By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
All Commentaries on 1 John 4:13 Go To 1 John 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
In this we know that we abide in Him . . . by His Spirit, &c. By His Spirit, i.e, the participation of the Spirit, the communication of grace and charity, which are the gifts of the Spirit.
In the preceding verse S. John said that God abides in us, and consequently we in God by charity. For so loving He abides in the lover and the beloved. For so God loves us and we God. He here inculcates the same thing, repeats it, and as it were enforces it by a reason. The reason is this, He who hath the Spirit of God abides in God, and God in him: but he who hath charity hath the Spirit of God. Therefore he who hath charity abides in God and God in him. The major premiss is self-evident, because where the Spirit of God Isaiah , there is God Himself. But where God Isaiah , there He unites to Himself the subject in which He Isaiah , and by, as it were, the infinity of His Essence incorporates and absorbs it, so that the subject should be more in God than God in it. He therefore who hath experience in himself of the Spirit of God, i.e. of charity, this man feels God"s presence and liberality. He feels God to be in him and himself in God, in such wise that God is bestowing His gifts upon him, and printing His perfect image in him, according to the words, "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." (1Cor. xii.)
