may rightly be counted among the number of the sons of God, as the only Son of God promises to his faithful: "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him" (John 12). If you have deserved to have the testimony of God, if you possess God as a witness of your unblemished faith, what does the infamy of men, what does even persecution harm you? For if God is for us, who can be against us?
[1 John 5:10] -- Whoever does not believe in the Son makes him a liar, etc. In vain the Jews and heretics think they believe in and venerate the Father, as long as they despise Christ and refuse to believe in him. For he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Those who do not believe in the Son, who says "I and the Father are one" (John 10), and when Caiaphas asked, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Mark 14), he replied: "I am" (ibid.); but they argue that he is either not the Christ, or not the Son of God, or not similar to the Father, they certainly make the Father a liar, because they do not believe the testimony he has testified about his Son: namely, in what I mentioned before: "You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased" (Luke 3); and even in what he testified when the hour of passion was imminent, while he was praying and saying: "Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name" (John 12), he responded, even the crowd hearing from heaven, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again" (ibid.), truly signifying himself as God the Father in the heavens of him who, as a true man, was about to suffer death on earth.
[1 John 5:11] -- And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life. He said, He has given us eternal life. And he who speaks, still living a temporal life and subject to death in the flesh. But he has given us eternal life, just as he has given us the power to become children of God to those who believe in his name. For to know that the power to have eternal life has been given by God, listen to the prophet: "Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit," and so on to the end of the psalm (Psalm 33). Therefore he has given us eternal life, but still to those wandering on earth in hope, which he will give in heaven to those who arrive to him in reality.
[1 John 5:11] -- And this life is in His Son. Namely, in the faith and confession of His name, in the reception of His sacraments, in the observance of His commandments. Hence He Himself also said: No one comes to the Father except through Me (John XIV). And Peter about Him: Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts IV).
[1 John 5:12] -- He who has the Son, has life, etc. So that it may not seem too little to say that life is in the Son, he added that the Son Himself is life. Which the Son, glorifying the Father, also showed when He said: For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself (John V). But how the same life which is common to both the Son and the Father also enlightens believers, the same Son elsewhere intimates in prayer to the Father: As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John XVII).
[1 John 5:13] -- These things I have written to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, etc. That you may know, he says, that you may be certain of your future blessedness, who believe in Christ, so that you are not deceived by the fraud of those who deny that Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore assert that nothing will benefit those who have believed in His name. And the wondrous madness of heretics, who, though the Son of God is referred to throughout this entire Epistle, still assert that Christ is not the Son but a creature of God. Which in no way do they read, except when His humanity is mentioned.
[1 John 5:14] -- And this is the confidence that we have toward him, etc. He provides us with great confidence to hope for heavenly goods from the Lord, because even in this life, whatever we ask of him in a salutary manner, we obtain, according to what he himself promises believers in the Gospel: "I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark XI). But it must be noted that we are heard by the Lord when praying in such a way, provided we ask for what he has commanded. He himself says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew VI). Hence, John rightly interposed after saying, "Whatever we ask, we receive from him," by adding, "according to his will." Therefore, we are commanded to have full and undoubted confidence of being heard only regarding those things which align not with our own benefits or temporal comforts but with the Lord's will. This is also to be included in the Lord’s Prayer: "Your will be done" (Matthew VI), that is, not ours. For if we remember the Apostle's words: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought" (Romans VIII), we understand that sometimes we ask for things contrary to our own salvation, and it is most beneficial for us that those things we ask are denied by him who perceives our benefit more rightly than we do. This undoubtedly happened even to the teacher of the Gentiles himself.
[1 John 5:15] -- And we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, etc. He repeatedly emphasizes the same points previously stated, to encourage us to pray more energetically. But the objection remains that we should ask according to the will of our Creator. This can be understood in two ways: both that we ask for those things he desires, and that we come to petition him in the manner he desires us to be. This means to have faith that works through love (Galatians V), and above all, to remember that gospel command: "And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (Mark XI).
[1 John 5:16] -- Who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, etc. These and such things are asked according to the will of the Lord, which pertain to the duty of brotherly love. He speaks, however, of daily and light sins, which as they are difficult to avoid, so also are easily cured. But regarding the manner in which this mutual request should be carried out for sins, James more clearly indicates, saying: Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another that you may be saved (James V). If, therefore, by speaking, or thinking, or forgetfulness, or ignorance you have perhaps erred, go to your brother, confess to him, ask for intervention. If he purely confesses to you, making you aware of his own frailty, and you piously intercede for his errors, correct him. But these things are said about lighter sins. Moreover, if you have committed something more serious, bring in the elders of the Church, and at their examination, punish yourself.
[1 John 5:16] -- There is a sin unto death, etc. A great question arises here, because blessed John clearly shows that there are certain brothers for whom we are not instructed to pray, whereas the Lord even commands us to pray for our persecutors. This can only be resolved by admitting that there are some sins among the brothers which are more grievous than the persecution by enemies. Therefore, the sin of a brother unto death occurs when, after the knowledge of God, which is given through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, someone attacks the brotherhood and is inflamed with envy against the very grace by which they were reconciled to God. However, a sin not unto death is if someone has not withdrawn love from their brother but has not shown the duties owed to brotherhood due to some weakness of mind. Therefore, the Lord on the cross says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23). For they had not yet become participants in the grace of the Holy Spirit, nor had they entered the communion of holy brotherhood. And blessed Stephen prays for those by whom he was being stoned because they did not yet believe in Christ, nor did they fight against that common grace. And the apostle Paul, for this reason, I believe, does not pray for Alexander because he was already a brother; and he had sinned unto death, that is, by attacking brotherhood with envy. But he prays that those who had not severed love but had succumbed to fear be forgiven. For he thus says: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord will repay him according to his works; whom do you also avoid, for he has greatly resisted our words (2 Tim. 4). Then he adds for whom he prays, saying: At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me; may it not be charged against them (Ibid.). However, a sin unto death can be understood as one for which someone is forbidden to pray, because a sin that is not corrected in this life, its forgiveness is sought in vain after death. But if we carefully inspect the following, the previous sense of this reading seems to align more with its tenor. For it continues:
[1 John 5:17] -- All iniquity is sin, etc. Such is the diversity of sins, he says, that everything which deviates from the rule of equity is counted among the sins, although small sins cannot in any way take away or diminish the merit of righteousness from the just, as long as they are those without which this life cannot be lived, and likewise there are certain sins so discordant with all justice, committed with such iniquity, that without any contradiction, unless they are corrected, they lead their perpetrator to eternal punishment. Concerning which it is written: The soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18). Blessed John’s statement clearly repudiates the inept argument of the Stoics, who dared to say against all human sense and to affirm that all sins are equal, saying it makes no difference whether a man steals a human being, an ox, or a chicken, because it is not the animal but the intention that constitutes the crime. Jovinian the heretic followed them, asserting that there is no distinction between marriage and virginity, claiming that those who abstain in no way should be preferred in any privilege of recompense over those who simply partake in feasting. Therefore, everything that is unjustly committed or thought is to be referred to as sin. But there are some sins unto death, about which the Apostle says: For those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5).
[1 John 5:18] -- We know that everyone who is born of God does not sin. Sin, namely unto death. This can be understood about all mortal crimes, and specifically that which violates brotherhood, as we have explained above. But also, the sin unto death can be said to be rightly understood as the sin prolonged up to the time of death, which everyone born of God does not commit. After all, King David committed a mortal crime. For who does not know that adultery and murder deserve eternal death? But yet David, because he was born of God, because he belonged to the society of the children of God, he did not sin unto death, because he immediately obtained forgiveness for his guilt by repenting.
[1 John 5:18] -- But the generation of God preserves him, etc. The grace of Christ, by which the faithful are reborn, preserves those who are called holy according to the purpose, so that they do not commit sin leading to death; and if they err in anything due to the frailty of human condition, it protects them from being touched by the malignant enemy. Furthermore, it must be said, we remain in the generation of God as long as we do not sin; indeed, those who persevere in the generation of God cannot sin, nor be touched by the malignant. For what communion has light with darkness, Christ with Belial (II Cor. VI)? Just as (he says) day and night cannot be mixed, so righteousness and iniquity, sin and good works, Christ and Antichrist, the malignant one and the generation of God.
[1 John 5:18] -- We know that we are born of God, etc. We are of God, regenerated by His grace and baptism through faith, and saved so that we may endure in faith. However, the lovers of the world are subjected to the enemy, either never freed from his dominion by the wave of regeneration, or after the grace of regeneration, returned again to his dominion by sinning. Not only the lovers of the world but also those who are recently born and do not yet have discernment of good and evil, because of the guilt of the first violation, belong to the kingdom of the evil enemy unless by the grace of the kind Creator they are rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1). Hence, he did not simply say that the world is in the evil one but added, And (he says) the whole world is placed in the evil one. For as blessed Ambrose says: "We are all born under sin, whose very birth is in defect." And Pelagius strives in vain to affirm that infants recently born have no need of the grace of baptism to be reborn, because they are said to be born as clean from all stain of sin as Adam was created in paradise, deriving no stain of original guilt from him, and being guilty of nothing until they begin to sin by their own will. But as for us, setting aside the poisons of the Antichrists, which are condemned and expelled from the Church all through this Epistle by the one who drank from the breast of the Lord, the fountain of life, let us hear in the closure the good word of salvation which he pours out for us. Let us observe the works of the supreme King which he tells of. The following ensues:
[1 John 5:20] -- And we know that the Son of God has come, etc. For what could be clearer than these words? What could be sweeter? What could be said more strongly against all heresies? Christ is the true Son of God. The Father of Christ Jesus our Lord is the true God. The eternal Son of God came temporally into the world, who was in the world, and through whom the world was made. Nor did He come for any other reason than for our salvation, that is, to give us the understanding to know the true God. For no one could come to life without divine knowledge, no one could know God except by His teaching: as He Himself says: And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Luke X). It is implied: both the Father and the Son. For the Son reveals both, who, appearing visibly in the flesh, has deigned to now reveal the secrets of divinity through His Gospel.
[1 John 5:20] -- This is the true God, and eternal life. He had said that the Son is the true God, and repeatedly affirms that this one is the true God. He says that this one is eternal life. Not in the way eternal life is promised to us, which takes us from time and places us so that we never cease living well; but the Son is life, always remaining without the beginning of time, always remaining without end.
[1 John 5:21] -- Little children, keep yourselves from idols. You who have known the true God, in whom you have eternal life, keep yourselves from the doctrines of heretics, which lead to eternal death, because, like those who make idols in place of God, they change the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible things with perverse teachings (Rom. I). Keep yourselves from love of money, which is the service of idols. Be careful not to prefer any worldly allurements over the love of the Creator. For this too will be counted among idols, so that having the care and diligence for truth alone, you may deserve to rejoice endlessly in its vision. For the world passes away, and its desire. But whoever does the will of the Lord remains forever (1 John II).
On the Second Epistle of John
[2 John 1:1] -- The Elder to the elect lady and her children, etc. Some think that this and the following epistle are not of John the apostle, but of a certain presbyter John, whose tomb is shown to this day in Ephesus. Papias, too, the hearer of the apostles, and bishop in Hierapolis, often mentions him in his works. But now the general consensus of the Church holds that John the apostle also wrote these epistles, because they truly show much similarity in words and faith with his first epistle, and with similar zeal detest heretics. John calls himself the Elder either because he was advanced in age when he wrote these epistles, or because the name "elder" or "presbyter" was fitting for a bishop due to maturity in wisdom and gravity. Hence Peter also says: "The elders who are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ" (1 Peter 5). The Elder, he says, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, that is, I love with true love, namely, that which is according to God. Or certainly, I love those whom I consider persevering in the truth.
[2 John 1:1] -- And not I only, but also all, etc. Because he begins to write against heretics, as they have fallen from the truth of the faith, he rightly recalls that there is one love in the Holy Spirit among all who have known the truth, to frighten those who, being few, have separated themselves from the society of the many Catholics with their unanimity and multitude. Indeed, all the Catholics throughout the world follow one rule of truth; but not all heretics and infidels agree in a unanimous error, rather they assault each other no less than they do the path of truth itself.
[2 John 1:2] -- For the truth's sake, which dwells in us, etc. He says, we love you and yours for no other reason than for the truth of the faith, which always remains invincible in us, for we find that you also invincibly guard the same.
[2 John 1:3] -- May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father be with you, etc. Since the heretics of that time, namely Marcian and Cerinthus, denied that our Lord Jesus Christ was truly the Son of God and attributed his beginning to human birth, John rightly recalls him as the Son of God the Father to refute these blasphemers. He also testifies that grace, mercy, and peace are to be given to the faithful by him just as by God the Father, to demonstrate that he is equal and co-eternal with the Father, signifying that his gifts are the same as those of the Father. As the Lord himself, speaking of his and the Father's consubstantiality, said: "For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (John V).
[2 John 1:5] -- And now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing a new commandment to you, etc. By this word, he reproaches the heretics, who were attempting to introduce new doctrines, leaving behind what they had heard from the apostles, and thereby disrupting the bonds of brotherly charity. Therefore, he says that he is by no means writing a new commandment but merely urging that the old faith and unblemished charity remain in all things.
[2 John 1:7] -- For many deceivers have gone out into the world, etc. This can also be understood concerning the heretics who indeed confess Jesus Christ incarnate but do not rightly perceive some part of his faith, such as his true flesh, true soul, true divinity, true Father God, true Holy Spirit, omnipotent God, or any other thing that true faith confesses. It can also be taken concerning the Jews, who wholly deny Jesus Christ, swear that Christ has not yet come in the flesh for the salvation of the world, but expect the Antichrist to come for their destruction.
[2 John 1:9] -- Everyone who goes ahead and does not remain in the teaching, etc. Note the difference in words, and embrace the truth of the faith. He says that whoever does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God, but whoever remains in his teaching has both the Son and the Father, to show that the Father and the Son are one true God, and to convict those of falsehood who assert that the Son is either not God, or is posterior or inferior to the Father.
[2 John 1:10] -- If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, etc. John speaks thus about schismatics or heretics to be detested, what he taught in words, he also practiced in deeds. For his most holy listener and strongest martyr Polycarp, the bishop of the Smyrnaeans, recounts that at a certain time, while he had entered the baths at Ephesus for the sake of washing, and had seen Cerinthus there, he immediately jumped out and left without washing, saying: “Let us flee from here, lest even the baths collapse in which Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is bathing.” The same Polycarp also, when he once met Marcion, who said to him: “Recognize us,” he replied: “I recognize, I recognize the firstborn of Satan.” Such caution did the apostles and their disciples use in religion at that time, that they would not permit even a word’s communion with any of those who had deviated from the truth; as Paul also says: A man that is heretical, after a first and second admonition, avoid, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned (Tit. III).
[2 John 1:13] -- The children of your sister, the Elect, greet you. Just as he prohibits us to greet the adversaries of the truth, so, conversely, he greets the elect on behalf of the elect, so that the faithless may be detested by all the good, possibly to correct them in this way, and that the peace and love among the faithful may always increase.
On the Third Epistle of John
[3 John 1:1] -- The elder to the beloved Gaius, etc. Who and what kind of person this Gaius was, is revealed in the course of the Epistle. Because clearly he accumulated good deeds in addition to the faith in Christ which he had received, and although he was not sufficient for preaching the word himself, he rejoiced to sustain those who did preach with his resources. We believe this Gaius to be the one whom Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Romans, saying: “Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you” (Rom. XVI). For he was accustomed to be called a host both as one who receives and is received, he was the host of the entire church because he kindly received all who came to him, namely both the preachers and the hearers of the word, as the following parts of this Epistle clearly declare. Hence, John also loves him in the truth, that is, he appears to love him only with the view of eternal goods, not for the sake of temporal benefits. But it seems that Gaius was in Corinth, from the fact that Paul, having stayed in that city, wrote the Epistle to the Romans, whom he greets in his name. And also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, he mentions Gaius as a citizen of Corinth, saying: “I thank my God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name” (I Cor. I).
[3 John 1:2] -- Beloved, I pray that in all things, etc. He says, I frequent prayers to the Lord, that you may complete well what you do well. And just as now your soul, that is, the internal intention of your mind prospers, that is, advances in abundant works of alms, and the liberality of a bountiful mind, and the resources of money which you share with the needy, so may you always be able to lead a life full of virtues with the Lord’s help.
[3 John 1:4] -- I have no greater joy than this, etc. That is, that I recognize those whom I have begotten to God by preaching or baptizing, observing the truth both of right faith and good operation.
[3 John 1:5] -- Beloved, you act faithfully in whatever you work for the brethren, etc. You act faithfully, he says, as if he said: Just as you are truly faithful, so you act, showing your faith by your works.
[3 John 1:7] -- For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. When it says for the name, it is to be understood as of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the ancients spoke in this manner. And for two reasons, they went out for the name of the Lord, either to preach, evidently coming of their own accord in the name of Him, or because of the faith and confession of the holy name, they were expelled from their homeland by their fellow citizens or relatives.
[3 John 1:8] -- Therefore, we ought to support such men, etc. The blessed John, who had left all things for Christ, aligns himself with the person of believing rich men, so that he might make them more eager to have compassion on the poor and strangers: nor should it be doubted that he could have truly said what we read Paul to have said: "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by so laboring you must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20). But he calls them co-workers of the truth, because he who provides temporal support to those who have spiritual gifts, becomes a co-worker in those spiritual gifts themselves. For since there are few who have received spiritual gifts, and many who are rich in temporal things, by this the rich incorporate themselves into the virtues of the poor, while they share their riches with these holy poor. Hence the Lord also says: "Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward” (Matthew 10).
[3 John 1:9] -- I would have written to the church, but he who loves to have the preeminence among them, etc. Diotrephes, it seems, was an arch-heretic of that time, someone proud and insolent, preferring to usurp the preeminence of knowledge by teaching new doctrines, rather than humbly listening to the commands of the ancient holy Church, which John preached. Hence, aptly, Diotrephes is humorously derided, or interpreted as "mad elegance," to signify with his name even the perfidy of his heart.
[3 John 1:10] -- For this reason, if I come, I will bring up his deeds. That is, by openly reproving, I will bring his works to the knowledge of all. Just like the apostle Paul said: "What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod?"
[3 John 1:10] -- He acts, talking against us with malicious words. It should be noted that we should not arouse the tongues of detractors by our fault, lest they perish, but we should equally bear those that are incited by their own malice, so that merit may increase for us; sometimes, however, we should also curb them, lest while they disseminate evil about us, they corrupt the hearts of the innocent who could have heard good things. Hence John reproved the tongue of his detractor, lest those who could have listened might not hear his preaching and remain in their wrong ways.
[3 John 1:11] -- Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He reveals that he desires him to imitate what is good by adding:
[3 John 1:12] -- Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone. That is, he himself welcomed the weak and supported the needy for the sake of the truth. Therefore, Gaius should also imitate him, so that he too may be worthy of the praise of all.
[3 John 1:15] -- Peace to you. The friends greet you, etc. He sends greetings of peace and health to friends, showing by this that Diotrephes and other enemies of the truth are foreign to your peace and salvation.
On the Epistle of Jude
[Jude 1:1] -- Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, etc. Jude the apostle, whom Matthew and Mark call Thaddeus in the Gospel, writes against the same corruptors of the faith whom both Peter and John condemn in their Epistles.
[Jude 1:3] -- Beloved, making all diligence to write to you, etc. He speaks of their common salvation, that salvation which was common to both him and them. For the salvation, faith, and love of Christ are one and common to all the elect.
[Jude 1:3] -- Exhorting to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Exhorting them not to learn another faith than that which was once delivered to them by the apostles, but always to contend for it even unto death.
[Jude 1:4] -- Certain men have crept in, etc. He means into this judgment, into this condemnation, which the impious deserve by their actions. Hence the Lord says: And they shall come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (John V), that is, condemnation.
[Jude 1:4] -- Perverting the grace of our Lord into licentiousness. The grace of our Lord has softened the hardness of the law, because when it said, If anyone does this or that, let them be stoned; if anyone does this or that, let them be burned with fire; the Lord, having relaxed the strictness of the law, gave through the grace of the Gospel the license to purge committed crimes through penance and the fruits of almsgiving. But they pervert this grace of His into licentiousness, who now sin all the more freely and easily, as they see themselves less immediately examined by the harshness of the law for their admitted crimes.
[Jude 1:4] -- And denying the only Sovereign and Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Sovereign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, just as the Father is the only Sovereign with the Son and the Holy Spirit, and just as the Holy Spirit is the only Sovereign with the Father and the Son. The whole Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the only Sovereign. For whichever person you name in the same holy and indivisible Trinity, it is the only God. And when you name the whole Trinity together, you name the only true God. Hence it is rightly understood that any heretics who deny that the Father of Christ is the true, good, and just God deny our only Sovereign and Lord. Whoever denies that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God, they also deny our only Sovereign and Lord. Whoever diminishes the power of the Holy Spirit, they also contradict the majesty of our only Sovereign and Lord, for the same Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is undeniably our only Sovereign and Lord.
[Jude 1:5] -- I wish to remind you, although you know these things once and for all. Namely, knowing all the mysteries of the faith and not needing to hear new teachers as if they were holier.
[Jude 1:5] -- Because Jesus, saving the people from the land of Egypt, etc., he calls Jesus not the son of Nave, but our Lord, showing first that he did not have his beginning from the birth of the holy Virgin, as the heretics affirm, but according to the mystery of his name, he has existed as the eternal God for the salvation of believers; then indicating that in the same way he mercifully saves believers, he also justly condemns the unbelievers. For just as he first saved the humble who cried out to him from the affliction of Egypt, he later cast down the proud who murmured against him in the wilderness. He emphasizes this so that we now remember that he saves believers through the waters of baptism, which the Red Sea signified, so that even after baptism he demands a humble life in us, apart from the filth of vices, such as the conversion of the wilderness in its seclusion rightly indicated. Indeed, if anyone defiles this life, whether by deviating from the faith or by acting wrongly, just as if returned in heart to Egypt, he will merit to perish among the wicked rather than reach the promised homeland of the kingdom. Alternatively: Secondly, he destroyed those who did not believe, because as a just judge, he strikes some now and later due to their faults. He frees solely those from punishment whom he transforms in suffering. For those whom present evils do not correct, they lead to future evils.
[Jude 1:6] -- The angels, indeed, who did not keep their own position, etc. And in this sentence, as in the previous one, we must first remember that Jesus our Lord punished the transgressing angels. For He, the man born at the end of the ages from a Virgin, who received the name Jesus by the angel’s declaration, being God born from the Father before all ages, arranged every creature with the Father as He willed, and from the beginning condemned the haughty angels under the darkness of this air, reserving them for greater punishment on the day of judgment. And therefore, rightly are they to be condemned who contend that Christ Jesus was not true God, but only a man, and born of both genders. Furthermore, it must be inferred that He who did not spare the sinning angels will not spare haughty men either; but those who did not keep their position, namely, by the grace of adoption made sons of God, but forsook their abode, that is, the unity of the Church, in which they were reborn unto God, or certainly the seats of the heavenly kingdom which they would have received if they kept the faith, He will also condemn severely before the judgment and more severely in the universal judgment.
[Jude 1:7] -- As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities, etc. Because He had given an example of condemnation in those who solely deny the Sovereign and our Lord Jesus Christ, by recalling the ruin of the murmuring and unfaithful people in the desert, or those rising against the author of the wicked angels, so He gives an example of the punishment of those who turn the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, recalling the burning of Sodom.
[Jude 1:8] -- Similarly, those who indeed defile the flesh, etc. It must be understood that these, like the Sodomites who defiled the flesh, are also to be damned, like the unbelieving people who blasphemed the majesty of divine power, like the angels who despised the dominion of their Creator.
[Jude 1:9] -- When Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil, etc. From which Scriptures Jude took this testimony is not easily clear. But it should be known that we find something similar to these things in the prophet Zechariah. For he says: Because the Lord showed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan stood at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan: The Lord rebuke you, Satan, and the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you (Zech. III). But it is very easy to understand in this place that Jesus the high priest desired the people of Israel to be freed from Babylonian captivity and to return to their homeland. But Satan opposed him, not wanting the people of God to be liberated, but rather to be made slaves to enemies and nations; and therefore the angel who was the helper of the people rebuked him and removed him from the injury against that same people. But when Michael contended with the devil about the body of Moses, we have no certainty. However, there are those who say that the same people of God were called the body of Moses, because Moses himself was part of that people; and so Jude, having read what was done about the people, could rightly say it was done about the body of Moses. But wherever and whenever this dispute between the angel and the devil took place, it should be diligently considered, because if Michael the archangel did not wish to say a blasphemy to the devil opposing him, but restrained him with modest speech, how much more should all blasphemy be avoided by men, and especially lest they offend the majesty of the Creator with undisciplined words.
[Jude 1:11] -- Woe to them who have gone in the way of Cain, etc. They go in the way of Cain, who assume for themselves the name of learned men out of envy for their betters to be honored. And they pour themselves out in the error of Balaam, who for the love of earthly goods, attack the truth which they themselves know. They perish in the contradiction of Korah, who descended alive into the inferno, whoever separates themselves from the unity of the Holy Church with the desire of undue primacy, knowing and foreseeing how much evil they carry, yet they descend to the abyss of crimes. And indeed the Lord reproached Cain for thinking of fratricide, but envy did not let him be saved. Balaam, however, desiring to walk against the people of God, the Lord forbade, but the love of money hindered him from obeying. Moses tried to calm Korah, who was boasting, speaking for the Lord; but his pride made him incurable. Thus indeed, thus do heretics act, who, scorned by the rebuke of the holy Church, refuse to be corrected; rather they strive to kill their brothers with the sword of evil doctrine, as Cain did, deceive them with evil counsel as Balaam did, and rise up against catholic teachers as Korah did, to their own destruction.
[Jude 1:12] -- These are spots in their feasts, etc. He who sins is stained: the stain is the very crime that contaminates its perpetrator. And therefore he calls the heretics, whom he accuses, stains; because they not only perish themselves in their feasting and drunkenness, whether carnal or spiritual, but they also destroy and pollute others.
[Jude 1:12] -- Clouds without water, etc. The saints are preachers, who, having their conversation in the heavens, shine with miracles, and rain with words. Of whom it is said to God: And your truth reaches to the clouds. But heretics are clouds without water, who have placed their mouth in the heavens by their proud words; but they do not water the hearts of their listeners with the water of wisdom, who are carried away by the winds, as if by the suggestion of invisible spirits, and are caught up in various errors of vices.
[Jude 1:12] -- Autumnal trees, fruitless, twice dead, uprooted. A tree is dead which does not bear good fruit; but one that has also produced the fruit of evil work is called a twice-dead tree. And if he who refuses to bear the fruit of good work is said to be cut down for his barrenness and cast into the fire; what punishment do you think he deserves, who either by acting wickedly or by perverting others has brought forth the most wicked fruits? Nor is it surprising if fruitless and twice-dead trees are said to be uprooted, which are proven to be. For it is said of the saints: Rooted and grounded in love (Ephes. III). But those who do not fear to uproot themselves from the firmness of love, and justly admit if they seem to have any good fruit. Such men are deservedly compared to autumnal trees, to show their salvation is hopeless. For in the time of autumn not only no fruits are born; but also those that were born and ripened usually fall. To this time are compared those who neglect to bear the fruits of faith themselves and strive to uproot and convert into vain endeavors those good deeds which they see faithful people perform.
[Jude 1:13] -- Wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame. The wild waves of the sea are perverse teachers, who are always restless in themselves, swollen, dark, and bitter, and never cease to attack the peace of the Church, which is the stability and firmness of the faithful. But such men are rightly said to foam out their own shame, because, like swollen waves, the higher they rise in pride, the more they are confused, dissolving into the lightest foam and perishing.
[Jude 1:13] -- Wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever. The wandering stars, which are seven, never rise or set in the same place where they did the day before; but sometimes they descend to the lowest part of the winter zone, sometimes they ascend to the highest part of the summer zone, sometimes they return to the middle line of the equinoctial zone. Thus indeed, thus are the heretics, who promising the light of truth, never persist in the same state of teaching; but now in this way, now in that way, shaping their doctrine, they themselves clearly show how contemptible is the display of light which they promise. And indeed among the planets, that is the wandering stars, the most well-known are the moon, the morning star, which is also the evening star. These are sometimes taken in a good sense, when the sun is the Lord, the moon is the Church, the morning star is John the Baptist, who, by being born, preceded the Lord about to be born in the flesh and by providing testimony to the light. But we also read about the sun in a bad sense, as the Lord says about the seeds sown on rocky ground: And when the sun rose, they were scorched (Matthew 13). Which he himself explains further: When persecution arises because of the word, they quickly fall away (ibid). Therefore, the sun's heat indicates the fervor of persecution. We read about the moon in a bad sense: A fool is changed like the moon (Ecclesiasticus 27). The morning star in a bad sense: How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star (Isaiah 14)? This can be understood not only about the devil’s first fall, but also about his members who fall from the Church through heresy. The evening in a bad sense: You cause darkness to be fall upon the children of earth (Job 38). Because both the Antichrist and his ministers, although they transform themselves as angels of light, do not bear witness to the divine light, like the morning star to the sun; but they rather show the works of darkness to their followers; similar to the star called the evening star, which appearing in the west in the evening, is the precursor of the ensuing night. It says, Wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever. For rightly they will be sent into the darkness of eternal torment, who were bringing the darkness of errors into the Church of God under the name of light. Deservedly they will be struck by the storm of punishment, who, like sea storms, were disturbing the peace of the faithful.
[Jude 1:14] -- Prophecies were made about them by the seventh from Adam, Enoch, etc. He does not speak against all men, but against all the impious, leaving none of them unpunished. It is added about them:
[Jude 1:15] -- And to convict all the impious. He actually states that the seventh from Adam is Enoch, who prophesied these things, to confirm by example what he stated above: Because the impious men who long ago were designated for such judgment had slipped in at his time to subvert the faith of the pious.
[Jude 1:15] -- And to convict (he says) all the impious of all their deeds of impiety, etc. This sentiment is indeed true, because the Lord, coming in judgment, will convict the impious not only of deeds but also of words, and will judge the wicked; however, it should be known that the book of Enoch, from which this is taken, is classified among the apocryphal Scriptures by the Church, not because the sayings of such a great patriarch can be in any way dismissed or should be considered false, but because the book offered under his name does not seem to have been truly written by him, but published by another person under his title. For if it were truly his, it would not be contrary to sound faith. But now, because it contains many incredible things, among which is the account of the giants not having human fathers but angels, it is clear to the learned that the writings that are tainted with falsehood are not those of a truthful man. Hence, this same Epistle of Jude, because it bears testimony from an apocryphal book, was rejected by many in the early times. However, due to its authority, antiquity, and use, it has merited to be counted among the holy Scriptures, especially because Jude took such testimony from an apocryphal book which is conspicuous for the clear truth of its true light rather than being apocryphal and dubious.
[Jude 1:16] -- These are murmurers, grumblers, etc. The more anyone murmurs and grumbles about the present labors of the Church, the less they have extinguished the desires of the flesh within themselves. But on the contrary, holy Daniel and other men of heavenly desires, as diligently as they only desire the things above, so much more scornfully do they despise all passing things that seem adverse.
[Jude 1:19] -- These are they who separate themselves, etc. Therefore, they reprobate themselves by separating from the lot of the righteous, hence they are sensual, that is, following the lusts of their own soul, because they have not merited to possess the Spirit of unity by which the Church is gathered together, by which it is made spiritual. Therefore, they dissolve, because they lack the bond of charity.
[Jude 1:20] -- But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, etc. We pray in the Holy Spirit when, pierced by divine inspiration, we seek heavenly aid to receive the goods which we cannot possess by ourselves. Therefore, the blessed Jude instructs us to build ourselves up on the foundation of holy faith, to thus join ourselves as living stones to the house of God, which is the Church; he thus commands us to keep ourselves in the love of God, so that we never presume on our own strength, but hope in the aid of divine protection. Let no one according to the dogma of Pelagius declare that he can be saved by himself, but let us all seek the coming of the Holy Spirit into us, by which inspired we may be able to pray more fervently, lest perhaps we be separated from the society of the Holy Church with those who do not have the Spirit and therefore continue to be sensual.
[Jude 1:22-23] -- And of some have compassion, making a difference: others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, etc. What he said with fear must be joined to all three things he proposed. Because whoever reproves apostates and shows them as damnable must act in fear, lest perhaps he or his loved ones suffer something similar. And whoever rescues another from the fire of vices by chastising him, must consider himself lest he also be tempted. And whoever shows mercy to a penitent neighbor must also do this carefully, lest perhaps he becomes more severe or more lenient than is just.
[Jude 1:23] -- Hating even the garment stained by the flesh. By "garment of the flesh" he means our body. However, we should not hate our body, but we should hate this stained condition in every way, and as much as we can act to make it spotless, so that what is carnal may deserve to become spiritual. Since this is not achieved by our own will, but must be accomplished by the grace of God, it is rightly added:
[Jude 1:24] -- To him who is able to keep you from stumbling, etc. It rightly says here that we will be placed in exultation before the presence of God's glory, whom he previously admonished to serve God in fear. For the more fearful we are about our actions in the present, the more we will rejoice about our deserved reward in the future.
[Jude 1:25] -- To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory and majesty. This clause attributes equal and co-eternal glory and kingdom to both the Father and the Son, before all and through all ages. It also refutes the error of those who believe the Son to be less or posterior to the Father, when it says that glory, majesty, dominion, and power belong to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. And this not from the beginning of any time, but before all ages, and now and for all ages of ages. Amen.