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1. The Lord Jesus declares that He is giving His disciples a new
commandment, that they should love one another. "A new
commandment," He says, "I give unto you, that ye love one
another." But was not this already commanded in the ancient law of
God, where it is written, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself"? Why, then, is it called a new one by the Lord, when it
is proved to be so old? Is it on this account a new commandment,
because He hath divested us of the old, and clothed us with the new
man? For it is not indeed every kind of love that renews him that
listens to it, or rather yields it obedience, but that love regarding
which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from all carnal affection,
added, "as I have loved you." For husbands and wives love one
another, and parents and children, and all other human relationships
that bind men together: to say nothing of the blame-worthy and
damnable love which is mutually felt by adulterers and adulteresses, by
fornicators and prostitutes, and all others who are knit together by no
human relationship, but by the mischievous depravity of human life.
Christ, therefore, hath given us a new commandment, that we should
love one another, as He also hath loved us. This is the love that
renews us, making us new men, heirs of the New Testament, singers
of the new song. It was this love, brethren beloved, that renewed
also those of olden time, who were then the righteous, the patriarchs
and prophets, as it did afterwards the blessed apostles: it is it,
too, that is now renewing the nations, and from among the universal
race of man, which overspreads the whole world, is making and
gathering together a new people, the body of the newly-married spouse
of the only-begotten Son of God, of whom it is said in the Song of
Songs, "Who is she that ascendeth, made white?" Made white
indeed, because renewed; and how, but by the new commandment?
Because of this, the members thereof have a mutual interest in one
another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;
and one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. For this
they hear and observe, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye
love one another:" not as those love one another who are corrupters,
nor as men love one another in a human way; but they love one another
as those who are God's, and all of them sons of the Highest, and
brethren, therefore, of His only Son, with that mutual love
wherewith He loved them, when about to lead them on to the goal were
all sufficiency should be theirs, and where their every desire should
be satisfied with good things. For then there will be nothing wanting
they can desire, when God will be all in all. An end like that has
no end. No one dieth there, where no one arriveth save he that dieth
to this world, not that universal kind of death whereby the body is
bereft of the soul; but the death of the elect, through which, even
while still remaining in this mortal flesh, the heart is set on the
things which are above. Of such a death it is that the apostle said,
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
And perhaps to this, also, do the words refer, "Love is strong as
death." For by this love it is brought about, that, While still
held in the present corruptible body, we die to this world, and our
life is hid with Christ in God; yea, that love itself is our death
to the world, and our life with God. For if that is death when the
soul quits the body, how can it be other than death when our love quits
the world? Such love, therefore, is strong as death. And what is
stronger than that which bindeth the world?
5. Think not then, my brethren, that when the Lord says, "A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another," there is any
overlooking of that greater commandment, which requires us to love the
Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all
our mind; for along with this seeming oversight, the words "that ye
love one another" appear also as if they had no reference to that
second commandment, which says, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as
thyself." For "on these two commandments," He says, "hang all
the law and the prophets." But both commandments may be found in each
of these by those who have good understanding. For, on the one hand,
he that loveth God cannot despise His commandment to love his
neighbor; and on the other, he who in a holy and spiritual way loveth
his neighbor, what doth he love in him but God? That is the love,
distinguished from all mundane love, which the Lord specially
characterized, when He added, "as I have loved you." For what
was it but God that He loved in us? Not because we had Him, but in
order that we might have Him; and that He may lead us on, as I said
a little ago, where God is all in all. It is in this way, also,
that the physician is properly said to love the sick; and what is it he
loves in them but their health, which at all events he desires to
recall; not their sickness, which he comes to remove? Let us,
then, also so love one another, that, as far as possible, we may by
the solicitude of our love be winning one another to have God within
us. And this love is bestowed on us by Him who said, "As I have
loved you, that ye also love one another." For this very end,
therefore, did He love us, that we also should love one another;
bestowing this on us by His own love to us, that we should be bound to
one another in mutual love, and, united together as members by so
pleasant a bond, should be the body of so mighty a Head.
3. "By this," He adds, "Shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another:" as if He said, Other
gifts of mine are possessed in common with you by those who are not
mine, not only nature, life, perception, reason, and that safety
which is equally the privilege of men and beasts; but also languages,
sacraments, prophecy, knowledge, faith, the bestowing of their goods
upon the poor, and the giving of their body to the flames: but because
destitute of charity, they only tinkle like cymbals; they are
nothing, and by nothing are they profited. It is not, then, by such
gifts of mine, however good, which may be alike possessed by those who
are not my disciples, but "by this it is that all men shall know that
ye are my disciples, that ye have love one to another." O thou
spouse of Christ, fair amongst women! O thou who ascendest in
whiteness, leaning upon thy Beloved! for by His light thou art made
dazzling to whiteness, by His assistance thou art preserved from
falling. How well becoming thee are the words in that Song of
Songs, which is, as it were, thy bridal chant, "That there is
love in thy delights"! This it is that suffers not thy soul to perish
with the ungodly; it is this that judges thy cause, and is strong as
death, and is present in thy delights. How wonderful is the character
of that death, which was all but swallowed up in penal sufferings, had
it not been over and above absorbed in delights! But here this
discourse must now be closed; for we must make a new commencement in
dealing with the words that follow.
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