We Are Of God

Nos ex Deo sumus. Videamus quare: videte si propter aliud quam propter caritatem. Nos ex Deo sumus. Qui novit Deum, audit nos: qui non est ex Deo, non nos audit. Ex hoc cognoscimus spiritum veritatis et erroris. Quia qui audit nos, spiritum habet veritatis: qui non audit nos, spiritum habet erroris. Videamus quid monet, et audiamus eum potius in spiritu veritatis monentem; non antichristos, non amatores mundi, non mundum: si ex Deo nati sumus: Dilectissimi, sequitur supra, videte quid: Nos ex Deo sumus. Qui novit Deum, audit nos: qui non est ex Deo, non nos audit. Ex hoc cognoscitur spiritus veritatis et erroris. Iam ergo intentos nos fecit: quia qui novit Deum, ipse audit; qui autem non novit, non audit: et haec discretio est spiritus veritatis et erroris. Videamus quid moniturus est, in quo illum audire debeamus. Dilectissimi, diligamus invicem. Quare? quia homo monet? Quia dilectio ex Deo est. Multum commendavit dilectionem, quia dixit ex Deo est: plus dicturus est, intente audiamus. Modo dixit: Dilectio ex Deo est: et omnis qui diligit, ex Deo natus est, et cognovit Deum. Qui non diligit, non novit Deum. Quare? Quia Deus dilectio est. Quid amplius dici potuit, fratres? Si nihil de laude dilectionis diceretur per omnes istas paginas huius Epistolae, si nihil omnino per caeteras paginas Scripturarum, et hoc solum unum audiremus de voce Spiritus Dei: Quia Deus dilectio est; nihil amplius quaerere deberemus. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, In Epistolam Ioannis Ad Parthos Tractatus Decem, Tractatus VII

'We are of God.' 1 Let us see why. See whether it be for any other thing than charity. 'We are of God. He that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and of error.' 1 For he that hears us has the spirit of truth, he that does not hear us, has the spirit of error. Let us see what he advises, and let us hear him advising in the spirit of truth, not as antichrists, not as lovers of the world, not as the world. If we are born of God, beloved, 1 he continues, from above see why, 'We are of God. He that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and of error.'  Now, therefore, he makes us attentive, for he who knows God, that one hears, but he who knows not, does not hear, and this is discernment between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Let us see what he is going to advise, in what we should hear him: 'Beloved, let us love one another.' 2 Why? Because a man advises? 'Because love is from God.' Greatly has he commended love because he has said it is from God. But he is going to say more. Let us listen intently. Now he has said, 'Love is from God, and every one who loves is born of God and knows God. He that does not love does not know God.' Why? 'For God is love.'  3 What more could be said, brethren? If nothing were said in praise of love throughout the pages of this epistle, if nothing whatever throughout the other pages of the Scriptures, and this alone were the only thing we had heard from the voice of the Spirit of God: 'For God is love,' we should seek nothing more. Saint Augustine of Hippo,On the Letter of John to the Parthians, Ten Tractates, Tractate 7  11 Jn 4:6 2 1 Jn 4:7 3 1 Jn 4:7-8