Andreas of Caesarea : Keeping the commandments is both the form and substance of our love for God. Those who obey them are brought close to God by them. If someone looks at them in the wrong way and says that they are heavy to bear, he is merely revealing his own weakness. — CATENA Augustine of Hippo : And by what do we know that we love the sons of God? By this, "that we love God, and do His commandments." We sigh here, by reason of the hardness of doing the commandments of God. Hear what follows. O man, at what toilest thou in loving? In loving avarice. With toil is that loved which thou lovest: there is no toil in loving God. Avarice will enjoin thee labors, perils, sore hardships and tribulations; and thou wilt do its bidding. To what end? That thou mayest have that with which thou shalt fill thy chest, and lose thy peace of mind. Thou didst feel thyself haply more secure before thou hadst it, than since thou didst begin to have. See what avarice has enjoined thee. Thou hast filled thine house, and art in dread of robbers; hast gotten gold, lost thy sleep. See what avarice has enjoined thee. Do, and thou didst. What does God enjoin thee? Love me. Thou lovest gold, thou wilt seek gold, and perchance not find it: whoso seeks me, I am with him. Thou wilt love honor, and perchance not attain unto it: who ever loved me, and did not attain? — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : God saith to thee, thou wouldest make thee a patron, or a powerful friend: thou seekest a way to his favor by means of another inferior. Love me, saith God to thee: favor with me is not had by making interest with some other: thy love itself makes me present to thee. What sweeter than this love, brethren? It is not without reason that ye heard just now in the Psalm, "The unrighteous told me of delights, but not as is Thy law, O Lord." What is the Law of God? The commandment of God. What is the commandment of God? That "new commandment," which is called new because it maketh new: "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another." Hear because this is the law of God. The apostle saith, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so shall ye fulfill the law of Christ." This, even this, is the consummation of all our works; Love. In it is the end: for this we run: to it we run; when we are come to it, we shall rest. — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." Already ye have heard, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." See how He would not have thee divide thyself over a multitude of pages: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." On what two commandments? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : See here of what commandments this whole epistle talks. Therefore hold fast love, and set your minds at rest. Why fearest thou lest thou do evil to some man? Who does evil to the man he loves? Love thou: it is impossible to do this without doing good. But it may be, thou rebukest? Kindness does it, not fierceness. But it may be thou beatest? For discipline thou dost this; because thy kindness of love will not let thee leave him undisciplined. And indeed there come somehow these different and contrary results, that sometimes hatred uses winning ways, and charity shows itself fierce. A person hates his enemy, and feigns friendship for him: he sees him doing some evil, he praises him: he wishes him to go headlong, wishes him to go blind over the precipice of his lusts, haply never to return; he praises him, "For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul;" he applies to him the unction of adulation; behold, he hates, and praises. — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : Another sees his friend doing something of the same sort; he calls him back; if he will not hear, he uses words even of castigation, he scolds, he quarrels: there are times when it comes to this, that one must even quarrel! Behold, hatred shows itself winningly gentle, and charity quarrels! Stay not thy regard upon the words of seeming kindness, or the seeming cruelty of the rebuke; look into the vein they come from; seek the root whence they proceed. The one is gentle and bland that he may deceive, the other quarrels that he may correct. — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : Well then, it is not for us, brethren, to enlarge your heart: obtain from God the gift to love one another. Love all men, even your enemies, not because they are your brethren, but that they may be your brethren; that ye may be at all times on fire with brotherly love, whether toward him that is become thy brother, or towards thine enemy, so that, by being beloved, he may become thy brother. Wheresoever ye love a brother, ye love a friend. Now is he with thee, now is he knit to thee in unity, yea catholic unity. If thou art living aright, thou lovest a brother made out of an enemy. But thou lovest some man who has not yet believed Christ, or, if he have believed, believes as do the devils: thou rebukest his vanity. Do thou love, and that with a brotherly love: he is not yet a brother, but thou lovest to the end he may be a brother. Well then, all our love is a brotherly love, towards Christians, towards all His members. — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Augustine of Hippo : The discipline of charity, my brethren, its strength, flowers, fruit, beauty, pleasantness, food, drink, meat, embracing, hath in it no satiety. If it so delight us while in a strange land, in our own country how shall we rejoice! — Ten Homilies on 1 John 10 Bede : For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. The Lord Himself says this: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word (John XIV). Therefore, the proof of love is the exhibition of work. For we truly love if we constrain ourselves to His commandments from our will. For he who still flows with illicit desires certainly does not love God, because he contradicts Him in his will. — Commentary on the Catholic Epistles Bede : And His commandments are not burdensome. The Lord Himself says: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. XI). It should not appear contrary to the words of the Lord or blessed John that the Lord Himself says elsewhere that the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life (Matt. VII); and the prophet says to Him: For the words of your lips, I have kept hard ways (Psalm XVI); and the apostle: For through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts XIV). For what is inherently hard and rough, the hope of heavenly rewards and the love of Christ makes light. Indeed, it is hard to suffer persecutions for righteousness, but what makes it sweet is that for those who suffer thus, the kingdom of heaven belongs. Hence it is well added: — Commentary on the Catholic Epistles Clement of Alexandria : And if we are called to the kingdom of God, let us walk worthy of the kingdom, loving God and our neighbour. But love is not proved by a kiss, but by kindly feeling. But there are those, that do nothing but make the churches resound with a kiss, not having love itself within. For this very thing, the shameless use of a kiss, which ought to be mystic, occasions foul suspicions and evil reports. The apostle calls the kiss holy. When the kingdom is worthily tested, we dispense the affection of the soul by a chaste and closed mouth, by which chiefly gentle manners are expressed. But there is another unholy kiss, full of poison, counterfeiting sanctity. Do you not know that spiders, merely by touching the mouth, afflict men with pain? And often kisses inject the poison of licentiousness. It is then very manifest to us, that a kiss is not love. For the love meant is the love of God. "And this is the love of God," says John, "that we keep His commandments;" not that we stroke each other on the mouth. "And His commandments are not grievous." — The Instructor Book 3 Didymus the Blind : The substance and ground of the love we ought to have for God is obedience to his commandments. — COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN Oecumenius : For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not burdensome. "For this is the love of God." In the superlative (ὑπερθατῷ), that what is proposed should be understood in this way: For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, because whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Furthermore, and his commandments are not burdensome, it has been interpolated. "and His commandments are not burdensome." Not as Christ said, "My yoke is easy (Matt. 11:30);" thus He Himself said that the commandments are light, but that they are not burdensome: for to him who is brought to virtue, even what is light is considered very heavy; just as to one who has lost strength and health, everything that makes for good, even what is very light, seems heavy. Indeed, because the commandments of God seemed burdensome to some, as they are God's, for this reason He says that His commandments are not burdensome. For what burden is there in loving a brother? Furthermore, what burdensome does it cause to visit one who is in prison? For he does not command to free him who is in prison, which would be difficult, but only to visit; nor does he command to free the sick from their illness, but only to visit; nor does he command to set a lavish table for the hungry, nor to provide clothing to the naked prepared with unnecessary embellishment; but he requires what provides necessary use for him who is hungry or naked. — Commentary on 1 John