{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-541","native_reference":{"book_number":690,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":17,"verse_to":17},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Andreas of Caesarea</b>: Jesus said: \"The ruler of this world is coming, and he shall find nothing in me.\" We ought to be the same, so that nothing of this world may be found in us either.<br/><i>— CATENA</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: He tells how each may prove himself, what progress charity has made in him or rather what progress he has made in charity. For if charity is God, God is capable neither of proficiency nor of deficiency: that charity is said to be making proficiency in thee, means only that thou makest proficiency in it. Ask therefore what proficiency thou hast made in charity, and what thine heart will answer thee, that thou mayest know the measure of thy profiting. For he has promised to show us in what we may know Him, and hath said, \"In this is love made perfect in us.\" Ask, in what? \"That we have boldness in the day of judgment.\" Whoso hath boldness in the day of judgment, in that man is charity made perfect. What is it to have boldness in the day of judgment? Not to fear lest the day of judgment should come.<br/><i>— Ten Homilies on 1 John 9</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Some man has begun to believe in a day of judgment: if he has begun to believe, he has also begun to fear. But because he fears as yet, because he hath not yet boldness in the day of judgment, not yet is charity in that man made perfect. But for all that, is one to despair? In whom thou seest the beginning, why despairest thou of the end? What beginning do I see? That very fear. Hear the Scripture: \"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.\" Well then, he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him correct himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him begin to come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the earth.<br/><i>— Ten Homilies on 1 John 9</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Now in proportion as this man who has begun to fear the day of judgment, mortifies his members which are upon the earth, in that proportion the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. But the heavenly members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise up, he begins to desire that which once he feared. Once he feared lest Christ should come and find in him the impious whom He must condemn; now he longs for Him to come, because He shall find the pious man whom He may crown. Having now begun to desire Christ's coming, the chaste soul which desires the embrace of the Bridegroom renounces the adulterer, becomes a virgin within by faith, hope, and charity. Now hath the man boldness in the day of judgment: he fights not against himself when he prays, \"Thy kingdom come.\"<br/><i>— Ten Homilies on 1 John 9</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Thou hast heard the ground of thy boldness: \"Because as He is,\" saith the apostle, \"are we also in this world.\" Does he not seem to have said something impossible? For is it possible for man to be as God? I have already expounded to you that \"as\" is not always said of equality, but is said of a certain resemblance. For how sayest thou, As I have ears, so has my image? Is it quite so? and yet thou sayest \"so, as.\" If then we were made after God's image, why are we not so as God? Not unto equality, but relatively to our measure. Whence then are we given boldness in the day of judgment? \"Because as He is, are we also in this world.\" We must refer this to the same charity, and understand what is meant.<br/><i>— Ten Homilies on 1 John 9</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The Lord in the Gospel saith, \"If ye love them that love you, what reward shall ye have? do not the publicans this?\" Then what would He have us do? \"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.\" If then He bids us love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us? From God Himself: for He saith, \"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.\" How doth God this? He loveth His enemies, \"Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.\" If this then be the perfection unto which God inviteth us, that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our boldness in the day of judgment, that \"as He is, so are we also in this world:\" because, as He loveth His enemies in making His sun to rise upon good and bad, and in sending rain upon the just and unjust, so we, since we cannot bestow upon them sun and rain, bestow upon them our tears when we pray for them.<br/><i>— Ten Homilies on 1 John 9</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: In this, love is perfected with us, etc. He says how each one may test how much he has progressed in love. Whoever has confidence on the day of judgment, love is perfected in him. What is it to have confidence on the day of judgment? It is to not fear the coming of the day of judgment. For when someone first converts himself from wicked deeds by repenting, he begins to fear the day of judgment, lest, namely, when the Just Judge appears, he himself, being unjust, be condemned. However, encouraged by a good life in the process, he learns not to fear what he once feared, but rather to wish for the coming of the awaited one for all nations, hoping that he will be crowned with the saints by the merit of good actions. From where we can have confidence on the day of judgment, he explains more fully by adding:<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Because as He is, so are we in this world. Can a man indeed be as God? But it should be remembered what was said above, that \"as\" does not always refer to equality, but it refers to a certain similarity. For when you say, \"As I have ears, so too does the image,\" is it entirely so? Yet still you say \"as.\" So if we are made in the image of God, why are we not as God? Not in equality, but in our own measure. Therefore, confidence is given to us on the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world—namely by imitating the perfection of love in the world, of which He daily provides us an example from heaven. Concerning this, the Savior in the Gospel says, \"Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you and slander you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust\" (Matthew 5).<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles</i></p><p><b>Hilary of Arles</b>: In this world we must do our best to be generous, godly, merciful and patient, imitating God as closely as we can.<br/><i>— INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: In this, love is made perfect with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.<br/>But having mentioned love, John also refers to all that he has said about love, attributing great faith to the discourse on love. \"In this, love is made perfect.\" He wishes, he says, for us to be perfect in love, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, towards Him who was incarnate: for He himself will be the judge, according to his own statement, where he says: \"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.\" (Jn. 5:22) And that there will be confidence towards him who was incarnate, John signified through what he said in the following, that just as he is, we are in this world, saying this: Since it has been shown before that God abides in us, and we are in God, he says, we attest to the perfection of love for ourselves. Just as he was blameless and pure in the world, he also said: \"The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me (Jn. 14:30):\" so also we, John says, will be in the world. For there is and we are placed through άντιχρονιαν (where one time is taken for another time), as is the custom of Scripture. Or it signifies something deeper through this. For John has often said that God is in us and we are in God. If this is indeed the case, He is holy in us, that is, the Leader and Prince of holiness: so we should also refer to him in this world sacredly and purely, dead to the world, always bearing his mortification in the body. (1 Cor. 4:10)<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 John</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"fe9d4ab76ed87a27e7cc07b4fbee2c9f28840d0810bb772ebc6cbda2c510aa88","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":541,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"28ba4be44eb0c25f8272895e7b4eeaa3c3976e3d54c402e0f4e320a37c26f8fa","translator":null,"work":null}