And this is charity: That we walk according to his commandments. For this is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same:
και αυτη εστιν η αγαπη ινα περιπατωμεν κατα τας εντολας αυτου αυτη εστιν η εντολη καθως ηκουσατε απ αρχης ινα εν αυτη περιπατητε
5 Church Fathers comment on this verse
He explains love by saying that its essence consists in walking according to it. The commandment concerning it is the commandment from the beginning, and it was given for no other purpose than that you should walk according to it.
Nevertheless, to the point we have attained, we should think accordingly (Phil 3:16), until God reveals it to us if in anything we think otherwise (cf. Phil 3:15).
"Not as though prescribing a new commandment to you." The Apostle also sets forth the meaning of the commandment: that we love one another. He explains what love is: it consists in our walking according to the commandments. The Apostle also says that this commandment was given from the beginning for no other reason than that you should walk according to it. He is again concerned for the unity of the flock, lest they be carried away by deceivers who have already gone about among men and deny the coming of the Lord in the flesh.
Proper love for oneself consists in fulfilling the life-giving commandments of Christ. "This is love, that we walk according to His commandments," said Saint John the Theologian.
If you do not become angry and do not remember wrongs, you love yourself. If you do not swear and do not lie, you love yourself. If you do not offend, steal, or avenge yourself, and if you are long-suffering toward your neighbor, meek, and without malice, you love yourself.
If you bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who cause you distress and raise persecution against you, then you love yourself. You are a son of the heavenly Father, who makes His sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends His rains on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you offer God careful and fervent prayers from a contrite and humble heart, you love yourself. If you are temperate, free from vainglory, and sober, you love yourself.
If by almsgiving to needy brethren you transfer your possession from earth to heaven, you love yourself. You make your corruptible property incorruptible, and your temporary possession eternal and inalienable.
If you are so merciful that you share the pain of all your neighbor's weaknesses and deficiencies, and renounce judging and belittling your neighbor, then you love yourself.
When you forbid yourself judgment and condemnation of your neighbor, for which you have no right, the just and merciful God removes the righteous judgment and cancels the righteous condemnation deserved by you for your many sins.
Whoever wishes to love himself properly, without being deceived and carried away by self-love, that is, by his fallen will guided by falsely named reason, must carefully study the Gospel commandments. They contain spiritual reason and lead the one who fulfills them to the perceptions of the new man.
While studying the Gospel commandments, and after studying them, one must observe the desires and inclinations of the heart with all vigilance and sobriety. With strict watchfulness, discernment of our desires and inclinations becomes possible for us. Through habit and the fear of God, this discernment becomes almost a natural exercise.
Not only every desire and inclination plainly contrary to the Gospel commandments must be rejected, but also all desires and inclinations that disturb the peace of the heart. Everything that flows from the divine will is accompanied by holy peace, according to the experiential teaching of the holy fathers. By contrast, everything accompanied by disturbance has sin as its beginning, even if outwardly it seems to be the highest good.
Venerable Macarius the Great teaches this in Homily 4, chapter 13.
Addressing instruction to the lady herself, in the hope that she will convey everything to her children, the Apostle asks them to abide in love, which is expressed first of all in keeping the commandments. The Apostle speaks in almost the same words in his First Epistle about love as a commandment that is not new, and about its manifestation through the keeping of the commandments (see 1 Jn 4:6, 8; 1 Jn 5:2, 3, 5).
Why the Apostle especially exhorts them to be strengthened in love and to support one another by it is clear from what follows. There he speaks of the appearance of false teachers, who by their life and teaching turn Christians away from the true path and thereby divert them from true Christian love.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 23 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS