The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle of S. John
In this , i.e. in the love of God wherewith He loved us. S. John, the beloved of Christ, lays special stress upon this, that God, moved by no love, or duty on our part, but offended by our many provocations and wickednesses, first loved us. And when we were sinners and enemies, fleeing from Him, and fighting against Him, He followed us, and turned us by His love, that He might bring us back and save us. “ For to this end He loved us,” says S.
Augustine, “ that we might love Him.” And therefore He sent His Son to be a propitiation , i.e. to be a propitiator, and a propitiatory victim for our sins. S. Augustine reads libatorem , a pourer of libations , and explains it to mean Sacrifices. As S. Augustine says again, “ He loved the wicked, that He might make them holy. He loved the unjust, that He might make them just. He loved the sick, that He might make them whole.”
See in this how high the ways of God are above the ways of men. For with men, if any one despise them, vex or spoil them, straightway they hate him, and think how they may do him some greater injury. But God — despised, contemned, robbed of His honour, injured in a thousand ways — enlarges the bowels of His love towards us. With love He fights against man's hate. By hatred He is stirred up to love. Hatred is the whip of His love. He overcomes hatred by His infinite love, swallows it up, drowns and extinguishes it, as a mighty conflagration extinguishes a little drop of water. The love of God therefore towards His enemies is so wonderful, that by it He makes them His friends, His sons and heirs, and turns the greatest sinners into the greatest saints. Out of the thief upon the cross He made a preacher of Himself . Out of Saul He made S. Paul. Out of the sinful Magdalene He made a mirror of penitence and holiness. This is what Paul admires (1 Tim. i. 15), “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief ; but therefore I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might shew all patience, for the instruction of those who should hereafter believe in Him unto eternal life.”
Ver. 11. — Dearly beloved , if God so loved us , &c. If here is not a particle expressive of doubtfulness. It is not conditional, but causal, and is equivalent to because . It means, Because God so loves us. Christ uses a similar construction, when He says, “If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.”
S. John says if, rather than because , for the sake of greater weight and pathos, as it were lost in amazement at the infinite love of God. Wherefore it is advisedly and intentionally that he says after the antecedent, if God so loved us, not we therefore ought so to love God, which is impossible, but, we ought also to love one another. As much as to say, Since we cannot render equal love in return for Divine love, let us at least love one another according to our slender capacity. For what we do to our neighbour
God accounts as done to Him.
The word us includes also our neighbours. If God, who is not a partaker, vouchsafes to love all who participate in our nature, how much more does it become us to embrace with our love all who are of the same nature, and in respect of it are equals? Truly does S. Augustine say on this passage (Tract. 7): “Love, and do what thou wilt. For if thou art silent, thou keepest silence through love. If thou criest out, thou criest out in love. If thou correctest, thou correctest lovingly. If thou sparest, thou sparest in love. Let this be the root of love within. From that root nothing but love can spring.”
Ver. 12. — No man hath seen God at any time. Why does S. John here introduce these words ? It is because these words partly give the reason why from the antecedent, if God so loved us the inference is drawn we also ought to love one another , not God (as might seem to be the conclusion that should be drawn), because we cannot see God, and benefit Him by loving Him. Hence, in the place of God, we testify our love towards Him whom we cannot see and do good to, by doing good to our neighbour whom we can see and benefit. Partly the words invite us to love our neighbour, and cohere with what follows. As though he said, Zealously love your neighbour. For this love God reckons as given to Himself. For although we cannot see Him, yet, if we love our neighbour, He, the Invisible, will be most truly present with us, and thus abiding in our soul, will place His seat and throne there. Yea, His love will be fully imprinted and perfected in our soul. The reason is because indivisible and Divine charity conjoins and confederates us with the invisible God. Moreover, God, who is invisible in Himself, seems visible in our neighbour. For he is God’s image.
Observe, no one hath seen God at any time , viz., in His Essence, or face to face, in this life. Whence the Doctors teach, with probability , that neither Moses, nor Paul, nor any other mere man (for
Christ saw God, but He was the God-man), hath seen the Divine Essence in this life, according to the words in Exod. xxxiii. : “ No man shall see Me and live.” Yet S. Augustine holds a contrary opinion, and from him S. Thomas.
Again, no man hath seen God, for neither is he able to see Him by the powers of his nature, as the Anomœans and Eunomœans supposed . Whom S. Chrysostom and S. Basil (lib. contr. Eunom.) refute. For the Blessed in heaven see God, but by the power of grace. For their mind is there elevated, and receives as it were another eye of a Divine order, even the light of glory, by which it sees God. By this sentence, then, S. John signifies that the majesty of God is so sublime, and so transcends, not only all other created things, but also the intelligence both of men and angels, that although He Himself is the most glorious Light, yet on account of His purity, subtilty, and sublimity, He cannot be perceived by any mind, or any created eye. S. John says the same thing in his Gospel (i. 18). But there he applies it to the knowledge of God, as here to the love of God. It is as though he said, “ God is invisible, and therefore cannot (in Himself) receive any office of love from man, because He far transcends all human wealth, as well as human sight and action. Yet He makes so much account of love, and of those who love their neighbour, that He stoops to them from the topmost height of heaven, and as it were comes down, dwells and abides in their hearts. This is that which S. Paul speaks of (1 Tim. vi. 16), “Who only hath immortality, and dwelleth in the inaccessible light, whom no man hath seen or can see.”
Lastly, S. Cyril of Jerusalem (Cateches. 9) thinks that God cannot be seen with the bodily eyes, because He Himself is incorporeal ; and that therefore He stretches out the heaven itself as a veil before our eyes, lest the brightness of the Godhead should blind us, or kill us. But this is not true unless it be thus explained, that God, although dwelling Himself incorporeally in the empyrean, which is corporeal, and manifesting Himself and His glory to the bodies of the Blessed, there produces so great sensible light, which in some way sets forth
His majesty, that it would blind the eyes of the Blessed, yea destroy them, unless they were fortified and preserved by the Divine power.
Hence S. Epiphanius (in vii. Synod. Actor. 6) teaches that God as He is in Himself cannot be expressed by any image. Moreover also, Moses, forbidding the Jews to make an image of God, gives the reason: “Ye heard the voice of His words, but ye saw no shape, &c. Ye saw no similitude, lest being deceived ye should make a graven image.” (Deut. iv. 12.)
His love is perfected in us: perfected , because it is perfect and complete in all its parts. Now the parts and offices of charity are twofold— 1st Love of God ; 2d. Love of our neighbour. Wherefore, if there were only that part of charity that we loved God, it would be imperfect ; but it is perfected and completed if the second be added, and charity extends to our neighbour. Again, the charity with which we love God is perfected by charity towards our neighbour, because we love our neighbour for no other reason than for God's sake. The love therefore of our neighbour for God's sake perfects the love of God, because that which is the reason why other things are loved is Itself much more loved. When therefore we love our neighbour for God's sake, much more do we love God Himself.
2d. The words may be understood of charity — not ours, but God's. For this is the meaning of the word His : thus — Although God be invisible, yet He abides in us by love. Moreover, He shows that He loves us with a perfect love, since abiding in us, He forms, preserves , and augments in us the charity with which we love, not only Himself, but our neighbour for His sake. This meaning is alluded to in the next verse.