Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.1–85.3

Commending more and more, as he speaks to his disciples, the grace by which we are saved, the Savior says: "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear very much fruit and become my disciples." Whether it is said glorificatus or clarificatus, both are translated from one Greek word, doxazein. For what is called doxa in Greek is gloria in Latin. I thought this worth mentioning because the Apostle says, "If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God." This is glory before God, by which not man but God is glorified, if a man is justified not by works but by faith, so that even his doing good comes to him from God; since the branch, as I said above, cannot bear fruit of itself. For if God the Father is glorified in this, that we bear very much fruit and become Christ's disciples, let us not attribute this to our own glory, as though we had it from ourselves. For this grace is his, and therefore in this the glory is not ours but his. Hence elsewhere too, when he had said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works," lest they think their good works were from themselves, he at once added, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven." For in this is the Father glorified, that we bear very much fruit and become Christ's disciples. By whom are we made so, if not by him whose mercy goes before us? "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works."

"As the Father has loved me," he says, "so I have loved you; abide in my love." See where our good works come from. For whence would we have them, unless because "faith works through love"? And whence would we love, unless we were first loved? The same evangelist said this most plainly in his Epistle: "Let us love God, because he first loved us." But when he says, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you," he does not show an equality of our nature with his, such as there is between the Father's and his, but the grace by which the man Christ Jesus is the mediator between God and men. For he is shown as mediator when he says, "the Father me, and I you." For the Father certainly loves us too, but in him; because in this is the Father glorified, that we bear fruit in the vine, that is, in the Son, and become his disciples.

"Abide," he says, "in my love." How shall we abide? Hear what follows: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." Does love make the commandments kept, or do commandments kept make love? But who can doubt that love comes first? For whoever does not love has no means of keeping the commandments. So when he says, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love," he shows not whence love is produced but whence it is shown. As if he said: Do not think that you abide in my love if you do not keep my commandments; for if you keep them, you will abide. That is, it will be evident from this that you abide in my love, if you keep my commandments. So that no one deceives himself by saying that he loves him while he does not keep his commandments. For we love him insofar as we keep his commandments; and insofar as we keep them less, we love less. Yet when he says, "Abide in my love," it is not apparent which love he meant, that by which we love him or that by which he loves us; but it is discerned from the preceding words. For he had said, "And I have loved you," and to these words he at once added, "Abide in my love": so it is that love by which he loved us. What then is "Abide in my love," but "abide in my grace"? And what is "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love," but "from this you will know that you abide in my love, with which I love you, if you keep my commandments"? So it is not that we first keep his commandments so that he may love us; but unless he loves us, we cannot keep his commandments. This is the grace that lies open to the humble and is hidden from the proud.

But what is this that he adds: "Just as I too have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love"? Certainly here too he wished the Father's love to be understood as that by which the Father loves him. For he had said, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you," and to these words he added, "Abide in my love," beyond doubt the love with which I have loved you. So when he says also of the Father, "I abide in his love," it is to be taken as the love with which the Father loved him. But is grace to be understood here too, by which the Father loves the Son, as it is by grace that the Son loves us, since we are sons by grace, not by nature, but the Only-begotten by nature, not by grace? Or is this too, in the Son himself, to be referred to the man? Yes indeed. For in saying, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you," he shows the grace of the mediator. But Christ Jesus is mediator between God and men, not insofar as he is God, but insofar as he is man. And certainly according to what he is as man, we read of him, "And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and in grace with God and men." According to this, then, we can rightly say that although human nature does not belong to the nature of God, yet human nature belongs by grace to the person of the only-begotten Son of God; and by a grace so great that none is greater, none at all equal. For no merits preceded that taking up of the man, but all his merits began from that taking up. So the Son abides in the love with which the Father loved him, and therefore kept his commandments. For what is that man too, except that God is the one who took him up? "For the Word was God," the Only-begotten coeternal with the begetter; but so that a mediator might be given us, by ineffable grace "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

You have heard, beloved, the Lord saying to his disciples, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be filled." What is Christ's joy in us, but that he deigns to rejoice over us? And what is our joy which he says is to be filled, but to have fellowship with him? That is why he had said to blessed Peter, "If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me." His joy in us, then, is the grace he has bestowed on us; and that is also our joy. But over this 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 never rejoiced imperfectly. But that joy of his was not in us, because we did not yet exist for it to be in us, nor, when we began to exist, did we begin to be with him. But it was always in him, who rejoiced over us as his own to come, in the most certain truth of his foreknowledge. So he already had a perfect joy over us when he rejoiced in foreknowing and predestining us; for in that joy of his there could be no fear lest what he foreknew he would do might not come about. But neither, when he began to do what he foreknew he would do, did his joy, by which he is blessed, increase; otherwise he would have become more blessed because he made us. Far be this, brothers: God's blessedness, since it was no less without us, does not become greater from us. So his joy over our salvation, which was always in him when he foreknew and predestined us, began to be in us when he called us; and rightly do we call this joy ours, the joy by which we too shall be blessed. But this joy of ours grows and advances, and by persevering presses on to its perfection. So it is begun in the faith of those who are born again, and will be filled in the reward of those who rise again. This, I think, is why it was said, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be filled": let mine be in you; let yours be filled. For mine was always full, even before you were called, when you were foreknown by me as those to be called; but it comes to be in you too when you are made what I foreknew of you. But let yours be filled, because you will be blessed, which you are not yet, just as you were created when you did not exist.

"This," he says, "is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Whether it is called praeceptum or mandatum, both translate one Greek word, entolē. He had said this same thing before, and you should remember that I discussed it with you as best I could. For there he says: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." The repetition of this commandment, then, is a commendation of it; except that there he says, "A new commandment I give you," but here, "This is my commandment": there, as though there had been no such commandment before; here, as though he had no other commandment. But there it is called new, lest we persist in our oldness; here it is called mine, lest we think it may be despised.

But since he said here, "This is my commandment," as though there were no other, what do we think, my brothers? Is his only commandment about this love by which we love one another? Is there not another, greater one, that we love God? Or did God command us concerning love alone, so that we need look for nothing else? The Apostle certainly commends three things, saying: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." And although those two commandments are summed up in charity, that is, in love, yet it was said to be the greatest, not the only one. How many commandments have been given us about faith, how many about hope: who can gather them all, who can count them? But let us look at what the same apostle says: "Love is the fulfillment of the Law." Where there is love, then, what can be lacking? And where it is not, what can be of any benefit? The demon believes, and does not love; no one loves who does not believe. One who does not love can hope for pardon, in vain indeed, but still he can; but no one who loves can despair. So where there is love, there necessarily are faith and hope; and where there is love of neighbor, there necessarily is love of God too. For one who does not love God, how does he love his neighbor as himself, since he does not even love himself? For he is ungodly and wicked; and "whoever loves iniquity" does not truly love but "hates his own soul." Let us hold fast, then, to this precept of the Lord, that we love one another; and whatever else he has commanded we shall do, since whatever else there is, we have it here. For this love is distinguished from the love by which men love one another as men; for to distinguish it, "as I have loved you" was added. For why does Christ love us, except that we may reign with Christ? To this end, then, let us too love one another, so that we may distinguish our love from that of others, who do not love one another to this end, because they do not truly love. But those who love one another for the sake of having God, these truly love one another; so, in order to love one another, they love God. This love is not in all men: few love one another for this reason, that God may be all in all.

The fullness of the love with which we ought to love one another, dearest brothers, the Lord defined when he said: "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends." Since he had said above, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," and to these words added what you have now heard, "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends," there follows from this what this same evangelist John says in his Epistle: "That as Christ laid down his life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brothers," loving one another, certainly, as he loved us, who laid down his life for us. This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: "If you sit down to dine at the table of a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you; and so put out your hand, knowing that you must prepare such things." For what is the table of the ruler, if not that from which is received the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? And what is it to sit at it, if not to approach humbly? And what is it to consider and understand what is set before you, if not to think worthily of so great a grace? And what is it so to put out your hand, knowing that you must prepare such things, if not what I have just said: that as Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brothers? For as the apostle Peter also says, "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps." This is to prepare such things. This the blessed martyrs did with burning love; and if we do not celebrate their memorials in vain, and approach the Lord's table in the banquet at which they too were filled, we must, as they did, also prepare such things. For this reason, at that very table, we do not commemorate them as we do others who rest in peace, so as also to pray for them, but rather so that they may pray for us, that we may cling to their footsteps; because they fulfilled the love which the Lord said could be no greater. For they showed their brothers such things as they had likewise received from the Lord's table.

Yet let this not be said as if we could be equal to the Lord Christ if we endured martyrdom for him even to blood. He had power to lay down his life and to take it up again; but we do not live as long as we wish, and we die even if we do not wish to. He by dying at once slew death in himself; we are freed from death by his death. His flesh did not see corruption; ours, after corruption, will at the end of the age put on incorruption through him. He did not need us in order to save us; we can do nothing without him. He offered himself as the vine to us branches; we cannot have life apart from him. Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr's blood is shed for the remission of the brothers' sins, as he did for us; and in this he gave us not something to imitate but something to give thanks for. So far, then, as the martyrs shed their blood for the brothers, so far did they show such things as they received from the Lord's table. In the other things I have mentioned (though I could not mention them all), the martyr of Christ is far from equal to Christ. And if anyone compares himself, I do not say to Christ's power, but to his innocence (I will not say by thinking he heals another's sin, but by thinking he has at least no sin of his own), even so he is greedier than the principle of salvation demands; it is too much for him, he cannot take in so much. And it is well that we are warned by that saying of the Proverbs, which at once adds: "But if you are greedy, do not desire his food"; for it is better that you take nothing from there than that you take more than is fitting. "For these," it says, "have a deceitful life," that is, hypocrisy. For by saying that he is without sin, he cannot show himself righteous, but only pretend to be. That is why it was said, "For these have a deceitful life." There is only one who could both have the flesh of man and not have sin. Rightly, then, what follows is commanded us, and human weakness is addressed with such a word and proverb and told: "Do not stretch yourself out, since you are poor, against the rich man." For the rich man is Christ, who, never liable to any debt, either inherited or his own, is himself righteous and makes others righteous. Do not stretch yourself out against him, you who are so poor that you appear daily in prayer as a beggar for the remission of sins. "But refrain," it says, "from your own counsel." From what, if not from deceitful presumption? For he is not only man but also God, and therefore never guilty. "For if you direct your eye to him, he will nowhere appear." Your eye, that is, the human eye with which you see human things, if you direct it to him, he will nowhere appear; for he cannot be seen in the way you can see. "For he will make himself wings like an eagle, and will go to the house of his master": from where he certainly came to us, and did not find us such as he was when he came. Let us, then, love one another, as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us. For "greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends." And let us imitate him with devout obedience in such a way that we presume with no audacity to compare ourselves to him.

When the Lord Jesus had commended the love which he showed us by dying for us, and had said, "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends," he said: "You are my friends if you do what I command you." Great condescension! Since a servant cannot be good unless he does his master's commands, he wished his friends to be recognized by the very thing by which good servants can be proved. But, as I said, this is condescension, that the Lord deigns to call those whom he knows as his servants his friends. For that you may know that it belongs to the duty of servants to do their master's commands, in another place he rebukes servants, certainly, saying: "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" So when you say "Lord," he says, show what you are saying by doing what is ordered. Will he not say to the obedient servant, "Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord"? So one who is a good servant can be both servant and friend.

But let us attend to what follows: "No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing." How then are we to understand that a good servant is both servant and friend, when he says, "No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing"? He establishes the name of friend in such a way as to remove that of servant; not so that both remain in one person, but so that one succeeds as the other departs. What is this? When we have done the Lord's commands, shall we not be servants? Shall we cease to be servants just when we have been good servants? And who can contradict the Truth, which says, "No longer do I call you servants"? And why he said this, he teaches: "Because the servant," he says, "does not know what his master is doing." Does a master not entrust even his secrets to a good and proven servant? What is it, then, that he says, "The servant does not know what his master is doing"? Suppose he does not know what his master is doing; does he not know even what he commands? For if he does not know even this, how does he serve? Or how is he a servant who does not serve? And yet the Lord says, "You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants." O wonderful thing! Since we cannot serve unless we do the Lord's commands, how shall we, by doing his commands, not be servants? If I shall not be a servant by doing the commands, and unless I do the commands I shall not be able to serve, then by serving I shall not be a servant.

Let us understand, brothers, let us understand; and may the Lord bring it about in us that we understand, and bring it about too that we do what we have understood. If we know this, we surely know what the Lord does; for none but the Lord makes us such, and by this we belong to his friendship. For just as there are two fears, which make two kinds of those who fear, so there are two servitudes, which make two kinds of servants. There is a fear which perfect love casts out, and there is another, chaste fear, enduring for ever and ever. The Apostle had in view that fear which is not in love when he said: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear." But he had in view that chaste fear when he said: "Do not be high-minded, but fear." In the fear which love casts out, servitude too is to be cast out together with that fear; for the Apostle joined both, that is, servitude and fear, saying, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear." The Lord too had in view the servant belonging to this servitude when he said, "No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing." Certainly not that servant belonging to chaste fear, to whom it is said, "Well done, good servant, enter into the joy of your Lord," but that servant belonging to the fear that love is to cast out, of whom he says elsewhere, "The servant does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever." Since, then, "he has given us power to become sons of God," let us be not servants but sons; so that in a wonderful and ineffable, yet true, way we can be servants who are not servants: servants, that is, by chaste fear, to which belongs the servant who enters into the joy of his master; but not servants by the fear that is to be cast out, to which belongs the servant who does not remain in the house for ever. And that we may be such servants who are not servants, let us know that it is the Lord who makes us so. But that servant does not know this who does not know what his master is doing; and when he does something good, he is lifted up as if he did it himself and not his Lord; and he glories in himself, not in the Lord, since he deceives himself, because he glories as if he had not received. But let us, beloved, so that we can be friends of the Lord, know what our Lord does. For he makes us not only men but also righteous, and not we ourselves. And that we may know this, who brings it about but he? "For we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God." Whatever is good is given us by him. Since, then, this too is good, it is certainly given by him that we know by whom every good is given, so that, in all good things whatever, "he who glories may glory in the Lord." But what follows, "But I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you," is so deep that it must in no way be squeezed into this sermon, but must be put off to another.