OVERVIEW: If we love God, we must also love all those who believe with us that his Son became a man in Jesus Christ. The practical outworking of this is that we must obey his commandments, which are easy for those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. John immediately joined love to faith, because without love faith is useless (CAESARIUS OF ARLES). By practicing virtue, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ (BEDE) are born of God. They have become his children and friends, just as Abraham was (ANDREAS). To love God, the parent, is to love the neighbor, the child (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, THEOPHYLACT). Only someone who is on fire with the love of his Maker can be said to love other people in the right way (BEDE, OECUMENIUS). To love the children of God is to love the Son of God; to love the Son of God is to love the Father. And if you love, you cannot but do well (AUGUSTINE). The commandments of God are not burdensome (ANDREAS, BEDE) to those who have expelled every kind of unbelief (THEOPHYLACT).
There are three witnesses to the coming of Christ: the water of baptism, the blood of atonement and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who bears witness to the power of these things. Anyone who believes has this testimony within and therefore has the full assurance of salvation by faith. The Son of God came not by water only, in order to cleanse us from our sins, but also with the blood of his passion (ANDREAS, OECUMENIUS). By this he consecrates the sacrament of our baptism, giving his blood for us, redeeming us by his suffering, that we might be made fit for salvation (BEDE) through the Spirit (ISHO‘DAD). These three are one: the Spirit of sanctification and life, the blood of redemption and the water of regeneration in baptism (LEO, CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA). The Spirit makes us children of God by adoption, the water of the sacred font cleanses us, and the blood of the Lord redeems us (BEDE). In this way everything is accomplished in unity by the one Christ (ISHO‘DAD). If the testimony of the prophets is great (HILARY OF ARLES) and worthy to be received, the testimony of God to his beloved Son is much greater still (BEDE, ANDREAS). God can never be a liar, because he is the essence of truth. But an unbelieving person always ends up lying because he or she does not believe in the truth of God (HILARY OF ARLES). Whoever refuses to honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him (BEDE).
Right now we live on earth in the hope of his promise, which we shall receive in its fullness after we die and go to be with God. John does not simply say that there is life in the Son; he says that the Son is life itself (BEDE). God will grant the requests of those who ask according to his will (DIDYMUS, BEDE). If he hears us in everything that we ask of him, we know that we are praying according to his will (OECUMENIUS). We are expected to ask for the things that he wants us to ask for and to come to understand what those things are (BEDE). We can know now that we have eternal life, and we can also be certain that whatever we ask for in prayer, he will hear and answer. We have already received the answer if we have prayed in the Spirit according to God’s will.
Armed with this assurance, we have a duty to seek the rescue of others from their sins, as long as such rescue is possible. There are two kinds of sin, one that is unavoidable because we are living in a sinful world, and one that is deliberate. Mortal sin occurs when a believer opposes the fellowship after having come to acknowledge God. That person starts to fight against that grace by which he or she has been reconciled to God. A nonmortal sin is one that does not infringe on brotherly love but fails to show it adequately because of some weakness (BEDE, OECUMENIUS). One who has fully given himself over to Christ will not commit mortal sin, even though the old sin nature remains, yet that person may still commit nonmortal sins (OECUMENIUS). It would be self-contradictory to pray that some sins be forgiven (ORIGEN), especially at the end of a perverse life (AUGUSTINE) or in cases of blasphemy (ANDREAS).
Because the ability to avoid sin is given by grace and is not by nature (ANDREAS), John adds that the righteous person must watch out, that evil will not touch him or her (DIDYMUS). Though David sinned, he was born of God and hence he did not sin up to his death, for when he repented he received forgiveness (BEDE). We know that we are of God because we have been born again by grace and baptism through faith, and we know that we shall persevere in that faith to the very end (BEDE). But those who love the world are subjected to the enemy (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, DIDYMUS, ISHO‘DAD). We have been given understanding to the extent that we have known the Son of God (BEDE), who really has come into the world. The person who has this mind and understanding knows what is really true and is united with him because he shares the same mind (DIDYMUS, ANDREAS). We must recognize that we live in a hostile environment and that in Jesus Christ we have been given a knowledge of the truth sufficient to enable us to escape from its clutches, especially from the temptations of idolatry. Many former idolaters are in the church (DIDYMUS). It is wrong for one created in the image of the living God to worship the image of an idol (TERTULLIAN, HILARY OF ARLES).
ONE WHO LOVES THE PARENT LOVES THE CHILD. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: We can turn this around and say that anyone who despises the Begotten also despises the One who begat him. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 11.7.1
EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: This describes everyone who is born of God and does what God wants him to do. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.2
JOINING LOVE TO FAITH. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: John immediately joined love to faith, because without love faith is useless. According to charity, faith belongs to Christians, but without love it belongs to the demons. Moreover, those who do not believe are even worse than the demons. SERMONS 186.1.3
A CHILD OF GOD. ANDREAS: By practicing virtue, those who are born of God have become his children, his friends, just as Abraham was. Once again John touches on the doctrine of truth, revealing the depths of the unbelief of the heretics. CATENA.4
BELIEVING THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. BEDE: Who is it who believes that Jesus is the Christ? It is the person who lives according to Christ’s commandments. Let no heretic or schismatic say that he believes that Jesus is the Christ, for even the devils believe and tremble, because they too know that much. But those who do not have his love or the works of truth are not of God. ON 1 JOHN.5
WHEN WE LOVE GOD. AUGUSTINE: To love the children of God is to love the Son of God; to love the Son of God is to love the Father. Nobody can love the Father without loving the Son, and anyone who loves the Son will love the other children as well. TEN HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 10.3.6
ON FIRE WITH LOVE. BEDE: Only someone who is on fire with the love of his Maker can be said to love his fellow humans in the right way. For if a person’s love for his Creator starts to flag, his words of love for his fellows lose all their power. ON 1 JOHN.7
WE LOVE THE CHILDREN OF GOD. THEOPHYLACT: If we love God, then we must also love those whom God has brought to birth and who have become our brothers and sisters. Loving one another is a sign of how much we love God. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.8
THE SUBSTANCE OF LOVE. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: The substance and ground of the love we ought to have for God is obedience to his commandments. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.9
LOVE, AND YOU DO WELL. AUGUSTINE: The commandments of which John speaks are the two given by Jesus: Love God and love one another. Hold fast to this love and set your minds at rest. You need not be afraid of doing harm to anyone, for how can you harm the person you love? Love, and you cannot but do well. TEN HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 10.7.10
THEY ARE NOT BURDENSOME. ANDREAS: Keeping the commandments is both the form and substance of our love for God. Those who obey them are brought close to God by them. If someone looks at them in the wrong way and says that they are heavy to bear, he is merely revealing his own weakness. CATENA.11
THE EASY YOKE. BEDE: The proof of love is found in the works that we do. We truly love God if we bend our wills to his commandments, for whoever runs after his own illicit desires does not love God, because he contradicts that love in his own will. God’s commands are not onerous, for Christ himself said: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”12 ON 1 JOHN.13
VICTORY THROUGH FAITH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Neither a Jew nor a pagan nor a heretic can do anything in the face of this victory which is ours through faith. CATENA.14
THIS IS THE VICTORY. ANDREAS: This means that such a person has overcome all evil and ungodliness. For our faith has destroyed all ignorance and driven out all darkness. CATENA.15
OVERCOMING NOT BY OUR EFFORTS. BEDE: The commandments of God are not burdensome. All those who are bound to keep them with true devotion, despite the adversities of this world, regard its temptations with equanimity, even to the point of looking forward to death, because it is the gateway to the heavenly country. And lest anyone should think that we can somehow achieve all this by our own efforts, John adds that the substance of our victory is our faith, not our works. ON 1 JOHN.16
FAITH OVERCOMES THE WORLD. THEOPHYLACT: Once you have become brothers and sisters in love, you must go on to the next stage, which is to overcome the world. For those who have been born again in God must expel every kind of unbelief from their midst. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.17
WHO OVERCOMES? BEDE: The person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world by adding works worthy of that faith to it. If you think that faith in his divinity and a profession of that faith are enough by themselves, read on! ON 1 JOHN.18
ONE WHO BELIEVES IN JESUS. OECUMENIUS: It is not faith in the abstract that overcomes the world. It must be faith in Jesus Christ, as John makes plain. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.19
WITH CLEANSING BLOOD. ANDREAS: What flowed from his side was also the blood which cleanses us from sin and sanctifies the people of God. . . . It was not a mere man who appeared at the Jordan20 but the incarnate Word of God, to whom the Father also bore witness: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”21 Similarly, when he was hanging on the cross, what sounded to the people like thunder was the voice of God speaking at the moment that his blood fell to the ground. CATENA.22
NOT WITH WATER ONLY. BEDE: The Son of God came not by water only, in order to cleanse us from our sins, but also with the blood of his passion, by which he consecrates the sacrament of our baptism, giving his blood for us, redeeming us by his suffering and nourishing us with his sacraments so that we might be made fit for salvation. ON 1 JOHN.23
BY WATER AND BLOOD. OECUMENIUS: Why did Jesus come? To give us new birth and to make us children of God. How are we born? Through water and blood. The Jesus who came gives us new birth by water and by blood. The water stands for his baptism, when Jesus was revealed as the Son of God. The blood, of course, stands for his crucifixion, when he prayed that the Father would glorify him and a voice answered from heaven: “I have glorified and I will glorify.”24 COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.25
BY BAPTISM, PASSION AND THE SPIRIT. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: John calls Christ’s baptism “water” and his passion “blood.” He fulfilled all the dispensations for our sake, by means of his baptism, his passion and by the Holy Spirit. COMMENTARIES.26
THE SAVING POWERS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The spirit is life, the water is regeneration and faith, the blood is knowledge, and these three are one. In the Savior these are the saving powers, and life itself is found in the Son. ADUMBRATIONS.27
WHAT THE SPIRIT ATTESTS. BEDE: When the Lord was baptized in the Jordan, the Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove, bearing witness that he is the truth, that he is the true Son of God, that he is the true Mediator between God and humanity, that he is the true Redeemer and Reconciler of the human race, that he is truly free from any contamination of sin, that he is truly able to take away the sins of the world. ON 1 JOHN.28
THE SPIRIT, THE WATER AND THE BLOOD. AUGUSTINE: What was it that flowed from Jesus’ side if not the sacrament which believers receive? The Spirit, the blood and the water—the Spirit which he gave up, the blood and water which flowed from his side. The church is signified as being born from this blood and water. SERMONS 5.3.29
THE WITNESSES DISTINCT YET NOT SEPARATED. LEO THE GREAT: This means the Spirit of sanctification, the blood of redemption and the water of baptism, which three are one and remain distinct, and none of them is separated from union with the others. This is the faith by which the church lives and moves. LETTERS 28.30
HOW THE SPIRIT BORE WITNESS. BEDE: The Spirit bore witness that Jesus is the truth when he descended on him at his baptism. If Jesus were not the truth, the Spirit would not have done that. The water and the blood bore witness that Jesus is the truth when they both flowed from his side at the time he was crucified. That would not have been possible if he had not had a genuine human nature. All three are independent of each other, but their testimony is one and the same, because Christ’s divinity is not to be believed in apart from his humanity, nor is his humanity to be accepted apart from his divinity. And all three are present also in us, not in their natural form but by the mystical union of our souls with him. The Spirit makes us children of God by adoption, the water of the sacred font cleanses us, and the blood of the Lord redeems us. They are invisible in themselves, but in the sacraments they are made visible for our benefit. ON 1 JOHN.31
ALL ACCOMPLISHED IN UNITY. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The three things are one because everything was accomplished by the one Christ. COMMENTARIES.32
THE TESTIMONY OF HUMANS. HILARY OF ARLES: The testimony of men refers to the testimony of people like Moses and the prophets, who were all men of God. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.33
THE TESTIMONY OF GOD. BEDE: There are many great testimonies to the Son of God, for example: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,”34 and “The Lord said to me, You are my Son.”35 This testimony is great and true and worthy to be received by everyone, but the testimony of God to his beloved Son is much greater still. For the Father himself spoke from heaven, saying: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”36 ON 1 JOHN.37
DOES UNBELIEF MAKE GOD A LIAR? HILARY OF ARLES: God can never turn himself into a liar, because he is the essence of truth. But an unbelieving man is a liar, because he does not believe in the truth of God. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.38
THE TESTIMONY GOD HAS BORNE. ANDREAS: After giving us one testimony about his Son, God gave us another, which is eternal life. CATENA.39
ONE WHO BELIEVES IN GOD BELIEVES IN THE SON. BEDE: This means that whoever believes in the Son in such a way as to do what the Son commands has the witness of God in him and may be counted among the children of God. Jews and heretics are wasting their time when they claim to believe in God,40 because they reject Christ and refuse to believe in him. For whoever refuses to honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ON 1 JOHN.41
ETERNAL LIFE. BEDE: John says that God has given us eternal life, and remember that he was saying this at a time when he was still in the flesh and subject to physical death. But God gave us eternal life in exactly the same way as he has given us the power to become his children. Right now we live on earth in the hope of his promise, which we shall receive in its fullness after we die and go to be with him. ON 1 JOHN.42
THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON. OECUMENIUS: God has promised to give us eternal life because we have been adopted into him through his Son, of whom Scripture says: “In him was life.”43 Therefore whoever has the Son by holy baptism also has life. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.44
LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST. AUGUSTINE: Here John testifies that no one has life unless he has Christ. AGAINST JULIAN 6.9.27.45
THE SON IS OUR LIFE. BEDE: John does not simply say that there is life in the Son; he says that the Son is life itself. The Son in his turn glorified the Father by saying: “Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son also life in himself.”46 He goes on to show how this life is common to both Father and Son, when he says: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”47 ON 1 JOHN.48
REASSURED OF FUTURE BLESSEDNESS. BEDE: John writes these things so that those who believe in Christ will be reassured about their future blessedness. They will not be led astray by the deception of those who say that Jesus was not the Son of God and therefore has nothing to offer to those who have believed in him. ON 1 JOHN.49
TO YOU WHO BELIEVE. OECUMENIUS: John says that he has written to those who are inheritors of eternal life, for such things would never be written to people who are not. After all, it is not right to give holy things to dogs or to scatter pearls before swine.50 COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.51
THE CONFIDENCE WE HAVE IN HIM. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Those who possess technical skills and know how to repair things are fully confident that when the need arises they will be able to do so. Similarly these holy men, John and the other apostles, knew from their own experience that if they asked God for what was pleasing and acceptable to him, they would obtain it. For God is most generous to those who have this knowledge and will grant the requests of those who ask according to his will. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.52
IF WE ASK IN THE RIGHT WAY. BEDE: John holds out to us the great assurance that we can expect to receive heavenly blessings from the Lord and that whatever we ask for here on earth will be given to us as long as we ask for it in the right way. This is in full agreement with what Jesus said in the Gospels: “I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it and you will.”53 ON 1 JOHN.54
UNDERSTANDING WHAT TO ASK. BEDE: John repeats what he has already said many times over, in order to stir us up to more vibrant prayer. But the condition which he imposed at the beginning remains valid, which is that we must ask according to our Maker’s will. There are two sides to this, because on the one hand we are expected to ask for the things which he wants us to ask for, and at the same time we are expected to come to understand what those things are. This is what it means to have the kind of faith which works through love. ON 1 JOHN.55
HE HEARS US. OECUMENIUS: What this means is that if we ask according to his will, he hears us, and if he hears us in everything that we ask of him, we know that we are praying according to his will. Therefore we already have inside us the things which we have asked for. For these are the kingdom and righteousness of God, which he has asked us to pray for. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.56
SOME SINS ARE UNTO DEATH. ORIGEN: Since there are sins “unto death,” it follows that anyone who commits one of them will die as a result. SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 11.2.6.57
SELF-CONTRADICTORY TO PRAY THAT SOME SIN BE FORGIVEN. AUGUSTINE: Even though the Lord commands us to pray for our very persecutors, this passage clearly shows that there are some brothers for whom we are not commanded to pray. We therefore must acknowledge that there are some sins among the brothers which are worse than persecution by enemies. I think that the sin of a brother is unto death when anyone who has attained a knowledge of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ opposes the brotherhood and is aroused by the fires of envy against that very grace by which he was reconciled to God. COMMENTARY ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 1.22.73.58
ESPECIALLY SINS AT THE END OF LIFE. AUGUSTINE: In another place I defined the sin of a brother unto death [see above], but I should have added: “if he ends this life in a perversity of mind as wicked as this.” For surely we must not despair of anyone, no matter how wicked he is, while he lives, and we should pray with confidence for him of whom we should not despair. RETRACTATIONS 1.18.7.59
WHO CAN PRAY AGAINST GOD? ANDREAS: It is the sin of heresy, or of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which leads to death. If one man sins against another, pray for him. But if he sins against God, who is there who can pray on his behalf? CATENA.60
SOME SIN NOT UNTO DEATH. BEDE: Just as Christ washes us from our sins by interceding with the Father on our behalf, so also should we, if we know that our brother is committing a sin which is “not unto death.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.5.61
DISTINGUISHING SINS MORTAL AND NONMORTAL. BEDE: These are things which are asked for according to God’s will, because they are part of what it means to love our brothers. John is talking here about trivial, everyday sins which are hard to avoid but which are easy to put right. The question of what constitutes a mortal sin is very difficult, and it is hard to accept that there are people whom John tells us not to pray for, when our Lord tells us that we should pray for those who persecute us. The only answer to this is that there must be sins committed within the fellowship of the brothers which are even more serious than persecution from outside enemies. Mortal sin therefore occurs when a brother opposes the fellowship after he has come to acknowledge God by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ given to him and when he starts to fight against that grace, by which he has been reconciled to God, with the weapons of hatred. A nonmortal sin is one which does not infringe on brotherly love but merely fails to show it adequately because of some weakness of the mind. ON 1 JOHN.62
MINOR INFRACTIONS VERSUS SINS LEADING TO DEATH. BEDE: The variety of sins is such that everything which fails to agree with the law of fairness is a sin, although minor infractions of the kind which are almost impossible to avoid in this life can be forgiven the righteous without too much difficulty. But there are other sins which are so contrary to any kind of righteousness that they will lead the one who does them into eternal punishment without any doubt whatsoever, unless he happens to put them right. ON 1 JOHN.63
SINS THAT LEAD TO DEATH. OECUMENIUS: Only those sins which are not repented of lead to death. Judas, for example, although he showed remorse, did not repent and was led off to his death. But whoever has given himself over to Christ cannot commit mortal sin, even though his nature64 remains unchanged and he still sins. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.65
THE EVIL ONE CANNOT TOUCH GOD’S CHILDREN. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: If it is true that when someone does what is righteous his power to do so comes from God, and if it is also true that righteousness and evil cannot live together, then it is perfectly clear that as long as a person does such things he is righteous and does not sin. But because this ability is given by grace and is not natural, John adds that the righteous person must watch out, so that evil will not touch him. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.66
NO ONE IS A CHILD OF GOD BY NATURE. ANDREAS: It may be true that the righteous person does not sin, but no one is a child of God by nature. This is why we avoid sin, not by the way in which we were made, which would make sin impossible for us,67 but by watching out that we do not fall into it. CATENA.68
DAVID’S CASE. BEDE: Anyone born of God does not commit mortal sin, which we have defined earlier on. But mortal sin can also be understood to mean sin which retains its force right up to the moment of death, and those who are born of God do not commit that kind of error. David, for, example, confessed to having committed mortal sin, for how else can we regard such things as adultery and murder? But David was also born of God and because he belonged to that fellowship he did not sin up to his death, because when he repented he was regarded as worthy to receive forgiveness. ON 1 JOHN.69
IN THE POWER OF THE EVIL ONE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: “World” does not mean creation as a whole but rather worldly people and those who live according to their lusts. ADUMBRATIONS.70
THE WORLD SUBJECTED TO EVIL. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: The “world,” that is, those who love the world, are subjected to evil. This includes everybody, because we are all born under sin, which traces its origin to the disobedience of Adam. Many heretics claim that there is a creator god who made the world evil to begin with, but this is not so. The word refers to people, not to the material substance of creation. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.71
WE ARE OF GOD. BEDE: We know that we are of God because we have been born again by grace and baptism through faith, and we know too that we shall persevere in that faith to the very end. But those who love the world are subjected to the enemy, and there is no water of regeneration which can deliver them from that subjection, especially if they sin again after their baptism. Nor is it just the lovers of the world who are in this state, because it applies also to those who are newly born and who have inherited the guilt of original sin, although they cannot yet tell the difference between good and evil. Such people are in the power of the enemy, unless by the power of a loving Creator they are taken out of the power of darkness and placed in the kingdom of the Son of his love. ON 1 JOHN.72
PERVERSION GENERATES SIN. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The world is subjected to the perversion which gives birth to sin, and because of that it is prone to the cultivation of evil things. COMMENTARIES.73
TO KNOW HIM WHO IS TRUE. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: The understanding which God gave, by which it is known that the true Son of God is coming, is the same as the mind of Christ. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.74
THE SON HAS GIVEN US UNDERSTANDING. ANDREAS: Even at the end of his letter, John never stops insisting on the need for right doctrine. We have been given understanding to the extent that we have known the Son of God, who really has come into the world. This is what it means to say that “we have the mind of Christ.”75 The person who has this mind and understanding knows what is really true and is united with him because he shares the same mind. CATENA.76
THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE. BEDE: What could be clearer than these words? What could be sweeter to the ear? What could be a more powerful weapon to use against the heretics? Christ is the true Son of God. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God. The eternal Son of God has come into the world of time, and he came only in order to save us, so that we might come to know the true God. For no one can come to eternal life without a knowledge of the true God. All these things John just keeps repeating over and over again. ON 1 JOHN.77
AVOID IMAGES. TERTULLIAN: John did not tell us to keep away from worship, but from idols, that is, from their very likeness. For it is wrong for you, who are created in the image of the living God, to become the image of an idol and a dead man. ON THE CROWN 5.10.78
MANY FORMER IDOLATERS IN THE CHURCH. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Why is it that after everything else which he has said to his hearers during the course of his letter, John should keep this warning about idols to the very end? In my opinion it is because here he is addressing the church in general. There must have been many in that assembly who were former idolaters, and he adds this caution for their benefit. CATENA.79
WORSHIP THE ONE TRUE GOD. HILARY OF ARLES: The letter ends as it began, with an admonition to worship the one true God alone. Everything else that John says is contained in this one golden rule. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.80
KEEP AWAY FROM FALSE TEACHERS. BEDE: You who know the true God, in whom you have eternal life, must keep yourselves away from the teachings of the heretics which lead only to eternal death. In the manner of those who made idols in the place of God, the heretics have corrupted the glory of the incorruptible God by their wicked doctrines which bear the stamp of corruptible things. ON 1 JOHN.81