These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
All Commentaries on John 15:11 Go To John 15
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Even as I have kept My Father"s commandments, &c. That Isaiah , as I proceed to obey the Father"s commandments, and to preserve His grace and love towards Me. Hear St. Augustine. "Love precedes the keeping of commandments. For he who loveth not hath nothing from whence he may keep them. In what therefore He here saith He does not show from whence love is generated, but how it is shown, that no one may deceive himself by saying that he loves Him when he keeps not His commandments. This, however, must be referred to the love wherewith He loves us, thus: By this ye shall know that ye abide in the love with which I love you, if ye keep My precepts, not indeed that we first keep His commandments in order that He may love us, but that unless He loved us we could not keep His commandments. This is the grace which is plain to the humble, but hidden from the proud."
Prior therefore is that love of God which is the cause of love in us, and of the keeping His commandments. And this in turn is the cause of God"s love towards us being maintained. So fire kindles and burns wood, and by its ignition is preserved and lasts.
