Fathers

1 John 4

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Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.

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What the Fathers say

1 John 4:16

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

With these words the apostle also expresses another truth, that those who so confess and have the Spirit abiding in them, that is, God, themselves also abide in God. In what way? Through love for one another. And having recalled love, he repeats everything he has said about love, in order to more firmly establish the teaching about love.

Commentary on 1 John ↗

Clement of Alexandria

He does not express the divine essence, but wishing to declare the majesty of God, he has applied to the Divinity what is best and most excellent in the view of men. Thus also Paul, when he speaks of "light inaccessible." [1 Timothy 6:16] But John himself also in this same Epistle says, "God is love:" [1 John 4:16] pointing out the excellences of God, that He is kind and merciful; and because He is light, makes men righteous, according to the advancement of the soul, through charity. …

From the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus ↗

Cyprian

The word of the blessed Apostle John is: "God "saith he, "is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.". Also in the Epistle of John: "God is love l and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"And we have known and believed the love which God hath in us." And again, by what hast thou come to know this? "Love is God." He hath already said it above, behold he saith it again. Love could not be more exceedingly commended to thee than that it should be called God. Haply thou wast ready to despise a gift of God. And dost thou despise God? "Love is God: and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." Each mutually inhabiteth the other; He that holdeth, and he that is holden. …

Ten Homilies on 1 John 8 ↗

Bede

And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. We have known that Jesus is the Son of God, and that the Father sent him as the Savior of the world. And we believe the love that God has in us, because evidently when He had His only Son, He did not want Him to be alone, but so that He might have brothers, He adopted those who would possess eternal life with Him.

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗

Bonaventure

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 delectable. …

On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology ↗