John § 51

(Tract. lxxxii. 1) Made bright or glorified; the Greek word may be translated in either way. Δόξα signifies glory; not our own glory, we must remember, as if we had it of ourselves: it is of His grace that we have it; and therefore it is not our own but His glory. For from whom shall we derive our fruitfulness, but from His mercy preventing us. Wherefore He adds, As My Father hath loved Me, even so love I you. This then is the source of our good works. Our good works proceed from faith which worketh by love: but we could not love unless we were loved first: As My Father hath loved Me, even so love I you. This does not prove that our nature is equal to His, as His is to the Father's, but the grace, whereby He is the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Father loves us, but in Him.

(Tract. lxxxii. 3. et seq.) Who doubts that love precedes the observance of the commandments? For who loves not, has not that whereby to keep the commandments. These words then do not declare whence love arises, but how it is shown, that no one might deceive himself into thinking that he loved our Lord, when he did not keep His commandments. Though the words, Continue ye in My love, do not of themselves make it evident which love He means, ours to Him, or His to us, yet the preceding words do: I love you, He says: and then immediately after, Continue ye in My love. Continue ye in My love, then, is, continue in My grace: and, If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, is, Your keeping of My commandments, will be evidence to you that ye abide in My love. It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud. But what means the next words, Even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love: i. e. the Father's love, wherewith He loveth the Son. Must this grace, wherewith the Father loves the Son, be understood to be like the grace wherewith the Son loveth us? No; for whereas we are sons not by nature, but by grace, the Only Begotten is Son not by grace, but by nature. We must understand this then to refer to the manhood in the Son, even as the words themselves imply: As My Father hath loved Me, even so love I you. The grace of a Mediator is expressed here; and Christ is Mediator between God and man, not as God, but as man. This then we may say, that since human nature does not pertain to the nature of God, but does by grace pertain to the Person of the Son, grace also pertains to that Person; such grace as has nothing superior, nothing equal to it. For no merits on man's part preceded the assumption of that nature.

"As the Father hath loved me," He says, "so have I loved you: continue ye in my love." Here, then, you see, is the source of our good works. For whence should we have them, were it not that faith worketh by love? And how should we love, were it not that we were first loved? With striking clearness is this declared by the same evangelist in his epistle: "We love God because He first loved us." But when He says, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," He indicates no such equality between our nature and His as there is between Himself and the Father, but the grace whereby the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus. For He is pointed out as Mediator when He says, "The Father-me, and I-you." For the Father, indeed, also loveth us, but in Him; for herein is the Father glorified, that we bear fruit in the vine, that is, in the Son, and so be made His disciples.

"Continue ye," He says, "in my love." How shall we continue? Listen to what follows: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." Love brings about the keeping of His commandments; but does the keeping of His commandments bring about love? Who can doubt that it is love which precedes? For he has no true ground for keeping the commandments who is destitute of love. And so, in saying, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love," He shows not the source from which love springs, but the means whereby it is manifested. As if He said, Think not that ye abide in my love if ye keep not my commandments; for it is only if ye have kept them that ye shall abide. In other words, it will thus be made apparent that ye shall abide in my love if ye keep my commandments. So that no one need deceive himself by saying that he loveth Him, if he keepeth not His commandments. For we love Him just in the same measure as we keep His commandments; and the less we keep them, the less we love. And although, when He saith, "Continue ye in my love," it is not apparent what love He spake of; whether the love we bear to Him, or that which He bears to us: yet it is seen at once in the previous clause. For He had there said, "So have I loved you;" and to these words He immediately adds, "Continue ye in my love:" accordingly, it is that love which He bears to us. What, then, do the words mean, "Continue ye in my love," but just, continue ye in my grace? And what do these mean, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love," but, hereby shall ye know that ye shall abide in the love which I bear to you, if ye keep my commandments? It is not, then, for the purpose of awakening His love to us that we first keep His commandments; but this, that unless He loves us, we cannot keep His commandments. This is a grace which lies all disclosed to the humble, but is hid from the proud.

Now, if observing the commandments is the essential sign of love, it is very greatly feared that without love even the most effective action of the glorious gifts of grace—even of the most sublime powers and even of faith itself and the commandment that make a person perfect—will not be of help.… It is evident, therefore, and undeniable that without charity—even though ordinances are obeyed and righteous acts are performed, even though the commandments of the Lord have been observed and great wonders of grace effected—they will be considered as works of iniquity … because those who perform these acts have as their aim the gratification of their own will.

As the Father has loved me. Here thirdly is touched upon the manner of abiding, which is through love, to which the fact that he himself first loved us ought to invite us: therefore he said: As the Father has loved me, so I also have loved you; and therefore abide in my love; 1 John 4: "Let us therefore love God, because he first loved us."

Question VI. Likewise, there is a question about what he says: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Against this is the fact that the love of the Father is natural, while the love of the Son toward us is purely gratuitous; therefore no likeness seems apparent. It is therefore asked: in what respect does he say, As the Father has loved me, etc.?

I respond: It must be said that, as Richard of Saint Victor says, in the divine persons there is love that is purely gratuitous, love that is owed, and love mixed from both. The love of the Father for the Son is purely gratuitous, because the Father gives to the Son and receives nothing. But the love of the Holy Spirit for the Father and the Son is purely owed, because he only receives. But the love of the Son for the Father is owed, because he receives; toward the Holy Spirit it is gratuitous, because he gives. Since therefore the Son loved us purely gratuitously, he compares the love by which he loves us to the love of the Father for himself.

We must consider the mysteries set forth in the text with the clearer eye of the understanding; for the saying has a deep meaning, and puts before us in its completeness, so to speak, the significance of the Incarnation. For He assures us that He Himself was loved by God the Father, and that He so loved us in turn, after the same manner, that is, according to which He Himself considered that He was loved by His own Father. What charge then did He lay upon them? That it is our duty to abide in His love. But He gives, as it were, an explanation and most convincing reason of His being with justice loved by the Father, namely, the keeping of His commandments; and exhorts us, too, to hasten to fulfil this, and thus, He says, to remain in His love. We have clearly shown what His meaning is then, summing up and condensing into small compass the sense of the passage, so far as possible. But since I think it right to rob of its terrors that which is likely sometimes to disturb in no small degree the mind of the pure, come, let us say how and in what way we apprehend the meaning of the passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ then appears, setting Himself forth as a type and pattern of the holy state of life, and as being on this account under the Law, and not disdaining to take the measure of our poverty, in order that designedly moulding Himself, according to His plan, into conformity with our dispositions, He might be found as in figures to those that are His, a guide of the way to our recovery of a state and of a life strange to us and wholly untrodden. We must now inquire then what commandment of the Father He has kept, and in what way, or in what manner He is said to have been loved by Him. Let then the most wise Paul come to our aid, and initiate us into the mystery by his words concerning Him; how being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He hath humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death; yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name. You have heard how, though He was the true God, seeing that He was of the same fashion with His Father, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death. For when God determined to save the corrupted race upon the earth, and it did not satisfy justice that any created being should accomplish this, the Only-begotten God, Who knows the Will of God the Father, Himself undertook the task, as the enterprise exceeded all the power that there was in the world. And thus He came down to a voluntary subjection, so as even to descend to death, and that a most shameful one. For how could the being nailed to a cross be honourable, and how would it not rather pass every disgrace? Since therefore He endured these things, God hath highly exalted Him. You have therefore in His willing obedience the fulfilment of the purposes of the Father; which purposes, the Son says, were ranked by Him as commands. For understanding as Word the counsels in the Father, and searching out the secret thoughts of Him that begat Him, nay rather being Himself the Wisdom and the Power of the Father, He realises His plan, accounting it as a command, and thus naming it after a human analogy. And see herein the measure of His love. For God hath highly exalted Him, He says. He exalts and glorifies Him that was already exalted and glorified; although He is by nature very God; inasmuch as He does not exist as one of the creatures, according to the identity of His Substance, on this account being deemed, and being in reality, beyond all height that is conceived, and even the Lord of Glory, according to the holy writings. But of a truth, He says, |396 He is exalted and glorified; how, or when, and in what way? When of course, He was in the form of a servant and in the likeness of our humiliation; that is, man like ourselves. For He returns clothed with our flesh to be again highly exalted and glorified with the Father. And He was loved by Him, and not then for the first time, when He fulfilled His voluntary subjection; and you will better understand this by the following considerations. For according to the manner in which He was always exalted and glorified, with reference to His Own Nature, He that was bereft of the glory suited to God, so far as the definition of His Humanity was concerned, is said to have been glorified and exalted when He became Man. For being thus from the beginning loved always and through all time, He is said to have been loved even when clothed in flesh. For on this account He appeared amongst us; that is, He took our form upon Him and became Man, in order that He might make pleasing to God that which was hated on account of the transgression at the beginning, and the sin which had crept in in the interval. For, for this reason, Christ is said to have appeared as the Door, and the Beginning, and the Way of all things good to us. Does He then tell you that He has been loved without reproach, because His Father's commands have been kept by Him? Did not the declaration of the mystery seem difficult to you, and was not the deep meaning of the Incarnation accomplished in our behalf hardly attainable by your reason? But they are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

Abide therefore, He says, in My love; that is, coming with all zeal and ardour, make it the object of your anxiety and concern to be worthy of such a love from Me as I have from God the Father. For I was an obedient worker of the wishes of the Father, and on this account I abide closely in His love. But when ye also yourselves become keepers of My commandments, ye in a like manner will wholly abide in My love. You will have then, He says, no excuse for apathy in the work. For you will not bestow labour on these things without profit. For I shall manifestly give you as much love as I have from the Father; and crown the keeper of My words with honours almost equal. For the Father has highly exalted Me, and has given Me the Name which is above every name. For I have been declared God of the universe, yet I shall not be found envious or to grudge you such good things. For I have shown you, who are men, and who have for this reason received the nature of slaves, to be gods, and sons of God; making you illustrious through My grace with dignities surpassing your nature to receive; have admitted you into the fellowship of My kingdom; have shown you conformed to the Body of My glory; have honoured you with incorruption and life. But this standeth as yet but in hope, and is preserved for the age that is to come. And what have ye now for the time present? Have I not made you illustrious, and glorified you, and made you holy beyond the devotees of all nations? Nay, ye have rebuked the unclean spirits; I have given you power to heal all manner of disease, and all manner of sickness. I have given the promise unto you: Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. If we allow our minds to be impressed with the sense of the passage before us, we shall think that this is what He says to His holy disciples. And if we at all times keep our mind yoked fast to the doctrines of the truth, and if we turn the investigation into which we enter so far as we can to the profit of our hearers and to foster the practice of a righteous life, we shall avoid foolishly falling over any stumblingblock in the way. For it is written in the Book of Psalms: Great is the peace that they have who love Thy law; and they have no stumblingblock in their path.

For he who holds, without pride and boasting, the true glory (opinion) regarding created things and the Creator, who is the Almighty God of all, and who has granted existence to all; [such an one,] continuing in His love and subjection, and giving of thanks, shall also receive from Him the greater glory of promotion, looking forward to the time when he shall become like Him who died for him, for He, too, "was made in the likeness of sinful flesh," to condemn sin, and to cast it, as now a condemned thing, away beyond the flesh, but that He might call man forth into His own likeness, assigning him as [His own] imitator to God, and imposing on him His Father's law, in order that he may see God, and granting him power to receive the Father; [being] the Word of God who dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to receive God, and God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father.

For he who holds, without pride and boasting, the true glory (opinion) regarding created things and the Creator, who is the Almighty God of all, and who has granted existence to all; [such an one,] continuing in His love and subjection, and giving of thanks, shall also receive from Him the greater glory of promotion, looking forward to the time when he shall become like Him who died for him, for He, too, "was made in the likeness of sinful flesh," to condemn sin, and to cast it, as now a condemned thing, away beyond the flesh, but that He might call man forth into His own likeness, assigning him as [His own] imitator to God, and imposing on him His Father's law, in order that he may see God, and granting him power to receive the Father; [being] the Word of God who dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to receive God, and God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father.

"As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you." Here at length He speaketh in a more human manner, for this, as spoken to men, has its peculiar force. Since what a measure of love did He manifest, who chose to die, who counted worthy of such honor those who were His slaves, His haters, His open enemies, and led them up to the heavens! "If then I love you, be bold; if it be the glory of My Father that ye bear fruit, imagine nothing ill." Then that He may not make them supine, observe how He braceth them again, "Continue ye in My love." "For this ye have the power to do."

He persuades them not to be afraid, and for this reason says: "I have loved you and loved you just as the Father has loved Me." He said this in a human manner. So, "abide in My love" — for this depends on you. And having heard that I have loved you, do not be careless, but strive to abide in My love.

1997 Above, our Lord urged his disciples to remain united with him; here he shows what this involves. He makes three points: first, to abide in him is to abide in his love; secondly, to abide in his love is to keep his commandments (v 10); thirdly, that his commandment is to love (v 12). He does two things about the first: first, he recalls the benefit granted to the disciples; secondly, he urges them to persevere, abide in my love (v 9).

1998 He says that the fact that we abide in Christ is due to his grace; and this grace is the effect of his love: "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jer 31:3). It is clear from this that all our good works are ours due to the benefit of divine love. For they would not be ours unless faith acted through love, and we would not love unless we were first loved. And so he reminds them of this benefit by saying, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

1999 The word "as" sometimes indicates an equality of nature, and at other times a similarity in acting. The Arians, who erred about this passage, wanted the "as" to indicate an equality, and because of this they concluded that the Son was inferior to the Father. But this is false. We must say, then, according to Augustine, that the word "as" indicates a likeness in grace and love; for the love with which the Son loves his disciples is a certain likeness of that love with which the Father loves the Son.

Now since to love someone is to will good to that person, the Father loves the Son, with respect to the Son's divine nature, because the Father wills him his own infinite good, which he has, by communicating to the Son the very same numerical nature the Father himself has: "For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing" (5:20). The Father also loves the Son with respect to his human nature: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son" (Hos 11:1). And he loves him so that he would be at once both God and man.

But the Son did not love the disciples in either of these ways. For he did not love them to the point of their being gods by nature, nor to the point that they would be united to God so as to form one person with him. But he did love them up to a similar point: he loved them to the extent that they would be gods by their participation in grace - "I say, 'You are gods'" (Ps 82:6); "He has granted to us precious and very great promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4) - and he loved them to the extent that they would be united to God in affection: "He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:17); "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). Thus the Father communicated to the Son a greater good, with respect to each nature of the Son, than the Son did to his disciples; yet there is a similarity, as was said.

2000 Abide in my love. This is like saying: Because you have received such a great benefit from my love, abide in it so that you love me. Or it could mean, abide in my love because I love you, that is, abide in my grace so you will not be excluded from the good things I have prepared for you. This meaning is the more apt, so that the thought is: Persevere in this state so that you will be loved by me through the effect of grace: "Every one should remain in the state in which he was called" (1 Cor 7:20). "He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16).

Even as I have kept My Father's commandments. The Apostle explains what these commandments were: Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil. 2:8)

But what are we to make of that which follows: "Even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love"? Here also He certainly intended us to understand that fatherly love wherewith He was loved of the Father. For this was what He has just said, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you;" and then to these He added the words, "Continue ye in my love;" in that, doubtless, wherewith I have loved you. Accordingly, when He says also of the Father, "I abide in His love," we are to understand it of that love which was borne Him by the Father. But then, in this case also, is that love which the Father bears to the Son referable to the same grace as that wherewith we are loved of the Son: seeing that we on our part are sons, not by nature, but by grace; while the Only-begotten is so by nature and not by grace? Or is this even in the Son Himself to be referred to His condition as man? Certainly so. For in saying, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," He pointed to the grace that was His as Mediator. For Christ Jesus is the Mediator between God and men, not in respect to His Godhead, but in respect to His manhood. And certainly it is in reference to this His human nature that we read, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and in favor [grace] with God and men." In harmony, therefore, with this, we may rightly say that while human nature belongs not to the nature of God, yet such human nature does by grace belong to the person of the only-begotten Son of God; and that by grace so great, that there is none greater, yea, none that even approaches equality. For there were no merits that preceded that assumption of humanity, but all His merits began with that very assumption. The Son, therefore, abideth in the love wherewith the Father hath loved Him, and so hath kept His commandments. For what are we to think of Him even as man, but that God is His lifter up? For the Word was God, the Only-begotten, co-eternal with Him that begat; but that He might be given to us as Mediator, by grace ineffable, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

And because true love is manifested through works, he adds: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and abide in his love: above in chapter fourteen: "That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given me commandment, so I do." So also we ought to do; 1 John 2: "He who says that he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also to walk"; Deuteronomy 10: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God and walk in his ways and love him and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and keep the commandments of the Lord and his ceremonies, which I command you this day, that it may be well with you"?

And how shall this be? "If ye keep My commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments." Again, His discourse proceedeth in a human way; for certainly the Lawgiver would not be subject to commandments. Seest thou that here also, as I am always saying, this is declared because of the infirmity of the hearers?

Then He explains how they can abide in this love, namely: if they keep His commandments. For, as has been said many times, he who keeps His commandments loves Him. By all this He shows that they will be safe when they lead a pure life. And He says this in condescension to the weakness of His listeners. For it is utterly absurd to think that He who gives laws to all was subject to commandments and could not govern His own life without the Father's commandments. He says this in order to comfort them more. He told them: "I love you." Meanwhile, they would subsequently have to struggle with sorrows. Lest in this case they be scandalized, as though His love served them no purpose, He says: "Do not be troubled. For behold, the Father loves Me, yet delivers Me to sufferings for the world. And just as the Father's love does not diminish because I suffer, so also My love for you will not diminish, even though you will be subjected to calamities."

2001 Now he shows what it means to abide in his love. First, he shows that it means to keep his commandment; secondly, he illustrates it with an example, as I have kept my Father's commandments; thirdly, he eliminates an assumption (v 11).

2002 He says, Abide in my love, and you will do this if you keep my commandments, for this is the way you will abide in my love. Keeping the commandments is an effect of divine love, not only of the love by which we love, but also of the love by which God loves us. For from the fact that God loves us, he influences us and helps us to fulfill his commandments, which we cannot do without grace: "In this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us first" [1 Jn 4:10].

2003 He adds an example when he says, as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. For just as the love which the Father has for him is the model or standard of Christ's love for us, so Christ wants his obedience to be the model of our obedience. By saying this Christ shows that he abided in the Father's love because in all things he kept the Father's commandments. For he submitted to death: "He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8); and refrained from all sin: "He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips" (1 Pet 2:22). These things are to be understood of Christ in his human nature: "He has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him" (8:29). And so he says, I abide in his love, because there is nothing in me, as a human being, opposed to his love.

You have just heard, beloved, the Lord saying to His disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full." And what else is Christ's joy in us, save that He is pleased to rejoice over us? And what is this joy of ours which He says is to be made full, but our having fellowship with Him? On this account He had said to the blessed Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou shall have no part with me." His joy, therefore, in us is the grace He hath bestowed upon us: and that is also our joy. But over it He rejoiced even from eternity, when He chose us before the foundation of the world. Nor can we rightly say that His joy was not full; for God's joy was never at any time imperfect. But that joy of His was not in us: for we, in whom it could be, had as yet no existence; and even when our existence commenced, it began not to be in Him. But in Him it always was, who in the infallible truth of His own foreknowledge rejoiced that we should yet be His own. Accordingly, He had a joy over us that was already full, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and foreordaining us: and as little could there be any fear intermingling in that joy of His, lest there should be any possible failure in what He foreknew would be done by Himself. Nor, when He began to do what He foreknew that He would do, was there any increase to His joy as the expression of His blessedness; otherwise His making of us must have added to His blessedness. Be such a supposition, brethren, far from our thoughts; for the blessedness of God was neither less without us, nor became greater because of us. His joy, therefore, over our salvation, which was always in Him, when He foreknew and foreordained us, began to be in us when He called us; and this joy we properly call our own, as by it we, too, shall yet be blessed: but this joy, as it is ours, increases and advances, and presses onward perseveringly to its own completion. Accordingly, it has its beginning in the faith of the regenerate, and its completion in the reward when they rise again. Such is my opinion of the purport of the words, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be made full:" that mine "might be in you;" that yours "might be made full." For mine was always full, even before ye were called, when ye were foreknown as those whom I was afterwards to call; but it finds its place in you also, when ye are transformed into that which I have foreknown regarding you. And "that yours may be full:" for ye shall be blessed, what ye are not as yet; just as ye are now created, who had no existence before.

(Tract. lxxxiii. 1) And what is Christ's joy in us, but that He deigns to rejoice on our account? And what is our joy, which He says shall be full, but to have fellowship with Him? He had perfect joy on our account, when He rejoiced in foreknowing, and predestinating us; but that joy was not in us, because then we did not exist: it began to be in us, when He called us And this joy we rightly call our own, this joy wherewith we shall be blessed; which is begun in the faith of them who are born again, and shall be fulfilled in the reward of them who rise again.

These things I have spoken to you. Here the fourth is touched upon, namely the effect of abiding: and the effect is joy in the present and joy in the future. On account of joy in the present he says: That my joy may be in you, that is, pure joy, by which a person rejoices in the Lord, not in the world; concerning which Philippians, the last chapter, says: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say: rejoice."

On account of joy in the future, he says: And that your joy may be fulfilled, concerning which below in chapter sixteen: "Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." Our joy is fulfilled by the joy of the Lord, concerning which in Matthew twenty-five: "Enter into the joy of your Lord."

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;" for it is said, "On these commandments the law and the prophets hang and are suspended." With these also agree the following: "These things have I spoken to you, that My joy might be fulfilled: and this is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." "For the Lord is merciful and pitiful; and gracious is the Lord to all."

When, after introducing to us the parable of the vine, He went on to teach us that the branch which is separated and sundered, as it were, from the mother who nourishes it will be wholly useless, and doomed to be consumed by fire, He thereby terrified His disciples not a little. For awful tidings, even though they have no reference to the present, are likely to cause no little alarm to their hearers, especially when the obscurity of the future engenders the suspicion that what they hear may come to pass. Just as the voyager who is about to cross the sea before him, when it seems probable that a storm will actually arise, and the billows rage, and the wild waves lash themselves in fury, even though he do not see these things before his eyes, and they stand yet merely in expectation, and that perhaps baseless, fears them as though they were in his sight. He then fitly raises up anew His disciples, trembling and struck with terror at these dreadful tidings, and stupefied by the thought of future trials, to a sustained courage; and leaving His sad discourse, speaks to them of their joy of heart in God. For it is not, He says, O My disciples, for this cause that I have now spoken these words unto you, to rob your minds of courage, or to inspire in you a vague terror, nor that you should be found altogether broken down by the thought of evil to come, and unable to endure to secure your own blessedness, but that you might be quite otherwise affected, and have pleasure of heart in Me, and that My joy should abide in you.

And I think we ought to consider more attentively what the sense of this passage is, and what Christ wishes us to take as His meaning. We must take it then as having a twofold meaning: for either one may say the words that you may have joy concerning Me or in Me, as used in an argument which bears no meaning but the obvious one: for so ye yourselves may make your own power complete, reflecting on the reward of blessings which exceed all things earthly, and the return that your exertions will win, and the greatness of your glory with God; or considering it in another sense, we will not shrink from entering upon a more profound inquiry. For we ought most eagerly and keenly to hunt in all reverence for the aim of all these investigations. What do then the words that My joy may be in you signify? Do they mean that the Only-begotten is as we are, that is, a Man, only without sin, resolved to undergo all the sufferings which the accursed madness of the Jews compelled Him to experience? For we shall find Him insulted and persecuted, and buffeted with bitter reproaches, and spat upon, and beaten with rods, and not exempt from the insult of the scourge, and, last of all, to crown all this, nailed to the cross through our means and for our sakes. And in the presence of all this awful suffering, He was not bowed down in agony, and did not even shrink from the ignominy of suffering as His plan required, but was full of the pleasure of heart and joy which became Him, since He saw the multitude of those who were saved, and the Will of God the Father fulfilled. For this cause He accounted dishonour joy, and thought suffering pleasure. For when they dared against Him many things repugnant to His nature, we shall find it written that Jesus then rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. Note that when He saw wisdom given to babes and simple folk, He rejoiced and exulted by the Spirit, and offered up thanks, as in our behalf, to the Father Who saves us; but when He passed through the land of the Samaritans, and was wearied with His journey, as it is written, He sat by the well of Jacob. But when the woman represented to Him the need of drawing water, He told her what was likely to come to pass; and foretold that a multitude of Samaritans would come, and seemed to make of small account the necessaries of life. For what did He say to His disciples, when they counselled Him to partake of what they had to eat? My meat is to do the will of My Father, and to accomplish His work. Is it not thereby clear that He accounted the fulfilling of His Father's Will, that is, providing a refuge in salvation for the backsliders, as pleasure and joy? It is beyond doubt.

All this then, He says, I have spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you; that those things may give you encouragement that give encouragement to Me; that you may face perils bravely, girding yourselves with the hope of those who will be saved; and, if suffering come upon you in this work, that ye may not be brought low into the feebleness of apathy, but may joy more abundantly, when the pleasure of Him That willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth is fulfilled by you. For I, too, rejoiced at this, and thought My sufferings very sweet. When then, He says, you elect to have this joy, which I thought became Myself, then you will have it perfect and complete.

For we think that joy most full and complete, which is in God, and through God, and results from good works, through the fixity and stability of the hope; and because it arose from a proper source, not only we, but also Jesus Himself took pleasure in it. And we say that the joy which is of the world is incomplete: because it is clearly transient and excited by unworthy causes; earthly things which flit away like phantoms and shadows. Just as we say that hatred is perfect which has a just and righteous origin amongst us; just as, of course, the blessed David says about the opponents of the glory of God, I hated them with a perfect hatred; and perfect love that which prepares those who have chosen it, in God and through God, to offer themselves wholly unto God; not that which is fixed on any earthly objects, and things worthy of no account.

Here it is as though when Jesus says, "All this I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you," he's saying that those things which encourage me may give you encouragement as well. You can face danger bravely, fortifying yourselves with the hope of those who will be saved. And, if suffering comes upon you in this work, don't be brought down into the feebleness of apathy, but rejoice more abundantly when you fulfill the will of him that wills that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. For I too rejoiced at this, [Jesus says], and thought my sufferings very sweet.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be fulfilled"; that is, "that ye might not be separated from Me that ye might not cut short your course. Ye were rejoicing in Me, and ye were rejoicing exceedingly, but despondency hath fallen upon you. This then I remove, that joy may come at the last, showing that your present circumstances are fit cause, not for pain, but for pleasure. I saw you offended; I despised you not; I said not, 'Why do ye not continue noble?' But I spake to you words which brought comfort with them. And so I wish ever to keep you in the same love. Ye have heard concerning a kingdom, ye rejoiced. In order therefore that your joy might be fulfilled, I have spoken these things unto you."

"This is My commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." Seest thou that the love of God is intertwined with our own, and connected like a sort of chain? Wherefore it sometimes saith that there are two commandments, sometimes only one. For it is not possible that the man who hath taken hold on the first should not possess the second also. For at one time He said, "On this the Law and the Prophets hang"; and at another, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." And, "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." Which He saith also here; for if to abide proceeds from love, and love from the keeping of the commandments, and the commandment is that we love one another, then the abiding in God proceeds from love towards each other. And He doth not simply speak of love, but declareth also the manner, "As I have loved you." Again He showeth, that His very departure was not of hatred but of love. "So that I ought rather to be admired on this account, for I lay down My life for you." Yet nowhere doth He say this in these words, but in a former place, by sketching the best shepherd, and here by exhorting them, and by showing the greatness of His love, and Himself, who He is. But wherefore doth He everywhere exalt love? Because this is the mark of the disciples, this the bond of virtue. On this account Paul saith such great things of it, as being a genuine disciple of Christ, and having had experience of it.

(Hom. lxxvii. 1) Then because the Passion was now approaching to interrupt their joy, He adds, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you: as if He said, And if sorrow fall upon you, I will take it away; so that ye shall rejoice in the end.

"I," He says, "said this to you so as not to cut short your joy." For they rejoiced when they were with Him, when He worked miracles and was glorified. They also rejoiced because they themselves cast out demons, as He Himself said: "Do not rejoice that you cast out demons" (Luke 10:20). But since now sufferings had come, and sorrowful words were interrupting their joy, He says: "I spoke these comforting words to you so that your joy might always and to the end remain uninterrupted, be full and perfect. And the present events are worthy not of sorrow, but of joy, even though the cross, shame, and dishonor lie ahead."

2004 Now so they do not think he is urging them to keep his commandments for his own benefit and not for their benefit, he says, These things I have spoken to you, that you keep my commandments, for your own good, so that my joy may be in you. Now love is the cause of joy, for everyone takes joy in what he loves. But God loves himself and creatures, especially rational creatures, to whom he grants an infinite good. So Christ rejoices in two things from all eternity: first, in his own good and that of the Father: "I was delighted every day, playing before him" [Prv 8:30]; secondly, he delights in the good of the rational creature: "delighting in the sons of men" (Prv 8:31), that is, in the fact that I am shared in by the children of men. He rejoices in these things from eternity: "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Is 62:5).

Consequently, our Lord wants us to become sharers of his joy by our observing his commandments. He says, that my joy, the joy I take in my divinity and that of my Father, may be in you. This is nothing else than eternal life, which as Augustine says, is joy in the truth. That my joy may be in you means, in effect, that you may have eternal life: "Then you will delight yourself in the Almighty" (Job 22:26). And that your joy, which I take in my own humanity, may be full. The goods in which we rejoice are either imperfect or imperfectly possessed; and so in this life our joy cannot be full. But it will be full when perfect goods are perfectly possessed: "Enter into the joy of your master" (Mt 25:21).

"This," He says, "is my injunction, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." Whether we call it injunction or commandment, both are the rendering of the same Greek word, entole. But He had already made this same announcement on a former occasion, when, as ye ought to remember, I expounded it to you to the best of my ability. For this is what He says there, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." And so the repetition of this commandment is its commendation: only that there He said, "A new commandment I give unto you;" and here, "This is my commandment:" there, as if there had been no such commandment before; and here, as if He had no other commandment to give them. But there it is spoken of as "new," to keep us from persevering in our old courses; here, it is called "mine," to keep us from treating it with contempt.

But when He said in this way here, "This is my commandment," as if there were none else, what are we to think, my brethren? Is, then, the commandment about that love wherewith we love one another, His only one? Is there not also another that is still greater,-that we should love God? Or has God in very truth given us such a charge about love alone, that we have no need of searching for others? There are three things at least that the apostle commends when he says, "But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." And although in charity, that is, in love, are comprehended the two commandments; yet it is here declared to be the greatest only, and not the sole one. Accordingly, what a host of commandments are given us about faith, what a multitude about hope! Who is there that could collect them together, or suffice to number them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: "Love is the fullness of the law." And so, where there is love, what can be wanting? and where it is not, what is there that can possibly be profitable? The devil believes, but does not love: no one loveth who doth not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not love, but he hopes in vain; but no one can despair who loves. Therefore, where there is love, there of necessity will there be faith and hope; and where there is the love of our neighbor, there also of necessity will be the love of God. For he that loveth not God, how loveth he his neighbour as himself, seeing that he loveth not even himself? Such an one is both impious and iniquitous; and he that loveth iniquity, manifestly loveth not, but hateth his own soul. Let us, therefore, be holding fast to this precept of the Lord, to love one another; and then all else that is commanded we shall do, for all else we have contained in this. But this love is distinguished from that which men bear to one another as such; for in order to mark the distinction, it is added, "as I have loved you." And wherefore is it that Christ loveth us, but that we may be fitted to reign with Christ? With this aim, therefore, let us also be loving one another, that we may manifest the difference of our love from that of others, who have no such motive in loving one another, because the love itself is wanting. But those whose mutual love has the possession of God Himself for its object, will truly love one another; and, therefore, even for the very purpose of loving one another, they love God. There is no such love as this in all men; for few have this motive for their love one to another, that God may be all in all.

(Tract. lxxxiii. 3) Where then love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can profit? But this love is distinguished from men's love to each other as men, by adding, As I have loved you. To what end did Christ love us, but that we should reign with Him? Let us therefore so love one another, as that our love be different from that of other men; who do not love one another, to the end that God may be loved, because they do not really love at all. They who love one another for the sake of having God within them, they truly love one another.

Do we fail to love according to the commandment of the Lord? Then we lose the distinctive mark imprinted on us. Are we puffed up till almost bursting with empty pride and arrogance? Then we fall into the inevitable condemnation of the devil.

If you consider the commands, "this is My commandment, that you love one another." If you are concerned with judgment, it is to Christ that the power of judgment pertains; and we should gladly choose to have Him as a judge, for He loves us. We should say to Him: "Lord, You must judge us; but make it so that Your blood atones for us."

Second, he exhorts the disciples to love their friends.

This is my commandment. After the Lord has exhorted to the love of God, here secondly he exhorts to the love of brother and friend, and he does this in the following manner. First, he binds them to fraternal love in view of obedience; second, in view of divine friendship; third, in view of eternal reward.

He binds them first by the precept of obedience, indicating that this is entirely in his will as the chief commandment; on account of which he says: This is my commandment, that you love one another; hence above in chapter thirteen: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." And the manner is added: As I have loved you, "not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth," as I have loved you.

Question I. But Gregory first inquires concerning what he says: This is my commandment, that you love one another: "Since all the divine utterances are full of the Lord's precepts, what is it that concerning love he says in the singular: This is my commandment"?

And he responds that "the divine precepts are many and one: many through the diversity of works, one in the root of love." And he calls love the root, "because the little branch of a good work has no greenness unless it remains in the root of love." Because therefore the commandments are referred to the precept of love, in which all are united and fulfilled: hence it is that he says: This is my commandment, in the singular.

Discord cannot attain to the kingdom of heaven. The one who has done violence to the love of Christ by faithless dissension will not attain to the reward of Christ, who said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another." Whoever does not have charity does not have God.

He now makes clearer by the illustration here given the meaning of the preceding passage; that is, the necessity of His disciples having His joy in them; and clearly says, "I give you this injunction, and teach those who think they ought to follow Me to do this, and be thus minded to practise such manner of love towards one another as I have heretofore shown and fulfilled." How great a measure can a man then find to the love of Christ, He Himself shows when He says that nothing can be greater than such love, which excites to forsake life itself for those one loves. And by all this He not only exhorts His own disciples that it becomes them so little to shrink from fearing to encounter dangers for those they love, but that also He Himself without shrinking held Himself in utmost readiness to undergo the death of the flesh. For the power of our Saviour's love attained so great a measure. And these words were borne out by His action, and by His encouragement to His disciples to attain an exceeding great and extraordinary courage, and by His exhorting them to the perfection of brotherly love, and fencing their hearts with the armour of enthusiasm and love of God, and raising them up into a zeal invincible and undaunted, so as impetuously to hasten to establish everything according to His good pleasure. Such a man Paul showed himself to us, when he said, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. And again: For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge that one died for all, therefore all died. And besides: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Note how he promises that nothing shall be able to overcome it or prevail to cut us off from the love of Christ. But if tending the flocks and feeding the lambs of Christ be to love Him, is it not quite clear that he who preaches the word of salvation to those who know not God will prevail over death, persecution, and the sword, and will think distress of no account at all? And, if it be fitting to condense the meaning and to compress the words of our Saviour, and to express in a few words what He wishes His disciples to do, He bids them to keep their hearts undaunted and free from every fear, and minister the word of faith in Him, and to preach the Gospel to all who are in the world. And the selfsame command He gives by the word of the prophet Esaias: O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; be strong, fear not. And we shall find that the holy disciples themselves have power to do this aright, when they ask of God by earnest prayer: for on one occasion, accusing the madness of the Jews, they exclaimed: And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings: and grant unto Thy servants to speak Thy word with boldness.

For those who resist and impiously rail against such as openly minister the Gospel are very many. But even if the terror be keen and the waves of evil counsel rise up most dreadfully, there will be no mention of suffering among His true disciples until the righteous acts that proceed from love attain their end----such love, I mean, as our Saviour set forth to us as a pattern, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, in order that He might accomplish salvation for those who have sinned. And if He had not been willing to suffer for us, we should be still dead, servants of the devil, fools and blind, and remaining in need of everything good, and slaves of pleasure and sin; having no hope, and without God in the world. But now the Saviour has even given His life for us from the love that He has unto us, and, exhibiting an incomparable love of mankind, has made us enviable and thrice-blessed, in want of no manner of thing that is good.

The meaning then of the text as thus conceived will fit in with the inspired chapters of the disciples. And if the saying shall go forth to all the world, that is, This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you, much profit will result to all from the investigation. For if love towards brethren keeps and works the fulfilment of the whole command of our Saviour, how will not he who tries as far as possible to accomplish this without laying himself open to censure and blame be very worthy of admiration, since the sum. of all the virtues, so to speak, is stored up in it? For love towards one another is next to love to God, and all the power of righteousness towards God is concluded as in this one word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

"This is my commandment." Have you then only one precept? This is sufficient, even if it is unique and so great. Nevertheless he also said, "Do not kill," because the one who loves does not kill. He said, "Do not steal," because the one who loves does even more—he gives. He said, "Do not lie," for the one who loves speaks the truth, against falsehood. "I give you a new commandment." If you have not understood what "This is my commandment" means, let the apostle be summoned as interpreter and say, "The goal of his commandment is love." What is its binding force? It is that of which [the Lord] spoke, "Whatever you want others to do to you, you should do also." "Love one another" in accordance with this measure, "as I have loved you." That is not possible, for you are our Lord who loves your servants. But we who are equals, how can we love one another as you have loved us? Nevertheless, he has said it.… His love is that he has called us his friends. If we were to give our life for you, would our love be equal to yours?… How then can what he said be explained, "As I have loved you"? "Let us die for each other," he said. As for us, we do not even want to live for one another! "If I, who am your Lord and God, die for you, how much more should you die for one another."

While all of sacred Scripture is full of the Lord's commandments, why does the Lord speak of love as if it were a singular commandment, saying: "This is my commandment, that you love one another," unless it is because every commandment concerns love alone, and all commandments are one, since whatever is commanded is grounded in charity alone? For just as many branches of a tree proceed from one root, so many virtues are generated from one charity. Nor does the branch of a good work have any greenness if it does not remain in the root of charity. Therefore the Lord's commandments are both many and one: many through the diversity of works, one in the root of love. Moreover, how this love should be maintained, he himself indicates, who in many passages of his Scripture commands both that friends be loved in him, and that enemies be loved for his sake. For he truly has charity who both loves a friend in God and loves an enemy for the sake of God. For there are some who love their neighbors, but through the affection of kinship and flesh, whom nevertheless sacred Scripture does not contradict in this love. But it is one thing that is freely given to nature, another that is owed to obedience from charity through the Lord's commandments. These indeed love their neighbor, and yet they do not attain those sublime rewards of love, because they bestow their love not spiritually but carnally. Therefore when the Lord said: "This is my commandment, that you love one another," he immediately added: "As I have loved you." As if he were saying openly: Love for the same purpose for which I loved you.

(Hom. xxvii. in Evang.) But when all our Lord's sacred discourses are full of His commandments, why does He give this special commandment respecting love, if it is not that every commandment teaches love, and all precepts are one? Love and love only is the fulfilment of every thing that is enjoined. As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced from one love: nor hath the branch, i. e. the good work, any life, except it abide in the root of love.

Above He said: "You will then abide in Me when you keep My commandments." Now He shows which commandments they must keep, and sets before them love: "That you love one another, as I have loved you." He desires that we love one another not simply and haphazardly, but in the way that He loved us. Note that He said above in the plural "commandments," but here He says in the singular "this is My commandment." In my opinion, love is called both commandments and commandment because it embraces all the commandments and is their chief. At the same time, He shows us the way to keep the commandments, namely: through the keeping of one commandment — the commandment of love. And when He says: "Love one another just as I have loved you," by this He indicates the measure and perfection of love.

Having said, If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, He shows what commandments they are to keep: This is My commandment, That ye love one another.

2005 Now our Lord states what his precepts are: first, he states his commandment; secondly, he presents an example (v 12b); thirdly, he recalls a benefit (v 14).

2006 The commandment he gives is the commandment of charity, which he wants us to keep: This is my commandment, that you love one another. Since there are many other commandments of the Lord in the sacred writings, why does he say that his commandment is only the practice of charity?

The answer, according to Gregory, is that charity is the root and end of all the virtues. It is the root, because it is from charity, firmly rooted in the human heart, that we are led to accomplish all the other commandments: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:8). Therefore, all the commandments are, in a way, directed to this: that we do good to our neighbor, and not harm him; and this is done best through charity. Charity is the end because all the commandments are directed to it and by it alone are given strength: "The aim of our charge is love" (1 Tim 1:5). So he says, This is my commandment, that you love one another, since everything comes from charity as its source, and all things are directed to charity as their end. As Gregory puts it: just as many branches of a tree spring from one root, so the many virtues are produced from one root; and the branch of a good work has no life if it is not united to the root of charity.

2007 Since we read in Matthew (22:40) that the law and the prophets depend not only on love for God, but also on love for neighbor, why does Christ mention here only love for neighbor? The answer is that one is included in the other: for a person who loves God must love his neighbor and things which belong to God; and the person who loves his neighbor for the sake of God must love God. Now although the objects of these acts are different, yet the outcomes are the same. There are two reasons why he mentions love of neighbor rather than the love of God. By doing this he wants to teach and lead them to help their neighbor, and to help them to become strong enough to endure sufferings from those who will persecute them. To do both of these, charity for our neighbor is necessary.

2008 Here he shows by an example how we should love our neighbor, which is, as Christ loved us. Now Christ loved us in the correct order and efficaciously. His love was orderly because he loved nothing in us but God and in relation to God: "I am the mother of beautiful love" (Sir 24:18), and efficacious because he loved us so much that he delivered himself for us: "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2). So we should love our neighbor, in a holy way, for his good, and efficaciously, by showing our love by our actions: "Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth" (1 Jn 3:18).

So therefore ought they also to do, and not to scruple it, if they should be obliged to lay down their life for a brother. For the Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ did not scruple to "lay down His life," as Himself says, "for His friends." If, therefore, the Lord of heaven and earth underwent all His sufferings for us, how then do you make a difficulty to minister to such as are in want, who ought to imitate Him who underwent servitude, and want, and stripes, and the cross for us? We ought therefore also to serve the brethren, in imitation of Christ. For says He: "He that will be great among you, let him be your minister; and he that will be first among you, let him be your servant."

Indeed, nobody has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. Do you think nobody? Indeed, nobody at all. It is true; Christ said this. Let us ask the Apostle and he will answer us: "Christ," he says, "died for the ungodly." And again he says: "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." Behold, therefore, in Christ, we find greater love, who laid down His life not for His friends, but for His enemies. How great the love of God for men, and what kind of affection, to love even sinners so much that He would die out of love for them. For God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Believe this therefore yourself, and for your salvation do not be ashamed to confess it. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The Lord hath defined that fullness of love which we ought to bear to one another, when He said: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Inasmuch, then, as He had said before, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you;" and appended to these words what you have just been hearing, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;" there follows from this as a consequence, what this same Evangelist John says in his epistle, "That as Christ laid down His life for us, even so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren;" loving one another in truth, as He hath loved us, who laid down His life for us. Such also is doubtless the meaning of what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: "If thou sittest down to supper at the table of a ruler, consider wisely what is set before thee; and so put to thy hand, knowing that thou art bound to make similar preparations." For what is the table of the ruler, but that from which we take the body and blood of Him who laid down His life for us? And what is it to sit thereat, but to approach in humility? And what is it to consider intelligently what is set before thee, but worthily to reflect on the magnitude of the favor? And what is it, so to put to thy hand, as knowing that thou art bound to make similar preparations, but as I have already said, that, as Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? For as the Apostle Peter also says, "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps." This is to make similar preparations. This it was that the blessed martyrs did in their burning love; and if we celebrate their memories in no mere empty form, and, in the banquet whereat they themselves were filled to the full, approach the table of the Lord, we must, as they did, be also ourselves making similar preparations. For on these very grounds we do not commemorate them at that table in the same way, as we do others who now rest in peace, as that we should also pray for them, but rather that they should do so for us, that we may cleave to their footsteps; because they have actually attained that fullness of love, than which, our Lord hath told us, there cannot be a greater. For such tokens of love they exhibited for their brethren, as they themselves had equally received at the table of the Lord.

But let us not be supposed to have so spoken as if on such grounds we might possibly arrive at an equality with Christ the Lord, if for His sake we have undergone witness-bearing even unto blood. He had power to lay down His life, and to take it again; but we have no power to live as long as we wish; and die we must, however unwilling: He, by dying, straightway slew death in Himself; we, by His death, are delivered from death: His flesh saw no corruption; ours, after corruption, shall in the end of the world be clothed by Him with incorruption: He had no need of us, in order to work out our salvation; we, without Him, can do nothing: He gave Himself as the vine, to us the branches; we, apart from Him, can have no life. Lastly, although brethren die for brethren, yet no martyr's blood is ever shed for the remission of the sins of brethren, as was the case in what He did for us; and in this respect He bestowed not on us aught for imitation, but something for congratulation. In as far, then, as the martyrs have shed their blood for the brethren, so far have they exhibited such tokens of love as they themselves perceived at the table of the Lord. Let us therefore love one another, even as Christ hath loved us, and given Himself for us. "For greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And let us be imitating Him in such a spirit of reverential obedience, that we shall never have the boldness to presume on a comparison between Him and ourselves.

(Tract. lxxxvi. 1) Having said, This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you, it follows, as John saith in his Epistle, that as Christ laid down His life for us, so we should lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3) This the martyrs have done with ardent love. And therefore in commemorating them at Christ's table, we do not pray for them, as we do for others, but we rather pray that we may follow their steps. For they have shown the same love for their brother, that has been shown them at the Lord's table.

Later, robed with strength from on high according to the promise of Jesus Christ, Peter began to love with such strength that when forbidden by the Council to proclaim the holy Name, he boldly answered those who gave the order: "We must obey God rather than men." Then finally he attained the fullness of love, when for love's sake he would not spare even his own life. Truly "greater love than this no man has, than that he lay down his life for his friends." Even if Peter did not actually surrender his life then, he did offer it.

And he shows that he himself loved them in deed: Greater, he says, love than this no one has, than that one lay down his life for his friends: as if to say: nothing more can one do than give one's life, which is dearer than all things; Ephesians 5: "Christ loved us and delivered himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness." And this was a most vehement love, not only in Christ, who delivered himself and his soul, but in the Father: whence Romans 8: "He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: how has he not also, together with him, given us all things?"

Whence it should be noted that great is the love by which a mother loves her son: beyond this Christ loved us: Isaiah 49: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you."

Greater is that by which a wife loves her husband, and beyond this Christ loved us; Jeremiah 3: "It is commonly said: If a man dismiss his wife, and she departing from him marry another man, shall he return to her any more? But you have committed fornication with many lovers: yet return, and I will receive you."

Greatest is that of the soul to the body: and beyond this he loved us: Jeremiah 12: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies." And therefore that saying is true in the last chapter of the Song of Songs: "Love is strong as death," etc.

Question II. Likewise it is inquired concerning what he says: Greater love than this no one has, than that one lay down his life for his friends.

Contra: 1. One person acts from a small charity, while another from a greater charity can die for a friend: what then does he mean when he says greater?

2. Likewise, in the homeland there will be much greater charity than exists on the way; what then does he mean when he says greater charity etc.?

I respond that this is not said with respect to the habit of charity, or its principal act; but with respect to the sign or effect, because this is the principal sign of love.

Question III. But then it is objected: because it is greater to die for an enemy than for a friend; therefore to die for a friend is still not the greatest sign of love. Hence the Apostle argues in Romans 5 from the lesser: If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

To this Gregory responds that this name "friends" does not stand only for those who loved the Lord, but also for his enemies, because they were friends of the Lord, since the Lord loved them when he laid down his life for them.

Or it should be understood that the Lord was speaking of the love of friends, and with respect to that love there is no greater sign than to die for a friend; similarly with respect to the true love of enemies: for there is no greater sign than to die for an enemy. Hence what is indicated here is not an excess absolutely, but within the genus.

[Poemen] also said, 'There is no greater love than that you should lay down your life for your neighbour. When you hear a complaint against you and you struggle with yourself, and do not begin to complain in return, when you bear an injury with patience and do not look for revenge, that is when you lay down your life for your neighbour.'

In this matter, dearest brothers, we must carefully observe that the ancient enemy, when he draws our mind toward delight in temporal things, stirs up a weaker neighbor against us, one who strives to take away those very things we love. Nor does the ancient enemy, in doing this, care about removing earthly things, but about striking charity within us. For we suddenly blaze up in hatred; and while we desire to be unconquered outwardly, we are gravely wounded within; while we defend small things outwardly, we lose the greatest things within, because while we love temporal things, we lose true love. Indeed, everyone who takes what is ours is an enemy. But if we begin to hate our enemy, what we lose is within. Therefore, when we suffer something externally from a neighbor, let us be vigilant inwardly against the hidden thief, who is never better conquered than when the external robber is loved. For there is one supreme proof of charity: if even he who opposes us is loved. Hence it is that Truth itself both endures the gallows of the cross, and yet extends the affection of love to its very persecutors, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." What wonder is it, then, if disciples love their enemies while they live, when the Master loves his enemies even while he is being killed? He expresses the height of this love when he adds: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." The Lord had come to die even for his enemies, and yet he said he would lay down his life for friends, to show us plainly that since by loving we can make a gain from our enemies, even those who persecute us are friends.

But behold, no one persecutes us even unto death. How then can we prove whether we love our enemies? Yet there is something that ought to be done in the peace of holy Church, by which it may become clear whether we would be able to die for love in a time of persecution. Certainly the same John says: "He who has the substance of this world, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him?" Hence also John the Baptist says: "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none." Therefore, he who in a time of tranquility does not give his tunic for God, when will he give his life in persecution? Therefore, let the virtue of charity, that it may be unconquered in disturbance, be nourished through mercy in tranquility, so that one may first learn to spend one's possessions for almighty God, and afterward oneself.

(Hom. xxvii.) The highest, the only proof of love, is to love our adversary; as did the Truth Himself, who while He suffered on the cross, showed His love for His persecutors: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34) Of which love the consummation is given in the next words: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Our Lord came to die for His enemies, but He says that He is going to lay down His life for His friends, to show us that by loving, we are able to 1 gain over our enemies, so that they who persecute us are by anticipation our friends.

(Hom. xxvii.) But whoso in time of tranquillity will not give up his time to God, how in persecution will he give up his soul? Let the virtue of love then, that it may be victorious in tribulation, be nourished in tranquillity by deeds of mercy.

For "there is no greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Therefore you also lay down your lives for one another, just as I am dying for you. So do not think that I am now departing from you out of ill will toward you; on the contrary, this is done out of love, and moreover the most perfect love.

2009 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Here he shows the efficacy of love, which is that one undergo death for his friends; this is a sign of the greatest love. Yet one could object that it is considered to be a sign of a greater love when someone lays down his life for his enemies, as Christ did: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).

We should answer that Christ did not lay down his life for his enemies so that they would remain his enemies, but to make them his friends. Or, one could say, that he lay down his life for his friends, not in the sense that they were friends who loved him, but rather were those whom he loved. It is clear that the sign of the greatest love is to lay down one's life for one's friends. This is so because there are four lovable things to be put in order: God, our soul, our neighbor, and our body. We should love God more than ourselves and our neighbor, so that for the sake of God we ought to give ourselves, body and soul, and our neighbor. We should lay down our body, but not give it, for the sake of our soul. For our neighbor, we should expose our body and our physical life for his salvation. Consequently, since our physical life is the best thing we have after our soul, it is the greatest thing to expose it for the sake of our neighbor, and a sign of greater love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (1 Jn 4:9).

When the Lord Jesus had commended the love which He manifested toward us in dying for us, and had said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," He added, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." What great condescension! when one cannot even be a good servant unless he do his lord's commandments; the very means, which only prove men to be good servants, He wished to be those whereby His friends should be known. But the condescension, as I have termed it, is this, that the Lord condescends to call those His friends whom He knows to be His servants. For, to let us know that it is the duty of servants to yield obedience to their master's commands, He actually in another place reproaches those who are servants, by saying, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?" Accordingly, when ye say Lord, prove what you say by doing my commandments. Is it not to the obedient servant that He is yet one day to say, "Well done, thou good servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord"? One, therefore, who is a good servant, can be both servant and friend.

(viii. de Trin. c. viii) From one and the same love, we love God and our neighbour; but God for His own sake, our neighbour for God's. So that, there being two precepts of love, on which hang all the Law and the Prophets, to love God, and to love our neighbour, Scripture often unites them into one precept. For if a man love God, it follows that he does what God commands, and if so, that he loves his neighbour, God having commanded this. Wherefore He proceeds: Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

(Tract. lxxxv. 2) Great condescension! Though to keep his Lord's commandments, is only what a good servant is obliged to do, yet, if they do so, He calls them His friends. The good servant is both the servant, and the friend. But how is this? He tells us: Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. Shall we therefore cease to be servants, as soon as ever we are good servants? And is not a good and tried servant sometimes entrusted with his master's secrets, still remaining a servant? (c. 3.). We must understand then that there are two kinds of servitude, as there are two kinds of fear. There is a fear which perfect love casteth out; which also hath in it a servitude, which will be cast out together with the fear. And there is another, a pure (castus) fear, which remaineth for ever. It is the former state of servitude, which our Lord refers to, when He says, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; not the state of that servant to whom it is said, Well done, thou good servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord: (Matt. 25:21) but of him of whom it was said below, The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth ever. Forasmuch then as God hath given us power to become the sons of God, so that in a wonderful way, we are servants, and yet not servants, we know that it is the Lord who doth this. This that servant is ignorant of, who knoweth not what his Lord doeth, and when he doeth any good thing, is exalted in his own conceit, as if he himself did it, and not his Lord; and boasts of himself, not of his Lord. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you.

(Tract. lxxxvi. 1) But how did He make known to His disciples all things that He had heard from the Father, when He forebore saying many things, because He knew they as yet could not bear them? He made all things known to His disciples, i. e. He knew that He should make them known to them in that fulness of which the Apostle saith, Then we shall know, even as we are known. (1 Cor. 13:12) For as we look for the death of the flesh, and the salvation of the soul; so should we look for that knowledge of all things, which the Only-Begotten heard from the Father.

You are my friends. Here secondly he exhorts to mutual love from the perspective of divine friendship; whence he offers his friendship to those who keep his commandments, so that according to the Lord's precept they may love one another: on account of which he says: You are my friends, if you do what I command you. He promises something great when he promises friendship. Augustine says: "Great is the condescension of the Lord, when he deigned to call us friends," since friend is a name of equality; "for friendship is an agreement with equal goodwill concerning divine and human things." For if wisdom establishes friends of God — Wisdom 7: "She passes into holy souls and establishes friends of God" — how much more does love? This love is proven in works: therefore he says: You are friends, if you do what I command, out of love as friends, not out of fear as servants, because you have not been called into servitude.

Now sinners are called enemies of God—enemies, that is, of the commands that they do not obey, just as those who obey become friends. The latter are named so from their fellowship; the former from their estrangement, which is freely chosen. For there is neither enmity nor sin without the enemy and the sinner.

There is then no reason, dearest brother, for any one to think that the custom of certain persons is to be followed, who have thought in thee past that water alone should be offered in the cup of the Lord. For we must inquire whom they themselves have followed. For if in the sacrifice which Christ offered none is to be followed but Christ, assuredly it behoves us to obey and do that which Christ did, and what He commanded to be done, since He Himself says in the Gospel, "If ye do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you not servants, but friends." And that Christ alone ought to be heard, the Father also testifies from heaven, saying, "This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Wherefore, if Christ alone must be heard, we ought not to give heed to what another before us may have I thought was to be done, but what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it becoming to follow the practice of man, but the truth of God; since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet, and says, "In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men." And again the Lord in the Gospel repeals this same saying, and says, "Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." But if we may not break even the least of the Lord's commandments, how much rather is it forbidden to infringe such important ones, so great, so pertaining to the very sacrament of our Lord's passion and our own redemption, or to change it by human tradition into anything else than what was divinely appointed! For if Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is Himself the chief priest of God the Father, and has first offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, and has commanded this to be done in commemoration of Himself, certainly that priest truly discharges the office of Christ, who imitates that which Christ did; and he then offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father, when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered.

In contrast to the terrors which will sometimes assail those inclined towards obedience and love of virtue He has set the gain of their love towards Him, in order that by the consolations ensuing from this, and by their aiming at what is greater, that which is burdensome may disappear and that which sometimes seems to cause pain sink into insignificance. Sweet is their labour to those who love God, since indeed theirs is a near and rich reward. Who then could conceive any thing greater, and what will he say is more glorious, than to be and be called the friend of Christ? For see how the reward surpasses the very limits of the nature of man. For all things are subject unto Him that made them, according to the saying of the Psalmist; and there is, I suppose, nothing in Creation which has not been subjected to the yoke of slavery, in accordance with the decree becoming the Creator and His work. For the work produced is not on an equality with its producer; and how could it be'? But God, Who is over all, will hold sway over and direct His own works. The universe then being under the yoke of subjection, and putting itself under servitude to God, the Lord leads up His holy ones to a supernatural glory, if they appear willing to work His Will and bring to Him, as an offering that is due, a blameless subjection. Their reward then is glorious and worthy of envy.

There follows: "You are my friends." O how great is the mercy of our Creator! We are not worthy to be servants, and we are called friends. How great is the dignity of men to be friends of God! But you have heard the glory of this dignity; hear also the labor of the struggle: "If you do what I command you." "You are my friends, if you do what I command you." As if He were saying openly: You rejoice at the height; consider by what labors one arrives at the height. Surely when the sons of Zebedee, through the intervention of their mother, sought that one should sit at the right hand of God and the other at the left, they heard: "Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They were already seeking the place of exaltation; the Truth calls them back to the way by which they might come to exaltation. As if it were said: The place of exaltation already delights you, but first let the way of labor exercise you. Through the cup one reaches majesty. If your mind desires what pleases, first drink what causes pain. Thus, thus through the bitter cup of affliction one arrives at the joy of salvation.

(xxvii. Moral.) A friend is as it were a keeper of the soul. He who keeps God's commandments, is rightly called His friend.

"Ye are My friends-henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. Ye are My friends, for all things which I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you."

How then saith He, "I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now"? By the "all" and the "hearing" He showeth nothing else, but that He uttered nothing alien, but only what was of the Father. And since to speak of secrets appears to be the strongest proof of friendship, "ye have," He saith, "been deemed worthy even of this communion." When however He saith "all," He meaneth, "whatever things it was fit that they should hear." Then He putteth also another sure proof of friendship, no common one.

He constantly introduces the subject of love, and by these many discourses shows us that the commandment of love is more important than the others and requires great diligence. He also presents the greatest proof of His love.

2010 Above, our Lord urged us to love our neighbor, based on his example. Here, Christ shows his disciples the benefit conferred upon them which obliges them to imitate him, which is, that he has embraced them in his love. First, he mentions a sign of friendship; secondly, the cause of this friendship (v 16). He gives two signs of friendship: one is found in the disciples; the other in himself (v 15).

2011 The sign in the disciples that they are friends of Christ is that they keep his commandments; he says, You are my friends if you do what I command you. He is saying in effect: Up to now I have urged you to love one another, but now I am speaking and teaching you about your friendship with me.

The statement, you are my friends can be understood in two ways, based on the two ways someone is called a friend. A person is called a friend either because he loves or because he is loved. And what follows, if you do what I command you is true for both meanings of friend. Those who love God keep his commandments, and because a friend is, as Gregory says, in a way the guardian of the other's soul, it is appropriate that one who guards or keeps the will of God in his commandments is called the friend of God. Again, those whom God loves keep his commandments, because by conferring his grace on them he helps them to keep them: for by loving us, God makes us love him: "I love those who love me" (Prv 8:17). It is not they who first loved God, but God makes them lovers by loving them.

2012 Note that keeping the commandments is not the cause of divine friendship but the sign, the sign that both God loves us and that we love God: "Love of her [Wisdom] is the keeping of her laws" (Wis 6:19); "He who says he loves him and does not keep his commandments is a liar" [1 Jn 2:4].

God himself made us friends instead of servants.… He gave us a pattern of friendship to follow. We are to fulfill the wish of a friend, to unfold to him our secrets that we hold in our own hearts, and are not to disregard his confidences. Let us show him our heart, and he will open his to us.… A friend, then, if he is a true one, hides nothing. He pours forth his soul as the Lord Jesus poured forth the mysteries of his Father.

"But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear." Yours, I say, who have believed in the one God, not by necessity, but by a sound understanding, in obedience to Him that called you. For you are released from the bonds, and freed from the servitude. For says He: "I call you no longer servants, but friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you." For to them that would not see nor hear, not for the want of those senses, but for the excess of their wickedness, "I gave statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they would not live;" they are looked upon as not good, as burnings and a sword, and medicines are esteemed enemies by the sick, and impossible to be observed on account of their obstinacy: whence also they brought death upon them being not obeyed.

If He made man out of filth, will He not make an angel out of man? He absolutely will. He made men His friends, will He not make them angels? I no longer call you servants, but friends. To those still bearing flesh, still dying, still dwelling in this poverty and frailty of life, He said, I no longer call you servants, but friends. And what will He give to His friends? What He showed in Himself when He rose again. They will be crowned and converted into heavenly glory and will be equal to the angels of God. There will be no corruption, no temptation. There we will not be told: Cleanse yourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. We will not labor, nor will we be promised a reward, because we will already have received it. Nor will we be told to groan, because we will already be praising. Thus, mortal flesh will be converted into the body of an angel. Thus, will groans be converted into praises. Here, penance, distress, and groans; there, praises, joy, and gladness.

It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are to be understood, "But I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." For who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knoweth all things that the only-begotten Son hath heard of the Father; when there is no one that can comprehend even how He heareth any word of the Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and His passion, He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now"? How, then, are we to understand that He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the Father, when there are many things that He saith not, just because He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to do He says that He has done as the same Being who hath made those things which are yet to be. For as He says by the prophet, "They pierced my hands and my feet," and not, They will yet pierce; but speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what was still in the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." For in the same place he adds: "Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face." For the same apostle also says that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration, and yet declares in another place, "We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is no hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle Peter, "In whom, though now seeing Him not, ye believe; and in whom, when ye see Him, ye shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your souls." If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith's reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which worketh by love, can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof the Apostle Paul speaketh, but also the salvation of our souls, as we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality, a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed day by day. Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that knowledge of all things which the Only-begotten hath heard of the Father we are to regard as a matter of hope still lying in the future, although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted.

But let us mark what follows. "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." How, then are we to understand the good servant to be both servant and friend, when He says, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth"? He introduces the name of friend in such a way as to withdraw that of servant; not as if to include both in the one term, but in order that the one should succeed to the place vacated by the other. What does it mean? Is it this, that even in doing the Lord's commandments we shall not be servants? Or this, that then we shall cease to be servants, when we have been good servants? And yet who can contradict the Truth, when He says, "Henceforth I call you not servants?" and shows why He said so: "For the servant," He adds, "knoweth not what his lord doeth." Is it that a good and tried servant is not likewise entrusted by his master with his secrets? What does He mean, then, by saying, "The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth"? Be it that "he knoweth not what he doeth," is he ignorant also of what he commands? For if he were so, how can he serve? Or how is he a servant who does no service? And yet the Lord speaks thus: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants." Truly a marvellous statement! Seeing we cannot serve the Lord but by doing His commandments, how is it that in doing so we shall cease to be servants? If I be not a servant in doing His commandments, and yet cannot be in His service unless I so do, then, in my very service, I am no longer a servant.

Let us understand, and may the Lord enable us to understand, and enable us also to do what we understand. And if we know this, we know of a truth what the Lord doeth; for it is only the Lord that so enables us, and by such means only do we attain to His friendship. For just as there are two kinds of fear, which produce two classes of fearers; so there are two kinds of service, which produce two classes of servants. There is a fear, which perfect love casteth out; and there is another fear, which is clean, and endureth for ever. The fear that lies not in love, the apostle pointed to when he said, "For ye have not received the spirit of service again to fear." But he referred to the clean fear when he said, "Be not high-minded, but fear." In that fear which love casteth out, there has also to be cast out the service along with it: for both were joined together by the apostle, that is, the service and the fear, when he said, "For ye have not received the spirit of service again to fear." And it was the servant connected with this kind of service that the Lord also had in His eye when He said, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." Certainly not the servant characterized by the clean fear, to whom it is said, "Well done, thou good servant: enter thou into the joy of thy lord;" but the servant who is characterized by the fear which love casteth out, of whom He elsewhere saith, "The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth ever." Since, therefore, He hath given us power to become the sons of God, let us not be servants, but sons: that, in some wonderful and indescribable but real way, we may as servants have the power not to be servants; servants, indeed, with that clean fear which distinguishes the servant that enters into the joy of his lord, but not servants with the fear that has to be cast out, and which marketh him that abideth not in the house for ever.

But let us bear in mind that it is the Lord that enableth us to serve so as not to be servants. And this it is that is unknown to the servant, who knoweth not what his Lord doeth; and who, when he doeth any good thing, is lifted up as if he did it himself, and not his Lord; and so, glories not in the Lord, but in himself, thereby deceiving himself, because glorying, as if he had not received. But let us, beloved, in order that we may be the friends of the Lord, know what our Lord doeth. For it is He who makes us not only men, but also righteous, and not we ourselves. And who but He is the doer, in leading us to such a knowledge? For "we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Whatever good there is, is freely given by Him. And so because this also is good, by Him who graciously imparteth all good is this gift of knowing likewise bestowed; that, in respect of all good things whatever, he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.

Nor is John the only one, it is true also of all to whom the Angel of the Great Counsel said: "I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father." Paul drank of it, because the Good News he preached is not a human message nor did he receive it through men, it is something he learned only through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

All of these indeed could say with felicity and truth: "It is the only Son who is in the Father's bosom who has made it known to us." And this revelation -- what can you call it but a kiss? But it was the kiss of the kiss, not of the mouth.

No longer will I call you servants, although previously you were: Romans 8: "You have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear, but the spirit of the adoption of sons." And he shows this by a sign: Because the servant does not know what his lord does: but you are not so: therefore he says: But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. This is a sign of great friendship, the revelation of secrets: Ephesians 1: "He has made known to us the mystery of his will"; Matthew 13: "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God," etc.

Question IV. Likewise it is asked about what he says: I will no longer call you servants.

Contra: 1. Matthew 25: Well done, good and faithful servant; and if he calls those about to be beatified servants, what then does he mean when he says: I will not call you servants?

2. Likewise, above in chapter 13 he called himself their lord; therefore by the correlation of relatives he also called them servants.

I respond: It must be said that servant is said in two ways: in one way, insofar as it denotes obedience and subjection; and in this sense servant is not distinguished from friend, and thus all friends of God are his servants. In another way, servant is said of one who fears in a servile manner; and such a one, who serves from fear alone, is not a friend. And he speaks here of such a one, because he did not want them to fulfill his commandments in a servile manner, but rather in a manner befitting friends.

Question V. Likewise it is asked about what he says: All things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

On the contrary: The Son heard infinite things from the Father; therefore he made known infinite things.

They respond that he does not speak of those things which he heard insofar as he is God, but insofar as he is man.

Then it is objected: because Christ as man knew the day of judgment, yet he did not wish to reveal it to his disciples.

On account of this they respond further that [he made known] all things pertaining to salvation.

On the contrary: below in chapter 16: I have yet many things to say to you, which you cannot bear now; and it is certain that [these pertained] to their salvation; therefore etc.

Augustine responds: He made all things known, that is, he disposed to make them known; for Scripture frequently speaks in this way, putting the past tense in place of the future as a sign of certainty.

Or: all things necessary for salvation according as they were able to grasp them. And thus all things are clear.

How or why does such faith occur sometimes, but not always, even in the perfect petitioner? We, or I, can only guess. My own idea is that it occurs only when the one who prays does so as God's fellow-worker, demanding what is needed for the joint work. It is the prophet's, the apostle's, the missionary's, the healer's prayer that is made with this confidence and finds the confidence justified by the event. The difference, we are told, between a servant and a friend is that a servant is not in his master's secrets. For him, "orders is orders". He has only his own surmises as to the plans he helps to execute. But the fellow-worker, the companion or (dare we say?) the colleague of God is so united with Him at certain moments that something of the divine foreknowledge enters his mind. Hence his faith is the "evidence"—that is, the evidentness, the obviousness—of things not seen.

As the friend is above the servant, the servant is above the suitor, the man praying on his own behalf.

But we must consider this point especially at this juncture, for it will be of no small profit. For if friendship towards Christ will be sufficient in the case of any for the dignity of freedom and the being no longer called slaves, how could He be a slave except as made and created, according to the thoughtlessness of some? For He is not able to allot the honour of freedom to all others, while His own Nature is bereft of this attribute. For I suppose He must appear in possession of it more than all the rest, for then will He most suitably give to those who have it not the blessing that is His own. But the dignity must be conferred on and given to the holy Apostles, or perhaps also to all others who mount up through faith to the friendship that is towards our Lord Jesus Christ, as by way of honour, but not existing in like manner with that enjoyed by Him. For they, mounting up by their likeness to Him to the glory of liberty, would display by this that which naturally belongs to Him alone. For that which is by position is compared with that which is by nature.

This however we must demonstrate; for I think it is necessary to go through every inquiry which is useful and particularly necessitates explanation. For the justice which is derived from faith in Christ has a more ancient manifestation than that justice which is according to the law; and further, because the knowledge of the Divine mysteries is revealed to those that believe and obey Christ, and the counsel of God the Father is interpreted by him who knows that of the Son, but to those who are disobedient, not at all.

Come then, let us again illustrate this by the inspired Scripture, dwelling somewhat at length upon it to advantage. It has then been written in a book of Moses that Abraham believed in God, but his faith was accounted unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. And what was the manner of his faith, or how then was he called the friend of God? He heard the words, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, unto a land that I will show thee. Moreoyer, when he was enjoined to sacrifice his only son as a type of Christ he learnt the purpose hidden in God. And for this reason the Saviour spoke concerning him to the impious Jews, saying: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad. Therefore the inspired Abraham, owing to obedience and sacrifice, was called the friend of God and put on himself the boast of righteousness.

And not only this, but he was deemed worthy of Divine converse, and knew the counsel of God, which came to pass in the last times. For in the fulness of time Christ died for us----the true, sacred, and holy sacrifice which taketh away the sin of the world.

But see again a like fulfilment in the case of those who mount up by faith to the friendship of our Saviour Christ. They also heard the words Get thee out of thy country. And that they did it eagerly we may learn from what they say: For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come, whose builder and maker is God. For they are strangers and sojourners upon earth, being citizens of heaven and leaving the land of their birth to speak allegorically of their heavenward aspirations, desiring eagerly the resting-place above. For this the Saviour set before them when He said, I go and will prepare a place for you; and when I come, I will receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. They were told to go forth from their kindred; and how shall we show this? We will refer to Christ's own words: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And that the things of God were preferred to their earthly and fleshly relationship, and their love towards Christ set forth as far stronger, is certainly unquestioned among those who reverence Him. And the blessed Abraham was ordered to bring to God his own son for an odour of a sweet-smelling savour, while others, girding themselves with the righteousness that is by faith, were commanded to offer not others but themselves. For he says: Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Since it has been written concerning them: They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof, they knew the mystery that is in Christ. For they know the powers of the age to come, and what will be in the last days; for they will receive the rewards of their labours, and take as requital the recompence of their piety towards Christ. Therefore we shall become just and the friends of God, as did Abraham. And the Gospel dispensation is far more ancient than that of the Law. I mean by the Gospel dispensation that which is by faith and friendship towards God, then moulded first in Abraham, as in the beginning of his race according to the flesh, that is of Israel, but now coming as from a type to truth, and being well fulfilled in the holy disciples themselves, as in the beginning of a spiritual race preserved as a people for God's own possession, which also is called a holy nation and a royal priesthood. Therefore it has been said to the mother of the Jews, I mean the synagogue, by the voice of the Psalmist: Instead of fathers thy sons have been born.

For the inspired disciples are truly sons of the synagogue of the Jews, for they were nourished up in the Mosaic usages. They became fathers, holding the position of Abraham, and were the beginning of the spiritual race, and for this reason were ordained as rulers, offering up as a sacrifice the Gospel of Christ in all the world, as did Abraham Isaac as a type of Christ. We thus speak, not depriving the blessed Abraham of the glory which is his due and befits him, but showing in him, as in a figure, what has been appointed in the last days by Christ. The reward of friendship with God which was then seen in Abraham first is intimately conjoined with the freedom which comes by faith, and now also it is seen in the holy disciples as the firstfruits of a new generation. Let then the inspired Paul point out to us the necessity of thus speaking, vehemently contending with the Jews, that the righteousness that is of faith is far older than that of the Law. For when he made mention of the circumcision according to the flesh, he affirmed that this was given to the firstfruits of the race, that is Abraham, for no other reason save his becoming the sign and seal of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision. But if uncircumcision with which also is faith was before the Law, but circumcision which has not the glory of faith after the Law, and Abraham believed in uncircumcision, how will not the justice through faith of those who are justified and freed through love towards God, as was Abraham, be more ancient than the dispensation by the Law? For thus also he will be father of many nations by promise, not according to the flesh. And these things have we now pertinently said on account of our Lord's word: No longer do I call you servants: ye are My friends; for all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known unto you.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and, so to say, its first swathing band. But, when wisdom bursts the bonds of fear and rises up to love, it makes us friends of God and children instead of slaves.

"I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you." What are all these things which He heard from His Father, which He wished to make known to His servants, that He might make them His friends, except the joys of interior charity, except those festivals of the heavenly homeland, which He daily imprints on our minds through the inspiration of His love? For when we love the heavenly things we have heard, we already know what we love, because love itself is knowledge. Therefore He had made all things known to those who, changed from earthly desires, were burning with the torches of supreme love. Indeed the Prophet had beheld these friends of God when he said: "But to me Your friends, O God, are exceedingly honored." For a friend is called, as it were, a guardian of the soul. Because therefore the Psalmist foresaw that the elect of God, separated from the love of this world, would guard the will of God in heavenly commandments, he marveled at the friends of God, saying: "But to me Your friends, O God, are exceedingly honored." And as if we were immediately asking him to reveal to us the reasons for such great honor, he at once added: "Their sovereignty is exceedingly strengthened." Behold, the elect of God subdue the flesh, strengthen the spirit, command demons, shine with virtues, despise present things, preach the eternal homeland by their conduct as well as by their voice; they love it even unto death, and reach it through torments. They can be killed, but they cannot be bent. Therefore their sovereignty is exceedingly strengthened. In that very passion by which they fell in the death of the flesh, see how great was the height of their minds. Whence this, except because their sovereignty was strengthened? But perhaps those who are so great are few? He added: "I will count them, and they will be multiplied beyond the sand." Behold the whole world, brothers: it is full of martyrs. Now we are scarcely as many as we can see compared to how many witnesses of the truth we have. Therefore those who are countable to God are multiplied beyond the sand for us, because how many they are cannot be comprehended by us.

(Hom. xxvii.) Or all things which He heard from the Father, which He wished to be made known to His servants; the joys of spiritual love, the pleasures of our heavenly country, which He impresses daily on our minds by the inspiration of His love. For while we love the heavenly things we hear, we know them by loving, because love is itself knowledge. He had made all things known to them then, because being withdrawn from earthly desires, they burned with the fire of divine love.

Inasmuch, then, as all natural precepts are common to us and to them (the Jews), they had in them indeed the beginning and origin; but in us they have received growth and completion. For to yield assent to God, and to follow His Word, and to love Him above all, and one's neighbour as one's self (now man is neighbour to man), and to abstain from every evil deed, and all other things of a like nature which are common to both [covenants], do reveal one and the same God. But this is our Lord, the Word of God, who in the first instance certainly drew slaves to God, but afterwards He set those free who were subject to Him, as He does Himself declare to His disciples: "I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things which I have heard from My Father I have made known." For in that which He says, "I will not now call you servants," He indicates in the most marked manner that it was Himself who did originally appoint for men that bondage with respect to God through the law, and then afterwards conferred upon them freedom. And in that He says, "For the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth," He points out, by means of His own advent, the ignorance of a people in a servile condition. But when He terms His disciples "the friends of God," He plainly declares Himself to be the Word of God, whom Abraham also followed voluntarily and under no compulsion (sine vinculis), because of the noble nature of his faith, and so became "the friend of God." But the Word of God did not accept of the friendship of Abraham, as though He stood in need of it, for He was perfect from the beginning ("Before Abraham was," He says, "I am"), but that He in His goodness might bestow eternal life upon Abraham himself, inasmuch as the friendship of God imparts immortality to those who embrace it.

"I," He says, "love you so much that I have revealed to you ineffable mysteries. For I have communicated to you all that I heard from My Father." How then does He say in another place (John 16:12): "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now"? He communicated to them everything that they were able to hear and that they could now understand. And when He says "all things that I have heard from My Father," do not think that He needs to be taught, but rather He shows that He proclaims nothing foreign, but only what belongs to the Father, and that all His words are the words of the Father.

As if He said, The servant knoweth not the counsels of his lord; but since I esteem you friends, I have communicated my secrets to you.

2013 The sign of Christ's friendship for them is mentioned when he says, No longer do I call you servants. First, he excludes what seems opposed to friendship; secondly, he mentions the sign of true friendship (v 15b).

2014 Servitude is opposed to friendship; and he rejects this by saying, No longer do I call you servants. It is like saying: although you were formerly servants under the law, now you are free under grace: "You have received the spirit of adoption" [Rom 8:15].

Secondly, he adds the reason for this when he says, for the servant does not know what his master is doing: for a servant is like a stranger to his master, "The slave does not continue in the house for ever" (8:35). Now secrets should not be told to strangers, "Do not tell a secret to a stranger" [Prv 25:9]. And so secrets should not be given to those who are now servants. This verse shows the servant does not act for the sake of himself, because charity does not seek its own, but the interests of Jesus and the salvation of one's neighbor. Those who act entirely by reason of another are bad servants. Thus it is clear that the disciples were servants, but it was a good servitude springing from love.

As for the second difficulty, we should say that the servant who is moved only by another and not by himself, is related to the one who moves him as a tool to the worker. Now a tool shares with the worker in the work, but not in the reason for the work. So such servants share only in the work. But when a servant acts by his own will, it is necessary for him to know the reason for the work and have secrets revealed to him so he can know what he is doing. "If you have a servant, regard him as your own soul" [Sir 33:31]. Now the apostles, as was said, were moved by themselves to accomplish good works, that is, they were moved by their own will, inclined by love. And so our Lord revealed his secrets to them. But bad servants do not know what their master is doing. What things don't they know? Strictly speaking, they do not know what God does in us. For God acts in us in all the good we do: "O Lord... you have wrought for us all our works" (Is 26:12). So the bad servant, darkened by the pride in his own heart, does not know what his master is doing when this servant attributes to himself what he does.

2016 Now he sets down the true sign of friendship on his own part, which is that all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. For the true sign of friendship is that a friend reveals the secrets of his heart to his friend. Since friends have one mind and heart, it does not seem that what one friend reveals to another is placed outside his own heart: "Argue your case with your neighbor" (Prv 25:9). Now God reveals his secrets to us by letting us share in his wisdom: "In every generation she [Wisdom] passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets" (Wis 7:27).

2017 There is a question here as to what and in what way the Son hears from the Father. The answer has already been indicated in many ways. Since to hear is to receive knowledge from another, for the Son to hear from the Father is nothing other than for the Son to receive knowledge from the Father. Now the knowledge of the Son is his own essence. Thus, for the Son to hear from the Father is for the Son to receive his essence from the Father.

2018 Another question concerns the statement, all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. If he did make all things known to them it would follow that the disciples knew as much as the Son. The answer, according to Chrysostom, is that all that I have heard means all that I have heard which you ought to hear, but not absolutely all things, I have made known to you: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (16:12).

Or, one could say, according to Augustine, that what he would say to them was so certain that he used the past tense instead of the future. So the meaning becomes, all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you, that is, I will make known with that fullness of which the Apostle says: "Then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood" (1 Cor 13:12). And below we read, "The hour is coming when I shall tell you plainly of the Father" (16:25), that is, when I lead you to the vision of the Father. For all things the Son knows the Father knows. So when he reveals the Father to us, the Son will reveal all that the Son himself knows and which we know.

Again, one could say with Gregory, and this is better, that the same thing can be known perfectly or imperfectly. For example, in the sciences it is obvious that a person who knows all the principles of a science is said to know that science, although imperfectly. And so a person who teaches some principles of a science can say that he teaches that science, because everything that belongs to that science is virtually contained in its principles. But one will know that same science more perfectly when he knows the individual conclusions which are virtually in the principles. In the same way we can have a twofold knowledge of divine matters. One is imperfect, and is gained by faith, which is a foretaste of that future happiness and knowledge which we will have in heaven: "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for" [Heb 11:2]. He says of this knowledge, all... I have made known to you, that is, in faith, by a kind of foretaste, like conclusions are virtually contained in their principles. So Gregory says: "All the things he has made known to his servants are the joys of interior love and the feasts of our heavenly fatherland, which he excites in our minds every day by the breath of his love. For as long as we love the sublime heavenly things we have heard, we already know what we love, because the love itself is knowledge."

Let us then with faithful spirit and devout mind call on Jesus our Lord. Let us believe that he is God, to the end that whatever we ask of the Father, we may obtain in his name. For the Father's will is that he be entreated through the Son. The Son's will is that the Father be entreated.

"Ye have not chosen me," He says, "but I have chosen you." Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of love? For he who hath chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we, think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: "I had rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness"? Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and lost? We had not yet come to believe on Him, in order to lead to His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how could He say, "Ye have not chosen me," save only because His mercy anticipated us? Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares, "Ye have not chosen me." For had He chosen us on the ground that He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the apostle says: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace." To which he adds: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." Listen, thou ungrateful one, listen: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Not that thou mayest say, I am chosen because I already believed. For if thou wert believing in Him, then hadst thou already chosen Him. But listen: "Ye have not chosen me." Not that thou mayest say, Before I believed I was already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin"? What, then, are we to say on hearing such words, "Ye have not chosen me," but that we were evil, and were chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of grace: and therefore that grace did not find, but effected the merit.

See then, beloved, how it is that He chooseth not the good, but maketh those whom He has chosen good. "I have chosen you," He saith, "and appointed you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain." And is not that the fruit, whereof He had already said, "Without me ye can do nothing"? He hath chosen therefore, and appointed that we should go and bring forth fruit; and no fruit, accordingly, had we to induce His choice of us. "That ye should go," He said, "and bring forth fruit." We go to bring forth, and He Himself is the way wherein we go, and wherein He hath appointed us to go. And so His mercy hath anticipated us in all. "And that your fruit," He saith, "should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you." Accordingly let love remain; for He Himself is our fruit. And this love lies at present in longing desire, not yet in fullness of enjoyment; and whatsoever with that longing desire we shall ask in the name of the only-begotten Son, the Father giveth us. But what is not expedient for our salvation to receive, let us not imagine that we ask that in the Saviour's name: but we ask in the name of the Saviour only that which really belongs to the way of salvation.

(Tract. lxxxvi. 3) Ineffable grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us, but wicked, and lost? We did not believe in Him, so as to be chosen by Him: for had He chosen us believing, He would have chosen us choosing. This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, not that He Himself would make us good. For had He chosen us, because He foreknew that we should be good, He would have foreknown also that we should first choose Him, for without choosing Him we cannot be good; unless indeed he can be called good, who hath not chosen good. What then hath He chosen in them who are not good? Thou canst not say, I am chosen because I believed; for hadst thou believed in Him, thou hadst chosen Him. Nor canst thou say, Before I believed I did good works, and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith? What is there for us to say then, but that we were wicked, and were chosen, that by the grace of the chosen we might become good?

(de Prad. Sanct. c. xvii.) They are chosen then before the foundation of the world, according to that predestination by which God foreknew His future acts. They are chosen out of the world by that call whereby God fulfills what He has predestined: whom He did predestinate, them He also called. (Rom. 8:30)

(Tract. lxxxvi. 3) Observe, He does not choose the good; but those, whom He hath chosen, He makes good: And I have ordained you that ye should go, and bring forth fruit. This is the fruit which He meant, when He said, Without Me ye can do nothing. He Himself is the way in which He hath set (ἔθηκα, posui) us to go.

(Tract. lxxxvi. 3) Love then is one fruit, now existing in desire only, not yet in fulness. Yet even with this desire whatever we ask in the name of the Only-Begotten Son, the Father giveth us: That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He may give it you. We ask in the Saviour's name, whatever we ask, that will be profitable to our salvation.

You have not chosen me. Here he thirdly exhorts to love in view of eternal recompense, to which they had been called through eternal predestination, not having come of themselves. Therefore he says: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you: Ephesians 1: "He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity: who predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the purpose of his will." To what end he chose them, he adds: And I have appointed you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, in the conversion of others: which is accomplished through the preaching of the word of God, which is like a seed that brings forth fruit when it is received into good ground; whence Luke 8: "But that on the good ground, these are they who in a good and perfect heart hear the word and bring forth fruit in patience"; 1 Peter 1: "Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of the living God and remaining forever." And your fruit should remain, for your salvation and consolation through divine recompense: and the recompense is subjoined: That whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that is, what pertains to your salvation, he may give it you. Now that which is to be sought is our salvation: whence Matthew 6: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." So that holy soul was asking in the Psalm: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."

Question VI. Likewise, an inquiry is made concerning what he says: You have not chosen me.

On the contrary: 1. Deuteronomy twenty-six: You have chosen the Lord, that he might be your God.

2. Likewise, if the merit of free will consists in choice, how did they merit, if they had not chosen him?

I respond: This is to be understood as follows: first, because we do not first choose the Lord, but secondly: because he first chose by predestining and afterwards chose from among others by calling, but we afterwards choose by consenting to the calling.

For then it will seem to us that we—we four or five—have chosen one another, the insight of each finding the intrinsic beauty of the rest, like to like, a voluntary nobility; that we have ascended above the rest of mankind by our native powers... But in Friendship, being free of all that, we think we have chosen our peers... But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you", can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another". The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others.

His aim is neither to depress His holy disciples by words too grievous, being aware, as God, of the great tendency of human reason to weakness, nor again does He permit them by immoderate assurances to fall into a state of backsliding, for this is indeed a disease and a serious one. But forming a mean between these two from a mixture of both, He fitly leads them into a safe path, and works in them a knowledge of the more stable state and of the complete uncertainty of that which is removed from it.

When therefore, then, he has abundantly comforted them with the words of consolation, and with respect to those things at which they would be likely to be cast down, persuading them in turn to rejoice, He again incites them by His injunctions to diligence to a confident courage; persuading them to change their minds and rather to rejoice at those things at which they had not without reason been dismayed, and charges them to display the utmost zeal, and put into practice an overflowing measure of brotherly love, and to benefit those as yet without faith, and to hasten by the words and deeds that make for righteousness to draw those who are astray to a willingness to be united to God by faith.

Offering Himself then as an Image and Pattern of that which must be done, and bringing before them that which has been already accomplished by Him in their behalf, He persuades them to imitate their Teacher and themselves to be conspicuous in like righteousness when He says: Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and what follows.

Conceive Him then as saying: "Gird yourselves with love towards one another, O My disciples; for ye ought indeed yourselves also to devise and do towards one another, and perform with an eager zeal, those things which I have first accomplished towards you. For I chose you, and it is not you that have chosen Me. I drew you to Myself and made Myself known to those who knew Me not through My exceeding kindness, and I brought you into a steadfast opinion so as to lead you up, that is, to confer on you the ability to reach forward to what is greater, and to bear fruit unto God. Attain therefore to the complete confidence that whatsoever ye shall ask in My name ye shall receive. Since, therefore, ye follow in the track of My words and ministry, and have the mind which My true disciples ought to be endued with, it follows that ye ought not by your own tarrying to throw obstacles in the way of him who of his will seeks the faith and is self-called to a life of piety; but that you should rather attach yourselves as guides to those who are still ignorant and astray, and bring to those who do not yet prefer to learn it the Gospel of salvation, and eagerly exhort them to attain unto the true knowledge of God, even though the mind of your hearers be hardened into disobedience. For thus they would be in your condition, that is, they will advance and will return by gradual growth in what is better to fruit-bearing in God, so as to have the fruit that ever remains and is preserved and that most acceptable object of prayer, the bestowal of whatsoever they wish, if only they ask in My name."

So much then on this head: for it is necessary again, compressing in a few words the drift of the text, to make it clear to our hearers. He persuades His disciples to have so much love towards others, and wishes them to exhibit as much zeal in their persistent endeavour in all directions to pursue and bring to holiness the souls of those who have not yet believed, as He Himself first showed towards us and them. For that He Himself chose His disciples is unquestioned, and I think it unnecessary to state how and in what way the call of each was made. Still, that the discourse of the Saviour is pregnant with the meaning I have just given to it what follows will equally persuade us...

For shall we not allow that the choosing out of those still faithless and astray to obedience to God is the work of the highest love of all? But this is undeniable. And Paul hastened to do this when he said: We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. So also does Peter, saying boldly to the Jews: And now, brethren, I wot that in ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. Repent ye therefore and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see then how and with what zeal they meet those who have not believed, and bring to them the word which they have not sought, not making it necessary for these in their ignorance to choose themselves as their teachers, but anticipating in this even him who has as yet been unwilling to learn any elementary truth.

But since our Saviour's words have this addition, that ye should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, it is our duty to inquire what this means. For what is the meaning of the expression that the fruit of His disciples remains? I think then that by fruit which remains our Saviour means that produced by the training of the Gospel and not by the righteousness of the Law. For the latter has become obsolete by reason of its inability to accomplish anything. For the Law accomplished nothing, as Paul says; but the new righteousness burst as it were into blossom in its stead and lifted up its head, making obsolete and putting away the former, and bringing in the fruit that truly remains and is preserved. Thus speaks the inspired Paul addressing us, and saying that the righteousness by the Law was gladly and readily accounted by him as loss in order that he might gain Christ, that is, the righteousness and fruit-bearing of the Gospel by the faith that is in Him. For such fruit as this will continue and be perennial, being capable of fulfilling the soul of man with righteousness. For no other new instruction will steal in beside the messages of the Gospel making the former obsolete, as was undoubtedly the ease with the Mosaic command. But the Word of the Saviour will stand for ever, as indeed He Himself says: Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.

But whoever arrives at this dignity of being called a friend of God, let him look upon himself in himself, but upon the gifts he receives as above himself. Let him attribute nothing to his own merits, lest he break forth into enmity. Hence it is added: "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go and bring forth fruit." I have appointed you unto grace, I have planted you that you should go by willing, and bring forth fruit by working. For I said "go" by willing, because to will to do something is already to go in the mind. But what kind of fruit they ought to bring forth is added: "And your fruit should remain." Everything for which we labor according to the present age barely suffices until death. For death intervening cuts off the fruit of our labor. But what is done for eternal life is preserved even after death; and it begins to appear when the fruit of carnal labors has begun to disappear. Therefore, that reward begins where this one ends. Whoever therefore has already come to know eternal things, let temporal fruits become worthless in his soul. Let us work such fruits as remain; let us work such fruits as, when death destroys all things, themselves take their beginning from death. For the Prophet testifies that the fruit of God begins from death, when he says: "When he shall give sleep to his beloved ones, this is the inheritance of the Lord." Everyone who sleeps in death loses his inheritance; but "when he shall give sleep to his beloved ones, this is the inheritance of the Lord," because after the elect of God have arrived at death, then they will find their inheritance.

(Hom. in Evang. xxvii.) But let no one who has attained to this dignity of being called the friend of God, attribute this superhuman gift to his own merits: Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.

(Hom. xxvii.) I have set you,i. e. have planted you by grace, that ye should go by will (volendo not in Vulg.); to will being to go in mind, and bring forth fruit, by works. What kind of fruit they should bring forth He then shews: And that your fruit may remain: for worldly labour hardly produces fruit to last our life: and if it does, death comes at last, and deprives us of it all. But the fruit of our spiritual labours endures even after death; and begins to be seen at the very time that the results of our carnal labour begin to disappear. Let us then produce such fruits as may remain, and of which death, which destroys every thing, will be the commencement.

In the beginning, therefore, did God form Adam, not as if He stood in need of man, but that He might have [some one] upon whom to confer His benefits. For not alone antecedently to Adam, but also before all creation, the Word glorified His Father, remaining in Him; and was Himself glorified by the Father, as He did Himself declare, "Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves. For to follow the Saviour is to be a partaker of salvation, and to follow light is to receive light. But those who are in light do not themselves illumine the light, but are illumined and revealed by it: they do certainly contribute nothing to it, but, receiving the benefit, they are illumined by the light. Thus, also, service [rendered] to God does indeed profit God nothing, nor has God need of human obedience; but He grants to those who follow and serve Him life and incorruption and eternal glory, bestowing benefit upon those who serve [Him], because they do serve Him, and on His followers, because they do follow Him; but does not receive any benefit from them: for He is rich, perfect, and in need of nothing. But for this reason does God demand service from men, in order that, since He is good and merciful, He may benefit those who continue in His service. For, as much as God is in want of nothing, so much does man stand in need of fellowship with God. For this is the glory of man, to continue and remain permanently in God's service. Wherefore also did the Lord say to His disciples, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you;" indicating that they did not glorify Him when they followed Him; but that, in following the Son of God, they were glorified by Him. And again, "I will, that where I am, there they also may be, that they may behold My glory;" not vainly boasting because of this, but desiring that His disciples should share in His glory: of whom Esaias also says, "I will bring thy seed from the east, and will gather thee from the west; and I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; all, as many as have been called in My name: for in My glory I have prepared, and formed, and made him." Inasmuch as then, "wheresoever the carcase is, there shall also the eagles be gathered together," we do participate in the glory of the Lord, who has both formed us, and prepared us for this, that, when we are with Him, we may partake of His glory.

"Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you."

That is, I ran upon your friendship. And He stayed not here, but,

"I set you," He saith, (that is, "I planted you,") "that ye should go," (He still useth the metaphor of the vine,) that is, "that ye should extend yourselves"; "and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."

"Now if your fruit remain, much more shall ye. For I have not only loved you," He saith, "but have done you the greatest benefits, by extending your branches through all the world." Seest thou in how many ways He showeth His love? By telling them things secret, by having in the first instance run to meet their friendship, by granting them the greatest blessings, by suffering for them what then He suffered. After this, He showeth that He also remaineth continually with those who shall bring forth fruit; for it is needful to enjoy His aid, and so to bear fruit.

"That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it you."

Yet it is the part of the person asked to do the thing asked; but if the Father is asked, how is it that the Son doeth it? It is that thou mayest learn that the Son is not inferior to the Father.

Having said that the proof of My love for you is the sharing of secrets with you, He adds another sign of love as well. "I," He says, "chose you," that is, you did not attach yourselves to My friendship, but I to you, and I was the first to love you. How then shall I abandon you in the time to come? "And I appointed you," that is, I planted you, "that you should go," that is, that you should grow, multiply, expand, spread, and bear fruit. Here He clearly presents Himself as the husbandman. He also declared Himself above to be the pruner, when He said: "You are clean through the word which I have spoken to you" (John 15:3), and now even more clearly, when He said: "I chose you and appointed you." For it is well known that the husbandman selects and places the branches in the ground. Do you see the equality of the Father and the Son? Above, the Father is called the worker, but here the worker is the Son. Be ashamed, Arius, along with those who together with you have enslaved themselves to impiety. Here is also another sign of love. "That whatever you ask of the Father, He may give you," that is, I will give you. Although according to the connection it should have said "whatever you ask of the Father, He will give you," but He said "I will give you"; He said this, without doubt, because of the equality of power. For the Father, when He gives, gives by His right hand, and His right hand is the Son. Observe, I pray you, this also, that when we, having been planted, bear fruit, then He will also give us whatever we ask; but if we do not bear fruit, then we will not receive. For whoever does not bear fruit does not ask for what is beneficial and saving for the soul, but inevitably asks for what is worldly and useless, and therefore does not receive. For it is said: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss" (James 4:3).

2019 Now he mentions the cause of this friendship. It is the usual practice for each one of us to say that he or she is the cause of friendship: "Every friend will say, 'I started the friendship'" [Sir 37:1]. And so many people attribute to themselves the cause of God's friendship when they attribute to themselves, and not to God, the source of their good actions. Our Lord rejects this by saying, you did not choose me. He is saying in effect: Whoever has been called to this sublime friendship should not attribute the cause of this friendship to himself, but to me, who chose him or her as a friend. First, he mentions the gratuitous choice of God; secondly, he sets forth for what they have been chosen, that you should go and bear fruit.

2020 He says, you did not choose me to be your friend, but I chose you to make you my friends: "Not that we loved God, but that he loved us first" [1 Jn 4:10].

Now God's love is twofold. One is eternal, by which we are predestined: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4). The other is temporal, by which we are called by him, and this is simply the carrying out of eternal predestination. And this is because those he chose by predestining them he also chose by calling them: "Those whom he predestined he also called" (Rom 8:30); "He chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles" (Lk 6:13).

2021 Some say that God's temporal choice is caused by the merits of those who are chosen. This conflicts with what it says here. For if God chose you because you were good, you were still not able to be good unless you chose the good, and this good is especially God. Therefore, it was you who first chose the good which is God, before you were chosen. But our Lord says the contrary: you did not choose me, but I chose you. Thus we should not say that our own goodness entirely precedes God's choice. I say "entirely" because we might have some particular good which could be the cause of another good being given to us; and this good could be the cause of being given still another good, since there is a certain order in God's gifts. But in general, nothing can be the cause of and precede the divine choice, because all our goods are from God.

2022 It would be an even greater error to say that our eternal election was preceded by our own choice. Yet there are some who said that our preceding merits are the cause of that election. This was Origen's error. He said that human souls were created equal at the same time and that while some stood firm, others sinned, more and less seriously. Thus, some merited to receive grace, and others did not. Our Lord's saying is opposed to this, you did not choose me.

2023 Others say that it is true that our actually existing merits are not the cause of our predestination, but those merits preexisting in the foreknowledge of God are. Thus they say that because God knew that certain persons would be good and make good use of grace, he decided to give them grace. But if this were so, it would follow that the reason he chose us was because he foreknew we would choose him. And so our choice would be prior to the divine choice; which is contrary to our Lord's statement.

2024 Perhaps someone might say: What choice could there be since we were nothing and there was no rank among us? But one who says this is misled by thinking that the divine choice is like human choice. They are not the same. Our choice is caused by some already existing good; while God's choice is the cause of an influx of good, greater in one than in another. Since choice is an act of the will, then according as the will of God and the human will are differently related to the good, so the character of their choice will be different. Now God's will is related to a created good as its cause: "How would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it?" (Wis 11:25). And so goodness is dispensed to created things from the will of God. Accordingly, God prefers one person to another insofar as he confers more good on that one than on another. But the human will is moved to something by a preexisting good which has become known. Therefore, in our choices it is necessary that one good exist before another. The reason why God confers more good on one than on another is so that there might be a splendor of order in things. This is clear in material things where prime matter of itself is uniformly disposed to all forms. Also, before things themselves exist, they are not disposed to this or that existence; rather, they receive different forms and existences from God so that an order can be established among them. It is like this among rational creatures, where some are chosen for glory and some are rejected for punishment: "The Lord knows who are his... In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble" (2 Tim 2:19). And so we see a diversified order: the mercy of God shines forth in those whom, without any previous merits, he prepares for grace; in others we see the justice of God when, because of their own guilt, he allots them punishment, yet less than is deserved. So, I have chosen you by predestining you from all eternity, and by calling you to the faith during your lifetime.

2025 Then he points out for what he has chosen them when he says, I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. First, he states for what he chose them; secondly, he gives a reason for the above (v 17). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows that he chose them to do something; secondly, that he chose them to receive something, whatever you ask the Father.

2026 He says, I appointed you, that is, I gave you a definite rank in my Church: "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets" (1 Cor 12:28). Again, I appointed you, that is, firmly set you: "And God made the two great lights... and God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth" (Gen 1:16).

2027 I appointed you, I say, to three things. First to go; and so he says, that you should go, traveling over the whole world to convert the whole world to the faith: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mk 16:15). Or, that you should go, that is, progress from virtue to virtue: "They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion" (Ps 84:7); "His shoots shall spread out" (Hos 14:6).

Secondly, he appointed them to bear fruit; so he says, and bear fruit. This fruit is the fruit of conversion to the faith, as in Paul's first journey, "In order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles" (Rom 1:13); or an interior and spiritual fruit, as in his second journey, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" (Gal 5:22); "My blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit" (Sir 24:17).

Thirdly, they were appointed to bear fruit that would not be destroyed by death or sin; so he says, and that your fruit should abide, that is, that the society of the faithful would be led into eternal life and their spiritual fruit flourish: "He gathers fruit for eternal life" (4:36).

2028 So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Here he shows that he chose them to receive something, namely, all that they ask for. He is saying: I have appointed you to be worthy to receive from the Father in my name: "If our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask" (1 Jn 3:22).