Homily 5 — John 1, verses 3 to 5

“All things were made by him, and without him not one thing was made that was made.” [a]

Moses, at the beginning of the history and writings of the Old Testament, speaks to us of the things our senses perceive, and lists them for us at length. “In the beginning,” he says, “God made the heaven and the earth.” Then he adds that light was created, and a second heaven, and the stars, and the different kinds of living creatures, and — not to lose time going through each one — everything else. But this evangelist cuts all that short and takes in both these things and the things above them in a single sentence. He has good reason: these things were already known to his hearers, and he is hurrying on to a greater subject. He set out his whole work to speak, not of the works, but of the Creator, the one who produced them all.

That is why Moses, though he chose the smaller part of creation — for he told us nothing about the invisible powers — dwells on these things, while John, hurrying to rise up to the Creator himself, runs past both these things and the ones Moses said nothing about, gathering them all into one short saying: “All things were made by him.” And so that you would not think he means only the things Moses mentioned, he adds, “and without him not one thing was made that was made.” That is to say: of all created things, not one, whether it can be seen or is known only to the mind, was brought into being without the power of the Son.

For we will not put the full stop after “not one thing,” as the heretics do. Because they want to make the Spirit a created being, they read, “What was made, in him was life.” But read that way, the saying becomes unintelligible. First, this was not the place to mention the Spirit; and if John wanted to, why would he say it so obscurely? How is it clear that this saying is about the Spirit? Besides, by this argument we will find that it is not the Spirit, but the Son himself, who is created by himself. But wake up, so that what is said does not slip past you. Come, let us read it their way for a little while, for its absurdity will be clearer to us that way.

“What was made, in him was life.” They say that the Spirit is called “life.” But this “life” turns out also to be “light,” for he adds, “And the life was the light of men” (verse 4). So by their account “the light of men” here means the Spirit. Very well. But when he goes on to say, “There was a man sent from God, to bear witness of that light” (verses 6 and 7), they will have to say that this too is spoken of the Spirit. For the one he first called “Word,” he goes on to call “God,” and “life,” and “light.” This Word, he says, was life, and this life was light. Now if this Word was life, and if this Word and this life became flesh, then the life — that is, the Word — “was made flesh, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father.” So if they say that the Spirit is called “life” here, consider what strange consequences follow. It will be the Spirit, not the Son, who became flesh; the Spirit will be the only Son.

And those who read the passage their way will fall, if not into this, then, in trying to avoid it, into another very strange conclusion. If they grant that the words are spoken of the Son, and yet do not stop and read as we do, they will be saying that the Son is created by himself. For if “the Word was life,” and “what was made, in him was life,” then by this reading he is created in himself and through himself. Then, a few words later, John adds, “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father” (verse 14). Look: by the reading of those who hold these things, the Holy Spirit turns out to be an only Son as well, since this whole declaration is made about him. See how far an argument is twisted once it has swerved from the truth, and what strange consequences it produces!

“What then? Is the Spirit not light?” He is light. But in this place there is no mention of the Spirit. Even God the Father is called “Spirit,” meaning that he is bodiless; yet it is not the Father who is meant every time “Spirit” is mentioned. And why are you surprised that we say this of the Father? We could not even say of the Comforter that he is meant every time “Spirit” is mentioned, and yet this is his most distinctive name. Still, not every mention of “spirit” means the Comforter. In the same way Christ is called “the power of God” (First Corinthians 1, verse 24) and “the wisdom of God,” yet not every mention of “the power” and “the wisdom of God” means Christ. So in this passage, although the Spirit does give light, the evangelist is not now speaking of the Spirit.

When we have shut them out of these strange opinions, these people, who go to any trouble to resist the truth, still cling to the same reading and say: “Whatever came into existence by him was life, because whatever came into existence was life.” Then what do you say about the punishment of the people of Sodom, and the flood, and the fire of hell, and ten thousand things like them? “But we are speaking of the material creation.” Well, these too belong entirely to the material creation. But to refute their argument with plenty to spare, we will ask them: Is wood life, tell me? Is stone life, these lifeless and motionless things? No, is even a man simply life? Who would say so? He is not pure life, but something able to receive life.

Here again is an absurdity. By following the same chain of consequences, we will bring the argument to a point where you can learn their folly from this as well. In this way they end up asserting things that in no way befit the Spirit: driven from their other position, they apply to men the things they had earlier thought were said worthily of the Spirit. Still, let us test the reading this way too. Created things are now called “life”; so the same are “light,” and John came to bear witness to them. Why then is John not “light” as well? The evangelist says that “he was not that light” (verse 8), and yet John belonged to created things. How then is he not “light”? And how was he “in the world, and the world was made by him” (verse 10)? Was the creature in the creature, and was the creature made by the creature? And how did “the world not know him”? How did the creature not know the creature? “But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God” (verse 12). [e]

But enough of laughter. For the rest, I leave it to you to attack these monstrous arguments, so that we do not seem to have chosen to raise a laugh for its own sake and waste the time for no reason. For if these words are not said of the Spirit — and it has been shown that they are not — nor of anything created, and yet these people still cling to the same reading, then a stranger conclusion than any we mentioned before will follow: that the Son was made by himself. For if the Son is the true light, and this light was life, and this life was made in him, then by their own reading this must be the result. So let us leave this reading and come to the accepted reading and explanation.

And what is that? It is to end the sentence at “was made,” and to begin the next one with “In him was life.” What the evangelist says is this: “Without him not one thing was made that was made.” Whatever created thing was made, he says, was not made without him. Do you see how by this short addition he has set right all the difficulties that press on the passage? For to say that “without him not one thing was made,” and then to add “that was made,” takes in the things known only to the mind, but leaves out the Spirit. After saying that “all things were made by him” and “without him not one thing was made,” he needed this addition, so that no one would say, “If all things were made by him, then the Spirit was made too.” “I said,” he replies, “that whatever was made was made by him, even if it is invisible, or bodiless, or in the heavens. That is why I did not say simply ‘all things,’ but ‘whatever was made,’ that is, created things. But the Spirit is uncreated.”

Do you see the precision of his teaching? He has touched on the creation of material things — for Moses had taught about these before him — and after leading us up from there to higher things, I mean the immaterial and the invisible, he sets the Holy Spirit apart from all creation. So Paul too, inspired by the same grace, said, “For by him were all things created” (Colossians 1, verse 16). Notice the same exactness here again, for the same Spirit moved this soul as well. So that no one would exclude any created things from the works of God because they are invisible, and yet no one would lump the Comforter in with them, he runs through the things of the senses that everyone knows, and then lists the things in the heavens too, saying, “whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or powers.” For the word “whether,” set before each one, shows us nothing other than this: that “by him all things were made, and without him not one thing was made that was made.”

But if you think that the word “by” is a mark of inferiority, as if it made Christ a mere instrument, hear him say, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Psalm 102, verse 25). He says of the Son what is said of the Father as Creator. He would not have said it unless he had thought of him as Creator, and as subordinate to no one. And if the words “by him” are used here, they are put there for no other reason than to keep anyone from supposing the Son to be unbegotten. That in the title of Creator he is in no way inferior to the Father, hear from his own lips, where he says, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wills” (John 5, verse 21).

Now if in the Old Testament it is said of the Son, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,” his title of Creator is plain. But if you say that the prophet said this of the Father, and that Paul applied to the Son what was said of the Father, the conclusion is still the same. For Paul would not have judged that the same words fit the Son unless he had been fully convinced that there is equality of honor between Father and Son. It would have been the height of rashness to apply what fits a nature beyond compare to a nature lower than it and falling short of it. But the Son is neither lower than the Father’s being nor falls short of it. That is why Paul has dared to use not only these expressions of him but others like them as well. For the phrase “from whom,” which you rule belongs properly to the Father alone, he also uses of the Son, when he says, “from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the growth of God” (Colossians 2, verse 19).

And he is not content with this alone; he stops your mouths another way too, by applying to the Father the phrase “by whom,” which you call a mark of inferiority. For he says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son” (First Corinthians 1, verse 9); and again, “by his will” (First Corinthians 1, verse 1, and elsewhere); and in another place, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Romans 11, verse 36). Nor is the phrase “from whom” given to the Son alone, but to the Spirit as well. For the angel said to Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1, verse 20). And the prophet does not think it improper to apply to the Father the phrase “in whom,” which belongs to the Spirit, when he says, “In God we will do valiantly” (Psalm 60, verse 12). And Paul says, “making request, if by any means now at last I may have a prosperous journey in the will of God, to come to you” (Romans 1, verse 10). And again he uses it of Christ, saying, “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6, verses 11 and 23, and elsewhere). [i]

In short, we can find these expressions exchanged over and over; and this would not have happened unless one and the same being were meant in every case. And so that you would not imagine that the words “all things were made by him” are used here of his miracles — for the other evangelists have told of those — he goes on to say, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him.” But not the Spirit; for the Spirit is not one of the created things, but of what is above all creation.

Let us now attend to what follows. Having spoken of the work of creation, that “all things were made by him, and without him not one thing was made that was made,” John goes on to speak of his providence, where he says, “In him was life.” So that no one would doubt how so many and such great things were “made by him,” he adds, “In him was life.” Think of a spring that is the mother of the great deeps: however much you draw from it, you do not lessen the spring at all. So it is with the working power of the only Son: however much you believe has been produced and made by it, it has not become one bit less. Or, to use a more familiar example, I will point to light, which the apostle himself added at once, saying, “And the life was the light.” Light, however many tens of thousands it shines on, loses none of its own brightness. So also God, before he began his work and after he completed it, remains the same, unfailing, in no way diminished, and not wearied by the greatness of creation. Indeed, if ten thousand such worlds had to be created, or even an infinite number, he remains the same, enough for them all, not only to make them but also to govern them once they are made.

For the word “life” here refers not only to the act of creation but also to the providence that keeps created things in being. It also lays down in advance the teaching of the resurrection, and it is the beginning of this marvelous good news. For when life has come to be with us, the power of death is broken; and when light has shone on us, there is no more darkness, but life abides in us always, and death cannot overcome it. So what is said of the Father could be said without qualification of Christ as well: “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17, verse 28). Paul has shown this when he says, “By him were all things created,” and “by him all things hold together” (Colossians 1, verses 16 and 17). This is why he has also been called “root” and “foundation.”

But when you hear that “in him was life,” do not imagine him a compound being. For further on John says of the Father too, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life” (John 5, verse 26). Just as you would not say because of these words that the Father is compound, neither can you say so of the Son. So in another place he says that “God is light” (First John 1, verse 5), and elsewhere it is said that he “dwells in unapproachable light” (First Timothy 6, verse 16). Yet these expressions are used, not so that we should suppose a compound nature, but so that little by little we may be led up to the highest teachings. For since one of the ordinary crowd could not easily have understood how his life was life itself, John first used the humbler expression, and afterward leads those he has trained in this way up to the higher teaching.

For the same one who said that the Father “has given him to have life” (John 5, verse 26) says in another place, “I am the life” (John 14, verse 6), and in another, “I am the light” (John 8, verse 12). And what, tell me, is the nature of this light? It is light of the kind that is perceived not by the senses but by the mind, and it gives light to the soul itself. And since Christ was going to say later, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him” (John 6, verse 44), the apostle has headed off an objection here and declared that it is the Son who “gives light” (verse 9). So even though you hear a saying like that about the Father, you may not say that it belongs to the Father alone, but to the Son as well. For “all things,” he says, “that the Father has are mine” (John 16, verse 15).

First, then, the evangelist has taught us about creation. After that he tells us of the good things for the soul that he supplied to us by his coming, and these he has hinted at in a single sentence, when he says, “And the life was the light of men” (verse 4). He does not say “the light of the Jews,” but of men universally. For not only the Jews but the Greeks too came to this knowledge, and this light was offered to all alike. “Why did he not add ‘of angels,’ but said ‘of men’?” Because at present his discourse is about the nature of men, and it was to them that he came bringing the good news of good things.

“And the light shines in darkness” (verse 5). He calls death and error “darkness.” For the light that our senses perceive does not shine in darkness but apart from it; but the preaching of Christ has shone out in the midst of error while error held sway, and has made it vanish. And he, by enduring death, so overcame death that he brought back those it already held. Since, then, neither death nor error overcame it — for it is bright everywhere and shines by its own strength — he says, “And the darkness did not overcome it.” For it cannot be overcome, and it will not make its home in souls that do not want to be enlightened.

But do not let it trouble you that the light did not take hold of everyone. God brings us to himself not by necessity and force, but by our will and consent. So do not shut your doors against this light, and you will enjoy great happiness. This light comes by faith, and when it has come, it gives abundant light to the one who has received it; and if you show a pure life worthy of it, it stays and lives within you always. For he says, “He who loves me will keep my commandments; and I and my Father will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14, verse 23). Just as no one can properly enjoy the sunlight unless he opens his eyes, so no one can share richly in this splendor unless he has opened wide the eye of the soul and made it keen-sighted in every way. But how is this done? When we have cleansed the soul of all the passions. [n]

For sin is darkness, and a deep darkness. This is clear from the fact that men commit it unawares and in secret. For “everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light” (John 3, verse 20); and, “It is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret” (Ephesians 5, verse 12). In darkness a man cannot tell friend from enemy, and cannot make out any of the qualities of things; and so it is in sin. The greedy man, wanting more gain, makes no distinction between friend and enemy; the envious man looks with hostile eyes on someone he is very close to; and the schemer is at deadly war with everyone alike. In short, when it comes to telling one thing from another, the man who sins is no better than people who are drunk or mad. At night, wood, lead, iron, silver, gold, and precious stones all look alike to us, because the light that shows their differences is missing. In the same way, the one who leads an impure life knows neither the excellence of chastity nor the beauty of philosophy. For in darkness, as I said before, even precious stones do not show their brilliance when they are set out, not because of their own nature, but because those looking at them cannot tell them apart.

Nor is this the only evil that comes to us when we are in sin. There is this too: we live in constant fear. Just as people walking on a moonless night tremble even when no one is there to frighten them, so those who do wrong cannot feel confident even when there is no one to accuse them. They are afraid of everything and suspicious, stung by their conscience. Everything is full of fear and distress for them; they look around at everything, and are terrified at everything. So let us flee a life so painful — especially since after this pain comes death, a deathless death, for the punishment in that place will have no end. And in this life those who sin are no better than madmen, since they dream of things that do not exist. They think they are rich when they are not rich, and that they are enjoying themselves when they are not, and they do not really see the deception until they are freed from the madness and have shaken off the sleep. That is why Paul urges everyone to be sober and to keep watch, and Christ also commands the same. For the one who is sober and awake, even if sin catches him, quickly beats it off; but the one who sleeps and is out of his mind does not notice how he is held prisoner by it.

So let us not sleep. This is not the season of night but of day. Let us therefore “walk decently, as in the day” (Romans 13, verse 13). And nothing is more indecent than sin. As far as indecency goes, going about naked is not as bad as living in sin and wrongdoing. Nakedness is not so great a matter for blame, since it might even be caused by poverty; but nothing is more shameful and less honorable than the sinner. Let us think of those who come to court on some charge of extortion or cheating: how low and ridiculous they look to everyone, with their utter shamelessness, their lies, and their audacity. Yet we are such pitiable and wretched creatures that we cannot bear to wear our own clothes awkwardly or crooked; indeed, if we see someone else like that, we set him straight. And yet, while we and all our neighbors are walking about on our heads, we do not even notice it.

For what, tell me, is more shameful than a man who goes in to a prostitute? What is more contemptible than a man who insults others, a foul-mouthed man, or an envious one? Why is it, then, that these things do not seem as disgraceful as walking about naked? Only because of habit. No one has ever willingly put up with going naked, but everyone keeps venturing on these other things without any fear. Yet if someone came into an assembly of angels, where nothing of the kind has ever happened, there he would see clearly how utterly ridiculous such conduct is. But why do I speak of an assembly of angels? Even in the palaces here among us, if someone brought in a prostitute and slept with her, or were overcome with too much wine, or committed any other indecency like it, he would suffer the most extreme punishment. But if it is intolerable for men to dare such things in palaces, then all the more, since the King is present everywhere and sees what is done, will we undergo the harshest punishment if we dare them.

So I urge you: let us show great gentleness and great purity in our lives, for we have a King who sees all our actions continually. And so that this light may always shine richly on us, let us gladly welcome its bright rays. For so we will enjoy both the good things of the present and those to come, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.