1 John 4:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As the Lord Himself said, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). The love of Christ toward us was proved in that He died for us.

In what was the Father's love toward us proved? In that He sent His Son to die for us. Thus the Apostle Paul says, "He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things?" (Rom 8:32).

Behold, the Father delivered up Christ, and Judas also delivered Him up. Do these acts not seem somehow alike? Judas is a betrayer. What then? Is God the Father also a betrayer?

By no means, you say. It is not I who say it, but the Apostle says, "He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The Father delivered Him up, and He Himself delivered Himself up.

The same Apostle says, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me" (cf. Gal 2:20). If the Father delivered up the Son, and the Son delivered up Himself, what did Judas do?

The Father delivered, the Son delivered, Judas delivered. The act was one and the same. But what is the difference between the Father delivering the Son, the Son delivering Himself, and Judas delivering his Teacher?

It is that the Father and the Son did this from love, while Judas did it from betrayal. See, we must consider not what a man does, but with what intention and will he does it.

We find in the Father the same deed as in Judas. We bless the Father, but we turn away from Judas. Why do we bless the Father and turn away from Judas? We bless love; we turn away from lawlessness.

How great the blessings owed by the human race to the fact that Christ was delivered up to death. Yet was Judas thinking of this when he betrayed Him? God was thinking of our salvation, by which we were redeemed.

Judas was thinking of the price for which he sold the Lord. The Son was thinking of the price He Himself paid for us. Judas was thinking of the payment he received in order to sell Him.

Thus the difference of intentions makes the deeds different. Although the act performed is one and the same, if we measure it by different intentions, we find one worthy of love and the other of condemnation.

One deserves glorification, the other aversion. Such is the power of love. See, love alone makes the distinction. Love alone makes the difference between human actions.

We have spoken about identical actions. If we speak of different actions, we shall find that love makes one man harsh, and lawlessness makes another gentle. A father strikes his child, while a slave trader is gentle with him.

If two things are set before us, blows and caresses, who would not choose caresses and avoid blows? But if you look at the person acting, love strikes and lawlessness caresses.

See what we are calling you to consider. Human deeds can be judged only by whether they spring from the root of love. Much can be seen that appears good, yet does not come from the root of love.

For thorns too have flowers. Conversely, something may seem thorny, may seem harsh, and yet be done for instruction at love's command. Therefore once for all a brief commandment is given you: love, and do what you will.

If you are silent, be silent through love. If you cry out, cry out through love. If you correct, correct through love. If you spare, spare through love.

Let the root of love be within. From this root nothing evil can come.

In the brief words of the Theologian, the greatness of divine love is clearly expressed.

Let us consider who is shown acting, or sending the Mediator, the Savior. It is the eternal, boundless, and all-perfect God, Creator of the visible and invisible world, the beginning and end of all things.

Whom did God send? Not a man and not an angel, but His Only-begotten Son, true God, upholding all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3).

Where, or to whom, did God send His Only-begotten Son? Into the world that did not know God.

He sent Him to people who had angered God by their sins, had come under God's righteous wrath, curse, and condemnation, and were dead in sins.

For what purpose did God send His Son to us, to mankind?

He sent Him so that by His merits, sufferings, and death on the Cross, He might deliver us from sin, curse, and eternal death.

He sent Him so that we might receive life through Him.

What life? Grace-filled life, so long as we remain on earth, and unending blessed life in the age to come, in the heavenly mansions.

The Lord and Savior Himself points to the greatness of this love, crying out: For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

The Apostle Paul writes: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom 8:32).

He sent Him to be the propitiation for our sins and the renewal of the image with which the first-created Adam had been honored.

Beloved, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.

If He, the Most High and All-Holy, bent down to us unrepentant sinners, who were sons of disobedience, can we refuse love and compassion to our brethren?

May it not be so. For upon us lies the most sacred duty of imitating our heavenly Father and our Lord, who gave Himself for us.

By such imitation we make ourselves worthy of His eternal love.

He became visible first because, out of love for mankind, He sent to earth His Only-begotten Son, who declared Him (Jn 1:18).

Further, He becomes visible to us when we love one another and draw God's love to ourselves. For in our neighbors we love the image of God, and by becoming perfected in love we become more and more like God.

Taken without reference to the context, this expression shows the incomprehensibility of God's being and the inaccessibility of beholding His face, not only for man, but also for angels.

Therefore all visions of God spoken of in the Old and New Testaments must be understood as sensible visions, as visions of the trace of God's glory, and not of His very Person. Compare Ex 33:23.

The love of God, which constitutes the essence of the divine being toward us, was revealed, or manifested, in this. It became known and easily understandable to us through God the Father sending His Son into the world, and so forth.

This is the highest and boundless manifestation of God's love for mankind.

The Apostle expresses this highest and greatest truth almost in the very words in which the Lord Himself uttered it in one of His most exalted discourses, recorded in the Gospel of John (1 Jn 3:16; cf. note).

To manifest His boundless love for mankind, God, eternal, boundless, and all-perfect, sent His Only-begotten Son into the sinful world.

He sent Him to people who, because they had offended God's justice infinitely by sin, lay under curse and death.

He sent Him for the redemption of human sin by His death on the Cross.

Thus we, the whole human race, might receive life through Him, though we were in spiritual death through separation from God by sin.

This life is grace-filled in Christ's Church and eternal in His heavenly Kingdom.

The second motive for Christians to love is that through love our regeneration takes place. Finally, according to the Apostle's thought, through love the knowledge of God is also attained.

In explaining all this, the Apostle calls God love. He thereby shows more clearly that love is absolutely necessary for the knowledge of God, because there is no means of comprehending love except love.

As for calling God love, this name expresses the gracious being of God more vividly and precisely than His other most exalted name, Light.

In the name of God as love, a representation of God is given that is closer to our heart, more intelligible to our mind, and wholly accessible to the will.

This is why the holy fathers regarded love as the highest name of the All-Perfect Being, such as Saint Irenaeus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and others.

That God truly is love, the Apostle confirms by pointing to its manifestation in the sending of the Only-begotten Son into the world.

He appeared in the world not because men loved God, but because they were sinful and ready to perish.

Here the words of the Savior to Nicodemus are, as it were, reproduced: God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).