Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 John 4:19
There are 12 footnotes for this reference.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 217, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
How the Holy Spirit is Called Love, and Whether He Alone is So Called. That the Holy Spirit is in the Scriptures Properly Called by the Name of Love. (HTML)
... abideth in him;” whence he had said above, “Hereby we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” He therefore is signified, where we read that God is love. Therefore God the Holy Spirit, who proceedeth from the Father, when He has been given to man, inflames him to the love of God and of his neighbor, and is Himself love. For man has not whence to love God, unless from God; and therefore he says a little after, “Let us love Him, because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:7-19] The Apostle Paul, too, says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 286, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)
That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the Commendation of Love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1362 (In-Text, Margin)
... powerfully, inasmuch as “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”? And furthermore, this is with the intent that, inasmuch as charity is “the end of the commandment,” and “the fulfilling of the law,” we also may love one another and lay down our life for the brethren, even as He laid down His life for us. And with regard to God Himself, its object is that, even if it were an irksome task to love Him, it may now at least cease to be irksome for us to return His love, seeing that “He first loved us,”[1 John 4:19] and “spared not His own only Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” For there is no mightier invitation to love than to anticipate in loving; and that soul is over hard which, supposing it unwilling indeed to give love, is unwilling also to give the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 226, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
What True Grace Is, and Wherefore Given. Merits Do Not Precede Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1859 (In-Text, Margin)
... he consent that we receive love from the grace of God, he must not suppose that any merits of our own preceded our reception of the gift. For what merits could we possibly have had at the time when we loved not God? In order, indeed, that we might receive that love whereby we might love, we were loved while as yet we had no love ourselves. This the Apostle John most expressly declares: “Not that we loved God,” says he, “but that He loved us;” and again, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19] Most excellently and truly spoken! For we could not have wherewithal to love Him, unless we received it from Him in His first loving us. And what good could we possibly do if we possessed no love? Or how could we help doing good if we have love? For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 235, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
Ambrose Witnesses that Perfect Purity is Impossible to Human Nature. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1926 (In-Text, Margin)
... children of wrath, even as others.” For through the sin of the first man, which came from his free will, our nature became corrupted and ruined; and nothing but God’s grace alone, through Him who is the Mediator between God and men, and our Almighty Physician, succours it. Now, since we have already prolonged this work too far in treating of the assistance of the divine grace towards our justification, by which God co-operates in all things for good with those who love Him, and whom He first loved[1 John 4:19] —giving to them that He might receive from them: we must commence another treatise, as the Lord shall enable us, on the subject of sin also, which by one man has entered into the world, along with death, and so has passed upon all men, setting forth ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 459, footnote 17 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
We Would Not Love God Unless He First Loved Us. The Apostles Chose Christ Because They Were Chosen; They Were Not Chosen Because They Chose Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3168 (In-Text, Margin)
Let no one, then, deceive you, my brethren, for we should not love God unless He first loved us. John again gives us the plainest proof of this when he says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19] Grace makes us lovers of the law; but the law itself, without grace, makes us nothing but breakers of the law. And nothing else than this is shown us by the words of our Lord when He says to His disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” For if we first loved Him, in order that by this merit He might love us, then we first chose Him that we might deserve to be chosen by Him. He, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 347, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XV. 8–10. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1400 (In-Text, Margin)
2. “As the Father hath loved me,” He says, “so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” Here, then, you see, is the source of our good works. For whence should we have them, were it not that faith worketh by love? And how should we love, were it not that we were first loved? With striking clearness is this declared by the same evangelist in his epistle: “We love God because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19] But when He says, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,” He indicates no such equality between our nature and His as there is between Himself and the Father, but the grace whereby the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus. For He is pointed out as Mediator when He says, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 391, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. 23–28. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1687 (In-Text, Margin)
5. “For the Father Himself,” He says, “loveth you, because ye have loved me.” Is it the case, then, that He loveth, because we love; or rather, that we love, because He loveth? Let this same evangelist give us the answer out of his own epistle: “We love Him,” he says, “because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19] This, then, was the efficient cause of our loving, that we were loved. And certainly to love God is the gift of God. He it was that gave the grace to love Him, who loved while still unloved. Even when displeasing Him we were loved, that there might be that in us whereby we should become pleasing in His sight. For we could not love the Son unless we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 517, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John IV. 17–21. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2471 (In-Text, Margin)
9. “Let us love, because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19] For how should we love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if, being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned, she love a beautiful man? By loving can she become ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 582, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Pe. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5327 (In-Text, Margin)
... knocketh in prayer unto the Father, and seeketh: he drinketh, but the more sweet he findeth it, the more eagerly doth he thirst. Hear the words of him in his thirst. “O look Thou upon me,” he saith, “and be merciful unto me: according to the judgment of those that love Thy Name” (ver. 132): that is, according to the judgment Thou has dealt unto all who love Thy Name; since Thou hast first loved them, to cause them to love Thee. For thus saith the Apostle John, “We love God, because He first loved us.”[1 John 4:19]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 417, footnote 8 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XI. The First Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On Perfection. (HTML)
Chapter VII. By what steps we can ascend to the heights of love and what permanence there is in it. (HTML)
... coldness or joy or delight, and so loses either the fear of hell for the time, or the desire of future blessings. And there is indeed in these a stage leading to some advance, which affects us so that when from fear of punishment or from hope of reward we begin to avoid sin we are enabled to pass on to the stage of love, for “fear,” says one, “is not in love, but perfect love casteth out fear: for fear hath torment, but he who fears is not perfect in love. We therefore love because God first loved us.”[1 John 4:18-19] We can then only ascend to that true perfection when, as He first loved us for the grace of nothing but our salvation, we also have loved Him for the sake of nothing but His own love alone. Wherefore we must do our best to mount with perfect ardour ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 122, footnote 3 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Fast of The Tenth Month, I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 690 (In-Text, Margin)
... of. I will turn darkness into light for them, and the crooked into the straight. These words will I do for them, and not forsake them.” And again he says, “I was found by them that sought Me not, and openly appeared to them that asked not for Me.” And the Apostle John teaches us how this has been fulfilled, when he says, “We know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and may be in Him that is true, even His Son[1 John 4:19],” and again, “let us therefore love God, because He first loved us.” Thus it is that God, by loving us, restores us to His image, and, in order that He may find in us the form of His goodness, He gives ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 122, footnote 4 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Fast of The Tenth Month, I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 691 (In-Text, Margin)
... words will I do for them, and not forsake them.” And again he says, “I was found by them that sought Me not, and openly appeared to them that asked not for Me.” And the Apostle John teaches us how this has been fulfilled, when he says, “We know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and may be in Him that is true, even His Son,” and again, “let us therefore love God, because He first loved us[1 John 4:19].” Thus it is that God, by loving us, restores us to His image, and, in order that He may find in us the form of His goodness, He gives us that whereby we ourselves too may do the work that He does, kindling that is the lamps ...