Fathers

1 John 3

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See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him. Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him. Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.

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What the Fathers say

1 John 3:15

Eastern Fathers

Clement of Alexandria

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? Divinely and weightily John says, "He that loveth not his brother is a murderer," the seed of Cain, a nursling of the devil. He has not God's compassion. He has no hope of better things. …

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? ↗

Cyprian

Finally, such are crowned by the Lord, such will be avenged with the Lord in the day of judgment; but the quarrelsome and disunited, and he who has not peace with his brethren, in accordance with what the blessed apostle and the Holy Scripture testifies, even if he have been slain for the name of Christ, shall not be able to escape the crime of fraternal dissension, because, as it is written, "He who hateth his brother is a murderer" and no murderer attains to the kingdom of heaven, nor does he live with God. …

Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer. ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Do you hate your brother or not? But if you despise hatred, listen to what you do not heed: Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Whoever hates is a murderer. You have not prepared poison. Can you now say: "What does it matter to me if I am a murderer?" Whoever hates is a murderer. You did not prepare poison. You did not proceed to strike the enemy with the sword. You did not prepare an instrument of crime, nor a place, nor a time. Lastly, you did not commit the very crime. You only hated, and you killed yourself before him. …

Sermon 49 ↗

Bede

And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Even if he seems to live among the saints through faith here, he does not have eternal life abiding in him. For when the time of retribution comes, he will be damned with Cain who was of the evil one, even he who is guilty of this kind of murder, so as to disagree and dissent and have no peace with his brothers. …

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗

Bonaventure

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 the third way homicide is committed interpretively by hating in the soul: whence in the epistle of John: "He who hates his brother is a murderer."

Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 6 ↗