Salvation consists in the continuation of the love of Christ through people who believe in Him. We are saved from sin, death and the devil by the love of Christ, by the love of Christ.

4:12. God is nowhere to be seen: if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfect in us. (No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, then God dwells in us, and His love is perfect in us.)

Love brings God into the soul, and it always lives by Him, and thus sees God, who is otherwise invisible. Because of love, God became incarnate, became Man. It is the same with man: through love he is "adored," deified, and made a god by grace. The invisible God becomes incarnate and visible through love. Love transfers the lover into the beloved, embodies one in the other. Their lives become one, their souls one, their hearts one. They feel like one, although they are and remain two separate personalities.

This applies to all members of the Church. Through mutual love, those who belong to the Church are incarnated one in another, one in all, and all in one; live one in another, one in all and all in one. In the same way, all think, feel, and act together, and in general strive with all the saints (Ephesians 3:18). This is what is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "And the multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul; and no one called any of his possessions his own, but they had all things in common (Acts 4:32).

Living by the love of Christ, man brings God into his soul, lives by Him, thinks by Him, feels by Him, acts by Him. In a word, God dwells in it, because God is in it the most immediate life, the most immediate reality, the most obvious experience, the most living knowledge. And when God dwells in a person, then his love is perfected. For from God Divine love is gradually poured out upon the human soul, growing in every perfection, through the other holy virtues, until the whole human essence is filled with love, which knows no boundaries of love, since Divine love is infinite, since God is love. God lives in the human soul through love, and therefore it is perfect.

4:13-15. Of this we understand, that we abide in Him, and He in us, as from His Spirit He gave us to eat. And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son of the Savior to the world. Whoever declares that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. (That we abide in Him, and He in us, we know from what He has given us from His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Here again we have direct knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Having come into our world, the God-Man brought the Holy Spirit with Him. Christ the Savior at the Last Supper promised His disciples and through them and all their followers that the Holy Spirit would bear witness to Him (John 15:26).

And indeed, this promise was fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ bestows the Holy Spirit upon His followers and fills them with both confidence and knowledge that Christ is the God-Man and the Saviour. With all His Being, with all His Holiness, with all His holy powers, He was in the Church and remains in it. And since the Lord is in the Church, we are in Him through holiness and divine powers. That is why St. John the Theologian proclaims that life in Christ is life in the Holy Spirit, is the life of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. The Holy Spirit has given us spiritual sight, through which we see that God the Father sent His Son to save the world. So the whole Holy Trinity participates in the salvation of the world. Thus, we touch Jesus Christ, and the work of salvation becomes always tangible and visible, since He is the Son of God, sent from God the Father to accomplish the work of saving the world. This was mainly felt and seen by eyewitnesses of the incarnation of the Son of God, and for this reason St. John, self-seer and witness, exclaims: And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His ineffable love for mankind, accomplished the salvation of the world by the Father's good will and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. But since this is primarily His Personal Affair, His name is the Saviour (Jesus), since neither God the Father nor the Holy Spirit is called. It is evident from the whole work of salvation accomplished by Jesus that Christ is truly the Son of God, indeed the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, truly God the Word. Whoever sees Him and bears witness to Him is completely in God the Savior, and God is in him, since this vision and confession revives the believer and fulfills him with all the commandments of salvation, which bring joy to his soul. And in these commandments of salvation is the Lord Himself with His Holy purely saving powers, God the Savior is present. That is why St. John the Theologian proclaims: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he is in God.

4:16. And we know and believe the love that God has for us. The God of Love exists, and abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him. (And we have come to know the love that God has for us, and we have believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.)

We have come to know the love of God through Christ the Savior. Before that, we did not know true, true and true love. Only with the Savior have we come to know that righteous love consists in saving people from sin, death, and the devil. Before Christ, there were legends and stories about the love of God. But in reality, through Him

(Christ) for the first time true love entered our human world. We have come to know true love and have come to believe in it. For who else could we, the wretched slaves of death, sin, and the devil, believe if not the One who freed us from the threefold, all-destructive, and all-killing power of sin, death, and the devil? The Savior showed us that God is Love, and only through love and in love does He abide in man and saves him from death, sin and the devil, and thus gives him the strength to live according to love, according to the commandments of God. Before the coming of the God-Man Christ and the salvation that He brought into the world, it was impossible to point out and prove that God is Love. Now everyone can explore and prove this truth with their personal experience, their personal life. God dwells in love in man and saves him in love. In the same way, man abides in God in love and is saved in love.

The holy Evangelist John presents here the greatest and most accurate gospel of the New Testament: God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

4:17. For this reason love is done with us, so that the boldness of the Imam on the Day of Judgment may not be, as He is, and we are in this world. (Love is so perfect in us that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because we walk in this world as He does.)

And we, "abiding" in God, grow unceasingly in love, are perfected in it constantly and without limits. As an all-powerful Divine power, love not only drives out all sin from us, keeps us in a holy life, God-life, but also gives us the freedom not to fear the Last Judgment. Yes, we are in a world of evil and sin, but we are not afraid of either evil or sin, because we live in Christ, we live in God. He is the One Who conquers all evil in us and for us with His Divine powers, who rules over every sin. We are not of the world, but live in peace in Christ, and thus act in this world as He does. The life of the Lord is a pattern, an example for our life in this world. If St. John the Theologian wrote this much later after the Ascension of the Saviour into heaven, he uses the present tense: as He is, we are also in this world. Here the saint reveals to us the great mystery that our Lord Jesus Christ dwells uninterruptedly in this world with the Church. After all, being present in it, the Lord is constantly with us in this world. At the same time, He is with every member of the Church throughout all the ages. Therefore every generation of believers can say with St. John the Theologian: As He is, we also are in this world. We live in this world for His sake, as He is in truth, righteousness, love, and so are we. What is His is also ours. He has left us all of Himself in the Church and constantly gives Himself to us, especially through the sacred sacrament of the Divine Eucharist (communion), and through other sacraments and holy virtues.