I John 4 · The Lantern

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

All, therefore, are outside of the [Christian] dispensation, who, under pretext of knowledge, understand that Jesus was one, and Christ another, and the Only-begotten another, from whom again is the Word, and that the Saviour is another, whom these disciples of error allege to be a production of those who were made Aeons in a state of degeneracy.

"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!

Having explained the teaching on love for one's neighbor, and having pointed to this love as a sign of the abiding of the Spirit whom we have received, the apostle now adds a criterion for distinguishing true brothers and neighbors, so that we, keeping this distinction in mind, might not on account of the commandment of love enter into close relations with false brothers, false…

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

"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.

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.

Next: every spirit, that is, everyone bearing the title of prophet or apostle, who confesses the Lord Jesus as having come in the flesh, is from God, and whoever does not confess this is not from God, but his dignity is from the antichrist, which you have also heard.

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.

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 Apostle says that the antichrist is already in the world; of course, not in person, but in the person of false prophets, false apostles, and heretics who precede and prepare his coming. And the antichrist himself will be a man bearing Satan within himself, "exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. 2:4).

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.

I gladly rejoice and am thankful, most brave and blessed brethren, at hearing of your faith and virtue, wherein the Church, our Mother, glories.

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. 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?

Above, the apostle indicated the mark of the prophets and apostles of the Lord. Now he adds: you, being children of God, have overcome them, that is, the false prophets. Why? Because God, who is in you, is greater than he who is in the world, according to whose spirit the false prophets chose to live.

They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

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.

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.

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. 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.

But we, being of God and having departed from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them. The one who lives chastely listens to us, and therefore knows God, and is ready to listen to us. About this Christ also says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15), that is, He testifies that the one who has prepared himself to listen with obedience has ears.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

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.

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.

Having shown that one must love certain people, namely those of like mind, he returns to what he said at the beginning. He says that love and the one who loves are from God, that the one who loves, and he alone, is born of God and knows God, while the one who does not have love does not know God either.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

"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.

Love is so much the gift of God that it is called God.

Why then does the one who does not love not know God? He confirms this in the following manner. God is love. For just as God is called goodness because in His goodness He created the intelligible and sensible world, so too, having sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world out of love for us, He showed through this that He is also love.

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.

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.

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.

This is evident from the fact that He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world so that He might grant us true life and we might live through Him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

"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?

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.

Good Jesus, the chalice you drank, the price of our redemption, makes me love you more than all the rest. This alone would be enough to claim our love. This, I say, is what wins our love so sweetly, justly demands it, firmly binds it, deeply affects it. Our Savior had to toil so hard in this, in fact in making the whole world the Creator did not labor so much.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

"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.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 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.

We have noted before that the Apostle John has a habit of repeating the same things about the same subjects. So he does now as well. No one, he says, has ever seen God. Speaking of love for the brethren, he pointed to God as an example of love, Who out of love for us delivered His Only-Begotten Son to death.

Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

"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?

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).

It is a sign of our abiding in Him and of His abiding in us, and also because He has given us of His Spirit. For the Pure One begets what is pure and unblemished.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

"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?

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.

And since through pure love we have communion with Him, from this we, who have seen Him in the flesh, have known and testify that the Father sent Him, the Savior of the world. In order to more perfectly establish us in such knowledge, He Himself also gave an explanation concerning His own Person.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

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.

"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.

This refers to what was said a little above (v. 2): every spirit that confesses the Lord Jesus, who has come in the flesh. The apostle has sufficiently proved that believers are children of God and that God abides in them; and he proved this by love for one another, because the Holy Spirit was given to them.

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.

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.

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?

If we consider the fruit, we shall find the union of God and the soul. For every artisan who makes some work either makes it so that through it he may be praised, or so that through it something may be procured or gained for himself, or so that he may delight in it, according to the three things that are among desirable goods, namely the honorable good, the useful, and the dele…

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.

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.

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.

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.

For, having attained perfection in love through good deeds, we shall be far from fear. In confirmation of this he also adds: perfect love casts out fear. What fear? He himself says that it is the fear of torment. For it is possible to love someone even out of fear of punishment. But such fear is not perfect, that is, it is not characteristic of perfect love.

We love him, because he first loved us.

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.

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.

By fear here is meant the preliminary fear. Whoever sincerely loves God does what is pleasing to Him not out of fear of punishment, but out of an inclination toward virtue and out of love for God, not safeguarding himself even with the lawful fear that consists in love for what is good.

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?

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

"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?

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.).

Therefore, whoever loves God and strives to be His disciple, by His commandment, loves his brother also.

I John4