I John 3 · The Lantern

See ye what love the Father hath given to us, that children of God we may be called; because of this the world doth not know us, because it did not know Him;

beloved, now, children of God are we, and it was not yet manifested what we shall be, and we have known that if he may be manifested, like him we shall be, because we shall see him as he is;

"Beloved," says he, "now are we the sons of God," not by natural affection, but because we have God as our Father. For it is the greater love that, seeing we have no relationship to God, He nevertheless loves us and calls us His sons. "And it has not yet appeared what we shall be;" that is, to what kind of glory we shall attain.

Therefore we live as children of God even in this present life, sanctifying ourselves by virtue and striving toward the likeness of something even better. Encouraged by this, we shall be fashioned according to the brightness of the resurrection, when we shall see him, insofar as that is possible, as he is.

The Apostle speaks as if to say: from the foregoing you have undoubtedly learned that we have been received by God as children. Although this has not yet been revealed, do not be troubled. For what is now unknown will become manifest when He is revealed.

and every one who is having this hope on him, doth purify himself, even as he is pure.

Every one who is doing the sin, the lawlessness also he doth do, and the sin is the lawlessness,

"Every one that doeth sin, doeth also iniquity." Let no man say, Sin is one thing, iniquity another: let no man say, I am a sinful man, but not a doer of iniquity. For, "Every one that doeth sin, doeth also iniquity. Sin is iniquity."

Everyone who commits sin also commits iniquity, and sin is a transgression of the law. Confirmed in the previous discourse about righteousness from the good of righteous, now also takes on demonstration from the opposites and those things that happen to them, and says: "Everyone who sins." Saying something like this: You who have been adopted, do righteousness, nor present your…

Having confirmed the discourse on righteousness by the good things that come from righteousness, the apostle now wishes to show the same from the opposite side and what is found therein, and says: "everyone who commits sin." He speaks as if to say: you who have been adopted, practice righteousness and do not show yourselves idle in it.

and ye have known that he was manifested that our sins he may take away, and sin is not in him;

Well then, what are we to do concerning sins and iniquities? Hear what He saith: "And ye know that He was manifested to take away sin; and sin in Him is not." He, in Whom sin is not, the same is come to take away sin. For were there sin in Him, it must be taken away from Him, not He take it away Himself.

And you know that He appeared to take away our sins: and in Him, there is no sin. Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him. "And you know that He appeared." You can no longer have a place for sinning.

And you know that He appeared to take away sins, etc. John the Baptist also bore witness to this about the Lord, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. The Lord was able to take away sins because there was no sin in Him.

every one who is remaining in him doth not sin; every one who is sinning, hath not seen him, nor known him.

Just as the person who dwells in virtue and true doctrine does not sin and is not ignorant, so the one who remains in Christ, who is his righteousness and sanctification, does not sin. For how can someone act unrighteously when he is in the company of righteousness, and how can he be content to place corruption alongside holiness?

How can someone sin if he is not cut off from God in any way?

Having said that the Son of God appeared and that He appeared in order to, having committed no sin of His own, take away, that is, destroy our sin, he adds: "everyone who sins has not seen Him." If you, he says, when He appeared, saw Him, and as a result of seeing Him received the power not to yield to sin, as being perfectly established in Him, then it is obvious that those wh…

Little children, let no one lead you astray; he who is doing the righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous,

he who is doing the sin, of the devil he is, because from the beginning the devil doth sin; for this was the Son of God manifested, that he may break up the works of the devil;

"He that does unrighteousness is of the devil," that is, of the devil as his father, following and choosing the same things. "The devil sins from the beginning," he says. From the beginning from which he began to sin, incorrigibly persevering in sinning.

"He that doeth sin, is of the devil, because the devil sinneth from the beginning." "Is of the devil:" ye know what he means: by imitating the devil. For the devil made no man, begat no man, created no man: but whoso imitates the devil, that person, as if begotten of him, becomes a child of the devil; by imitating him, not literally by being begotten of him.

Since the devil constantly revolves in sin, everyone who sins becomes a partisan of the devil; for the devil initiates sin in a person by suggesting evil thoughts to him, as he did to Judas (John 13:2). Someone may ask: how is the devil in those who sin, when they have already sinned before him by giving him a place?

every one who hath been begotten of God, sin he doth not, because his seed in him doth remain, and he is not able to sin, because of God he hath been begotten.

And therefore I say to you, that if any one is tempted by the devil, and sins after that great and holy calling in which the Lord has called His people to everlasting life, he has opportunity to repent but once.

Everyone who is born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the Devil are obvious. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

Everyone who commits sin, because he sins, is of the devil and is called a son of the devil, as the Apostle Paul said to Elymas: "son of the devil! will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord?" (Acts 13:10).

In this manifest are the children of God, and the children of the devil; every one who is not doing righteousness, is not of God, and he who is not loving his brother,

"Thus we know the children of God, as likewise the children of the devil," who choose things like the devil; for so also they are said to be of the wicked one.

The chief author of sin is the devil, the begetter of all sin. Before him, no one sinned. Nor did he sin because he was by nature prone to sin (since in that case the responsibility for his sin would lie with his Creator). Rather, being created good he became a devil by his own free choice, receiving that name from his willed action.

By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are made manifest, etc. Therefore, only love distinguishes between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who have charity are born of God. Those who do not have it are not born of God. Have whatever else you will, if you do not have this alone, it profits you nothing.

because this is the message that ye did hear from the beginning, that we may love one another,

"For this is the message which we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." He has made it manifest to us that it is of this he speaks; whoso acts against this commandment, is in that accursed sin, into which those fall who are not born of God.

But on the other hand, others are not forward to support their needy brethren with things; but only to cherish them with soft words.

The Apostle confirms by example how great an evil it is to hate one's brother. Look, he says, Cain hated his brother and killed him, despite the fact that he was his own brother. Cain performed the evil deeds of his father the devil, while Abel, doing righteousness, was a son in relation to God. Here the devil is contrasted with God, and evil deeds with good ones.

not as Cain--of the evil one he was, and he did slay his brother, and wherefore did he slay him? because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.

Do not wonder, my brethren, if the world doth hate you;

If we have passed from death to life by passing from unbelief to faith, let us not be surprised if the world hates us. For no one who has failed to pass from death to life, but has remained in death, can love those who have left the darkened house of death.

"Marvel not, brethren, if the world hate us." Must one often be telling you what "the world" means? Not the heaven, not the earth, nor these visible works which God made; but lovers of the world. By often saying these things, to some I am burdensome: but I am so far from saying it without a cause, that some may be questioned whether I said it, and they cannot answer.

Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. He calls those who love the world worldly. Nor should it be wondered that those who love the world cannot love a brother separated from the love of the world and intent only on heavenly desires. For religion is an abomination to a sinner, as Scripture testifies.

we--we have known that we have passed out of the death to the life, because we love the brethren; he who is not loving the brother doth remain in the death.

These have been perverted from the truth: among them there is the hope of repentance, by which it is possible to live. Corruption, then, has a hope of a kind of renewal, but death has everlasting ruin.

"If the world hate us: we know" What do we know? "that we have passed from death unto life" How do we know? "Because we love the brethren." Let none ask man: let each return to his own heart: if he find there brotherly love, let him set his mind at rest, because he is "passed from death unto life." Already he is on the right hand: let him not regard that at present his glory is…

He who does not love remains in death. He speaks of the death of the soul. For the soul that sins, it shall die. For the life of the flesh is the soul, and the life of the soul is God. The death of the body is to lose the spirit, the death of the soul is to lose God.

Every one who is hating his brother--a man-killer he is, and ye have known that no man-killer hath life age-during in him remaining,

And if we owe our lives to the brethren, and have made such a mutual compact with the Saviour, why should we any more hoard and shut up worldly goods, which are beggarly, foreign to us and transitory? Shall we shut up from each other what after a little shall be the property of the fire?

Lest ye should think it a light matter, brethren, to hate, or, not to love, hear what follows: "Every one that hateth his brother, is a murderer." How now, if any made light of hating his brother, will he also in his heart make light of murder?

Likewise homicide is committed interpretively, and this occurs in three ways: first, by omitting in deed: whence Ambrose says: "Feed the one dying of hunger: if you have not fed him, you have killed him." In the second way it occurs when someone kills another by counseling, or accusing, or disparaging, when he does this from malice of spirit.

in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down;

"For He Himself laid down His life for us;" that is, for those who believe; that is, for the apostles. If then He laid down His life for the apostles, he means His apostles themselves: us if he said, We, I say, the apostles, for whom He laid down His life, "ought to lay down our lives for the brethren;" for the salvation of their neighbours was the glory of the apostles.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Nothing more instructs a person toward virtue than the example of enduring death for the sake of justice and divine obedience—death, I say, not of just any kind, but of the most painful sort.

and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him--how doth the love of God remain in him?

But neither let the consideration, dearest brethren, restrain and recall the Christian from good and righteous works, that any one should fancy that he could be excused for the benefit of his children; since in spiritual expenditure we ought to think of Christ, who has declared that He receives them; and not prefer our fellow-servants, but the Lord, to our children, since He Hi…

Perchance thou sayest, "What concerns it me? Am I to give my money, that he may not suffer trouble?" If this be the answer thy heart makes to thee, the love of the Father abideth not in thee. If the love of the Father abide not in thee, thou art not born of God. How boastest thou to be a Christian? Thou hast the name, and hast not the deeds.

Whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, etc. Behold where love begins. If you are not yet fit to die for your brother, be at least fit to give from your possessions to your brother. For if you do not sympathize with your brother suffering hardship, indeed the love of the Father, from whom both of you were reborn, does not abide in you.

My little children, may we not love in word nor in tongue, but in word and in truth!

"Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue," says John, teaching them to be perfect, "but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we are of the truth." And if "God be love," piety also is love: "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." And again, to him who desires to become a Gn…

Actions speak louder than words.

Therefore through the second, works are done, and in it charity resides -- not that affectual charity, which, seasoned with the salt of wisdom, growing rich, brings to the mind a great multitude of the sweetness of the Lord; but rather a certain actual charity, which even if it does not yet sweetly refresh with that sweet love, nevertheless vehemently inflames with a love of th…

and in this we know that of the truth we are, and before Him we shall assure our hearts,

because if our heart may condemn--because greater is God than our heart, and He doth know all things.

He says, "For God is greater than our heart;" that is, the virtue of God [is greater] than conscience, which will follow the soul. Wherefore he continues, and says, "and knoweth all things."

Look within, for man cannot judge whom he cannot see. If "we assure our heart," let it be "before Him." Because "if our heart think ill of us," i.e. accuse us within, that we do not the thing with that mind it ought to be done withal, "greater is God than our heart, and knoweth all things." Thou hidest thine heart from man: hide it from God if thou canst!

This means: through truth (and truth will be in us when our words correspond to our deeds) we shall reassure our conscience. For by the word "heart" he means conscience. How then shall we reassure it? By placing ourselves in such a position as to speak our words before God the Witness; for this is what the words "before Him" mean.

Beloved, if our heart may not condemn us, we have boldness toward God,

The saints are in all things heard unto salvation: they are always heard in that which respects their eternal salvation; it is this that they desire: because in regard of this, their prayers are always heard. But let us distinguish God's different ways of hearing prayer.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God; and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Beloved, if our heart does not reproach us, etc. If it truthfully answers us that we love, and that genuine love is in us, and not feigned, but sincere, seeking the brother's salvation, expecting no gain from the brother except his salvation; likewise, if our heart does not reproach us, notably when we say in prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matthew…

and whatever we may ask, we receive from Him, because His commands we keep, and the things pleasing before Him we do,

and this is His command, that we may believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and may love one another, even as He did give command to us,

And what are those commandments? "This," saith he, "is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another." Ye see that this is the commandment: ye see that whoso doeth aught against this commandment, doeth the sin from which "every one that is born of God" is free. "As He gave us commandment:" that we love one another.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, etc. He placed the commandment in the singular number and subsequently added mandates to it, namely faith and love, because clearly these cannot be separated from each other.

The word "that" must be understood in the sense of cause, namely thus: "because" His commandment is to believe. Since we have the commandment to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, and to love one another, and we have done this, from this we also know that the grace of His Spirit, Whom He gave us, has been established in us.

and he who is keeping His commands, in Him he doth remain, and He in him; and in this we know that He doth remain in us, from the Spirit that He gave us.

"And hereby we know that He dwells in us by His Spirit, which He has given us;" that is, by superintendence and foresight of future events.

And let us love one another, as he commanded; and whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. This is, he says, let us love each other with true affection. And where did he command this? In these words, when he says: "As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them." (Matt.

And he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. Let God therefore be your home, and be the home of God; abide in God, and let God abide in you. God abides in you to hold you, you abide in God so that you do not fall. Keep his commandments, hold onto charity.

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