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1. You have just heard, beloved, the Lord saying to His
disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might
be in you, and that your joy might be full." And what else is
Christ's joy in us, save that He is pleased to rejoice over us?
And what is this joy of ours which He says is to be made full, but
our having fellowship with Him? On this account He had said to the
blessed Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou shall have no part with
me." His joy, therefore, in us is the grace He hath bestowed upon
us: and that is also our joy. But over it 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's joy was
never at any time imperfect. But that joy of His was not in us: for
we, in whom it could be, had as yet no existence; and even when our
existence commenced, it began not to be in Him. But in Him it
always was, who in the infallible truth of His own foreknowledge
rejoiced that we should yet be His own. Accordingly, He had a joy
over us that was already full, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and
foreordaining us: and as little could there be any fear intermingling
in that joy of His, lest there should be any possible failure in what
He foreknew would be done by Himself. Nor, when He began to do
what He foreknew that He would do, was there any increase to His joy
as the expression of His blessedness; otherwise His making of us must
have added to His blessedness. Be such a supposition, brethren, far
from our thoughts; for the blessedness of God was neither less without
us, nor became greater because of us. His joy, therefore, over our
salvation, which was always in Him, when He foreknew and
foreordained us, began to be in us when He called us; and this joy we
properly call our own, as by it we, too, shall yet be blessed: but
this joy, as it is ours, increases and advances, and presses onward
perseveringly to its own completion. Accordingly, it has its
beginning in the faith of the regenerate, and its completion in the
reward when they rise again. Such is my opinion of the purport of the
words, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be
in you, and that your joy might be made full:" that mine "might be
in you;" that yours "might be made full." For mine was always
full, even before ye were called, when ye were foreknown as those whom
I was afterwards to call; but it finds its place in you also, when ye
are transformed into that which I have foreknown regarding you. And
"that yours may be full:" for ye shall be blessed, what ye are not
as yet; just as ye are now created, who had no existence before.
2. "This," He says, "is my injunction, that ye love one
another, as I have loved you." Whether we call it injunction or
commandment. both are the rendering of the same Greek word, entole
(entolh). But He had already made this same announcement on a
former occasion, when, as ye ought to remember, I repounded it to
you to the best of my ability. For this is what He says there, "A
new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another." And so the repetition of
this commandment is its commendation: only that there He said, "A
new commandment I give unto you;" and here, "This is my
commandment:" there, as if there had been no such commandment
before; and here, as if He had no other commandment to give them.
But there it is spoken of as "new," to keep us from persevering in
our old courses; here, it is called "mine," to keep us from
treating it with contempt.
3. But when He said in this way here, "This is my commandment,"
as if there were none else, what are we to think, my brethren? Is,
then, the commandment about that love wherewith we love one another,
His only one? Is there not also another that is still greater, that
we should love God? Or has God in very truth given us such a charge
about love alone, that we have no need of searching for others? There
are three things at least that the apostle commends when he says,
"But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity." And although in charity, that is, in love,
are comprehended the two commandments; yet it is here declared to be
the greatest only, and not the sole one. Accordingly, what a host of
commandments are given us about faith, what a multitude about hope!
who is there that could collect them together, or suffice to number
them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: "Love is the
fullness of the law." And so, where there is love, what can be
wanting? and where it is not, what is there that can possibly be
profitable? The devil believes, but does not love: no one loveth who
doth not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not
love, but he hopes in vain; but no one can despair who loves.
Therefore, where there is love, there of necessity will there be
faith and hope; and where there is the love of our neighbor, there
also of necessity will be the love of God. For he that loveth not
God, how loveth he his neighbour as himself, seeing that he loveth
not even himself? Such an one is both impious and iniquitous; and he
that loveth iniquity, manifestly loveth not, but hateth his own soul.
Let us, therefore, be holding fast to this precept of the Lord, to
love one another; and then all else that is commanded we shall do, for
all else we have contained in this. But this love is distinguished
from that which men bear to one another as such; for in order to mark
the distinction, it is added, "as I have loved you." And
wherefore is it that Christ loveth us, but that we may be fitted to
reign with Christ? With this aim, therefore, let us also be loving
one another, that we may manifest the difference of our love from that
of others, who have no such motive in loving one another, because the
love itself is wanting. But those whose mutual love has the possession
of God Himself for its object, will truly love one another; and,
therefore, even for the very purpose of loving one another, they love
God. There is no such love as this in all men; for few have this
motive for their love one to another, that God may be all in all.
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