72 - 1Jn 5:3
Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν. καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσὶν. The first clause of the third verse has been made clear so far as its meaning goes: the strict connection between love of God and obedience, introduced before in passing, is here expressly established. This is the substance (αὕτηἐστιν [“this is”]), and this is, at the same time, the tendency (ἵνα [“so that”]) of love to fulfil the commandments of God. And that follows, not only from the idea of love, but also from the way in which it was brought into our hearts. If love is the reference of my I to another I, love to God is the reference and subjection of my will to the will divine; and if the genesis of love to God is the fact that His prevenient love has been infused into my nature, then, again, the will of God must have become my will. And this obedience to the divine precept, thus demanded, the apostle proceeds to say, is easy; compare Mat 11:30. Assuredly, the expression βαρεῖαι [“burdensome”] means, primarily, pressing or hard, not “easy to be fulfilled;” but as the commandments are pressing or hard only from the fact that we cannot fulfil them, or fulfil them only with pains, the two meanings come to one and the same thing. God’s laws are not termed light in themselves, as if, that is, they did not require anything heavy or difficult; for, strictly speaking, nothing is easy and nothing difficult of itself; all difficulty lies simply in the relation between the thing concerned and the power of the person concerned. Only to the Christian are the divine commandments easy; because, in the power of faith, of that faith which links him with Christ, there is the strength of union between his will and the divine will. But in the spiritual domain the measure of the will is also ever the measure of the power. Every sin rests not only on a deficiency of power, but also on a deficiency of will.