69 - 1Jn 4:21
Καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔχομεν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.
There is nevertheless one way, it might be thought, of loving God directly, that, namely, of keeping His commandments—the way of obedience. But 1Jn 4:21 explains that this method of loving God ἐνἔργῳ [“in deed”] is not really a second one; for it is God’s express commandment that we love the brethren. Certainly the words do not indicate that this is the only commandment which we have received; for if the apostle says ταύτηντὴνἐντολὴνἔχομεν [“we have this commandment”], that does not hinder us from supposing that, besides the one in question, we have many others. But yet, strictly speaking, the I precept of brotherly love is actually the πλήρωμανόμου [“fulfillment of the law”]. If, for example, we would reckon the νικᾶντὸνκόσμον [“victory over the world”], the suppression of self, the subjection of pride, and so forth, as other commandments, yet it is plain that every victory over the evil is utterly impossible save through the might of the one principle opposed to them all, that of love. If love consists in this, that I refer my life absolutely not to myself, but altogether to others, then there can be no other commandment like unto this; and this laying down or throwing away of our own life, as Christ terms it, is possible as an act only in relation to man, not in relation to God: or it is possible as towards God only through the mediation of brotherly love. A passage literally expressing the commandment here given we certainly nowhere find. Yet we need not fall back upon the fundamental text of the Old Testament, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbour as thyself;” the apostle himself will give us what we want. In Joh 14:15 we read, ἐὰνἀγαπᾶτέμεκαὶτὰςἐντολάςμουτηρήσετε [“if you love me, you will also keep my commandments”]. The plurality of the precepts here mentioned is reduced again, according to the context, to the unity of the one commandment given in Joh 13:34: ἐντολὴν καινὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους [“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another”]. That in the Gospel the love of Christ is spoken of, while here it is the love of God, is of no moment; since the apostle knows no love to Christ which is not love to God, and no love to God which is not love to Christ.