Commentary on John 1 part 73/94

Then who among the right-minded is there who will henceforth be in doubt that, as it were a sickle and a hand of the Father, He through whom are all things, that is, the Son, is fulfilling the operation of the husbandry unto us—an operation which He ascribes to the person of the Father, teaching that all things are from the Father, save that it is through the power of the Son? For indeed the word of the Saviour cleanses us thoroughly, even though the husbandry that concerns us is ascribed to God the Father.

For He Himself is the living and most active word of Him, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. For reaching into the depths of each one's soul, and having the aim hidden in each unconcealed, as God, upon our vain endeavours He brings the sharp excision through the operation of the Spirit;

for this, I think, we shall reckon to be the thorough cleansing;

but as for whatever things are by nature able to profit us towards the desire of virtue, these He causes to be multiplied unto fruit-bearing, which is understood according to godliness.

When, therefore, the manner of the husbandry unto us is rightly wrought through the Son from the Father, made void is—

for how not?—the superfluous and most maliciously-contrived attempt of the adversaries, who say that the Son is on this account of a different nature, as in relation to the Father and God, since He is Himself the vine, while the Father has been named husbandman.

But let him consider again, and clearly examine all round, that He determines those who are His own to be clean—His disciples—not privately and in a separated way, that is, apart from the Only-Begotten, as though God the Father had wrought something concerning them by Himself;

but rather because they were persuaded by the word from Him.

As, then, He is life-giving through the Son and in the Son, in the same manner, I think, He would rightly again be conceived as husbandman also, that is, as the tender of our souls, in no other way than through the Son.

And do they moreover love, though against their will, to desist through their like folly from this puerile and utterly senseless notion? For if, because He has been called a vine, they suppose that for this cause He falls away from natural kinship with God and the Father, and is altogether of a different substance, since a vine and a husbandman are not the same in identity of nature—why should not we too, bringing back against them the same unlearned and most inelegant reasoning, say this: 'Is it, pray, to the branches alone that the care of those accustomed to till the ground would be profitable, and only about the things hanging from the stocks that the usefulness derived from the art will proceed; or will the nurse of the branches herself, that is, the vine, to which the things from it are attached and are naturally fitted, also need some care?' But no toil, I think, will be required for the demonstration;

for straightway the adversary himself will agree with us, that unless there were some care for the stocks, not even the branches themselves would have their well-being.

Since, then, Christ has named Himself a vine, and yet the stock of the vine itself needs the care of the tiller, or else it will be altogether and in every way harmed;

let us henceforth reckon the Son to be in the rank that is according to us, but to need, along with us, the care from the Father, lest He too should be turned into something other than what He is, and should fall away from His own rank, that is, from the steadfastness inherent in Him.

For to this, forsooth, the puerile obstinacy of those accustomed to fight against God brings its conclusion.

But let these things be gone, sick as they are with much ill-counsel; and let our discourse concerning the holy apostles come in.

For He already says, 'Ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.'

It is as though He should say: 'Wrought upon you first, by the Father because of My word, has been the manner of that thorough cleansing which is spiritual and conceived through the Spirit and in the Spirit;

behold, having cast off the trouble of vain customs and worldly deadness, ye are ready for the fruit-bearing that is dear to God;

behold, ye have been set free from the legal, profitless, and utterly vain observance of the Jews.

My word has cleansed you out;

for ye no longer live as citizens after the manner of Moses, that is, according to the manner of the letter of the Law;

for neither in meats and drinks, nor indeed in teachings of washings, nay nor in offerings through blood, will ye seek sanctification, but ye believe that ye are fulfilled in a firm faith, and ye are zealous to please God through every good work.'

For in these things is beheld the power of spiritual worship.

'Those, then, who are about to be thoroughly cleansed,' He says, 'shall be after your pattern;

for they shall be instructed—those who are now escaping from the drag-net of the devil and fleeing the snares of idolatry—no longer to live as citizens by his laws, but, shaking off, as it were some worthless refuse, the uncleanness of the ancient customs, and being thus henceforth shown fit, through the divine grace, to be able to bear fruit in works of the God-loving virtue, they shall be attached to Me after the manner of branches, and, hanging from love toward Me, they shall have their heart made fat by the inflowings of the Spirit, and, drinking in the grace of My goodness, they shall live through, and shall be nourished unto godliness;

but those of Israel, whensoever they should be nailed to Me by faith, and they too should be attached after the manner of branches, then indeed, then, having received into their mind the thorough cleansing through My word, they no longer busy themselves with the sitting-close attendance upon the letter, nor, fastening their heart, as now, upon the types in shadow, but they bear fruit unto God the true and spiritual worship;

and that plainly of the apostolic kind, we say, through which they were themselves about to profit those throughout the whole inhabited world, offering themselves as a pattern to those who believe in Christ.

For it is written concerning the saints, that it is fitting to contemplate again the issue of their manner of life, and to imitate their very faith.

And Paul too exhorts those who worship God to become imitators of himself.

'Abide in Me, and I in you.'

'As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.'

We shall know again, even through the exact contemplation of the things set before us, that the first work of necessary and God-loving diligence is to be received, through faith that is sincere and true, by Christ.

For this would be henceforth to be numbered among the branches that are grown naturally to the true vine—I mean, of course, Christ.

And the fruit of the second care, I think—in no way inferior to the first, but rather having about itself a more intense concern—is to love to be fitted in and to hold fast to God, through the love that is understood in works, which also has the fulfilment of the holy and divine commandment.

For this makes us to exist in Him inseparably and to be fixed fast, according to the Psalmist who says, 'My soul hath cleaved after Thee.' It will not suffice, therefore, for our complete gladness, that is, for sanctification—as with a view to the setting-forth of Christ who sanctifies us—merely to have been received, as in the rank of branches;

but I say that, in addition to this, it is needful also to follow genuinely through perfect and unfailing love.

For in this most of all would the power of the cleaving in the Spirit—that is, the union understood spiritually—be in good case and be preserved.

Since, then, Christ said to His own disciples, 'Now ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you,' lest anyone should ever suppose that those once cleansed can remain in a state that cannot fall away, even if they should make no effort towards their well-being, He usefully commands in addition that it behoves them to abide in Him.

And what will this be? Nothing other, as it seems to me, but rather clearly that which has been well said through Paul: 'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall'; for ten thousand slips might meet even those who now seem to stand firmly, in not having escaped well in whatever things they may be in, though they make it a matter of very great diligence.

And we ought, I think, to deem worthy of all forbearance and sobriety the things that concern ourselves, even if someone should somehow seem to be established, on account of the advancement already achieved towards the right accomplishment of good things.

For of what sort, and how great, is the loss which one endures, being cut off from the growing-together with God, as it were through slipping away out of slothfulness unto things which were not fitting—this He set forth of necessity by adding: 'As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me';

for if the branch should not have the life-giving sap supplied to it, as it were from the vine as from a mother, how could it bring forth the cluster, or what fruit, and whence, will it produce? Analogously, then, you will understand what has been said in the case of ourselves also.

For no fruit of virtue will ever sprout up in us who have fallen away from the union with Christ;

but for those who hang fast upon that which is able to make fat and to nourish unto godliness—as by life-giving water—by the supply and grace of the Spirit, the power to bear fruit also will readily be present.

'I am the vine, ye are the branches;

he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit;

for apart from Me ye can do nothing.'

'If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as the branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and it is burned.'

Openly our Lord Jesus Christ says that for this cause and this alone He has named Himself a vine—in order that we may clearly understand, and all but see even with the eyes of the body, as in a gross and perceptible and most manifest example, that for those who are zealous to be nailed to Him and have chosen to cling fast and grow to Him, there will belong, in good sort, the ability and the fitness for the bringing-forth of virtue and for spiritual fruit-bearing—being supplied, that is to say, as from the vine as from a mother, with the power from her unto the ability and the working;

but for those who are, as it were, torn away, that is, cut off from the relation to Him through—

unto things which ought not to be, and unto a manner of life discordant with God—there will appear no power of fitness unto virtue, nay nor of the ability to be conspicuous by the fruits that come from well-doing; but rather there will be, as by an inexorable necessity henceforth, the being consumed by all-devouring fire.

For that which is useless unto godliness somehow seems fit for paying penalties, just as, of course, that which has been withered among the branches will be useful for fire alone.

And you would take an indisputable and true demonstration of the things said, not by looking round upon the chief heads of the ancient saints, but by letting your understanding rest upon the holy apostles themselves.

For they, having in no way made light of the love toward Christ, but having abided in Him, and deeming that nothing at all ought to be set before the godliness toward Him, became renowned of all;

and they showed the inhabited world as the fruit of their own virtue, and, dedicating their own selves as a copy-book of a God-loving manner of life, as it were a bright image to the world beneath the sun, they bound about themselves the unfading crown of the glory that is with God;

but he who was caught in the drag-net for a little silver unto destruction—I mean the facile and most cheaply-bought Judas—being cut off from the spiritual vine, that is, from Christ, was in a manner withered up, casting away, together with the dignity of discipleship, also the life-giving quality of the Spirit.

For he has been cast forth, according to the voice of the Saviour;

for he has been estranged and delivered over, after the manner of refuse, to the punishing fire.

Usefully, therefore, did our Lord Jesus the Christ point out to His hearers the good cheer that comes from cleaving fast to Him, and set over against it the loss that comes from severance, having devised a twofold manner of salvation.

For either by desire that looks toward glory and life, or else because we shrink from being punished in fire, we shall the more earnestly hold fast to union with Him with the whole strlength of our mind.

He calls the Father the husbandman, ascribing to the divine nature the oversight of our affairs, as was also shown to us above through many arguments.

For He will be found to be Himself the hand of the husbandman, not conceived of as another beside Him, in respect of being consubstantial and both from Him and in Him, just as it is possible to see the case to be even with ourselves.

For that all things are through the Son, as through the hand of the Father, hear Him saying concerning created things: 「My hand made all these things」— and yet all things came to be through the Son, according to the holy Scriptures.

It is to be noted that the most inspired Paul also hints at the pruning here understood by us, even if not perhaps as of a vine, when he says thus: 「Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God:」

「toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness;」

「otherwise you also shall be cut off.」 「If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, whatever you wish you shall ask, and it shall come to pass for you.」

the true and genuine instruction that consists in faith in the doctrines, fortified also with sincere convictions.

For in these words the Saviour's whole discourse would be summed up for us, if we are willing to consider closely the aim set forth in the Gospels.

For that Christ promises to distribute good things without delay to those who ask—how shall we not say that this too pledges the matter most plainly? And besides this, I think it necessary to search out for ourselves the precise meaning of the saying.

「If you abide in Me,」 He says, 「and My words abide in you, whatever you wish you shall ask, and it shall come to pass for you.」

For could one grant it wholly possible to be able to abide in Christ, yet not indeed to have His words within oneself? Yes indeed, those pre-eminent in understanding would reasonably say so.

For let the eager hearer bear in mind that, when we were examining the manner of love toward Christ—what it might be and how it would rightly come to be—we said that it has a twofold way: I mean, that through faith, which is in some measure altogether blameless, and that in respect of active practice, which also is introduced through sincere love.

And since the words have been so entrusted to us: those who practise the manner of union or intimacy in a way not very secure and firmly held, having confessed a bare verbal faith but not having received the love which is shaped into perfection through good deeds, do indeed abide in Christ, as regards the intimacy that comes perhaps merely from having believed, and through their not going off to another worship;

yet they shall no longer be found to have the words of Christ within themselves.

And by no means do we say this at all, that having buried the proclamation of the Gospels in forgetfulness they are utterly unmindful of the Saviour's words; but that they account the life in Christ as worthy of no reckoning, surrendering everything to their own pleasures, and having an unbridled inclination toward minding only the things upon the earth, and on this account being dragged down from the spiritual and holy vine, and themselves, by their own passion-loving ways, spurning away the grace of intimacy.

And concerning every such person Christ Himself also said: 「Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.」 And that faith alone and by itself, not obtaining the concurrence of the radiance that comes from works, will not sufficiently avail to be able to procure intimacy with God, the disciple of Christ also signifies, saying: 「You believe that God is one;」

「and the demons also believe, and shudder.」 Then someone might now say to those who suppose that a bare and solitary faith will suffice for them to be able to gain the intimacy from above: Will then the very throng of the demons run up to intimacy such as that toward God, since it knows that He is one and has believed that He exists? And how could this be? For to know only that God is one, the maker and author of all, is useless;

but I think that there must accompany faith also the boast of reverent devotion toward Him.

For such a one both abides in Christ and shall be seen to have His words, according to what is said in the book of Psalms as toward God: 「In my heart I have hidden Your oracles, that I might not sin against You.」 For just as, if one should deposit a seed of fire in a bronze vessel, he will surely render it a partaker of the heat that comes from it, so the mind that holds fast within soul and heart the divine and heavenly word, through longing for every virtue, is ever warmed toward this by it.

For it is written: 「Your oracle is exceedingly kindled with fire, and Your servant has loved it.」 「He therefore,」 He says, 「who has established his affairs in these things, and has thereafter risen to this boast, so that he abides in Me and has My words with him, let him approach without shrinking; and whatever he may have set his desire upon, let him then ask with much boldness, and without any delay it shall be given him.」

Will then, if one should ask even some worthless thing, he receive it the more readily, and will the lover of virtue be the dispenser of such things? Away with the ill counsel, O man!

God will not supply for things charged as shameful;

but it is more fitting to understand that other meaning;

for will it not be just and rightly so? namely, that he who abides in Christ and has His words within himself, is plainly, inasmuch as he is good and equitable, resolved to mind only those things that are most pleasing to God.

For to those who have the divine word in their heart He gave leave to ask whatever they may fittingly wish, not being ignorant, that is, that they long for participation in spiritual and divine good things;

and since through these words our Saviour Christ has very well defined who and of what manner is the one who prays and is counted worthy to receive whatever he may wish from God, let us mould our own manner of life to this end, if we pray to attain to the good favour from above.

But if you know that you have not become such as Christ has just now shown us, do not be vexed as though you were being cheated.

And if the matter seems burdensome to you, yoke to your faith the boasts that come from good works;

for this is to abide in Christ and to have His words within oneself;

approach with confidence, and you too shall receive, without any delay whatever, whatever you may ask from God.

「In this My Father was glorified, that you bear much fruit, and become My disciples.」

For 「He so loved the world,」 according to what is written, 「that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.」 The fruit, therefore, of the gentleness of God and the Father is the life of all, fulfilled, that is, through Christ.

For this reason He Himself also said somewhere, discoursing as to God and the Father: 「I glorified You upon the earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.」 For the Only-begotten, having received as it were from the Father the salvation of us all, wrought it very well, not taken up in the rank of a subordinate helper, but being Himself the very Wisdom and Power of His Begetter, apart from whom nothing at all could come to be.

For all things are through Him, according to the holy Evangelist, and especially the things concerning ourselves.

「My Father,」 therefore, 「was glorified,」 having given as a ransom for the life of the world His own Son, well pleased to behold among the things that concern us Him who is above all creation—not that He might accomplish any good thing for His own nature;

for He is all-perfect and in need of nothing, having the might of all things;

but 「that you may bear more fruit, and become My disciples.」

For if He had not become man, neither should we at all, having been deemed worthy of natural union with Him and having grown in like manner as branches, and being furnished by Him with power for fruit-bearing through participation of the Spirit, have brought forth the fruit of the God-loving life—which He also calls much, setting after it, and declaring to be among the lesser things, the fruit that comes from the legal worship.

For 「the law made nothing perfect,」 according to the voice of Paul;

for this reason He said to the holy disciples—or rather to us all, who through faith and love unto the end have been joined to Him: 「Truly, truly, I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven;」 and again: 「Every scribe who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man, who brings out of his treasure things new and old」—as it were, out of the treasure of the heart, the Mosaic narratives and the remembrance of the ancient writings.

well-instructed and full of the evangelical torchlight, abundant and twofold unto riches—I mean, of course, that which is in the Spirit.

For he brings out things new and old, transforming the shadow of the law and the power of the worship in the law into the fashion of the evangelical polity.

For what the law showed forth through the types, this Christ was, unveiled, in truth.

Wherefore He also said: 「I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it,」 and again: 「Truly, truly, I say to you, one iota or one tittle shall by no means pass away from the law, until all things come to pass.」 The much fruit, therefore, is that which is in spirit and truth, the power of the evangelical worship, since for the glory of God and the Father the Only-begotten became man.

And it has come about on this account that those who are upon the earth also became His disciples;

for He spoke to the more ancient men and of old through the prophets as God, but of us and concerning us it was said: 「And they shall all be taught of God.」 For to us who believed in Him, no other has mediated to convey across the word from Him, nor has any become a mediator of His wills toward us, just as, of course, Moses was to those of Israel on Mount Sinai, or the prophets after Moses to those of their own day; but Christ Himself taught us.

and taught of God, on this account, are all we.

We should therefore not at all have become His disciples, nor should we have brought forth the fruit of the love of God, and that much, had not the Father been glorified through gentleness, being well pleased in us, so that the Word who came forth from His substance should even become man.

For we shall understand it thus, when we hear the divine Scripture saying that He gave His own Son.

For this He consented to, together with Him who chose to suffer on our behalf, and on this account He is also said to have given Him, and very reasonably so.

「As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you;」

「abide in My love.」

「If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love;」

「even as I also have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.」

Once again the mysteries in the things set before us must be beheld with a keener eye of the mind.

For the saying is deep, and sets before us, so to speak, the declaration of the whole economy in the flesh.

For He affirms strongly that He is loved by God and the Father, and that He in turn has so loved us, in the same manner, that is, in which He Himself may be conceived to be loved by His own Begetter.

Then what did He add to these things? That it behoves us to abide in His love.

But He also renders as it were a certain pretext and most necessary cause of His being loved by the Father, and that very justly—namely, the keeping of His commandments; and He enjoins that we too should hasten to fulfil this for ourselves, and says that thus we shall continue in His love.

To sum up, then, as much as one may say and to bring together all at once the things in what is set before us, we have quite well declared in these words.

But since I think it necessary to smooth out for the guileless-minded that which sometimes seems to disturb the understanding not a little, come then, let us say once more in what way and by what manner we shall take the sense in the things set before us.

It appears, then, that our Lord Jesus the Christ set Himself before us as it were a certain type and pattern of the holy life, inasmuch as for this very reason He was born under the law and did not disdain to take upon Himself the measure of our poverty, in order that, being fashioned together economically with our customs, He might be found a guide—as it were, in examples drawn from Himself—toward the taking up of a life and manner of living wholly unaccustomed to us and untrodden.

Where, then, or what commandment of the Father has He kept, or in what manner He is said to be loved by Him, must be inquired into.

Let then Paul the most wise be at hand, and let him initiate us into the mystery, saying concerning Him that He was indeed in the form of God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, coming to be in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;

unto the Father He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death. For since God and the Father purposed to save the race that had become corrupted upon earth, and it was not permitted that this be accomplished by any among created beings—the achievement leaping beyond as it were all the power inherent in creation—He Himself undertook the economy, the Only-begotten God who knows the will of God and the Father.

And He came down thus into voluntary subjection, so as to descend even unto death, and that the most dishonoured.

For to be hung upon a cross, how could it be honourable—rather, how is it not beyond all ignominy? And since He underwent these things, it says, God highly exalted Him;

You have, therefore, in His obedience according to will, the fulfilment of the counsels of the Father.

These things too the Son says came to pass toward Himself in the manner of commandments.

For understanding, as the Word, the counsels that are in the Father, and searching out the depths of Him who begot Him — or rather, being Himself the wisdom and the power of the Father — He brings into effect what has been resolved, setting it in the place of a commandment and naming it thus in a more human fashion.

And behold in this also the measure of His love.

'For God has highly exalted Him,' it says.

Him who is already lofty and glorified, He exalts still more highly and glorifies — and this though He is God by nature and true, inasmuch as He is one who is not among the creatures, at least according to the identity that comes from His essence; and for this reason, being understood and truly existing beyond every conceivable height, He is moreover the Lord of glory according to the holy Scriptures.

'But indeed,' one says, 'He is exalted and glorified — but how, or when, or in what manner?' Namely, when He came to be in the form of a servant and in the fashion of humiliation, that is, a man according to our likeness.

For He ascends again, even with the flesh, so as once more to be exalted together with the Father and glorified together with Him.

And He was loved by Him — and not then for the first time, when He fulfilled His voluntary submission — but you will rather understand it in that other sense.

For just as, being ever lofty and glorified as regards His own nature, He is nevertheless said to be glorified and exalted when He became man — He who, as regards the account of His humanity, was destitute of the glory befitting God —

so too, being from the beginning, always, and throughout all things beloved, He is said to be loved even with the flesh.

For it was for this reason that He appeared according to our likeness — that is, He was named and became man — that the one who of old was hated because of the transgression in the beginning and the sin that in the meantime crept in, He might render beloved to God.