Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LXVI-LXXXIV

not the only one. How many things, then, have been commanded us concerning faith, how many concerning hope: who can gather them all, who is equal to counting them? But let us look at what the same apostle says: Love is the fullness of the Law (Rom. 13:10). Where, then, there is love, what is there that can be lacking? And where it is not, what is there that can profit? The demon believes (Jas. 2:19), and does not love: no one loves who does not believe. In vain indeed, but still, he who does not love can hope for pardon: but no one who loves can despair. And so where love is, there of necessity are faith and hope: and where there is love of neighbour, there of necessity is also love of God. For he who does not love God, how does he love his neighbour as himself, since he does not love even himself? For he is impious and wicked; and he who loves wickedness plainly does not love, but hates his own soul (Ps. 10:6). Let us therefore hold to this commandment of the Lord, that we love one another; and whatever else He has commanded, we shall do: since whatever else there is, we have here. For this love is distinguished from that love with which men love one another as men: for, that it might be distinguished, there was added, as I have loved you. For to what end does Christ love us, except that we may be able to reign with Christ? To this end, then, let us too love one another, that we may distinguish our love from the rest, who do not love one another to this end, because they do not even love. But those who love one another for the sake of having God, they love themselves: so, in order to love themselves, they love God. This love is not in all men: few love one another for this reason, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

TRACTATE LXXXIV.

On the words, Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. Chapter XV, verse 13.

1. The fullness of the love with which we ought to love one another, dearest brethren, the Lord defined, saying: Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. Since, then, He had said above, This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you; and to these words added what you have now heard, Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends: there follows from this what this same evangelist John says in his Epistle, That as Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16); loving one another, that is, as He Himself loved us, Who laid down His life for us. This, surely, is what is read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit to dine at the table of a powerful man, consider and understand what is set before you; and so put forth your hand, knowing that you must prepare such things (Prov. 23:1–2). For what is the table of the powerful man, except that from which is taken the body and blood of Him Who laid down His life for us? And what is it to sit at it, except to approach humbly? And what is it to consider and understand what is set before you, except worthily to ponder so great a grace? And what is it so to put forth the hand,

that you may know that you must prepare such things, except what I have already said: that as Christ laid down His life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? For as the apostle Peter also says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). This is to prepare such things. This the blessed martyrs did with burning love: and if we celebrate their memorials not in vain, and approach the Lord's table at the banquet at which they too were filled, it is fitting that, as they did, so we too should prepare such things. For this is why we do not commemorate them at that very table in the way we do others who rest in peace, so as to pray for them too, but rather that they may pray for us, that we may cling to their footsteps; because they fulfilled the love than which the Lord said there can be none greater. For they showed to their brethren such things as they had likewise received from the Lord's table.

2. And let this not be said as though we could therefore be equal to the Lord Christ, if for Him we have carried martyrdom even to blood. He had power to lay down His life, and to take it up again (John 10:18); but we neither live as long as we wish, and we die even if we do not wish: He, dying, at once slew death in Himself; we are freed from death in His death: His flesh did not see corruption (Acts 2:31); ours, after corruption, will at the end of the age be clothed through Him with incorruption: He had no need of us in order to save us; without Him we can do nothing: He offered Himself to us, the branches, as the vine; apart from Him we cannot have life. Lastly, even if brethren die for brethren, yet no martyr's blood is shed for the remission of the brethren's sins, as He did for us: and in this He bestowed on us not something to imitate, but something to give thanks for. In so far, then, as the martyrs shed their blood for the brethren, so far did they show such things as they had received from the Lord's table. For in the other things I have said, though I could not say them all, the martyr of Christ is far unequal to Christ. But if anyone compares himself, I do not say to the power of Christ, but to His innocence; I will not say by thinking that he heals another's sin as well, but by thinking that he has at least none of his own: even so he is greedier than the reckoning of salvation demands; it is too much for him, he does not take in so much. And well is he warned by that sentence of the Proverbs, which straightway adds and says, But if you are greedy, do not covet his food; for it is better that you take nothing from it than that you take to yourself more than you ought. For these things, it says, have a deceitful life, that is, hypocrisy. For by saying that he is without sin, he cannot show himself just, but only feign it. Therefore it is said, For these things have a deceitful life. There is One alone Who could both have the flesh of man and not have sin. Rightly is what follows enjoined upon us, and by such a word and proverb

human weakness is addressed, and it is said to it: Do not stretch yourself out, since you are poor, against the rich man. For He is rich who was never liable to any debt, either inherited or His own, and is Himself just, and justifies others: Christ. Do not stretch yourself out against Him, you who are so poor that you appear daily in prayer as a beggar for the remission of sins. But from your own counsel, it says, refrain. From what, if not from false presumption? For He, because He is not only man but also God, is therefore never guilty. For if you direct your eye towards Him, He will nowhere appear. Your eye, that is, the human eye with which you perceive human things, if you direct it towards Him, He will nowhere appear; because He cannot be seen in the way that you are able to see. For He will prepare for Himself wings like an eagle, and will go to the house of His superior (Prov. 23:3–5): from where indeed He came to us, and He did not find us such as He came. Let us therefore love one another, as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20). For greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. And let us so imitate Him with dutiful obedience, that we presume with no audacity to compare ourselves to Him.