This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
All Commentaries on 1 John 1:5 Go To 1 John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
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."
