Acts of the Apostles, 1 John and the Gospel of John, are used extensively in the Liturgy of the Easter Season. Here you can find a list of resources (books, podcasts, etc) to help you become better acquainted with these writings.
1Jn 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him.
Whosoever believeth that, with a living faith, which extends itself to charity, and worketh by love, that Jesus is the Christ, i.e. the Messiah, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, is born of God, by a divine and spiritual birth, which takes place by faith, love, and grace, by which a man becomes not only a friend, but a son and heir of God, and a partaker of the Divine nature (2 Pet 1:5).
And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. Born: 1st. Christ the Son of God is properly He who is born of God the Father. 2nd. Born of God applies to every believer, who is adopted of God through the grace of Christ. And this is S. John s reasoning, by which he proves that our neighbours ought to be loved: Whoso ever loveth God the Father who begat, loveth equally God the Son who was begotten. But he who loveth God the Son loveth also all the other sons of God, as being His brethren and members. Therefore he who loveth God the Father loveth also all the children of God who are born of Him. It is in favour of this exposition, says S. Augustine, that the Apostle here says Son in the singular as understanding the Only Begotten of the Father. But presently, in the next verse he says sons in the plural, as intending the just, by adoption and regeneration sons of God.
1Jn 5:2 In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments.
In this we know that we love the children (τεκνα) of God: when (οταν, i.e., because) we love God, &c. We know, i.e. we conclude, we show and demonstrate. S. John uses this expression, we know, in a similar sense 3:16 and 19, and 4:2 and 6. We know, i.e. we are convinced that we love Christians as the children of God. We know this, i.e. we prove it by this argument, that we love God. The following is S. John s syllogism and demonstration. All the sons of God are believers and Christians. Whosoever therefore loves God loves also the children of God. Therefore he who loves God loves faithful Christians as being the brethren and members of Christ, born of the same God the Father. For as from the love of our neighbour we infer and conclude the love of God, so in turn and reciprocally from the love of God we infer and conclude the love of our neighbour. Again, whosoever keeps the commands of God keeps also the love of his neighbour: for this is one of the commandments. But he who keeps the command of love, this man loves his neighbour. Therefore whosoever keeps the commands of God is a lover of his neighbour.
Moreover, in this place S. John does not speak of all our neighbours, but only of such as are born of God, that is, believing Christians, because he seeks to kindle amongst them mutual love, in order that by their faith and Christian life they may defend, animate, help, and be profitable to one another against the heathen.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the charity of God: That we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not heavy.
For this is the charity of God, &c. He means, Charity consists in the keeping of the commandments of God. For charity is the love and friendship of God. For this is what is said ( Wisdom 6:9), “Love is the keeping of His laws.” So it is said in Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the
whole man.” It means, the whole good of man; all his duty, all his happiness; his end and perfection consist in the fear of God. As S. Jerome says, “For this man was created.” And as Salonius says, He who lives otherwise is not a man but a beast, because he does not live according to reason, which pertains to man s nature. But if he lives gluttonously, he lives like a hog. If he lives deceitfully, he lives like a fox. If he lives proudly, he lives like a lion* and so on. All this you may apply to charity.
AndHis commandments are not heavy (gravia), much less impossible, as heretics say. He alludes to the words of Christ, “My yoke is sweet, and My burden light” (see Matt 11:28-30).
The reason is, 1st. Because Christ has freed Christians from the heavy and manifold burden of the ceremonial and judicial precepts of the Old Law, and has imposed upon them only the moral Law, or the ten precepts of the natural Law, adding to them a few things concerning faith, baptism, and the rest of the sacraments. The Rabbi Moses numbers 218 positive, and 365 negative, precepts of the Old Law (More Hannebuchim, caps. 56 and 57). From all these Christ has set us free.
2nd. Because to charity and him who loves God nothing is heavy. “For how can it be heavy when it is the command of love? For either a man loves not, and thus it is heavy ; or else he does love, and it cannot be heavy,” says S. Augustine.
3rd. Because Christ gives grace as it were wings, with which we fulfil the commandments. Yea, we as it were fly over them, according to the words, “I ran the way of Thy commandments when Thou hadst enlarged my heart” (Ps 119). As S. Augustine says, “There is nothing heavy either in loving, or fearing. For perfect love casts out fear, and makes the burden of the commandment light, not depressing to the ground with its weight, but lifting it up instead of wings. Let the soul therefore which feels the commandments heavy, pray and sigh with the will that it may obtain the gift of the sense of lightness.” Wherefore S. Bonaventura says, “The commandments are heavy to fallen and corrupt nature, but light to that which is whole and sound.” For grace heals our nature, even as sin wounds and as it were maims it. Therefore sin makes the commandments to be as “a talent of lead.” (Zech 5:7.)
4th. Because, although certain things be heavy in themselves, such as to mortify all the lusts, to undergo martyrdom, to suffer all adversity, yet they become light when we consider the example of Christ and His Saints, and God’s promise of heavenly glory, according as S. Paul says, “the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18).
As S. Augustine says (Serm. 18 de Sanct.) “If we must needs endure daily torments, if hell itself for a brief space, that we might be worthy to behold Christ coming in His glory, and to be reckoned in the company of His Saints, would it not be worth while to suffer anything that is sad, so that we were made partakers of such great good and such great glory?”
1Jn 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory which overcameth the world: Our faith.
For whatsoever is born of God, &c. He proves what he had said that His commandments are not heavy, because the faithful, who are born again of faith, and charity, and are armed by God, overcome the world, i.e. the lusts and terrors of the world, which alone resist charity, and make the keeping of the commandments difficult. When therefore they are taken away, the commandments become easy. “The proof of a heavenly generation is victory over temptation,” says S. Bernard.
Observe: he says whatsoever (neuter), not “every one who is born of God overcometh”. This is to signify, 1st That this victory falls to the believer, not of himself, but from the love and grace of God. This is why he adds by way of explanation, And this is the victory which overcameth the world, even our faith.
2d. The expression whatsoever is emphatic, and signifies the whole company of all nations. There is an allusion to the animals of every kind, both clean and unclean, which were in Noe’s ark, and which Peter saw in vision in the linen sheet of the Church. (Acts. x. 12.) By these it was signified that all sorts of men, of every nation, state, and condition, were to be admitted into the Church by the new Birth of Baptism. For the same reason, and with the same emphasis, Christ said, “Everything that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.”
Hence S. Cyprian, S. Leo, and others say that a believer is greater than the world, and having his conversation in heaven he looks down upon the little point of the world. Beautifully does S. Augustine write (lib. 2 de Synub. and Catechum), “Admirable, truly admirable, is our combat” (spectaculum), “in which God helps, faith obtains strength, innocence fights, holiness conquers, and the reward which follows is such that whilst he who has conquered receives, he who gives loses nothing.”
And this is the victory, &c., victory, i.e., the victor, the conqueror. The victory then is the cause of victory, the arms by which the victory is obtained, i.e., faith. This victorious faith is not naked and idle faith, but clothed with charity and good works, struggling and fighting bravely, according to the words, “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,” &c. (Heb. xi.) And as S. Paul says (Eph. vi. i6), “And in all taking the shield of faith by which ye can quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.” For overcameth the Greek has νικήσασα, aorist overcame. By this all time is signified. He hath overcome, he overcomes, and shall overcome. So S. Augustine teaches that the faith of Christ has subdued the whole world to itself by the sanctity, chastity, patience, constancy, of the Apostles, Virgins, and Martyrs, by whom the nations of the whole world have been converted to Christ. And as he saith again (Ser. de Verb. Apost.), “There are no greater riches, or treasures, no substance of this world greater than the Catholic Faith. It saves sinful man, gives sight to the blind, heals the sick, baptizes catechumens, restores the penitent, helps the just, crowns the martyrs.” And S. Bernard says, “Faith reaches things inaccessible, discovers the unknown, comprehends the infinite, seizes the remotest bounds of things, and in short embraces eternity itself in its own most spacious bosom. I would say boldly that the eternal and Blessed Trinity, whom I cannot understand, I believe in and hold firmly by faith, a thing which I am not capable of by mere soundness of intellect.
1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Who is he that overcometh the world, &c. For by believing he hopes, by hoping he invokes, by invoking he loves Christ, and therefore he is strengthened by the grace of Christ to despise the world, and by despising he overcomes it, according to the saying of S. Paul, “I am able to do all things in Him who strengtheneth me.” For he who believes in Christ, ought to follow the precepts of Christ and obey Him, not the world.
S. John proves his thesis ex hypothesi, the general from the particular. He proves, I say, that faith is the victory of believers, because the faith of Christ is the victory over the world. And at the same time he confutes Cerinthus, Ebion, and the other heretics of that age, who denied the Divinity of Christ. Hence when Peter confessed this doctrine, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he deserved to hear from Him, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.”
1Jn 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit which testifieth that Christ is the truth.
This is He who came by water and blood. Some Greek codices add καί πνεύματος, i.e., and by spirit: not by water only, but by water and blood, and by spirit.
This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. This is Messias, the Son of God, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, whom the Prophets foretold should come to redeem the world by His Blood, and purify it by the water of baptism, as is plain from Ezek 36:47, and Zech 12:13. John proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that is, that Jesus is true Man and true God. He does this, 1st Because He is He who came, Greek, ό ε̉λθὼν, i.e., He, the Coming One, the Messias, who indeed the Prophets promised should come: whom the Scripture (Isa 9:6. and elsewhere) signified should be God and the Son of God. Wherefore Coming or About to come is the Name of Messiah. For so the Jews called Him from the prophetic oracles. This is plain from S. John 1:15, &c.
Again, he proves the same thing from the water and the blood of which the Body of Christ was constituted, and which He shed for us. For they signify, 1st That Christ was a true man, and not a phantasm, as Simon Magus and Manes pretended. For the human body is composed of water and blood.
2d. The water and blood proved that Christ is true God. One reason is that the Blood of Christ was the full price of our redemption, entirely satisfying God for the offences of our sins. Therefore it was necessary that the Blood should be the Blood of a God-man, a man hypostatically united to God: for the blood of a mere man could not be an adequate price for offences against God. A second reason is, because Christ by the virtue of His Blood in ordaining baptism, endowed it with a Divine power to expiate all the sins of all men. Therefore it was necessary for Him to be God. For Christ did this per se, and authoritatively, not ministerially as dependent upon some one else. But per se to institute a sacrament to remit and atone for sin is a work of Divine power.
There is an allusion in the first place to the water and blood of the victims with which Moses ratified the Old Testament (Ex 24:8). By this he signified that Christ by His own Blood and Water would ratify the New Testament. Hear S. Paul, Heb 9:19, “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop,” &c.
There is an allusion, secondly, to the water and blood which miraculously flowed from the side of Christ when He was dead upon the Cross. For a dead body, instead of the blood and water of a living one, naturally emits gore (saniem). S. John alone of the Evangelists records this emission of blood and water. By these two it was set forth that by the power of the blood of Christ the faithful should be cleansed from their sins by the water of Baptism. And this is the meaning of the Bride, i.e., the Church, when she says (Song 5. 10), “My Beloved is white and ruddy.” (So Cyril, Hieros. Cat. 13; S. Augustine, lib. 2 de Catech. rud. c. 6; S. Leo, Epist. 45, Hier. 83; Damascene, 4 de Fide, c. 10; Suarez, 3 part. quæst. 53, disput. 41, and others.) From hence our Salmeron is of opinion that Christ always mingled water with His Blood, viz., tears at His circumcision, His Bloody Sweat, His Scourging, and on the Cross before His death. And that this was why He ordered water to be mingled with wine in the Eucharistic Chalice to be converted into His Blood.
Moreover, S. John distinguishes Christ’s Baptism from that of John the Baptist, because the latter was in water only, and, therefore unavailing for the remission of sins. But Christ’s Baptism was in water and blood, and therefore availing to that end. Again, he confutes the Ebionites, who thought that God was appeased with mere water, and who therefore washed themselves daily with water, and offered water only, without wine, in the Eucharistic Chalice, because they denied that we were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. (See Irenæus, lib. 5 c. 1.)
Lastly, Tertullian (lib. de Bapt. c. 16) says, Christ came by water when he was baptized by John, by blood when He suffered, that “He might be washed by water, glorified by blood,” by the victory of His Passion and Death. “He would have us called by water, elected by blood. This twofold Baptism He shed forth from the wound in His pierced side, that they who believed in His Blood might be washed with water, and that those who were laved with the water of Baptism might also drink His Blood in the Eucharist.”
Tropologically, S. Bernard explains it to mean a twofold baptism and a twofold martyrdom: 1st Of compunction by tears; 2nd, By the desire of mortification. “Now because we have said that baptism is signified by water, martyrdom by blood, remember that there is one only and daily baptism, one only and daily martyrdom. For there is indeed a kind of martyrdom and a certain effusion of blood in the daily affliction of the body. There is also a species of baptism in compunction of the heart and frequent tears.”
And it is the Spirit which testifieth that Christ is the truth. (Vulg.) The Greek has ότι τὸ πνεύμα έστιν ή α̉λήθεια, i.e., The Spirit is the Truth. This is also the reading of the Syriac. The meaning is, It is the Spirit who recently at Pentecost testified that Christ is the Son of God. Him therefore we must believe because He is the Spirit of Truth, and the Truth Itself. But the genuine reading is, Because Christ is Truth. For the Apostle is here treating of Christ, and Christ’s proper name is the Truth.
To the obscure and as it were dead testimony of water and blood, is added the clear and living witness of the Holy Ghost. For He as well during Christ’s (earthly) life, in which He wrought miracles by Him to bear witness to this, as also after His death and resurrection, when He was sent by Him to the Apostles at Pentecost, testified by their mouth, and preached everywhere that Christ was the Truth, i.e., true God. For Christ, in that He is God is the Word, and therefore the Truth and Wisdom of the Father. In that He is man, He is the true ambassador and interpreter of the Father, who opened out the shadows of the Old Law, and published the true doctrine concerning God, according to His own words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Hence too the Aaronic High Priest bore, as a type of Christ the true and real High Priest, the Urim and Thummim, i.e., doctrine and truth, in his breastplate.
1Jn 5:7 And there are Three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one.
And there are Three who give testimony in Heaven, &c. S. John here more fully explains and confirms the testimony already adduced of the water, the blood and the spirit concerning Christ. The particle And is partly confirmatory of what He had said in the 5th ver. that Jesus is the Son of God, partly of what he said in the 6th, that the Spirit bears witness that Jesus is true God. For this is here confirmed because the Holy Spirit is one of the three witnesses who in heaven bear testimony to Christ.
S. Jerome (Pref. in Epist. Canon.) observes that this verse had been erased by unbelievers, i.e. the Arians, from some Greek copies. Therefore it is not found in the Syriac, Clement of Alexandria, Bede, Œcumenius, and some others. It is, however, the constant reading of the Latin Bibles, and the more correct Greek MSS. and of many of the ancients, SS. Athanasius, Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, the Lateran Council, at which Greeks were present. Therefore it is certain that these words are to be taken as canonical Scripture.
The meaning then is this—All the Three Persons of the Sacred Trinity in heaven and from heaven bear testimony to the angels, but especially to men (for to men S. John chiefly refers) concerning Christ, that He is the true Messiah and the Son of God. This the Father did at His Baptism and Transfiguration. Again, when He answered Christ by thunder out of heaven, “I have both glorified, and will glorify Thee again ” (John 12:18). Similarly also the Holy Ghost bore witness when He descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, and poured out Himself upon the Apostles and other Christians at Pentecost. And this was the result of Christ’s prediction, promise, and mission. Wherefore the same Holy Spirit by the mouths of the Apostles preached little else save Christ. The Son also very often declared, taught, and proved convincingly by His miracles that He was the Messias and the Son of God, as is plain from the whole Gospel of S. John. Therefore heaven and earth mutually agree, yea the whole universe appears at one, in bearing this witness to Christ.
And these Three are One—as in nature and Divine Essence, so likewise in intelligence, voice, and testimony, concerning Christ. For all these things in the Holy Trinity are one and the same. There is another reading of these words in the Greek, signifying These Three are into One (in unum), but the Latin and other Greek copies have These Three are One (Hi tres unum suns), signifying the oneness of Substance of the Holy Trinity, that the Three Persons have one and the same undivided Godhead.
1Jn 5:8 And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit and the water and the blood. And these three are one.
And there are three that give testimony in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood. Three (tres in the masc.). He might have said tria in the neuter, for the Greek πνευ̃μα ϋδως αίμα, are all in that gender. But he chose to say tres, to show that these three earthly witnesses concur with, yea represent, the Three Heavenly witnesses already spoken of. So says S. Augustine. By a figure of speech, personality is attributed to these earthly witnesses, as speaking with man’s voice. S. John sets the human and earthly testimony over against the Divine. Some think that the Three Witnesses in heaven are witnesses to Christ’s Divinity, and the three on earth witnesses to His Humanity. Among these are Innocent III. (cap. in quad de Celebrat. Miss.), and S. Thomas. But it is better to take both classes as attesting the Divinity. For this is what S. John undertook to prove (ver. 5), because Cerinthus and others denied it. And this is why he subjoins presently, He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness of God in himself.
There are Three. S. John places a twofold Trinity of witnesses to Christ, who testify of His Divinity, and that He is the Son of God. And he sets the one over against the other. Indeed, he unites them as regards their office of witness-bearing. The first are uncreated, viz., the Father, the Son, and the Ghost. The second are created, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These emanate from the uncreated witnesses, and correspond to them. For water refers to the Father, blood to the Son, spirit to the Holy Ghost. For the Father is the beginning (principium) of all things, as likewise is water. For out of water were formed the heavens, the air, the birds and the fishes, as I have shown in the beginning of Genesis. Again, water nourishes herbs, trees, plants, and every living thing. Wherefore, also, the heavens are called in Hebrew scamiam, i.e., waters. Again, water signifies the affluence of goods and graces which there is in God the Father, according to the words in Isa 12., “Ye shall draw water with joy from the wells of the Saviour.” (Vulg.) It is well known that the Egyptians worshipped the Nile as a god, because all their crops were due to the over- flowing of the Nile. Moreover, water appositely represents the mercy and goodness of God the Father. At the present day some of the Indians adore water. Suidas, under the word Brachmans, says that the Brahmins lived to a very great age because they drank nothing but water. Apollonias of Syana was wont to say that those who drink water never suffer from giddiness in the head.
On earth—from earth: like as the first Three testify in heaven, i.e., from heaven, to men dwelling on earth.
The Spirit and the water and the blood—the spirit, namely, which Christ when dying on the Cross committed into the hands of the Father. Also the water and the blood which flowed from the side of Christ testify that Christ was truly not only man, but God, because by these, as by a just price, Christ made satisfaction to an offended God. Again, His spirit, because it went forth with a loud cry, showed Him to be God. Wherefore the centurion, when he saw that He thus cried out and expired, said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” For speech fails those who are at the point of death. This cry of Christ was then miraculous and not natural, signifying that Christ was more than human, and therefore that He died of His own will, and not through weakness.
2d. S. Augustine Lyra and the Gloss understand by the Spirit in this place the Holy Ghost shed forth at Pentecost. For He testified that Christ was God.
3d. Œcumenius understands by Spirit the Holy Ghost given at Baptism. “In Baptism,” he says, “by water Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the witness of the Father.”
Anagogically, but very appropriately, and almost literally, the water, the blood, and the spirit that were emitted by Christ upon the Cross, but resumed by Him at His resurrection, signify that He was the very promised Messiah, the conqueror of death and hell, and therefore the Son of God. For Christ rose again by His own power, and resumed these three things.
Mystically, by spirit, water, and blood are signified the three things which concur for our justification. As S. Ambrose says, “By the Spirit our mind is renewed, by water we are washed; the blood is the price.”
Allegorically, by these three things are signified the three chief sacraments which bear testimony to Christ, as instituted by Him, and as sanctifying by virtue of His merits. Water signifies Baptism, blood the Eucharistic Chalice, the Spirit penance. Whence by breathing the Spirit upon His Apostles Christ gave them the power of remitting sins.
Symbolically, Baldwin of Canterbury whose work I examined in manuscript at Louvain (lib. 1 de Eucharist, c. 48) says, “The spirit of the righteous, the tears of penitents, the blood of the martyrs bear witness that Christ is the Redeemer.”
S. Augustine upon this passage thinks that by these three earthly witnesses the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are denoted, viz., the Father by the spirit, the Son by the the blood, the Holy Ghost by the water. For of the Father it is said, “God is a Spirit” (Jno. iv. 14), the Son assumed the blood and flesh of man’s nature. Of the Holy Ghost it is spoken: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:18.) And for this reason they are called tres in the masculine, not tria, three things, in the neuter.
Tropologically, S. Bernard (Serm. 2 in Oct. Pasch.) says, “By the blood, the water, and the spirit thou hast witness unto righteousness, that thou art born again through Christ, if thou refrainest from sin, if thou bringest forth worthy fruits of penance, if thou doest living works.” The blood there signifies continence, the water tears, the Spirit spirit, and works which testify that we are regenerated and made holy. “He also shows that these three things are opposed to three things which are in the world, and overcome them. For the concupiscence of the flesh is overcome by the mortification of the blood, the lust of the eyes by the compunction of tears, the pride of life, or the spirit of vanity, by the spirit of charity.” S. Bernard adds (Serm. 76) that there are in like manner three witnesses in hell, the worm by which the conscience is gnawed, the fire which burns both soul and body, and the spirit of despair. “By the witnesses in heaven,” he says, “is given the witness of beatitude, by those in earth of justification, by those in hell of damnation. The first testimony is of glory, the second of grace, the third of wrath.”
And these three are one. Some Greek and Latin codices, as the Complutensian and the Royal, omit these words. Wherefore S. Thomas (Opusc. 24 in 2 decret.) says, that they were foisted in by the Arians, that it might be gathered that the Three heavenly Persons are not spoken of as being one in Essence, but only as bearing witness. But many of the Latin and the more correct Greek copies have the words, but read, These three are into one (in unum). And the Syriac, These Three are in one (in uno), meaning to say, the water, the blood, and the spirit of Christ are not one as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are One, but that they are referred to One, &c., Christ and His Humanity, or mystically to one justifying and perfecting of man.
1Jn 5:9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. Because this is the testimony of God, which is greater, because he hath testified of his Son.
If we receive the testimony of men, &c. If we give credit to man’s testimony, much more ought we to believe the witness of God concerning Christ. It is greater both in dignity and authority, in truth and certainty. For God infinitely surpasses all men and angels in majesty and veracity. He is the first and supreme Verity, who cannot lie, neither can He deceive, or be deceived. As S. Paul declares (Rom 3:4), “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” Moreover, the testimony of the Church, of the Apostles and Prophets, is the testimony of God, for the Church is governed by the Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of Truth.
Because this is the witness of God, &c. The word because here is not so much causative as explanatory, and means the same as but. The meaning is, But this is God’s testimony, because, i.e., which, He has testified, &c., namely, as He testified at the Baptism of Christ, and at many other times, “This is My Beloved Son.”
1Jn 5:10 He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testimony of God in himself. He that believeth not the Son maketh him a liar: because he believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of his Son.
He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testimony of God in himself. 1st Because he hath in him the thing attested by God, namely this truth, that Christ is the Son of God.
2d. Because he hath in himself the very witness of God, and God Himself attesting.
3d. This testimony is the faith itself by which we believe the witness of God. There is a metonymy, because the object is put instead of the habit, or act tending to the object. It means, he who believes has a special gift of God, viz., faith. And this includes the witness, or testimony of God, and God Himself attests, which marvellously honours the believer, and makes him strong to confess Christ.
4th This testimony may be taken to signify the regeneration and adoption, the grace and glory of the believer—meaning, He who believes in the Son of God hath in himself the witness of God, namely, that by which God witnesses to his soul and conscience by means of this faith with which he believes in Christ, that he is faithful, and a son and heir of God.
He that believeth not the Son, &c. As he that believeth in the Son, and receives God’s testimony concerning Him, makes God to be true, and honours and worships Him; so, on the contrary, he that believeth not the Son, and rejects God’s testimony concerning Him, makes God false, and does Him great despite.
Observe: instead of believeth, the Greek has πεπίστευκεν, hath believed. This is a Hebraism by which the perfect is put for any tense.
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Pope John Paul II’s Commentary/Meditation on Psalm 116:10-19
Posted by Dim Bulb on January 7, 2012
Psalm 116[115]
Prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord
Evening Prayer
1. Psalm 116[115], which we have just prayed, has always been in use in the Christian tradition, beginning with St Paul who, citing the introduction of the Greek translation of the Septuagint, wrote to the Christians of Corinth: “Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had, who wrote, “I believed, and so I spoke’, we too believe, and so we speak” (II Cor 4: 13).
The Apostle feels in spiritual harmony with the Psalmist, in serene trust and sincere witness, notwithstanding suffering and human weakness. Writing to the Romans, Paul takes up again verse two of the Psalm and highlights a difference between God who is faithful and man who is inconsistent: “God must be proved true even though every man be proved a liar” (Rom 3: 4).
The Christian tradition has read, prayed and interpreted the text in different contexts and thus all the wealth and depth of the Word of God appears, which opens new dimensions and new situations. Initially it was read above all as a text for martyrdom, but then in the peaceful Church it increasingly became a Eucharistic text because of the phrase “cup of salvation”. In reality, Christ is the first martyr. He gave up his life in a context of hate and falsehood, but he transformed this anguish – and thus also this context – into the Eucharist: into a festive thanksgiving. The Eucharist is thanksgiving: “I will lift up the cup of salvation”.
2. In the original Hebrew, Psalm 116[115] forms a single composition with Psalm 115[114], which it follows. Both are the same thanksgiving, directed to the Lord who frees from the nightmare of death, from contexts of hate and lies.
In our text the memory of a distressing past surfaces: the person praying has held high the torch of faith, even when on his lips played the bitterness of despair and unhappiness (cf. Ps 116[115]: 10). Indeed, around him an icy curtain of hatred and deceit is being raised, as the neighbour shows himself to be false and unfaithful (cf. v. 11).
The supplication, however, is now transformed into gratitude because the Lord has remained faithful in this context of infidelity and has saved his faithful [servant] from the dark vortex of lies (cf. v. 11). So, this psalm is for us a text of hope, because even in difficult situations the Lord does not leave us, and therefore we must hold the torch of faith on high.
The person praying thus prepares to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, in which he will drink from the ritual chalice, the cup of sacred libation that is a sign of acknowledgement for having been freed (cf. v. 13), and find ultimate fulfilment in the Chalice of the Lord. Thus, the Liturgy is the privileged place to raise up acceptable praise to God the Saviour.
3. Indeed, explicit reference is made, other than to the sacrificial rite, also to the assembly of “all his people”, in front of which the person praying fulfils his vows and witnesses to his faith (cf. v. 14). It will be in this circumstance that he will make his gratitude public, knowing well that, even when death is imminent, the Lord bends lovingly over him. God is not indifferent to the drama of his creature, but breaks his chains (cf. v. 16).
The person praying, saved from death, feels himself to be a “servant” of the Lord, “son of your handmaid” (ibid.), a beautiful Eastern expression to indicate one who has been born in the master’s own household. The Psalmist humbly and joyfully professes his belonging to the house of God, to the family of creatures united to him in love and fidelity.
4. The Psalm finishes, always through the words of the person praying, by re-evoking the rite of thanksgiving that will be celebrated in the “courts of the temple” (cf. vv. 17-19). In this way, his prayer is situated in a community setting. His personal ups and downs are spoken of so that it will serve as an incentive for everyone to believe in and to love the Lord.
Therefore, we can perceive in the background the entire people of God as the person praying thanks the Lord of life, who does not abandon the righteous in the dark womb of suffering and death but leads them to hope and life.
5. We conclude our reflection by entrusting ourselves to the words of St Basil the Great who, in the Homily on Psalm 115, commented on the question and answer contained in the Psalm as follows: “”How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up’. The Psalmist has understood the multitude of gifts he has received from God: from non-existence he has been led into being, he has been formed from the earth and given the ability to reason… he then perceived the economy of salvation to be to the benefit of the human race, acknowledging that the Lord gave himself up to redeem all of us; and he hesitates, searching among all of the goods that belong to him for a gift that might be worthy of the Lord. “How then, shall I make a return to the Lord’? Not sacrifices nor holocausts… but my entire life itself. For this he says: “I will lift up the cup of salvation‘, giving the name “cup’ to the suffering of spiritual combat, of resisting sin to the point of death; besides, that is what our Saviour taught us in the Gospel: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by’; and again to the Apostles: “Can you drink the cup I shall drink?‘, clearly symbolizing the death that he welcomed for the salvation of the world” (PG XXX, 109), thus transforming the sinful world into a redeemed world, into a world of thanksgiving for the life the Lord gives us.
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