Jesus rises and hurries to complete the mystery of his bodily passion. But the next moment, he unfolds the mystery of his assumption of flesh. Through this assumption we are in him, as the branches are in the vine. And unless he had become the vine, we could have borne no good fruit. He encourages us to abide in him through faith in his assumed body, that, since the Word has been made flesh, we may be in the nature of his flesh, as the branches are in the vine. He separates the form of the Father’s majesty from the humiliation of the assumed flesh by calling himself the vine, the course of unity for all the branches. He calls the Father the careful husbandman who prunes away its useless and barren branches to be burned in the fire.

Jacob spoke of [our Lord as] a grape,^[1] because Christ hung on the wood like a grape. He is the vine; he is the grape. He is the vine because he cleaves to the wood and the grape because, when his side was opened by the soldier’s lance, he sent forth water and blood^[2]. . . water for baptism, blood for redemption. The water washed us; the blood redeemed us.^[3]

When he says, I am the true vine, it is no doubt to distinguish himself from that [vine] to which the words are addressed, How are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?^[1] For how could that be a true vine that was expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns?^[2]

Now, concerning the Eucharist, give thanks as follows.

First, concerning the cup:

We give you thanks, our Father,

for the holy vine of David your servant,

which you have made known to us

through Jesus, your servant;

to you be the glory forever. DIDACHE 9.1-2.

The wine of his blood, gathered from the many grapes of the vine planted by him, is pressed out in the winepress of the cross, and of its own power it begins to ferment in the capacious vessels of those who receive it with faithful heart.

The vine produces wine as the Word produces blood, and both are drunk for the health of men and women—wine for the body, blood for the spirit.

I am the true vine. Drink my joy, the wine I have mixed for you. For my cup is intoxicating for me,^[1] intoxicating like the most powerful antidote—like joy against the grief that sprouted in Adam. . . . I have given you a table, life-giving and joy-creating, that offers in exchange for distress unspeakable joy before those who have envied you. Eat the bread that renews your nature. Drink the wine, the exultation of immortality. Eat the bread that purges away the old bitterness, and drink the wine that eases the pain of the wound. This is the healing of your nature; this is the punishment of the one who did the injury. . . . I became the true vine in your race, that in me you might bear sweet-smelling fruit.

He wants to show us how important it is to love, to hold fast to our love toward him and how much we gain from our union with him. This is why he says that he is the vine, by way of illustration. Those united, anchored and rooted in him, who are already partakers in his nature through their participation in the Holy Spirit, are branches. For it is his Holy Spirit who has united us with the Savior Christ since connection with the vine produces a choice of those things that belong to it. And our connection^[1] with the vine holds us fast. From a firm resolve in goodness we proceed onward by faith and we become his people, obtaining from him the dignity of sonship. . . . He says that he is a vine, the mother and nourisher, as it were, of its branches. For we are begotten of him and in him, in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of life.

For it is the function of the vine to nourish the branches, and of the tiller of the soil to tend them. And if we think about this in the right way, we will see that neither the one function if performed apart from the Father, nor the other function if performed apart from the Son or Holy Spirit, could sustain the whole. For everything proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit. And so it is only appropriate now that the Savior called the Father a vinedresser so that no one might think that the Only Begotten is the only one who exercised care over us.^[1] This is why he represents God the Father as cooperating with him, calling himself the vine that enlivens his own branches with life and the power to produce, and the Father as the vinedresser, thereby teaching us that providential care over us is a sort of distinct activity of the divine substance.

Not only is the church a field, but God is the tiller of the field. Listen to the Lord himself: I am the vine, you the twigs, and my Father is the vinedresser. Toiling in this field as a laborer and hoping for an eternal reward, the apostle claims no credit for himself, except a laborer’s due. I planted, he says, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. And so neither the one who plants is anything, nor the one who waters, but God who gives the increase.^[1]

For we [through praise] cultivate God, and God cultivates us. But our cultivating of God does not make him better: our cultivating is that of adoration, not of plowing. . . . His cultivating of us makes us better. . . . His cultivating consists in getting rid of all the seeds of wickedness from our hearts, in opening our heart to the plow, as it were, of his word, in sowing in us the seeds of his commandments, and in waiting for the fruits of godliness.

Concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they^[1] venture to assert that if it had been the city of the great King,^[2] it would not have been deserted. This is like someone saying that if the stalk were a creation of God, it would never part company with the wheat. And that the vine twigs, if made by God, never would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters. But these [vine twigs] were not originally made for their own sake but for that of the fruit growing on them. When that fruit comes to maturity and is taken away, the twigs are left behind, and those that are not fruitful are lopped off altogether. It was the same way with Jerusalem, which had in itself borne the yoke of bondage . . . when the fruit of liberty had come, and reached maturity, and been reaped and stored in the barn, and when those which had the power to produce fruit had been carried away from it [i.e., from Jerusalem] and scattered throughout all the world. . . . Once the fruit, therefore, had been sown throughout all the world, it [Jerusalem] was deservedly forsaken, and those things that had formerly brought forth fruit abundantly were taken away. For from these, according to the flesh, were Christ and the apostles enabled to bring forth fruit.

If we demonstrate what kind of union we have by only a mere barren confession of faith—without sealing the bond of our union by the good works that proceed from love—we will be branches indeed, but still dead and without fruit. Faith without works is dead, as the saint says.^[1] Accordingly, if the branch hangs fruitlessly, so to speak, from the trunk of the vine, know that such a person will encounter the pruning knife of the husbandman. He will entirely cut it off and burn it as worthless rubbish.

The sons of truth grow large on this Branch of Truth;^[1] they have been perfected and have become fruits fit for the kingdom.

But, although the Branch is living, on it are also dead fruits that only seem to blossom.

The wind^[2] tested them and shook down the wild grapes. Blessed is he who crowned by [the Spirit] those who held fast in him! . . .

Jesus, bend down to us your love that we may grasp this Branch that bent down her fruits for the ungrateful;

they ate and were satisfied, yet they demeaned her who had bent down as far as Adam in Sheol.

She ascended and lifted him up and with him returned to Eden.

Blessed is he who bent her down toward us that we might seize her and ascend on her.

Who indeed will not weep that although the Branch is great, the weakness of one unwilling to seize her greatness maintains that she is a feeble branch—

she who has conquered all kings and cast a shadow upon the entire world! By suffering her power has increased.

Blessed is he who made her greater than that vine from Egypt!

Who will not hold fast to this Branch of Truth.

She bore the true ones; she shed the false.

Not because they were too heavy for her did she shed them.

For our sake she tested them in the breeze;

it shook down the shriveled; it ripened the firm.

The Lord clearly reveals himself when describing figuratively his many and various ways of service. . . . For the vine that is not pruned grows to wood. It is the same way with humankind. The Word—the knife—clears away the wanton shoots, compelling the impulses of the soul to become fruitful, not to indulge in lust. Now, reproof addressed to sinners has their salvation for its aim, the word being harmoniously adjusted to each one’s conduct, now with tightened, now with relaxed cords.

God works with those who have chosen to live the best and most perfect life and to do good works as far as they are able, having elected to seek perfection as citizens of God. God uses the working power of the Spirit as a pruning hook, sometimes circumcising in them the pleasures that are always calling us to fleshly lusts and bodily passions. Other times, God circumcises all those temptations that are likely to assail the souls of people, defiling the mind by diverse kinds of evils. We say that this circumcision is not the work of hands but is truly that of the Spirit.^[1]. . . If the branches of the vine suffer any purging, that purging cannot take place, I suppose, without suffering. For it is painful insofar as wood can suffer pain. . . . For our God who loves virtue instructs us by pain and tribulation. . . . But while divine wrath will bring about the complete severance of the barren branches that are consigned to punishment, a [less severe] judgment—one that is out of consideration and mercy—will purge those who bear fruit, bringing only a little pain while accelerating their fertility and occasioning a greater number of blossoms springing up. . . . Therefore let the fervor that shows itself in works be combined with the confession of the faith, and let it unite action with the doctrines concerning God. For then we shall be with Christ and experience the secure and safe power of fellowship with him, escaping the peril that results from being cut off from him.

It is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession. But the more such things happen, the more do others—and in larger numbers—become faithful and worshipers of God through the name of Jesus. For just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful. Even so the same thing happens with us. For the vine planted by God and Christ the Savior is his people.

And every branch that bears fruit, he purges, that is, causes it to enjoy great care. Yet the root requires even more care than the branches. It needs to be dug around and cleared. And yet everything here is spoken about the branches. Jesus is saying then that he is sufficient unto himself but that the disciples need considerable help from the husbandman even though they are quite excellent already. Therefore he says, that which bears fruit, he purges. The one branch, because it is fruitless, cannot even remain in the vine, but the other, because it bears fruit, he makes even more fruitful. This, some might assert, was said concerning the persecutions then coming upon them. For the purging is a type of pruning that makes the branch bear better. This implies that persecutions rather make people stronger. Then, in case they might ask about whom he said these things and become anxious again, he says, Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you.

The world, that is, life enslaved by the affections of the flesh, can no more receive the grace of the Spirit than a weak eye the light of a sunbeam. But the Lord, who by his teaching bore witness to purity of life, gives to his disciples the power of now both beholding and contemplating the Spirit. For now, he says, you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you, wherefore the world cannot receive him, because it does not see him . . . but you know him. For he dwells with you. And this is what Isaiah says, He who spread forth the earth and that which comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it, and Spirit to them that trample on it.^[1] For those who trample down earthly things and rise above them are shown to be as worthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He makes his disciples a palpable and convincing demonstration of the art of the purifier of their souls. For already, he says, they are purged not by participating in anything else but merely by the word spoken to them, that is, the divine guidance of the gospel. And this word proceeds from Christ. What man or woman of sense, then, can any longer call into question that the Father has, as it were, a pruning knife and hand through whose instrumentality everything exists, that is, the Son, fulfilling the activity of that husbandry in us which he attributes to the person of the Father, teaching us that all things proceed from the Father by the instrumentality of the Son? For it is the Word of the Savior that purges us; the husbandry of our souls is attributed to God the Father. For this is his living Word, sharp as a sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.^[1] For, reaching into the depths of each person’s inmost soul and having every person’s hidden purpose revealed before it as God, it brings its keen edge to bear on our vain pursuits by the working of the Spirit. For this is what our purification consists in, I suppose. And all things that are for our profit in the attainment of virtue it increases and multiplies to bear the fruit that is conceived in righteousness.

Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you. Why doesn’t he say, You are clean through the baptism with which you have been washed, rather than through the word that I have spoken to you, except for the fact that in the water also it is the word that cleanses? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than water. The word is added to the element, and there results the sacrament, as if it itself is also a kind of visible word. For he had said also the same thing when washing the disciples’ feet: He who is washed needs not to wash, except for his feet, but is altogether clean.^[1] And how does water have so great an efficacy, as in touching the body to cleanse the soul, if not by the operation of the word—and that not because it is uttered but because it is believed? For even in the word itself, the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy another.^[2] . . . For Christ, who is the vine with us, and the husbandman with the Father, loved the church and gave himself for it.^[3] But read the apostle and see what he adds: That he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the word.^[4] The cleansing, therefore, would on no account be attributed to the fleeting and perishable element were it not for what is added: by the word. This word of faith possesses such power in the church of God that through the medium of him who in faith presents and blesses and sprinkles it, he cleanses even the tiny infant, although itself unable as yet with the heart to believe unto righteousness and to make confession with the mouth unto salvation. All this is done by means of the word about which the Lord says, Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you.

It seems clear, therefore, that the example of the vine is designed, as this passage indicates, for the instruction of our lives. It is observed to bud in the mild warmth of early spring, and next to produce fruit from the joints of the shoots from which a grape is formed. This gradually increases in size, but it still retains its bitter taste. When, however, it is ripened and mellowed by the sun, it acquires its sweetness. Meanwhile, the vine is decked in green leaves by which it is protected in no slight manner from frosts and other injuries and is defended from the sun’s heat. Is there any spectacle that is more pleasing or any fruit that is sweeter?^[1] What a joy to behold the rows of hanging grapes like so many jewels of a beautiful countryside, to pluck those grapes gleaming in colors of gold and purple! . . . Let them praise you who behold you, and let them admire the marshaled bands of the church like the serried rows of vine branches. Let everyone among the faithful gaze on the gems of the soul. Let them find delight in the maturity of prudence, in the splendor of faith, in the charm of Christian affirmation, in the beauty of justice, in the fecundity of pity, so that it may be said of you, Your wife is a fruitful vine on the sides of your house,^[2] because you imitate by the exercise of your abundant and generous giving the bountiful return of a fruit-bearing vine.

Unless the branch is provided with the life-producing sap from its mother the vine, how will it bear grapes or what fruit will it bring forth—and from what source? . . . For no fruit of virtue will spring up anew in those of us who have fallen away from intimate union with Christ. To those, however, who are joined to the one who is able to strengthen them and who nourishes them in righteousness, the capacity to bear fruit will readily be added by the provision and grace of the Spirit, which is like a life-producing water.

Just as the root of the vine administers and distributes to the branches the benefit of its own natural and inherent qualities, so too the only-begotten Word of God imparts to the saints, as it were, a likeness to his own nature and the nature of God the Father by giving them the Spirit, insomuch as they have been united with him through faith and perfect holiness. Christ nourishes them in piety and works in them the knowledge of all virtue and good works.

Jesus said, Abide in me, and I in you. They are not in him in the same kind of way that he is in them. And yet both ways tend to their advantage, not to his. For the relation of the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the vine but derive their own means of life from it, while that of the vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment and receives nothing from them. And so their having Christ abiding in them and abiding themselves in Christ are in both respects advantageous not to Christ but to the disciples. For when the branch is cut off, another may spring up from the living root. But that which is cut off cannot live apart from the root.

There is a place in the center of the whole world, so we understand,

Golgotha it is named in the Jewish homeland, they say:

Here there is an oak tree hewn from a sterile stump

Planted, I recall, to bear life-giving fruits.

Nevertheless, not for those who had settled there were these fruits

Proffered: strangers from another land were to have this blessed fruit.

This species of tree arose from a single stem,

And then extended outward in a pair of branches:

Like the heavy yardarms on which sails are stretched,

Or like the yoke under which oxen pull the plow

Through the earth which took its first ripe seed as it fell

Conceived: soon after (an amazing thing happened)

On the third day—terrifying to both those on earth and above—

It again spouted a branch, its blessed fruit full of life.

And over twenty days, times two, it became stronger,

It grew immensely, the tops of its branches up to the highest heaven

Reached, and then hid its sacred head on high;

Meanwhile, twelve huge heavy branches

It produced, and spread them out over the entire world:

To all the nations nourishment and eternal life

They were to bring, and to teach them that death itself could die.

And then, after fifty more days had gone by,

From the very top of the tree a draft of divine nectar

Began to flow into the branches, the breeze of the heavenly spirit:

The leaves were saturated everywhere with a sweet dew, and

Behold! under the shadow of the canopy of heavy branches

There was a fountain: here the waters were undisturbed, serene,

Clear and bright, and the surrounding grass

Offered a splendor of color among its variety of flowers.

Innumerable nations and peoples gathered around this spring,

Coming from various races, sexes, ages and ranks,

Unmarried and married together, widows and daughters-in-law,

Infants, young boys, and men—both young and old! THE

[The spreading vine of Naphtali]^[1] is a beautiful reference to a shoot clinging to a spiritual vine, of which we are the branch and can bear fruit if we remain on the vine. But otherwise we are cut off. The holy patriarch Naphtali was an abundant shoot.^[2] This explains why Jacob had called him a spreading vine. That is, through the grace of faith he was stripped of the bonds of death, and the people of God are foreshadowed in him, called to the liberty of faith and to the fullness of grace and spread over the whole world. It clothes the crossbeam of Christ with good fruit and encompasses the wood of that true vine, that is, the mysteries of the Lord’s cross. It does not fear the danger of acknowledging him, but rather, even amid persecutions, it glories in the name of Christ.

Just as the branches are of the same substance as the vine and [come] from it, so we, who have the same kind of body as the Lord’s body, receive from his fullness and have it as a root for resurrection and salvation. And the Father is called the vinedresser, because through the Word he took care of the vine, which is the Lord’s body.

The Lord told us, Outside of me you can do nothing. This is because our weakness, when moved to do good things, is unable to bring anything to completion without the giver of good things. The one who has come to understand the weakness of human nature has had experience of the divine power. And such a person who because of divine power has succeeded in some things and is eager to succeed in others never looks down on anyone. For he knows that in the same way that God has helped him and freed him from many passions and hardships, so can he help everyone when he wishes, especially those who are striving for his sake.

Hope is not in the fading flower of the field.

For just as no one is able to eat the fruit of the branch

Unless the branch remains in the vine which brings

Sap to the leaves from the root and fills the grapes with must—

So also those who are barren in virtue and without fruit

Shall be fuel for the perpetual fire: those who leave the vine

Dare to put their faith in the immoderate liberty of the leaves,

So that their fruitfulness is not dependent on the fruitfulness of Christ:

And even more, they believe they are able to excel on their own,

As if God is not the author of the virtues that please him. . . .

[But] why would they be ashamed, especially in this valley of tears,

If their power came from God, that they have a minimum of mortal works,

When it is nothing but sin which has destroyed

Liberty to which alone evil deeds recur?

And yet, when we focus the mind on holy acts,

When a chaste mind refuses carnal desires,

When we do not give in to temptations, and through harsh

Vexing punishments, we remain in our hearts unyielding;

Then we are acting freely; but with a freedom redeemed,

And over which God is ruler as light from the highest light, [there is]

Life, health, virtue, wisdom: It is the grace of Christ

By which freedom runs, rejoices, endures, takes care, chooses, stands,

Believes, hopes, loves, is cleansed and is justified.

For if we are right in anything we do, Lord, we do it only with your help;

You move hearts, you command prayers—those you want to grant you bestow, bestowing Lavishly and producing merit from merits and enriching the gifts of your crown.

But this does not mean I should diminish my care and become lax in the pursuit of virtue, or Become complacent by letting mental apathy hold sway,

Because the good works of the saints are yours,

And whatever in them is pure or strong, depends on you:

So that none of the actions of human beings is seen as occurring entirely apart from your will: For without you what is achieved by the will except to be exiled far away from you?

The paths are always precipitous and the ways twisting

When advancing alone: When our will is exhausted, you are kind; when feeble

You lift it up, you carry it back, you keep it warm, you watch over it and provide it with dignity.

Then it will make rapid progress, its eyes actually seeing, its freedom free, its wisdom wise,

Its justice just, its virtue strong and its senses healed. ON

A great encomium on grace, my brothers—one that will instruct the souls of the humble and stop the mouths of the proud! Let those now answer it, if they dare, who, ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Let the self-complacent answer who think they have no need of God for the performance of good works. . . . They say, It is of God that we have our existence as human beings, but it is of ourselves that we are righteous. What is it you say, you who deceive yourselves and, instead of establishing free will, cast it headlong down from the heights of its self-elevation through the empty regions of presumption into the depths of an ocean grave? Why, your assertion that a person of himself works righteousness, that is the height of your self-elation. . . . For whoever imagines that he is bearing fruit of himself is not in the vine, and whoever is not in the vine is not in Christ, and whoever is not in Christ is not a Christian. Such are the ocean depths into which you have plunged.

Look further into what the Truth has to say. . . . For just to keep anyone from supposing that the branch can bear at least some little fruit of itself, after saying, the same brings forth much fruit, his next words are not, without me you can do but little, but you can do nothing. Whether then it is a little or a lot, without him it is impracticable. For without him nothing can be done. For although, when the branch bears little fruit, the husbandman purges it that it may bring forth more, yet if it does not abide in the vine and draw its life from the root, it can bear no fruit whatever of itself. And although Christ would not have been the vine had he not been man, yet he could not have supplied such grace to the branches had he not also been God.

When you have done something good, remember the words, without me you can do nothing.

The Father is like the vinedresser, for, if he sees some who do not love me, he cuts them off like fruitless branches and sends them off to the fire, but if he sees the opposite, he takes care of them so that they may bring forth even more fruit through the spiritual gifts he gives.

He who has the almighty God, the Word, lacks nothing and never is in dire straits for what he needs. For the Word is a possession that lacks nothing and is the cause of all abundance. If someone says that he has often seen the righteous person in need of food, this is rare, and it happens only where there is not another righteous person. Notwithstanding, let him read what follows: For the righteous one shall not live by bread alone but by the word of the Lord,^[1] who is the true bread, the bread of the heavens. The good person, then, can never be in difficulties so long as he keeps intact his confession toward God. For it belongs to him to ask and to receive whatever he requires from the Father of all and to enjoy what is his own if he keeps the Son. And he also should feel that he lacks nothing.

Shall we say that faith bare and alone is sufficient for one to attain the fellowship that is from above—will even the band of demons rise up to fellowship with God, since they acknowledge God’s unity and have believed that God exists? How could this be? For the mere knowledge that the one God is the creator and producer of all things is useless. But I think it necessary that the confession of piety toward God should accompany faith. For one who does this abides in Christ and will be seen to possess his words, according to the text in the book of Psalms, I have laid up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.^[1]

If you abide in me, he says, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. For when someone abides in Christ in this way, is there anything he or she can wish for besides what will be agreeable to Christ? When they abide in the Savior in this way, can they wish for anything that is inconsistent with salvation? Some things, indeed, we wish for because we are in Christ, and other things we desire because we are still in this world. For at times, in connection with our present living quarters, we are inwardly prompted to ask what we know would not be expedient for us to receive. But God forbid that such a thing should be given to us if we abide in Christ, who, when we ask, only does what will be for our advantage. Abiding in him when his words abide in us, we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. For if we ask, and the doing does not follow, what we ask must not be connected with our abiding in him or with his words that abide in us. Instead they must be connected with that craving and infirmity of the flesh that are not in him and do not have his words abiding in them. For to his words, at all events, belongs that prayer that he taught and in which we say, Our Father, who art in heaven.^[1] Let us only not fall away from the words and meaning of this prayer in our petitions, and whatever we ask shall be done unto us. For his words may only be said to abide in us when we do what he has commanded us and love what he has promised. But when his words abide only in the memory and have no place in your life, the branch is not in the vine because it does not draw its life from the root.

The Savior, in thus speaking to the disciples, commends still more and more the grace whereby we are saved when he says, By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and be made my disciples. Whether we say glorified or made bright,^[1] both are the translation of one Greek verb, namely, doxazein. For what is doxa in Greek is gloria in Latin. I have thought it worthwhile to mention this because the apostle says, If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God.^[2] For this is the glory before God, whereby God, and not man [humankind], is glorified, when man is justified, not by works, but by faith, so that even his doing well is imparted to him by God. Just as the branch, as I have stated above,^[3] cannot bear fruit of itself. For if God the Father is glorified in this, that we bear much fruit and are made the disciples of Christ, let us not credit this to our own glory, as though we had it from ourselves. For such grace is from him, and the glory in this is therefore not ours but his. And so, in another passage, after saying, Let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works—to keep them from the thought that such good works were of themselves—he immediately added, and may glorify your Father who is in heaven.^[4] For here is where the Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit and are made the disciples of Christ. And by whom are we so made, but by him whose mercy has preceded us? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.^[5]

Now, if observing the commandments is the essential sign of love, it is very greatly feared that without love even the most effective action of the glorious gifts of grace—even of the most sublime powers and even of faith itself and the commandment that make a person perfect—will not be of help. . . . It is evident, therefore, and undeniable that without charity—even though ordinances are obeyed and righteous acts are performed, even though the commandments of the Lord have been observed and great wonders of grace effected—they will be considered as works of iniquity . . . because those who perform these acts have as their aim the gratification of their own will.

Whoever holds, without pride and boasting, to the true glory regarding created things and the Creator (who is the Almighty God of all and who has granted existence to all) and continues in his [i.e., God’s] love and subjection and continues to give thanks shall also receive from [God] the greater glory of promotion, looking forward to the time when he shall become like him who died for him.

Again, Jesus’ discourse proceeds in a human way. For certainly the lawgiver himself would not be subject to commandments. Here again, as I keep on saying, this is spoken because of the infirmity of his hearers. He is primarily speaking to their suspicions, and by every means he tries to show them that they are safe and that their enemies are being lost. He is showing them that everything, whatever they have, they have from the Son and that, if they demonstrate a pure life, no one can prevail against them. And observe how authoritative he is with them. He did not say, Abide in the love of my Father, but in my love. Then, in case they should say, When you have put us at war with everyone, that is when you leave us and depart, he shows that he does not leave them but is as joined to them as the branch is to the vine. Then, in case they get so confident that they become lazy, he tells them the blessing can be removed if they are not vigilant. And, so that he does not refer the action to himself and make them even more apt to fall, he says, Herein is my Father glorified. For everywhere he demonstrates his own and his Father’s love toward them.

Here it is as though when Jesus says, All this I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, he’s saying that those things which encourage me may give you encouragement as well. You can face danger bravely, fortifying yourselves with the hope of those who will be saved. And, if suffering comes upon you in this work, don’t be brought down into the feebleness of apathy, but rejoice more abundantly when you fulfill the will of him that wills that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.^[1] For I too rejoiced at this, [Jesus says], and thought my sufferings very sweet.

And what else is Christ’s joy in us except that he is pleased to rejoice over us? And what is this joy of ours that he says is to be made full, but our having fellowship with him? . . . His joy, therefore, in us is the grace he has bestowed on us, and that is also our joy. But he rejoiced over this joy even from eternity when he chose us before the foundation of the world.^[1] Nor can we rightly say that his joy was not full. For God’s joy was never at any time imperfect. But that joy of his was not in us. For we, in whom that joy could exist, had as yet no existence. And even when our existence commenced, it began not to be in him. But in him it always was, who in the infallible truth of his own foreknowledge rejoiced that we should yet be his own. Accordingly, he had a joy over us that was already full when he rejoiced in foreknowing and foreordaining us. And there could hardly be any fear intermingling in that joy of his that might imply a possible failure in what he foreknew would be done by himself.

Discord cannot attain to the kingdom of heaven. The one who has done violence to the love of Christ by faithless dissension will not attain to the reward of Christ, who said, This is my commandment, that you love one another. Whoever does not have charity does not have God.

Do we fail to love according to the commandment of the Lord? Then we lose the distinctive mark imprinted on us. Are we puffed up till almost bursting with empty pride and arrogance? Then we fall into the inevitable condemnation of the devil.

But when he said in this way here, This is my commandment, as if there were no other, what are we to think? Is, then, the commandment about that love with which we love one another his only one? Is there not another that is still greater, that we should love God? Or did God in truth give to us such a commandment about love alone that we have no need of searching for others? There are three things at least that the apostle commends when he says, But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.^[1] And although in charity, that is, in love, the two commandments are contained, yet it is here declared to be the greatest, not the only one. Accordingly, what a host of commandments are given to us about faith, what a multitude about hope! Who is there that could collect them together or suffice to number them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: Love is the fulfillment of the law.^[2] And so, where there is love, what can be lacking? And where it is not, what is there that can possibly be profitable? The devil believes^[3] but does not love: no one loves who does not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not love, but he hopes in vain. But no one can despair who loves. Therefore, where there is love, there will necessarily be faith and hope. And where there is the love of our neighbor, there also will necessarily be the love of God. For one that does not love God, how does he love his neighbor as himself, seeing that he does not even love himself? Such a person is both impious and iniquitous. And he who loves iniquity clearly does not love but hates his own soul.^[4] Let us, therefore, hold fast to this precept of the Lord, to love one another, and then we will be doing all else that is commanded, for we have all else contained in this.

This is my commandment. Have you then only one precept? This is sufficient, even if it is unique and so great. Nevertheless he also said, Do not kill,^[1] because the one who loves does not kill. He said, Do not steal,^[2] because the one who loves does even more—he gives. He said, Do not lie,^[3] for the one who loves speaks the truth, against falsehood. I give you a new commandment.^[4] If you have not understood what This is my commandment means, let the apostle be summoned as interpreter and say, The goal of his commandment is love.^[5] What is its binding force? It is that of which [the Lord] spoke, Whatever you want others to do to you, you should do also.^[6] Love one another in accordance with this measure, as I have loved you. That is not possible, for you are our Lord who loves your servants. But we who are equals, how can we love one another as you have loved us? Nevertheless, he has said it. . . . His love is that he has called us his friends. If we were to give our life for you, would our love be equal to yours? . . . How then can what he said be explained, As I have loved you? Let us die for each other, he said. As for us, we do not even want to live for one another! If I, who am your Lord and God, die for you, how much more should you die for one another.

Love one another as I have loved you." Do you see that the love of God is intertwined with our own and connected like a sort of chain? Thus, it sometimes says that there are two commandments, sometimes only one. For it is not possible that the one who has taken hold of the first should not possess the second also.

The unique, the highest proof of love is this, to love the person who is against us. This is why Truth himself bore the suffering of the cross and yet bestowed his love on his persecutors, saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.^[1] Why should we wonder that his living disciples loved their enemies, when their dying master loved his? He expressed the depth of his love when he said, No one has greater love that this, than that he lay down his life for his friends. The Lord had come to die even for his enemies, and yet he said he would lay down his life for his friends to show us that when we are able to win over our enemies by loving them, even our persecutors are our friends.

But greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends. No one, you think? Absolutely no one. It is true; Christ said it. Let us question the apostle, and let him answer us: Christ, he says, died for the ungodly. And again he says, While we were enemies, we were reconciled with God through the death of his Son.^[1] So there you are. In Christ we do find greater love, seeing that he gave up his life not for his friends but for his enemies. How great must be God’s love for humanity and what extraordinary affection, so to love even sinners that he would die for love of them! For God emphasizes his love toward us—they are the apostle’s words—because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.^[2]

Cultivate the virtue of love in tranquil times by showing mercy, so that it will be unconquerable in times of disorder. Learn first to give up your possessions for almighty God, and then yourself.

Now sinners are called enemies of God—enemies, that is, of the commands that they do not obey, just as those who obey become friends. The latter are named so from their fellowship; the former from their estrangement, which is freely chosen. For there is neither enmity nor sin without the enemy and the sinner.

The one who fears is not yet perfect in love.^[1] And again, though it is a grand thing to serve God, and it is said, Serve the Lord in fear, and It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, and Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find working,^[2] yet it is said to the apostles, I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord does. But I call you friends, for everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And once more, You are my friends if you do what I command you. You see then that there are different stages of perfection and that we are called by the Lord from high things to still higher in such a way that he who has become blessed and perfect in the fear of God—going, as it is written, from strength to strength^[3] and from one perfection to another, that is, mounting with an eager soul from fear to hope—is summoned in the end to that still more blessed stage, which is love. And whoever has been a faithful and wise servant^[4] will pass to the companionship of friendship and to the adoption of sons.

Inasmuch as all natural commandments are common to both Christians and Jews, the Jews indeed had the beginning and origin of the commandments, but [those commandments] received their growth and completion in us. For to yield assent to God, and to follow his Word, and to love him above all and one’s neighbor as one’s self (now people are neighbors to one another), and to abstain from every evil deed, and all other things of a similar nature that are common to both [covenants]—all of this reveals one and the same God. But this is our Lord, the Word of God, who in the first instance certainly drew slaves to God, but afterward he set those free who were subject to him, as he himself declares to his disciples, I will not now call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known. For when he says, I will not now call you servants, he indicates in the most marked manner that it was he who originally appointed for men and women that bondage with respect to God through the law and then afterward conferred on them freedom. And, in that he says, For the servant does not know what his lord does, he points out, by means of his own advent, the ignorance of a people in a servile condition. But when he terms his disciples the friends of God, he plainly declares himself to be the Word of God whom Abraham also followed voluntarily and under no compulsion^[1] because of the noble nature of his faith—and who thus became the friend of God.^[2]

Just as there are two kinds of fear that produce two classes of fearers, so there are two kinds of servitude that produce two classes of servants. There is a fear that perfect love casts out,^[1] and there is another fear, which is virtuous^[2] and endures forever.^[3] . . . In that fear that love casts out, servitude also needs to be cast out along with it. For both were joined together by the apostle, that is, the servitude and the fear, when he said, For you have not received the spirit of servitude again to fear.^[4] . . . Since, therefore, he has given us power to become the children of God,^[5] let us not be servants but children, so that, in some wonderful and indescribable but real way, we may as servants have the power not to be servants. Let us be servants, indeed, with that virtuous fear that distinguishes the servant that enters into the joy of his lord,^[6] but not servants with the fear that has to be cast out and that characterizes one who does not abide in the house forever.^[7]

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and, so to say, its first swathing band. But, when wisdom bursts the bonds of fear and rises up to love, it makes us friends of God and children instead of slaves.

He made human beings into his friends. Won’t he be making them angels? I no longer call you slaves, but friends. It was to people still carrying flesh, still subject to death, still living this poor fragile life that he said that. I no longer call you slaves, but friends. And what is he going to give friends? What he manifested in himself as he rose again. They shall be crowned and transfigured into heavenly glory and shall be equal to the angels of God.

How great is our Creator’s mercy! We were unworthy servants, and he calls us friends. How great is our human value, that we should be friends of God! You have heard your glorious dignity—now listen to what the struggle costs: If you do whatever I command you.

God himself made us friends instead of servants. . . . He gave us a pattern of friendship to follow. We are to fulfill the wish of a friend, to unfold to him our secrets that we hold in our own hearts, and are not to disregard his confidences. Let us show him our heart, and he will open his to us. . . . A friend, then, if he is a true one, hides nothing. He pours forth his soul as the Lord Jesus poured forth the mysteries of his Father.

How are we to understand that [Jesus] made known to the disciples all that he had heard from the Father when there are many things that he did not say because he knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless, what he is yet to do, he says that he has done as the same Being who has made those things which are yet to be.^[1] For he says by the prophet, They pierced my hands and my feet,^[2] and not, They will yet pierce. He speaks as though it were in the past and yet predicting what was still in the future. So also in the passage before us he declares that he has made known to the disciples all that he knows he will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge about which the apostle says, But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.^[3] For in the same place he adds, Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now as through a glass in a mystery, but then face to face.^[4]

But let one who has attained the dignity of being called a friend of God observe that the gifts he perceives in himself are beyond him. Let him attribute nothing to his own merits so that he becomes an enemy. The Lord adds, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bring forth fruit. I have appointed you for grace. I have planted you to go willingly and bring forth fruit by your works.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. That is amazing grace! . . . For what were we before Christ had chosen us besides being wicked and lost? We did not believe in him, so as to be chosen by him. For if he chose those who already believed, then he was [in effect] chosen himself prior to his choosing [them]. . . . This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world^[1] because God foreknew that we should be good, not that he himself would make us good. For if he had chosen us because he foreknew that we should be good, he would have foreknown also that we should first choose him. For without choosing him we cannot be good, unless indeed someone can be called good who has not chosen good. What then has he chosen in those who are not good? . . . You cannot say, I am chosen because I believed. For if you believed in him, you had already chosen him. Nor can you say, Before I believed I did good works and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith when the apostle says, Whatever is not of faith is sin?^[2] What is there for us to say, then, but that we were wicked and were chosen, that by the grace of having been chosen we might become good?

As much as God lacks nothing, so much do we stand in need of fellowship with God. For this is the glory of humanity: to continue and remain permanently in God’s service. This is also why the Lord said to his disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you, indicating that they did not glorify him when they followed him but that, in following the Son of God, they were glorified by him.

Now if your fruit remains, much more shall you. For I have not only loved you, [he says], but I have given you the greatest benefits by extending your branches through the entire world. Do you see in how many ways he shows his love? He shows his love by telling them secrets, by having in the first instance run to meet their friendship, by granting them the greatest blessings, by suffering for them what then he suffered. After this, he shows that he also remains continually with those who shall bring forth fruit. For it is needful to enjoy his help and so to bear fruit.

I have appointed you for grace. I have planted you to go willingly and bring forth fruit by your works. I have said that you should go willingly, since to will to do something is already to go in your heart. Then he adds the quality their fruit is to have: And your fruit is to endure. Everything we labor for in this present world scarcely lasts until death. Death intervenes and cuts off the fruit of our labor. But what we do for eternal life remains even after death. It begins to appear only when the fruits of our physical labors cease to be visible. The reward of the one begins when the other is ended. Let one who recognizes that he now bears eternal fruit within his soul think little of the temporal fruits of his labors. Let us work for the fruit that endures; let us work for the fruit that begins at death since death destroys all others.

Let us then with faithful spirit and devout mind call on Jesus our Lord. Let us believe that he is God, to the end that whatever we ask of the Father, we may obtain in his name. For the Father’s will is that he be entreated through the Son. The Son’s will is that the Father be entreated.

Since therefore you follow in the path of my words and ministry and have the mind that my true disciples should have, it follows that you should not, by your own delay, throw obstacles in the way of someone who of his own will seeks the faith and is self-called to a life of piety. Rather, you should attach yourselves as guides to those who are still ignorant and wandering and bring the gospel of salvation to those who do not yet want to learn it and eagerly encourage them to attain to the true knowledge of God, even though the mind of your hearers may be hardened into disobedience. In other words, bring them more in line with your own condition so they will advance and return to fruit bearing in God by gradually growing in what is better for them. Then they too can have fruit that always remains and is preserved, and they can also have that most desirable object of prayer—the bestowal of whatever they wish, if only they ask in my name.

This [love] is our fruit about which he said, I have chosen you, that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And what he added, That whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you, he will certainly give us if we love one another, seeing that this is the very thing he has also given us in choosing us when we had no fruit, because we had not chosen him. He appointed us that we should bring forth fruit—that is, that we should love one another—a fruit that we cannot have apart from him, just as the branches can do nothing apart from the vine.

Our fruit, therefore, is charity, which the apostle explains to be out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and sincere faith.^[1] When we love one another, we love God. For it would be with no true love that we loved one another, if we did not love God. For everyone loves his neighbor as himself if he loves God. And if he does not love God, he does not love himself. For on these two commandments of love hang all the law and the prophets:^[2] this is our fruit. And it is in reference, therefore, to such fruit that he gives us this commandment when he says, These things I command you, that you love one another. In the same way also the apostle Paul, when wishing to commend the fruit of the Spirit in opposition to the deeds of the flesh, posited this as his principle, saying, The fruit of the Spirit is love. And then, as if springing from and bound up in this principle, he wove the others together, which are joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.^[3]

For who can truly rejoice who does not love the good as the source of his joy? Who can have true peace, if he does not have it with one whom he truly loves? Who can be long-enduring through persevering continually in good, except through fervent love? Who can be kind, if he does not love the person he is helping? Who can be good, if he is not made so by loving? Who can be sound in the faith without that faith that works by love? Whose meekness can be beneficial in character, if not regulated by love? And who will abstain from that which is debasing, if he does not love that which dignifies? Appropriately, therefore, the good Master frequently commends love as the only thing needing to be commended. Without love, everything else that is good is no help, and you cannot have love without bringing with it all those other good things that make a person truly good.