{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/107/1070086.htm","path":"chr/ecf/107/1070086.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/107/1070086.htm","text":"1. You have just heard, beloved, the Lord saying to His disciples, \u201cThese things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full.\u201d And what else is Christ\u2019s joy in us, save that He is pleased to rejoice over us? And what is this joy of ours which He says is to be made full, but our having fellowship with Him? On this account He had said to the blessed Peter, \u201cIf I wash thee not, thou shall have no part with me.\u201d 1406 His joy, therefore, in us is the grace He hath bestowed upon us: and that is also our joy. But over it He rejoiced even from eternity, when He chose us before the foundation of the world. 1407 Nor can we rightly say that His joy was not full; for God\u2019s joy was never at any time imperfect. But that joy of His was not in us: for we, in whom it could be, had as yet no existence; and even when our existence commenced, it began not to be in Him. But in Him it always was, who in the infallible truth of His own foreknowledge rejoiced that we should yet be His own. Accordingly, He had a joy over us that was already full, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and foreordaining us: and as little could there be any fear intermingling in that joy of His, lest there should be any possible failure in what He foreknew would be done by Himself. Nor, when He began to do what He foreknew that He would do, was there any increase to His joy as the expression of His blessedness; otherwise His making of us must have added to His blessedness. Be such a supposition, brethren, far from our thoughts; for the blessedness of God was neither less without us, nor became greater because of us. His joy, therefore, over our salvation, which was always in Him, when He foreknew and foreordained us, began to be in us when He called us; and this joy we properly call our own, as by it we, too, shall yet be blessed: but this joy, as it is ours, increases and advances, and presses onward perseveringly to its own completion. Accordingly, it has its beginning in the faith of the regenerate, and its completion in the reward when they rise again. Such is my opinion of the purport of the words, \u201cThese things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be made full:\u201d that mine \u201cmight be in you;\u201d that yours \u201cmight be made full.\u201d For mine was always full, even before ye were called, when ye were foreknown as those whom I was afterwards to call; but it finds its place in you also, when ye are transformed into that which I have foreknown regarding you. And \u201cthat yours may be full:\u201d for ye shall be blessed, what ye are not as yet; just as ye are now created, who had no existence before.\n2. \u201cThis,\u201d He says, \u201cis my injunction, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.\u201d Whether we call it injunction or commandment, 1408 both are the rendering of the same Greek word, entol\u00e9 (\u1f10\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03ae). But He had already made this same announcement on a former occasion, when, as ye ought to remember, I repounded it to you to the best of my ability. 1409 For this is what He says there, \u201cA new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, p. 349 that ye also love one another.\u201d 1410 And so the repetition of this commandment is its commendation: only that there He said, \u201cA new commandment I give unto you;\u201d and here, \u201cThis is my commandment:\u201d there, as if there had been no such commandment before; and here, as if He had no other commandment to give them. But there it is spoken of as \u201cnew,\u201d to keep us from persevering in our old courses; here, it is called \u201cmine,\u201d to keep us from treating it with contempt.\n3. But when He said in this way here, \u201cThis is my commandment,\u201d as if there were none else, what are we to think, my brethren? Is, then, the commandment about that love wherewith we love one another, His only one? Is there not also another that is still greater,\u2014that we should love God? Or has God in very truth given us such a charge about love alone, that we have no need of searching for others? There are three things at least that the apostle commends when he says, \u201cBut now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.\u201d 1411 And although in charity, that is, in love, are comprehended the two commandments; yet it is here declared to be the greatest only, and not the sole one. Accordingly, what a host of commandments are given us about faith, what a multitude about hope! who is there that could collect them together, or suffice to number them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: \u201cLove is the fullness of the law.\u201d 1412 And so, where there is love, what can be wanting? and where it is not, what is there that can possibly be profitable? The devil believes, 1413 but does not love: no one loveth who doth not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not love, but he hopes in vain; but no one can despair who loves. Therefore, where there is love, there of necessity will there be faith and hope; and where there is the love of our neighbor, there also of necessity will be the love of God. For he that loveth not God, how loveth he his neighbour as himself, seeing that he loveth not even himself? Such an one is both impious and iniquitous; and he that loveth iniquity, manifestly loveth not, but hateth his own soul. 1414 Let us, therefore, be holding fast to this precept of the Lord, to love one another; and then all else that is commanded we shall do, for all else we have contained in this. But this love is distinguished from that which men bear to one another as such; for in order to mark the distinction, it is added, \u201cas I have loved you.\u201d And wherefore is it that Christ loveth us, but that we may be fitted to reign with Christ? With this aim, therefore, let us also be loving one another, that we may manifest the difference of our love from that of others, who have no such motive in loving one another, because the love itself is wanting. But those whose mutual love has the possession of God Himself for its object, will truly love one another; and, therefore, even for the very purpose of loving one another, they love God. There is no such love as this in all men; for few have this motive for their love one to another, that God may be all in all. 1415\nPs. xi. 5. Augustin here, as usual, along with the Vulgate, follows the Septuagint in what is clearly a mistranslation of the Hebrew text, which is correctly rendered grammatically in our English version, though not exactly according to the Masoretic punctuation. \u05e9\u05b8\u05bd\u05c2\u05e0\u05b0\u05d0\u05b8\u05d4 (fem.) shows that \u201chis soul\u201d is the subject, and not the object of the hatred.\u2014Tr.\n349:1415","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII: Lectures or Tra...","type":"page"}