1 John 1:4

For every thing which is born of God, &c. He proves what he had said that His commandments are not heavy, because the faithful, who are born again of faith, and charity, and are armed by God, overcome the world, i.e. the lusts and terrors of the world, which alone resist charity, and make the keeping of the commandments difficult. When therefore they are taken away, the commandments become easy. "The proof of a heavenly generation is victory over temptation," says S. Bernard.

Observe: he says every thing (neuter), not every one who is born of God overcometh. This is to signify, 1st That this victory falls to the believer, not of himself, but from the love and grace of God. This is why he adds by way of explanation, And this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.

2d. The expression every thing is emphatic, and signifies the whole company of all nations. There is an allusion to the animals of every kind, both clean and unclean, which were in Noe's ark, and which Peter saw in vision in the linen sheet of the Church. (Acts. x. 12.) By these it was signified that all sorts of men, of every nation, state, and condition, were to be admitted into the Church by the new Birth of Baptism. For the same reason, and with the same emphasis, Christ said, " Everything that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me."

Hence S. Cyprian, S. Leo, and others say that a believer is greater than the world, and having his conversation in heaven he looks down upon the little point of the world. Beautifully does S. Augustine write (lib. 2 de Synub. and Catechum), "Admirable, truly admirable, is our combat" (spectaculum), "in which God helps, faith obtains strength, innocence fights, holiness conquers, and the reward which follows is such that whilst he who has conquered receives, he who gives loses nothing."

And this is the victory, &c., victory, i.e., the victor, the conqueror. The victory then is the cause of victory, the arms by which the victory is obtained, i.e., faith. This victorious faith is not naked and idle faith, but clothed with charity and good works, struggling and fighting bravely, according to the words, "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness," &c. (Heb. xi.) And as S. Paul says (Eph. vi. i6), "And in all taking the shield of faith by which ye can quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one." For overcomes the Greek has νικήσασα, aorist overcame. By this all time is signified. He hath overcome, he overcomes, and shall overcome. So S. Augustine teaches that the faith of Christ has subdued the whole world to itself by the sanctity, chastity, patience, constancy, of the Apostles, Virgins, and Martyrs, by whom the nations of the whole world have been converted to Christ. And as he saith again (Ser. de Verb. Apost.), "There are no greater riches, or treasures, no substance of this world greater than the Catholic Faith. It saves sinful man, gives sight to the blind, heals the sick, baptizes catechumens, restores the penitent, helps the just, crowns the martyrs." And S. Bernard says, "Faith reaches things inaccessible, discovers the unknown, comprehends the infinite, seizes the remotest bounds of things, and in short embraces eternity itself in its own most spacious bosom. I would say boldly that the eternal and Blessed Trinity, whom I cannot understand, I believe in and hold firmly by faith, a thing which I am not capable of by mere soundness of intellect.

Ver. 5. Who is he that overcometh the world, &c. For by believing he hopes, by hoping he invokes, by invoking he loves Christ, and therefore he is strengthened by the grace of Christ to despise the world, and by despising he overcomes it, according to the saying of S. Paul, "I am able to do all things in Him who strengtheneth me." For he who believes in Christ, ought to follow the precepts of Christ and obey Him, not the world.

S. John proves his thesis ex hypothesi, the general from the particular. He proves, I say, that faith is the victory of believers, because the faith of Christ is the victory over the world. And at the same time he confutes Cerinthus, Ebion, and the other heretics of that age, who denied the Divinity of Christ. Hence when Peter confessed this doctrine, saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," he deserved to hear from Him, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church."

Ver. 6. This is He who cometh by water and blood, Jesus Christ. This is Messias, the Son of God, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, whom the Prophets foretold should come to redeem the world by His Blood, and purify it by the water of baptism, as is plain from Eze 36:47, and Zechariah 12:13. John proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that is, that Jesus is true Man and true God. He does this, 1st Because He is He who came, Greek, ό ε̉λθὼν, i.e., He, the Coming One, the Messias, who indeed the Prophets promised should come: whom the Scripture (Isaiah 9:6. and elsewhere) signified should be God and the Son of God. Wherefore Coming or About to come is the Name of Messiah. For so the Jews called Him from the prophetic oracles. This is plain from S. John 1:15, &c.

Again, he proves the same thing from the water and the blood of which the Body of Christ was constituted, and which He shed for us. For they signify, 1st That Christ was a true man, and not a phantasm, as Simon Magus and Manes pretended. For the human body is composed of water and blood.

2d. The water and blood proved that Christ is true God. One reason is that the Blood of Christ was the full price of our redemption, entirely satisfying God for the offences of our sins. Therefore it was necessary that the Blood should be the Blood of a God-man, a man hypostatically united to God: for the blood of a mere man could not be an adequate price for offences against God. A second reason is, because Christ by the virtue of His Blood in ordaining baptism, endowed it with a Divine power to expiate all the sins of all men. Therefore it was necessary for Him to be God. For Christ did this per se, and authoritatively, not ministerially as dependent upon some one else. But per se to institute a sacrament to remit and atone for sin is a work of Divine power.

There is an allusion in the first place to the water and blood of the victims with which Moses ratified the Old Testament (Exodus 24:8). By this he signified that Christ by His own Blood and Water would ratify the New Testament. Hear S. Paul, Hebrews 9:19, "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop," &c.

There is an allusion, secondly, to the water and blood which miraculously flowed from the side of Christ when He was dead upon the Cross. For a dead body, instead of the blood and water of a living one, naturally emits gore (saniem). S. John alone of the Evangelists records this emission of blood and water. By these two it was set forth that by the power of the blood of Christ the faithful should be cleansed from their sins by the water of Baptism. And this is the meaning of the Bride, i.e., the Church, when she says (Song of Solomon 5:10), "My Beloved is white and ruddy." (So Cyril, Hieros. Cat. 13; S. Augustine, lib. 2 de Catech. rud. c. 6; S. Leo, Epist. 45 , Hier. 83; Damascene, 4 de Fide, c. 10; Suarez, 3 part. quæst. 53 , disput. 41, and others.) From hence our Salmeron is of opinion that Christ always mingled water with His Blood, viz., tears at His circumcision, His Bloody Sweat, His Scourging, and on the Cross before His death. And that this was why He ordered water to be mingled with wine in the Eucharistic Chalice to be converted into His Blood.

Moreover, S. John distinguishes Christ's Baptism from that of John the Baptist, because the latter was in water only, and, therefore unavailing for the remission of sins. But Christ's Baptism was in water and blood, and therefore availing to that end. Again, he confutes the Ebionites, who thought that God was appeased with mere water, and who therefore washed themselves daily with water, and offered water only, without wine, in the Eucharistic Chalice, because they denied that we were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. (See Irenæus, lib. 5.. 1.)

Lastly, Tertullian (lib. de Bapt. c. 16) says, Christ came by water when he was baptized by John, by blood when He suffered, that "He might be washed by water, glorified by blood," by the victory of His Passion and Death. "He would have us called by water, elected by blood. This twofold Baptism He shed forth from the wound in His pierced side, that they who believed in His Blood might be washed with water, and that those who were laved with the water of Baptism might also drink His Blood in the Eucharist."

Tropologically, S. Bernard explains it to mean a twofold baptism and a twofold martyrdom: 1st Of compunction by tears; 2nd, By the desire of mortification. "Now because we have said that baptism is signified by water, martyrdom by blood, remember that there is one only and daily baptism, one only and daily martyrdom. For there is indeed a kind of martyrdom and a certain effusion of blood in the daily affliction of the body. There is also a species of baptism in compunction of the heart and frequent tears." Ver. 6. This is He who cometh by water and blood. Some Greek codices add καί πνεύματος, i.e., and by spirit : not by water only, but by water and blood, and by spirit.

And the Spirit it is which testifies that Christ is Truth. (Vulg.) The Greek has ότι τὸ πνεύμα έστιν ή α̉λήθεια, i.e., The Spirit is the Truth. This is also the reading of the Syriac. The meaning is, It is the Spirit who recently at Pentecost testified that Christ is the Son of God. Him therefore we must believe because He is the Spirit of Truth, and the Truth Itself. But the genuine reading is, Because Christ is Truth. For the Apostle is here treating of Christ, and Christ's proper name is the Truth.

To the obscure and as it were dead testimony of water and blood, is added the clear and living witness of the Holy Ghost. For He as well during Christ's (earthly) life, in which He wrought miracles by Him to bear witness to this, as also after His death and resurrection, when He was sent by Him to the Apostles at Pentecost, testified by their mouth, and preached everywhere that Christ was the Truth, i.e., true God. For Christ, in that He is God is the Word, and therefore the Truth and Wisdom of the Father. In that He is man, He is the true ambassador and interpreter of the Father, who opened out the shadows of the Old Law, and published the true doctrine concerning God, according to His own words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Hence too the Aaronic High Priest bore, as a type of Christ the true and real High Priest, the Urim and Thummim, i.e., doctrine and truth, in his breastplate.