1 Jn 1:5. “And this is the message.” This is the matter of our proclamation and preaching, “which we have heard from him,” from Christ, while he was living among us, “and announce to you,” because what we have heard in the ear from him we were commanded to proclaim upon the housetops (Matthew 10:27).
“That God is light.” God—namely, the Most Holy Trinity, one God—is light, not corporeal but spiritual. For just as among sensible things nothing is purer, more subtle, or more pleasant than light, so the substance of God is most subtle and most pure: his intellect is filled with the light of truth and infinite intelligence; his will radiates with most ardent love and the most eminent lights of the virtues. And this uncreated light is the source and origin of every light in rational creatures; for what the sun is among sensible things, this light is among intelligible things. The first ray, as it were, and stream of this light is the angelic nature; the second is the human. Hence man is called by the Greeks φῶς (phōs), that is, “light,” on account of the light of reason implanted by nature, as Saint Gregory Nazianzen says (Oration 40). This same uncreated light moves the eyes of our soul so that they may receive it, says Oecumenius, and turns us away from all sensible things to the love of that light alone.
“And darkness is not in him at all,” that is, darkness of ignorance and malice, or of sin. For light that is most pure and infinite can have no stain nor any mixture of darkness. God is indeed said to have made darkness his hiding place (Psalm 17), not because darkness adheres in him, but because of our ignorance, as Didymus explains; for although God dwells in light, that light is inaccessible and incomprehensible to us (1 Timothy 6:16). Thus that light lies hidden after darkness, as the sun after a cloud.
1 Jn 1:6. “If we say,” by mouth or heart, affirming this to be true, “that we have fellowship,” that is, communication through the light of sanctifying grace, “with him,” as with the most pure source of light in whom there is no darkness, “and walk in darkness,” and yet walk through the night and darkness of sinful affections, as along certain paths of the soul—which great sinners do—“we lie.” Those who sin only venially do not properly walk in night and darkness, but in day and light, although they are sometimes touched by a passing shadow.
“And do not do the truth,” that is, we do not perform in deed the truth which we speak with word; thus our works refute our tongue and accuse us of falsehood. Or again, “to do the truth” can here be taken, as often elsewhere, to mean to work a right work consonant with the divine law: “He who does the truth comes to the light” (John 3:21). Therefore, whoever does works of darkness has no fellowship with God, who is light; for this fellowship consists in a certain likeness and participation by which we are made sharers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). For what participation has justice with injustice, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14).
1 Jn 1:7. “But if we walk in the light,” that is, if we practice works shining with the light of divine grace—for he who is illuminated by the light walks in the light, says Didymus—“as he himself is in the light.” This refers back to the third verse, and here immediately he will call Christ his Son. God the Father “is in the light,” in his uncreated light in which he remains immutably, not as we walk in the light by passing successively from one affection to another. “With him there is no change nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17). Thus there is not equality, but a certain likeness with God, consisting in this: that as he, remaining immovable in his light, lives and works all things, so we ought to live and move in the rays of that light.
“We have fellowship with one another,” that is, union among ourselves through grace and fraternal charity, and then with our head Christ, and with the light of God in which we walk; for works of light indicate the interior grace and charity from which they proceed, as Cajetan and some others explain. Some interpret “with one another” not as among us apostles and you disciples of the apostles, but among us all and God the Father, who is the light in which we walk; yet this fellowship seems to be signified by the Apostle only consequentially, not immediately.
“And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son,” that is, the merit of his Passion, in which he poured out his blood for sinners. He calls it the blood of the Son of God on account of the unity of the suppositum of the Son of God and man, whose blood it was, “cleanses us from all sin,” from whatever sin, mortal or venial. This cleansing takes place either in the sacraments or outside the sacraments, through acts of charity and contrition and other pious works, by which daily sins are successively wiped away, just as they are successively and frequently committed—not as though all were always cleansed at once and together.
Calvin, however, denies this explanation and doctrine, saying that Saint John assigns the whole work of cleansing to the blood of Christ and attributes no part to good works. He also denies that any merit or praise can be attributed to good works, since whatever right striving there is in us, he says, always limps toward God, and whatever limps deserves no praise before God. But he erred as a heretic and was rightly condemned by the Council of Trent (Session 6, Canon 25). For by this reasoning there would in fact be no good work at all if some defect were always mixed with it; for, as theologians say after Saint Dionysius, good comes from an integral cause, evil from any single defect. Thus exhortation to good works would be futile, and false the praise by which Saint Paul so often extols the faithful for good works; false too what he says to the Galatians, “You were running well” (Galatians 5:7), if in every course even the just man limps. Nor is only half given to the blood of Christ, as Calvin says, but all is given to it, although it makes use of good works as instruments. Indeed, those very instruments are fashioned from the price of the same blood, since we are raised to no good work except by the grace of God which flows from the merits of Christ; and therefore he willed that his gifts should be our merits, as Saint Augustine says.
1 Jn 1:8. “If we say,” whether speaking or thinking, “that we have no sin,” that is, that throughout this whole life we live without sin, so that we never even sin venially—this is how Saint Augustine explains it in De natura et gratia (ch. 35). This passage must not be understood as though some just person could not be without all guilt of venial sin for an hour or two, but rather that the saints do not lead this life without venial sins, as Saint Thomas says (ST III, q. 79, a. 4, ad 2). For the saints carry concupiscence and the tinder of sin in their bosom; hence there is an almost continual struggle between flesh and spirit. He who struggles is still in danger and is sometimes struck, even if not overthrown, says Saint Augustine (De natura et gratia, ch. 62).
Thus the interpretation of Calvin and other heretics is refuted, who say that not only sometimes but always, in every act, just men are struck and sin. And although “he who is born of God does not sin,” insofar as he is a son of God and like God, yet insofar as he is unlike him and a son of the flesh and of this world, he can sin, says Augustine (De peccatorum meritis, book 2, ch. 8). Elsewhere, however, he makes an exception for the Blessed Virgin, of whom, “for the honor of the Lord,” he says, “I wish no question at all to be raised when sins are discussed; for whence do we know what greater grace was bestowed on her to conquer sin in every way, who merited to conceive and bear him who certainly had no sin?” (De natura et gratia). Later, in chapter 68, he says that he does not greatly care whether there were also some others without sin, provided Pelagius admit that they attained this by the grace of God.
“We deceive ourselves,” that is, we deceive ourselves by false reasoning, persuading ourselves of this. Lest anyone think that we deceive ourselves not because it is false, but because we would be lifted up in pride by praising a true good, Augustine adds (De natura et gratia, ch. 34). “And the truth is not in us,” that is, it is altogether not true that we have no sin. Therefore he does not say this to avoid boasting and for the sake of humility, but because it is true; for one ought not to lie even for the sake of humility.
1 Jn 1:9. “If we confess,” from true contrition of heart, to the priest, the minister of God, if the sins are mortal; for venial sins it suffices to confess to God alone, since they are not necessary matter for sacramental confession, as theologians teach. Saint John sets the confession of sins in opposition to that denial by which one, deceiving himself, claims to have no sin in the preceding verse.
“Our sins,” whatever they may be, mortal or venial, without which this life is not lived, as he said above. Beza says that Catholics are ridiculous because from this passage of Saint John they claim to establish auricular confession; but this is unfounded, since Christ instituted it in the same John (20:23), when, breathing upon the disciples, he said: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive…” Here Beza’s master, Calvin, explains “whose sins you forgive” as “whose sins you testify to be forgiven,” but to forgive sins signifies something far different from merely testifying that they have been forgiven through Christ’s Passion.
Nor should we neglect frequent confession, at least to God, of light and venial sins, as Augustine warns here: “If you despise them when you weigh them, tremble when you count them.” Many small things make one large thing; many drops fill a river; many grains make a heap. He does not say that many venial sins make one mortal sin, but that many light sins make one great burden. The heap of many venials is greater and displeases God more than individual venials, and thus it can rightly be called more serious, and often by its weight depresses the sinner even unto mortal sin. “He who despises small things will fall little by little” (Sirach 19:1).
“He is faithful,” in keeping his promises; and he promised remission of sins to the penitent: “If the wicked turns away from all his sins…” (Ezekiel 18:21). “And just,” for it is right and fitting that the most loving Father should forgive sins to those who confess and repent, although the sinner does not merit forgiveness by an act of contrition either condignly or by strict justice, as a worker earns his wage. Yet justice or equity, given God’s promise, in a certain way makes God a debtor; “we hold him a debtor,” says Augustine, “because we hold him to be a most merciful promiser.” Moreover, although God owes forgiveness not to the sinner by his own justice, yet he owes it to Christ, for whose sake he offered a sufficient and condign price for our sins. Finally, any just person, by justice and condign merit, can by an act of charity satisfy for and merit the remission of venial sins, as the scholastics teach.
“That he may forgive us our sins.” For although in the New Law sins are forgiven through priests, God, whose ministers and instruments they are, is nevertheless the principal forgiver. “And cleanse us,” by the infusion of spiritual purity, which is sanctifying grace, rendering us pleasing and acceptable to God, “from all iniquity.” What in verse 7 he called “sin,” he now calls “iniquity,” because in every sin there is a certain injustice and injury inflicted against God.
1 Jn 1:10. “If we say,” he again uses the same formula as in verses 6 and 8, because human pride is very prone to proclaim its own praises and excuse its sins, “that we have not sinned,” whether originally or at any time even actually, by mortal or venial sin; for he speaks to adults who know what sin is and what it is to sin. Among the light sins from which even the just are not free, Augustine counts immoderate laughter, joking with excessive levity of mind, curious looking for the sake of concupiscence, overeating so as to cause indigestion, distraction in prayer (De natura et gratia, ch. 38). Elsewhere he adds slips of the tongue and delight in thought, by which we consent somewhat to sinful desires (De perfectione iustitiae, last chapter). Bede enumerates kinds of sins committed by thought, by ignorance, by forgetfulness. “It is impossible,” he says, “that any of the saints should not sometimes fall into the smallest sins, which are committed by word, by necessity, by will, by surprise.” Yet they do not cease to be just, because they rise more quickly from guilt with the Lord’s help. Indeed, by rising daily and making satisfaction, they advance wondrously in virtues and perfection, and become holier day by day, as Carthusianus says.
When therefore Job says, “My heart does not reproach me for any day of my life” (Job 27:6), this must be understood of reproach for grave sin by which justice is lost, as is clear from the immediately preceding words; hence he elsewhere confesses that he has sinned (Job 7:20; 14:16). Similarly must be understood what is said in the Prayer of Manasseh, “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not sin before you,” although that prayer is rejected by the Church among the apocrypha.
“We make him a liar,” not only do we deceive ourselves, but we say that God lied when he said through the prophet, “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6), and “There is no just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:21). “And his word,” which he speaks in the Holy Scriptures, “is not in us,” that is, it is not rooted in our heart by faith, because we do not believe him when he says that we are all sinners.
1 Jn 2:1. “My little children.” From tender love he so calls them; for we are accustomed to express love by diminutives, as loving mothers do toward their little ones, whose names they pronounce in diminutive form. Paul alludes to this when he says, “My little children, for whom I am again in travail” (Galatians 4:19).
“These things I write to you,” namely, what I have just said, that the truth is not in those who say they have no sin, and that they make God a liar who say they have not sinned, “that you may not sin.” This is to be understood, not so that through despair you may seize an occasion for sin, but rather, as Bede explains, that you may not sin—that is, that, mindful of human frailty, you may watch more carefully against temptations and fight more strenuously against vices, especially the greater and more manifest ones, which you can more easily overcome with God’s help.
“But if anyone sins,” through pride or any other mortal or venial sin, he is not to despair, “we have an advocate.” A patron who pleads the cause of the wretched and sinners. In Greek he is called παράκλητος (paráklētos), a word that signifies either a consoler or an advocate. The title of consoler is most fittingly appropriated to the Holy Spirit, who is heavenly charity and fills hearts with grace and spiritual consolation. But to be an advocate properly belongs to Christ in his human nature, in which he once paid to the Father the price of our redemption and now daily applies the power of that price to the forgiveness of individual sins, and also intercedes for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25), which is the office of an advocate and patron.
To intercede, says Bede, is for Christ before the Father to show that he is man, and that by assuming human nature he has raised that nature to the height of his divinity. He intercedes, therefore, not by voice but by mercy, because by assuming it he saved what he did not will to condemn. This, however, is intercession implicitly and improperly; Scripture more fittingly teaches that he also intercedes properly, as we noted from Augustine on Romans 8:34. He prays, says Carthusianus, either by a word of the mind or even by a word of the mouth.
What Beza here pours out against the invocation of the saints proves only that other saints are not advocates in the same way as Christ, who by his own blood satisfied the Father in justice for us and, interceding, alleges his own merit independently of any higher mediator. It is also false, as Beza claims, that the other saints have no knowledge of earthly affairs, since he himself admits that they are solicitous for the salvation of suffering brethren; such solicitude presupposes some knowledge of our affairs.
“With the Father,” who is his and ours; hence our hope of obtaining pardon increases, for a father is easily inclined by the natural prayers of his son, especially when he asks for adopted sons. “Jesus Christ the just,” whose causes we have, which our Lord himself fosters and defends; for just as a just advocate does not take up unjust causes, so he does not reject just ones. Our cause is just if we confess and our sins displease us.
1 Jn 2:2. “And he himself is the propitiation.” The cause of propitiation, because by the propitiatory sacrifice of the cross he renders the Father propitious and reconciled to us. The Syriac interpreter takes “and” causally, in the Hebrew manner, to signify that Christ is not a common advocate such as other saints may be, but a singular one, who not only by bare prayer but by offering an equivalent—indeed superabundant—satisfaction propitiates and most certainly appeases the offended Father.
“For our sins,” to be abolished by grace which daily flows into our souls from the merit of that propitiatory sacrifice; “and not for ours only,” not only for my sins and yours to whom I write, “but also for those of the whole world,” that is, for the sins of all the elect scattered throughout the whole world, who have been, are, and will be, from the first elect to the last to be born at the end of the world, as Bede says. For according to the teaching of Augustine, whom Bede constantly follows, just as Christ prayed to the Father only for the elect (John 17:9), so properly he offered the propitiatory sacrifice to the Father for the sins of the elect to be efficaciously abolished.
The Council of Valence judged this doctrine, against Hincmar and the revived error of the Semipelagians, to be so certain that it declared it to belong to apostolic truth: “This,” it says (ch. 4), “we must simply and faithfully hold and teach according to evangelical and apostolic truth: that as Moses lifted up the serpent… so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3). Yet that price was sufficient to save effectively all and each of the men of the whole world, if God had willed to apply its power to them. Hence Christ died not only for the elect but also for the reprobate as regards sufficiency; and many of these obtain remission of their sins through Christ’s merits in baptism or through penance, but afterward relapse and finally perish.
CONTINUE
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