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.

He gives us all of Himself, so that we too may live in this world according to the way He lived, that is, in the Gospel, the Divine-human way. The main thing is the Gospel measure, the Gospel law for those who follow Christ: as He is, we are and live, as He is, and we behave as He is, and we look at the world and at everything that is in the world.

4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, as fear is a torment: fear is not made perfect in love. (In love there is no fear, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment.

Through everything we are led and in everything we are held by the Divine love of Christ. Only with it we have no fear. We are not afraid of death, nor sin, nor the devil, nor torment, nor misfortune.

In Divine love are present all the Divine powers of Christ, and if they are present, then what can frighten us? Maybe death or sin, or maybe hell and all the forces of evil? None of these things. This love, which is always perfect, if it exists in us, it banishes all fear from us. That is why Christians are the only true heroes in the world, the only fearless conquerors of all that is "terrible," of all that is earthly. There is only one way, by which the love of Christ is indelibly and deeply imprinted in us. And this path is made up of all the Gospel virtues. Gospel love develops, lives and is perfected only through the other Gospel virtues: prayer, fasting, righteousness, humility, hope and faith. This is the path that leads out and gives birth to perfect love. That is why St. John the Theologian proclaims: In love there is no fear, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is imperfect in love.

4:19. We love Him, as He loved us first. (Let us love Him, because He first loved us.)

This answers the question: why do we love Christ? We love Him because He first loved us. How? For our sake, for our good, He conquers death, sin and the devil and grants us immortality and eternal life. This is the only true love! All other kinds of love are true in so far as they partake of, emanate from, and exist in it. Our love for Christ is the only answer to Christ's love for mankind. No love is as complete, right, and worthy as our love for Christ.

Is there a person who would not love Christ and would be a man, would remain a man? The absence of love in the one who does not love Him is a sign that everything worthy, lofty, and human has been lost in him, which has honored him with the name of human. And because of the lack of love, he degenerated into outrage and obscenity, and descended into a kind of accursed demonic state, where hell exists, and all of it already exists and is in death. Thus this clear, unusual word of the supreme apostle comes true in us: "Whoever does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, anathema, maran-afa" (1 Cor. 16:22). After all, without the love of Christ there is no blessing of a human being, there is no peace, there is no joy, there is no truth, truth, immortality, eternity, paradise, Divine bliss.