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TRACTATE 6 On I In 3.I8-4.3 F YOU REMEMBER, brothers, that we closed our discourse yesterdayl at this sentence-one that without a doubt ought to have remained and ought to remain in your heart, because you heard it last: "Little children, let us not love in word only and in tongue, but in work and in truth." Then [the text] continues: "And in this we know that we are of the truth and before him we persuade our heart. For if our heart should have a bad opinion [of us], God is greater than our heart and knows all things." He had said, "Let us not love in word only and in tongue, but in work and in truth." The question is asked of us in what work and in what truth he who loves God or who loves his brother is recognized. Already, earlier , Oohn] had said where love reaches perfection and the Lord too said this in the Gospel: "Greater love than this no one has than that he should lay down his life for his friends.,,2 And this same writer had said this: "As he has laid down his life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.,,3 This is the perfection of love, and a greater one cannot at all be found. (2) But because it is not perfect in all and he ought not to despair in whom it is not perfect if what can reach perfection has already been born-and of course if it has been born, it must be nurtured and by certain nourishments of its own be led to its proper perfection. We have sought the initiation of love, from where it begins, and we immediately found there: "If anyone has the riches of the world and sees his brother in need and shuts up his bowels against him, how does the love of the Father abide in him?,,4 Therefore here begins this love, brothers, that from his own surplus one should give to him in 1. Tractate 5, of course. 3. Cf. 1In 3.16. 2. Cf. In 15.13. 4· Cf. 1 In 3. 1 7. 198 TRACTATE 6 199 need who is found in some narrow straits, [and] from what abounds to him during this lifetime he should free his brother from temporal tribulation. From this is the starting point of love. This [love] so begun, if you nurture it with the word of God and the hope of future life, you will attain to that perfection so that you may be prepared to lay down your life for your brothers. 2. But because many such things are done by these who seek other goals and who do not love the brethren,5 let us hearken back to the testimony of conscience. From what do we prove that many such things are done by these who do not love the brethren? How many declare themselves martyrs in heresies and schisms? To themselves they seem to lay down their life for their brethren. If they would lay down their lives for the brethren, they would not separate themselves from the universal brotherhood. Likewise there are many who contribute much, give much for the sake of boasting; and they seek therein only human praise and popular glory, filled with winds, solidified by no stability. Therefore because they are such, where will brotherly love be able to be proven? For lJohn] wished it to be proven and in advising he says, "Little children, let us not love in word only and in tongue, but in work and in truth." We ask, "In what work, in what truth?" Can there be a more obvious work than to give to the poor? Many do this with boasting, not with love. Can there be a greater work than to die for one's brethren? Even this many wish it thought that they have done, from a motive of the ostentation of acquiring a reputation, not from the bowels of love. It remains that that man loves his brother who before God persuades his heart and [who] asks his heart whether he is doing this truly on account of love of the brethren; and the eye that penetrates to the heart where a man cannot observe offers testimony to him. Therefore, Paul the Apostle, because he was ready to die for the brethren, also said, "I myself shall be spent for your souls...

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