Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you.14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death.15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself.16 In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.17 He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him?18 My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.
"Every one who hates his brother is a murderer." For in him through unbelief Christ dies. Rightly, therefore, he continues, "And you know that no murderer and unbeliever has eternal life abiding in him." For the living Christ abides in the believing soul.
And if we owe our lives to the brethren, and have made such a mutual compact with the Saviour, why should we any more hoard and shut up worldly goods, which are beggarly, foreign to us and transitory? Shall we shut up from each other what after a little shall be the property of the fire? Divinely and weightily John says, "He that loveth not his brother is a murderer," the seed of Cain, a nursling of the devil. He has not God's compassion. He has no hope of better things. He is sterile; he is barren; he is not a branch of the ever-living supercelestial vine. He is cut off; he waits the perpetual fire.
"For He Himself laid down His life for us;" that is, for those who believe; that is, for the apostles. If then He laid down His life for the apostles, he means His apostles themselves: us if he said, We, I say, the apostles, for whom He laid down His life, "ought to lay down our lives for the brethren;" for the salvation of their neighbours was the glory of the apostles.
"Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue," says John, teaching them to be perfect, "but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we are of the truth." And if "God be love," piety also is love: "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." And again, to him who desires to become a Gnostic, it is written, "But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity." For perfection in faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith.
This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.13 Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.†14 You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.15 I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.†16 You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
(Hom. lxxvii. 1) All things, i. e. all things that they ought to hear. I have heard, shews that what He had taught was no strange doctrine, but received from the Father.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)