Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 John 5:3
There are 6 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 291, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter XI.—A Compendious View of the Christian Life. (HTML)
But there is another unholy kiss, full of poison, counterfeiting sanctity. Do you not know that spiders, merely by touching the mouth, afflict men with pain? And often kisses inject the poison of licentiousness. It is then very manifest to us, that a kiss is not love. For the love meant is the love of God. “And this is the love of God,” says John, “that we keep His commandments;”[1 John 5:3] not that we stroke each other on the mouth. “And His commandments are not grievous.” But salutations of beloved ones in the ways, full as they are of foolish boldness, are characteristic of those who wish to be conspicuous to those without, and have not the least particle of grace. For if it is proper ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 427, footnote 13 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XVI.—Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs. (HTML)
... also he applied the name “brood of vipers” to the voluptuous, who serve the belly and the pudenda, and cut off one another’s heads for the sake of worldly pleasures. “Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue,” says John, teaching them to be perfect, “but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we are of the truth.” And if “God be love,” piety also is love: “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”[1 John 5:3] And again, to him who desires to become a Gnostic, it is written, “But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity.” For perfection in faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith. And the divine ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 151, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
God Enjoins No Impossibility, Because All Things are Possible and Easy to Love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1348 (In-Text, Margin)
... are very good,” if we use them lawfully. Indeed, by the very fact (of which we have the firmest conviction) “that the just and good God could not possibly have enjoined impossibilities,” we are admonished both what to do in easy paths and what to ask for when they are difficult. Now all things are easy for love to effect, to which (and which alone) “Christ’s burden is light,” —or rather, it is itself alone the burden which is light. Accordingly it is said, “And His commandments are not grievous;”[1 John 5:3] so that whoever finds them grievous must regard the inspired statement about their “not being grievous” as having been capable of only this meaning, that there may be a state of heart to which they are not burdensome, and he must pray for that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 167, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
Passages to Show that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1457 (In-Text, Margin)
... nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thine heart, and in thine hands to do it.’ In the Gospel likewise the Lord says: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ So also in the Epistle of Saint John it is written: ‘This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.’”[1 John 5:3] On hearing these testimonies out of the law, and the gospel, and the epistles, let us be built up unto that grace which those persons do not understand, who, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 167, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
Passages to Show that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1461 (In-Text, Margin)
... righteousness of God.” For, if they understand not the passage of Deuteronomy in the sense that the Apostle Paul quoted it,—that “with the heart men believe unto righteousness, and with their mouth make confession unto salvation;” since “they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,” —they certainly ought (by that very passage of the Apostle John which he quoted last to this effect: “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous”[1 John 5:3]) to be admonished that God’s commandment is not grievous to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts only by the Holy Ghost, not by the determination of man’s will by attributing to which more than they ought, they are ignorant of God’s ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 459, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
Commendations of Love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3157 (In-Text, Margin)
... beginning, that we should love one another.” Then he says again, “This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.” Once more: “And this commandment have we from Him that he who loveth God love his brother also.” Then shortly afterwards he adds, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments; for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.”[1 John 5:2-3] While, in his second Epistle, it is written, “Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.”