NOTES for Jo1 4:13-5:5

Why are fear and love incompatibles? Is God afraid of anything? Certainly, no! Well, it is so because He is almighty... And what of us? Here is John the Evangelist speaks about it: God Himself indwells in the one who loves, because God is love. And we thus have to be afraid of nothing. But if ever there is fear in us there (it is identified by the "torment"), then it is evident that love, God's presence in us is imperfect, insufficient.

There is another important moment here. The apostle John writes that love is manifested in the fulfillment of the commandments. Fear was the main motive for the fulfillment of the commandments in the Old Testament, and this fear paralyzed man. Indeed, commandments indicated what shouldn’t be done, and by longing to fulfill them, man was afraid of doing, in order not to do what is wrong. The new commandment, of which John writes, is formulated differently: do, love one another. The aspiration to fulfill this commandment frees man, manifests in him activity, initiative.

Few of us can boast of good relationships with our neighbors. In the daily examination of conscience we certainly notice anger, touchiness, irritability... But at least we love God! Do we? But the apostle John says that if we do not love our neighbors, then we do not love God either! Everything is simple. We have not seen God, and this means that one way or another we imagine a certain image for ourselves, and to love this image, of course, is not hard. But in our relationships with people close to us, the very capacity to love is tested. Even if the image of God we have created is close to reality, loving Him is not so hard: He is good and merciful, He creates no problems for us! Loving a person, perhaps quarrelsome, capricious, demanding, and not very intelligent, is much harder. But if our love is not shown in this difficult situation, then something is wrong with it, with this love. It means it is no longer selfless, but oriented toward convenience. And that means... it is no longer love.

Here John links love for God and love for neighbor into one whole. This link was rooted in the Torah, and it was well known to the rabbinic tradition of the Gospel era. But John considers it in the context of the new, Christian revelation. For him, love is not merely a relationship between people, as it was in pre-Christian times; for him it is inseparable from the very nature of the Kingdom.

Previously, love, like its opposite, hatred, was above all a relationship connecting people with one another, just as hatred was a relationship that separated people. The environment within which relationships were built remained natural, chiefly psychological. Moreover, it was the nature of the fallen world, at whose foundation lay natural energy that did not so much reveal God to the human person as conceal Him. Love as a spiritual reality could not help coming into conflict with such a God-concealing nature, and therefore love in the fallen world could not reveal itself in all its fullness. Where it could not penetrate, room remained for fallen nature with all its manifestations, including the fears proper to the psyche of fallen humanity, not always conscious, but always real and always hindering a person from living a full spiritual life.

The Kingdom is different. Here natural energy is replaced by the energy of God's love. It is like natural energy in that it gives the possibility of being to all existing forms and manifestations of natural life. But, unlike the natural energy of the fallen world, the energy of God's love does not hide God; on the contrary, it reveals Him, His will, and His presence.

Such an environment fully corresponds to relationships of love between people: spirit and nature are brought into complete harmony. Love can now reveal itself in all its fullness: in the Kingdom, unlike in the untransformed world, nothing hinders it. Therefore complete deliverance from fear is possible here, for the former psychological nature gives way to a new one that is fully obedient to the human will. Love is manifested in fullness, and there is no room left for fears in the human soul. This is the Christian life to which John and the other apostles bore witness.

Today’s reading brought back a rather unpleasant memory of school days... The teacher says confidently, “But the problem is quite easy!” while the pupil stares gloomily at the desk, knowing that he understands nothing... The apostle John tells us, “His commandments are not burdensome.” An inner voice replies, “Yes, you are a saint, you are an apostle; it is easy for you to say.” What is wrong with this comparison? Of course, it is the phrase “it is easy for you to say.” The apostle John speaks not as a teacher but as one of us. Is he a saint? Yes, but not because he possessed special “aptitudes for holiness.” We have no right to say that it was easy for him and that we lack the gift. Every saint was simply a human being, just like us. The Lord’s commandments are objectively not burdensome; we need only desire to fulfill them. Everything depends on our choice, on our free will, and the Lord gives grace in abundance.

A Christian’s relationship with the world cannot be simple. The world has its familiar patterns and norms, and we, raised in ordinary families—even believing ones, but not holy ones—live within those norms. The desire for comfort, for psychological comfort, is simply embedded in us: to be like everyone else while feeling special, to be liked by those around us...

But for that we must be part of this world. Then we become slaves, because the world rejects those who do not obey its norms and prescriptions. Who cares why you do not fit the common pattern? No one. And if you merely say, “But I am not like you,” you easily fall under the power of the prince of this world, who catches you in the nets of pride...

Only one thing conquers the world and tears apart the nets that bind us: faith in Jesus Christ. When we act not for ourselves but in His name, He grants us freedom—freedom from the power of sin and of this world.

Boldness on the day of judgment... What is the apostle John talking about? Boldness means both courage and confidence. But imagine His judgment. Eye to eye with the only Righteous One... Is it really possible at that judgment to remain calm and confident? The apostle John says that the Lord has given us enough capacity to love, and love can reach such perfection in us that we will act as He does, and therefore will not fear His judgment... Simple? Not simple at all, because this is only a capacity, a possibility. This is what He has given; His gift is boundless, His gift has been given in fullness. But the degree to which we accept His gift is another question. And it depends not on someone or something else, but on us ourselves.

God loved people not because they always behaved well, not because they were especially likable, not because they loved Him... He loved us for no reason at all. And when we say, “Why should I love Vasya Ivanov? He does not love me,” we move the conversation out of the realm of love and into the realm of mutual accounting and other barter exchanges. Love exists for no reason; love consists in someone simply loving—not “in response to love,” but simply...