Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
All Commentaries on 1 John 3:15 Go To 1 John 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. As he said before, "He that loveth not abideth in death." S. John counts "not loving" and "hating" as the same thing, by miosis, when little is said, but more is meant, and also because want of love is counted as constructive hatred. Moreover, he who hates his brother is in will and desire a murderer. See S. Jerome (Epist. xxxvi. ad Castorin.) and S. Matthew 5:28, and hatred moreover disposes to murder, as desire disposes to adultery.
Mystically. He who hates his brother murders his own soul. As S. Ambrose says, "He who hates murders himself in the first place, slaying himself with his own sword." And S. Gregory (Hom. x11) says the same thing more at length. Again, " he who hates his brother, ofttimes destroys his soul, by provoking him to anger and contention."
[Pseudo]-Alexander says, "He who calumniates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer hath any part in the kingdom of God." For, as Dionysius says, there are three kinds of murder, Bodily, Detraction, and Hatred.
Hath not eternal life abiding in Him. Hath not grace abiding in him, nor doth he abide in that grace whereby eternal life is obtained. It is a metonymy, say Cajetan and others. Or else he will not have eternal life; he cannot have it, the present being taken for the future tense. Which comes to this, He who hateth, hath no hope of eternal life, but abideth in the death of sin. As S. Augustine says (Prf. in Ps. xxxi.), "As an evil conscience is full of despair, so is a good conscience full of hope; as Cain said, "From Thy face shall I be hid, and shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth,"" &c.; as S. Jerome says, "Whosoever finds me out, from the trembling of my body and the agitation of my mind, will know that I deserve to die." Just as Orestes for the murder of his mother was continually harassed by the Furies.
