Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.2–6.12

But since many such things are done by those who seek other things and who do not love the brothers, let us be called back to the witness of conscience. How do we prove that many such things are done by those who do not love the brothers? How many in heresies and schisms call themselves martyrs! They seem to themselves to be laying down their lives for the brothers. If they were laying down their lives for the brothers, they would not separate themselves from the whole brotherhood. Again, how many there are who give much and bestow much for the sake of boasting, and seek nothing there but human praise and popular glory, full of wind and made firm by no stability! Since, then, there are such men, where will brotherly love be proved? Because he wanted it to be proved, he said in admonition, "Little children, let us not love in word only and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth." We ask: in what deed, in what truth? Can there be a more manifest deed than giving to the poor? Many do this from boasting, not from love. Can there be a greater deed than dying for the brothers? This too many wish to be thought to do, from boasting, to win a name, not from the heart of love. It remains that he loves his brother who before God, where God alone sees, persuades his own heart, and asks his heart whether he truly does this for love of the brothers; and the eye which penetrates the heart, where man cannot look, bears him witness. That is why the apostle Paul, because he was ready to die for the brothers and said, "I myself will be spent for your souls", yet since God saw this in his heart, not the men to whom he spoke, said to them, "But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by any human day." And he himself shows in a certain place that such things are often done from empty boasting, not on the firm ground of love; for, speaking in praise of love itself, he says, "If I distribute all I have to the poor, and give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." Can anyone do this without love? He can. For those who do not have love have divided unity. Look there, and you will see many giving much to the poor; you will see others ready to undergo death, so that, when the persecutor holds back, they throw themselves over cliffs: these without doubt do this without love. Let us be called back, then, to conscience, of which the apostle says, "For our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience." Let us be called back to conscience, of which the same apostle says, "But let each one test his own work, and then he will have glory in himself and not in another." So let each of us test his own work, whether it flows from the vein of love, whether the branches of good works sprout from the root of love. "But let each one test his own work," he says, "and then he will have glory in himself and not in another": not when another's tongue bears witness to him, but when his own conscience bears witness.

This, then, is what he commends here. "By this we know that we are of the truth", when we love in deed and in truth, not in words and with the tongue only; "and we persuade our heart before him." What does "before him" mean? Where he himself sees. Hence the Lord himself says in the Gospel: "Beware of doing your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." And what does "Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing" mean, but that the right hand is a pure conscience, the left the desire of the world? Many do many wonderful things through desire of the world: the left hand is working, not the right. The right hand ought to work, and without the left hand knowing, so that the desire of the world does not mix itself in when we do something good from love. And where do we know this? You are before God: question your heart; see what you have done and what you sought there, your salvation or the windy praise of men. Look within; for man cannot judge what he cannot see. If "we persuade our heart", let us persuade it "before him". "For if our heart thinks ill of us", that is, accuses us within because we do not do what is to be done in the right spirit, "God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." You hide your heart from man; hide it from God if you can. How will you hide it from him, to whom a certain sinner, fearing and confessing, said, "Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your face?" He was seeking where to flee, so as to escape the judgment of God, and he did not find it. For where is God not? "If I ascend into heaven," he says, "you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present." Where will you go? Where will you flee? Do you want to hear advice? If you want to flee from him, flee to him. Flee to him by confessing, not from him by hiding: for you cannot hide, but you can confess. Say to him, "You are my refuge"; and let love be nourished in you, which alone leads to life. Let your conscience bear you witness that it is from God. If it is from God, do not wish to boast of it before men; for neither do men's praises lift you up to heaven, nor do their reproaches put you down from there. Let him see who crowns; let him be the witness by whose judgment you are crowned. "God is greater than our heart, and knows all things."

"Beloved, if our heart does not think ill of us, we have confidence toward God." What does "if our heart does not think ill" mean? If it answers us truly that we love, and that there is genuine love in us: not feigned but sincere, seeking a brother's salvation, expecting no profit from a brother except his salvation. "We have confidence toward God; and whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments." So not in the sight of men, but where God himself sees, in the heart. "So we have confidence toward God; and whatever we ask we shall receive from him", but "because we keep his commandments." What are his commandments? Must it always be repeated? "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." He speaks of love itself; he commends love itself. Whoever, then, has brotherly love, and has it before God, where God sees, and whose heart, questioned under just examination, gives him no other answer than that the genuine root of love is there, from which good fruits come forth, has confidence with God, and whatever he asks he will receive from him, because he keeps his commandments.

A certain question arises; not about this or that man, or you or me: for if I ask something from the Lord our God and do not receive it, anyone can easily say of me, "He does not have love"; and it can easily be said of any man of this time; and let each think what he likes of another. The question becomes greater only because of those men who are known to have been holy when they wrote, and to be now with God. Who has love, if Paul did not have it, who said, "Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not restricted in us"; who said, "I will be spent for your souls"; and in whom there was such grace that it was manifest that he had love? Yet we find that he asked and did not receive. What do we say, brothers? It is a question; be intent on God. This too is a great question. Just as in the case of sin, where it was said, "Whoever is born of God does not sin", we found that this sin is the violation of love, and that this was specially meant in that place: so now too we ask what he meant. For if you attend to the words, it seems plain; if to examples, it is obscure. Nothing is plainer than these words: "And whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him in his sight." "Whatever we ask," he says, "we shall receive from him." He has hemmed us in tightly. For there too he would have hemmed us in if he had said every sin; but we found room to explain it, because he spoke of a particular sin, not of every sin; of a certain sin which everyone who is born of God does not commit; and we found that this particular sin is the violation of love. And we have a plain example from the Gospel, when the Lord says, "If I had not come, they would not have sin." What then? Had he come to innocent Jews, since he speaks so? So if he had not come, they would have no sin? Did the presence of the physician, then, make the sick man ill, rather than take away the fever? Who, even a madman, would say this? He came only to cure and heal the sick. Why, then, did he say, "If I had not come, they would not have sin", unless because he wanted a particular sin to be understood? For the Jews would not have had a certain sin. What sin? That they did not believe in him, that they despised him when present. So, just as there he said "sin", and it does not follow that we should understand every sin, but a particular sin, so here too it is not every sin (lest it contradict that place where he says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"), but a certain particular sin, that is, the violation of love. But here he has bound us more tightly: if we ask, he says, if our heart does not accuse us, and reports in the sight of God that there is true love in us, "whatever we ask we shall receive from him."

Now I have already said to your Love, brothers, let no one look to us. For what are we? Or what are you? What, but the Church of God, which is known to all? And if it pleases him, we are in it; and let us who abide in it by love persevere there, if we wish to show the love that we have. Yet what evil are we going to think of the apostle Paul? Did he not love the brothers? Was the testimony of his conscience not with him in the sight of God? Was that root of love not in Paul, from which all good fruits came forth? What madman would say this? Where, then, do we find that the apostle asked and did not receive? He says himself: "Lest I be lifted up by the greatness of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me; for this I asked the Lord three times that he would take it away from me; and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." See, he was not heard, so that the angel of Satan might be taken away from him. But why? Because it was not good for him. So he was heard for his salvation, who was not heard according to his will. Let your Love know a great mystery, which we commend to you so that it may not slip from you in your temptations. The saints are heard in all things for their salvation; they are always heard for eternal salvation; that is what they desire, because according to this they are always heard.

But let us distinguish God's hearings. For we find some not heard according to their will, heard for their salvation; and again we find some heard according to their will and not heard for their salvation. Distinguish this; hold fast this example of one who was not heard according to his will but was heard for his salvation. Hear the apostle Paul; for God showed him that very hearing for his salvation: "My grace is sufficient for you," he says, "for power is made perfect in weakness." "You asked, you cried, you cried three times: the very first time you cried I heard you; I did not turn my ears from you; I know what I am doing. You want the remedy by which you are being cauterised taken away; I know the weakness by which you are weighed down." So this man was heard for his salvation, he was not heard according to his will. Whom do we find heard according to their will, not heard for their salvation? Do we find, do you think, some worthless man, some ungodly man, heard by God according to his will, not heard for his salvation? If I give the example of some man, perhaps you will say to me: "You call him wicked, but he was righteous; if he had not been righteous, he would not have been heard by God." I will give such an example that no one will doubt his wickedness and ungodliness. The devil himself asked for Job, and received him. Have you not heard of the devil too that "whoever commits sin is of the devil"? Not because he created him, but because the other imitates him. Was it not said of him, "He did not stand in the truth"? Is he not that ancient serpent, who through a woman held out poison to the first man? And he kept a woman for Job too, for that very reason, through whom the husband might not be consoled but tempted. The devil himself asked for a holy man to tempt, and received him; the apostle asked that the thorn in the flesh might be taken away from him, and did not receive it. But the apostle was heard more than the devil. For the apostle was heard for his salvation, though not according to his will; the devil was heard according to his will, but for his damnation. For Job was granted to be tempted so that, when he was proved, the devil might be tormented. But this, brothers, we find not only in the old books, but also in the Gospel. The demons asked the Lord, when he was driving them out of a man, to be allowed to go into the pigs. Could the Lord not have told them not to go there either? For if he had not wished it, they would not have rebelled against the King of heaven and earth. Yet for the sake of a certain mystery and by a certain dispensation he let the demons go into the pigs, to show that the devil rules in those who live the life of pigs. Were the demons, then, heard, and the apostle not heard? Or rather, as is truer, let us say: the apostle was heard, the demons were not heard. Their will was done; his health was perfected.

According to this we ought to understand that God, even if he does not give to our will, gives to our salvation. For what if you ask for what harms you, and the physician knows that it harms you? For the physician does not fail to hear you when perhaps you ask for cold water: if it helps, he gives it at once; if it does not help, he does not give it. Did he not hear you, or rather did he hear you for your health, because he went against your will? So let there be love in you, brothers; let it be in you, and be secure; and when what you ask is not given you, you are heard, but you do not know it. Many have been given into their own hands to their own harm, of whom the apostle says, "God gave them up to the desires of their heart." Someone asked for a great sum of money; he received it to his harm. When he did not have it, he had little to fear; he began to have it, and became the prey of someone more powerful. Was he not heard to his harm, who wanted to have something for which a robber might seek him out, whom, when he was poor, no one sought? Learn to ask God in such a way as to entrust yourselves to the physician, to do what he knows. You confess the disease, let him apply the remedy. You only hold fast to love. For he wants to cut, he wants to cauterise: if you cry out and are not heard in the cutting, in the burning and the trouble, he knows how far the rot goes. You already want him to draw back his hand, and he attends to the depth of the wound; he knows how far to go. He does not hear you according to your will, but he hears you for your health. So be sure, my brothers, that what the apostle says is true: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings that cannot be uttered, for he intercedes for the saints." What does "the Spirit himself intercedes for the saints" mean, but love itself, which has been produced in you by the Spirit? That is why the same apostle says, "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Love itself groans, love itself prays; he who gave it does not know how to close his ears against it. Be secure; let love ask, and the ears of God are there. What you want does not happen, but what is expedient happens. "So whatever we ask," he says, "we shall receive from him." I have said already: if you understand it of salvation, there is no question; if not of salvation, there is a question, and a great one, which makes you a slanderer of the apostle Paul. "Whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him in his sight": in his sight, within, where he sees.

And what are those commandments? "This is his commandment," he says, "that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another." You see that this is the commandment; you see that whoever acts against this commandment commits the sin from which everyone who is born of God is free. "As he gave us the commandment, that we love one another." "And whoever keeps his commandment": you see that nothing else is commanded us but that we love one another. "And whoever keeps his commandment will abide in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." Is it not plain that the Holy Spirit does this in a man, that there should be love and charity in him? Is it not plain, as the apostle Paul says, "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"? For he was speaking of love, and saying that in the sight of God we ought to question our heart. "But if our heart does not think ill of us": that is, if it confesses that whatever is done in a good work is done from love of the brother. Moreover, when he spoke of the commandment, he said this: "This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another. And whoever does his commandment abides in him, and he in him. By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." For if you find that you have love, you have the Spirit of God for understanding: for it is a very necessary thing.

In the first times the Holy Spirit fell on believers, and they spoke in tongues which they had not learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance. These were signs suited to the time. For it was fitting that the Holy Spirit should be signified thus in all tongues, because the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues in the whole world. That was signified, and it passed. Is it expected now of those on whom a hand is laid so that they may receive the Holy Spirit, that they should speak in tongues? Or when we laid our hand on these infants, did each of you watch whether they would speak in tongues; and when he saw that they did not speak in tongues, was anyone of you so perverse of heart as to say, "These have not received the Holy Spirit; for if they had received him, they would speak in tongues as happened then"? If, then, the testimony of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not now given through these miracles, by what is it given? How does each one know that he has received the Holy Spirit? Let him question his heart: if he loves his brother, the Spirit of God abides in him. Let him see, let him test himself before the eyes of God; let him see whether there is in him love of peace and unity, love of the Church spread through the whole world. Let him not attend only to loving the brother whom he sees before him; for there are many of our brothers whom we do not see, and yet we are joined to them in the unity of the Spirit. What wonder that they are not with us? We are in one body; we have one head in heaven. Brothers, our eyes do not see one another; as it were, they do not know one another. But in the love of the bodily structure do they not know one another? For, that you may know that they know one another in the bond of love: when both are open, the right cannot look at something at which the left does not look. Direct the right ray without the other, if you can. They meet together, they are directed together; the aim is one, the places are different. If, then, all who with you love God have one aim with you, do not mind that in body you are separated in place: you have fixed the gaze of the heart together on the light of truth. So if you want to know that you have received the Spirit, question your heart; lest perhaps you have the sacrament and do not have the power of the sacrament. Question your heart: if love of the brother is there, be secure. There can be no love without the Spirit of God, for Paul cries, "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit." For he had said, "By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." But attend to how the Spirit himself is recognised: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God." And who is it that tests the spirits? He has set us a hard thing, my brothers; it is good for us that he himself should tell us how to discern. He will tell us; do not be afraid. But first see, attend; see that from this is drawn that over which vain heretics raise their slanders. Attend, see what he says: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God." The Holy Spirit is called by the name of water in the Gospel, when the Lord cried out and said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink: whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly." But the evangelist explained of what he was speaking; for he went on to say, "Now he said this of the Spirit whom those who were to believe in him were to receive." Why did the Lord not baptize many? But what does he say? "For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified." So since those men had baptism and had not yet received the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord sent from heaven on the day of Pentecost, the glorification of the Lord was being awaited so that the Spirit might be given. And before he was glorified, and before he sent him, he was nevertheless inviting men to prepare themselves to receive the water of which he said, "Whoever thirsts, let him come and drink"; and, "Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly." What are rivers of living water? What is that water? Let no one ask me; ask the Gospel. "Now he said this," it says, "of the Spirit whom those who were to believe in him were to receive." So the water of the sacrament is one thing, the water which signifies the Spirit of God another. The water of the sacrament is visible; the water of the Spirit is invisible. The one washes the body and signifies what is done in the soul; by that Spirit the soul itself is cleansed and fed. That is the Spirit of God, whom heretics cannot have, and all who cut themselves off from the Church. And whoever do not openly cut themselves off, but are cut off by iniquity, and are tossed about inside like chaff and are not grain, do not have this Spirit. This Spirit was signified by the Lord under the name of water; and we have heard from this Epistle, "Do not believe every spirit"; and those words of Solomon testify, "Keep yourself from strange water." What is the water? The Spirit. Does water always signify the Spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some places it signifies baptism, in some places it signifies peoples, in some places it signifies counsel. You have it said in a certain place, "Counsel is a fountain of life to those who possess it." So in different places of the Scriptures the word water signifies different things. But now you have heard the Holy Spirit called by the name of water, not from our interpretation but from the testimony of the Gospel, where it says, "Now he said this of the Spirit whom those who were to believe in him were to receive." If, then, the Holy Spirit is signified by the name of water, and this Epistle tells us, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God", let us understand that it was said in this sense: "Keep yourself from strange water, and do not drink from a strange fountain." What does "do not drink from a strange fountain" mean? Do not believe a strange spirit.

There remains, then, the test by which it is proved that it is the Spirit of God. He has indeed set down a sign, and perhaps a difficult one; but let us see. We are going to return to that love; it is love that teaches us, because it is the anointing. Yet what does he say here? "Test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into this world." There are all the heretics and all the schismatics. How, then, do I test the spirit? There follows: "By this the Spirit of God is known." Lift up the ears of the heart. We were labouring and saying, "Who knows? Who can discern?" See, he is about to give a sign. "By this the Spirit of God is known: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the antichrist, of whom you have heard that he is coming; and now he is in this world." Our ears are lifted up, as it were, to discern the spirits; and we have heard something such that we still cannot discern. For what does he say? "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Then is the spirit which is among the heretics of God, since they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Here perhaps they rise up against us and say, "You do not have the spirit from God; but we confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; and he denied that those have the Spirit of God who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." Ask the Arians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Ask the Eunomians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Ask the Macedonians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Question the Cataphrygians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Question the Novatians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Do all these heresies, then, have the Spirit of God? Are they not false prophets, then? Is there no deception there, then, no leading astray? Certainly they are antichrists, who went out from us, but were not of us.