1 John 4:7

Verse 7. Let us love one another. This is the repeated admonition of Saint John, the evangelist, both in this epistle and to the end of his life, as S. Jerom relates in his Epist. ad Galat. cap. vi. tom. 4, part 1, p. 414) that the apostle being very old, and when carried to Church meetings of the Christians, being desired to give them some exhortation, he scarce said any thing, but “love one another;” and it being tedious to his disciples to hear always the same thing, they desired some other instruction, to whom (says S. Jerom) he gave this answer, worthy of Saint John: that this was the precept of our Lord, and that if complied with, it was sufficient.—Charity is of God, is love, is the fountain and source of all goodness and mercy, infinitely good in himself, and in his love and mercy towards mankind. This love and charity of God hath appeared by his sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. See John 1:14.—Thus God having first loved us, (verse 10) when we were sinners, and his enemies, let us not be so ungrateful as not to love him, and to love one another after his example. Witham.