Perfecting Love

...Et charitas ejus in nobis perfecta est. Quaerendum autem quomodo dicat perfectionem divinae charitatis in mutua dilectione consistere, cum Dominus in Evangelio pronuntiet non esse magnum si diligamus eos qui nos diligunt, nisi ad inimicos etiam, de quibus hic penitus tacere videtur, eadem dilectio pertingat? Nisi forte ipsos quoque inimicos fraterni amoris intuitu diligere debeamus, videlicet, ut non semper inimici remaneant, sed resipiscant a diaboli laqueis, nobisque germano foedere socientur. Si diligamus, inquit, invicem, Deus in nobis manet, et charitas ejus in nobis perfecta est. Incipe diligere, perficieris. Coepisti diligere, coepit Deus in te habitare, ut perfectius habitando faciat te perfectum. Sanctus Beda, In Primam Epistolam Sancti Joannis Source: Migne PL 93.110a

...And His love is perfected in us. 1 It must be asked how he might say that the perfection of love consists of mutual love when the Lord in the Gospel declares that it is not a great thing if we love those who love us, 2 but that it is only to be found in love of enemies, concerning which here there seems to be silence? Unless perhaps it is that by our experience of fraternal love we should love our enemies, that is, that they not remain always enemies, but withdrawing from the snares of the devil, be bound to us as with a brotherly bond. If we love, he says, one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. Begin to love, you shall be perfected. You begin to love, God begins to dwell in you, that dwelling in you more perfectly He may make you perfect. Saint Bede, from the Commentary On The First Letter of Saint John 1 1 Jn 4.12 2 Mt 5.46-48