Maximus the Confessor

In his own words on 1 John

• 1 John 3:2

  Is there any connection between what John says here and what Paul says when he writes: "God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God"? What then shall we be like? The answer is that here John says that he does not know what form the coming deification through the virtues of faith will take for those who are children of God here on earth now. The independently existing nature of the good things to come has not yet been revealed in detail. Here on earth we walk by faith, not by sight. Paul on the other hand says that through revelation we have received the divine promise concerning the good things which are to come but does not claim to know what these are in any detail. Thus he says quite clearly that he examines himself and pursues the higher calling as far as he understands what it is. Any contradiction between the two apostles is merely apparent, not real, because they are both inspired by the same Spirit.

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• 1 John 3:9

  If someone who is born of God does not sin, how is it that we who have been born of water and the Spirit, and thus of God, do in fact commit sins? The answer is that the phrase "born of God" has two different meanings. According to the first of these, God has given the grace of sonship with all power to those who have been born again. According to the second, the God who has thus given birth is working in us to bring us to perfection. By faith we are born again in principle, but God still has to get to work on us in order to refashion us according to his likeness.

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