John 15:22 — Community Reflections

JOHN 15:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin — the coming of Jesus and the revelation he brings increase responsibility and culpability. Those who encounter the light and reject it are more guilty than those who never saw it. Yet the logic is also that sin already existed; the light reveals what was hidden, it does not create sin but exposes it. The refusal of the light is the choosing of darkness, the ultimate sin.

Church Fathers on John 15:22

Then by way of another consolation, He declares the injustice of these persecutions both towards Him had them. If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.
Chrysostom · 4th century

Christ spoke to the Jews only, not to any other nation. In them then was that world which hated Christ and His disciples; and not only in them, but in us also. Were the Jews then without sin before Christ came in the flesh, because Christ had not spoken to them? By sin here He means not every sin, but a certain great sin, which includes all, and which alone hinders the remission of other sins, viz. unbelief. They did not believe in Christ, who came that they might believe in…
Augustine · 4th century

For as he who loves the Son, loves the Father also, the love of the Father being one with that of the Son, even as their nature is one: so he who hates the Son, hates the Father also.
Alcuin · 8th century

Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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