Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 3

3. That charity and brotherly affection are to be religiously and stedfastly practised.

In Malachi: &#8220;Hath not one God created us? Is there not one Father of us all? Why have ye certainly deserted every one his brother?&#8221; Of this same thing according to John: &#8220;Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.&#8221; Also in the same place: &#8220;This is my commandment, That ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love than this has no man, than that one should lay down his life for his friends.&#8221; Also in the same place: &#8220;Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.&#8221; Also in the same place:&#160; &#8220;Verily I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth concerning everything, whatever you shall ask it shall be given you from my Father which is in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am with them.&#8221; Of this same thing in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: &#8220;And I indeed, brethren, could not speak unto you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk for drink, not meat: for while ye were yet little ye were not able to bear it, neither now are ye able. For ye are still carnal: for where there are in you emulation, and strife, and dissensions, are ye not carnal, and walk after man?&#8221; &#160; Likewise in the same place: &#8220;And if I should have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods for food, and if I should deliver up my body to be burned, but have not charity, I avail nothing. Charity is great-souled; charity is kind; charity envieth not; charity dealeth not falsely; is not puffed up; is not irritated; thinketh not evil; rejoiceth not in injustice, but rejoiceth in the truth. It loveth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, beareth all things. Charity shall never fail.&#8221; Of this same thing to the Galatians: &#8220;Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and accuse one another, see that ye be not consumed one of another.&#8221; Of this same thing in the Epistle of John: &#8220;In this appear the children of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not righteous is not of God, and he who loveth not his brother. For he who hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.&#8221; Also in the same place: &#8220;If any one shall say that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?&#8221; Of this same thing in the Acts of the Apostles: &#8220;But the multitude of them that had believed acted with one soul and mind: nor was there among them any distinction, neither did they esteem as their own anything of the possessions that they had; but all things were common to them.&#8221; Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: If thou wouldest offer thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave thou thy gift before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift at the altar.&#8221; Also in the Epistle of John: &#8220;God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.&#8221; Also in the same place:&#160; &#8220;He who saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is a liar, and walketh in darkness even until now.&#8221;