And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
If ye remember, brethren, yesterday we closed our sermon at this sentence, 1 John 3:18-20 which without doubt behooved and does behoove to abide in your heart, seeing it was the last ye heard. My little children, let us not love only in word and in tongue; but in deed and in truth. Then he goes on: And herein we know that we are of the truth, and assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart think ill of us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. He had said, Let us not love only in word and in tongue, but in work and in truth: we are asked, In what work, or in what truth, is he known that loves God, or loves his brother? Above he had said up to what point charity is perfected: what the Lord says in the Gospel, Greater love than this has no man, that one lay down his life for his friends, John 15:13 this same had the apostle also said: As He laid down His life for us, we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16 This is the perfection of charity, and...
Hereby we know that we are of the truth, that we have true love, that we are the sons of truth, of true and genuine charity.
Secondly, we are of God, who is the chief and highest truth, and true charity. See John xiv6 , xviii37. And accordingly S. Augustine rightly concludes (de Moribus Eccl. cap. xxxiii.), "Let our meals, our words, our dress, our appearance be blended with charity, and be united and joined together in one charity; to violate this is counted as sinning against God . . . if only this be wanting, everything else is vain and empty; where it exists is perfect fulness."
And shall assure our hearts before Him. (1.) Hugo, Lyranus, and Dionysius explain, We shall induce our hearts to please God daily more and more. (2.) Ferus explains it, We shall gain confidence to ask anything of God. (3.) We shall have our hearts at peace, for we shall persuade them that we are striving after true charity, when we love, not in word, but in deed and in truth. (4.) The sense most clearly i...
And in his sight we shall persuade our hearts. That is, if we love God and our neighbour in deed, as he said before, we may rest satisfied in conscience that we follow the ways of truth, and may have a well-grounded confidence in God. The But if our hearts reprehend us, for not complying with this duty and precept of charity, God is still greater than our heart; i.e. he sees and knows the interior dispositions of our heart, even better than we know ourselves, and therefore we have more reason to fear him, especially when even our heart and conscience reprehend us.
How then can I live, since I have acted thus? "And he said to me, "Your feelings are indeed right and sound, for you ought as a servant of God to have walked in truth, and not to have joined an evil conscience with the spirit of truth, nor to have caused sadness to the holy and true Spirit."
