Chapter 38.—We Would Not Love God Unless He First Loved Us. The Apostles Chose Christ Because They Were Chosen; They Were Not Chosen Because They Chose Christ.

Let no one, then, deceive you, my brethren, for we should not love God unless He first loved us. John again gives us the plainest proof of this when he says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”254    1 John iv. 19. Grace makes us lovers of the law; but the law itself, without grace, makes us nothing but breakers of the law. And nothing else than this is shown us by the words of our Lord when He says to His disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”255    John xv. 16. For if we first loved Him, in order that by this merit He might love us, then we first chose Him that we might deserve to be chosen by Him. He, however, who is the Truth says otherwise, and flatly contradicts this vain conceit of men. “You have not chosen me,” He says. If, therefore, you have not chosen me, undoubtedly you have not loved me (for how could they choose one whom they did not love?). “But I,” says He, “have chosen you.” And then could they possibly help choosing Him afterwards, and preferring Him to all the blessings of this world? But it was because they had been chosen, that they chose Him; not because they chose Him that they were chosen. There could be no merit in men’s choice of Christ, if it were not that God’s grace was prevenient in His choosing them. Whence the Apostle Paul pronounces in the Thessalonians this benediction: “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men.” 256    1 Thess. iii. 12. This benediction to love one another He gave us, who had also given us a law that we should love each other. Then, in another passage addressed to the same church, seeing that there now existed in some of its members the disposition which he had wished them to cultivate, he says, “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” 257    2 Thess. i. 3. This he said lest they should make a boast of the great good which they were enjoying from God, as if they had it of their own mere selves. Because, then, your faith has so great a growth (this is the purport of his words), and the love of every one of you all toward each other so greatly abounds, we ought to thank God concerning you, but not to praise you, as if you possessed these gifts of yourselves.

38. Nemo ergo vos fallat, fratres mei: quia nos non diligeremus Deum, nisi nos prior ipse diligeret. Idem Joannes apertissime hoc ostendit, et dicit, Nos diligamus , quia ipse prior dilexit nos (I Joan. IV, 19). Gratia nos facit legis dilectores, lex vero ipsa sine gratia nonnisi praevaricatores facit. Et quod discipulis suis dicit Dominus, Non vos me elegistis, sed ego elegi vos (Joan. XV, 16); nihil aliud indicat nobis. Si enim nos prius dileximus, ut hoc merito nos ipse diligeret; prius illum nos elegimus, ut ab illo eligi mereremur. Sed ipse qui veritas est, aliud dicit, et huic vanitati hominum apertissime contradicit: Non vos me elegistis inquit. Si ergo non elegistis, sine dubio nec dilexistis: quomodo enim eum eligerent, quem non diligerent? Sed ego, inquit, vos elegi. Numquid non et ipsi postea elegerunt eum, et omnibus bonis hujus saeculi praetulerunt? Sed quia electi sunt, elegerunt: non quia elegerunt, electi sunt. Eligentium hominum meritum nullum esset, nisi eos eligentis gratia Dei praeveniret. Unde et apostolus Paulus benedicens Thessalonicenses : Vos, inquit, Dominus multiplicet, et abundare faciat in charitate in invicem et in omnes (I Thess. III, 12). Hanc benedictionem dedit ut nos invicem diligeremus, qui legem dederat ut invicem diligamus. Denique alio loco ad eosdem, quia sine dubio in quibusdam eorum jam erat, quod eis ut esset optaverat: Gratias, inquit, agere debemus Deo semper pro vobis, fratres, sicut dignum est, quoniam supercrescit fides vestra, et abundat charitas uniuscujusque vestrum in invicem (II Thess. I, 3). Hoc dixit, ne forte de tanto bono quod ex Deo habebant, tanquam ex se ipsis id habentes extollerentur. Quod ergo supercrescit fides vestra, inquit, et abundat charitas uniuscujusque vestrum in invicem, gratias agere debemus Deo de vobis ; non ita vos laudare, tanquam hoc habeatis ex vobis.