He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him.
All Commentaries on 1 John 2:10 Go To 1 John 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light (of faith and love: this is an antithesis to the former verse), and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. S. Jerome (in Matt. xxv.) explains the words πζόστομμα and σκάνδαλον. This may be taken to have either an active or a passive meaning, the giving of offence, or the taking of offence. See 1 Corinthians 13:4; Proverbs 15:19; Psalm 119:165. One who loves neither gives offence, nor takes it: "If my brother offends me," they would say, "shall I abandon charity? Far from it. I will overcome evil with good, I will follow Christ, I will show him how I love the brethren, how I love God. I will not fight against my brother who has wronged me. I will rather fight against his disease of mind, and drown his anger and ill-will with floods of charity." S. Augustine says (in loc.), "Who are they who either take or make offence? They who are offended at Christ or the Church. They who are offended in Christ are burnt as by the sun, they who are offended in the Church are burnt as by the moon. But the Psalm says ( Psalm 122:6), "the sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night," that Isaiah , if thou holdest fast by charity thou wilt suffer no offence either in Christ or the Church, and thou wilt forsake neither Christ nor the Church." A passage is here added from a sermon once supposed to be S. Augustine"s, but subsequently regarded as spurious, as is also another sermon quoted just afterwards, showing who are true and who are false friends, and that those who seem to be our enemies are in truth our best friends, and to be regarded as such. And S. Basil (Reg. brev. clxxvi.) says the same.
