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Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) |
INTRODUCTION
AUTHORSHIP.--POLYCARP, the disciple of John [Epistle to the Philippians, 7], quotes @1Jo 4:3. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39] says of PAPIAS, a hearer of John, and a friend of POLYCARP, "He used testimonies from the First Epistle of John." IRENÆUS, according to EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 5.8], often quoted this Epistle. So in his work Against Heresies [3.15; 5, 8] he quotes from John by name, @1Jo 2:18, &c.; and in [3.16,7], he quotes @1Jo 4:1-3 5:1, and @2Jo 1:7:8. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 2.66, p. 464] refers to @1Jo 5:16, as in John's larger Epistle. See other quotations [Miscellanies, 3.32,42; 4.102]. TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 5.16] refers to @1Jo 4:1, &c.; [Against Praxeas, 15], to @1Jo 1:1. See his other quotations [Against Praxeas, 28; Against the Gnostics, 12]. CYPRIAN [Epistles, 28 (24)], quotes as John's, @1Jo 2:3,4; and [On the Lord's Prayer, 5] quotes @1Jo 2:15-17; and [On Works and Alms, 3], @1Jo 1:8; and [On the Advantage of Patience, 2] quotes @1Jo 2:6. MURATORI'S Fragment on the Canon of Scripture states, "There are two of John (the Gospel and Epistle?) esteemed Catholic," and quotes @1Jo 1:3. The Peschito Syriac contains it. ORIGEN (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.25]) speaks of the First Epistle as genuine, and "probably the second and third, though all do not recognize the latter two"; on the Gospel of John, [Commentary on John, 13.2], he quotes @1Jo 1:5. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN'S scholar, cites the words of this Epistle as those of the Evangelist John. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.24], says, John's first Epistle and Gospel are acknowledged without question by those of the present day, as well as by the ancients. So also JEROME [On Illustrious Men]. The opposition of COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, in the sixth century, and that of MARCION because our Epistle was inconsistent with his views, are of no weight against such irrefragable testimony.
The internal evidence is equally strong. Neither the Gospel, nor this Epistle, can be pronounced an imitation; yet both, in style and modes of thought, are evidently of the same mind. The individual notices are not so numerous or obvious as in Paul's writings, as was to be expected in a Catholic Epistle; but such as there are accord with John's position. He implies his apostleship, and perhaps alludes to his Gospel, and the affectionate tie which bound him as an aged pastor to his spiritual "children"; and in @1Jo 2:18,19 4:1-3, he alludes to the false teachers as known to his readers; and in @1Jo 5:21 he warns them against the idols of the surrounding world. It is no objection against its authenticity that the doctrine of the Word, or divine second Person, existing from everlasting, and in due time made flesh, appears in it, as also in the Gospel, as opposed to the heresy of the Docetæ in the second century, who denied that our Lord is come in the flesh, and maintained He came only in outward semblance; for the same doctrine appears in @Col 1:15-18 1Ti 3:16 Heb 1:1-3; and the germs of Docetism, though not fully developed till the second century, were in existence in the first. The Spirit, presciently through John, puts the Church beforehand on its guard against the coming heresy.
TO WHOM ADDRESSED.--AUGUSTINE [The Question of the Gospels, 2.39], says this Epistle was written to the Parthians. BEDE, in a prologue to the seven Catholic Epistles, says that ATHANASIUS attests the same. By the Parthians may be meant the Christians living beyond the Euphrates in the Parthian territory, outside the Roman empire, "the Church at Babylon elected together with (you)," the churches in the Ephesian region, the quarter to which Peter addressed his Epistles (@1Pe 5:12). As Peter addressed the flock which John subsequently tended (and in which Paul had formerly ministered), so John, Peter's close companion after the ascension, addresses the flock among whom Peter had been when he wrote. Thus "the elect lady" (@2Jo 1:1) answers "to the Church elected together" (@1Pe 5:13). See further confirmation of this view in Introduction to Second John. It is not necessarily an objection to this view that John never is known to have personally ministered in the Parthian territory. For neither did Peter personally minister to the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, though he wrote his Epistles to them. Moreover, in John's prolonged life, we cannot dogmatically assert that he did not visit the Parthian Christians, after Peter had ceased to minister to them, on the mere ground of absence of extant testimony to that effect. This is as probable a view as ALFORD'S, that in the passage of AUGUSTINE, "to the Parthians," is to be altered by conjectural emendation; and that the Epistle is addressed to the churches at and around Ephesus, on the ground of the fatherly tone of affectionate address in it, implying his personal ministry among his readers. But his position, as probably the only surviving apostle, accords very well with his addressing, in a Catholic Epistle, a cycle of churches which he may not have specially ministered to in person, with affectionate fatherly counsel, by virtue of his general apostolic superintendence of all the churches.
TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.--This Epistle seems to have been written subsequently to his Gospel as it assumes the reader's acquaintance with the Gospel facts and Christ's speeches, and also with the special aspect of the incarnate Word, as God manifest in the flesh (@1Ti 3:16), set forth more fully in his Gospel. The tone of address, as a father addressing his "little children" (the continually recurring term, @1Jo 2:1,12,13,18,28 3:7,18 4:4 5:21), accords with the view that this Epistle was written in John's old age, perhaps about A.D. 90. In @1Jo 2:18, "it is the last time," probably does not refer to any particular event (as the destruction of Jerusalem, which was now many years past) but refers to the nearness of the Lord's coming as proved by the rise of Antichristian teachers, the mark of the last time. It was the Spirit's purpose to keep the Church always expecting Christ as ready to come at any moment. The whole Christian age is the last time in the sense that no other dispensation is to arise till Christ comes. Compare "these last days," @Heb 1:2. Ephesus may be conjectured to be the place whence it was written. The controversial allusion to the germs of Gnostic heresy accord with Asia Minor being the place, and the last part of the apostolic age the time, of writing this Epistle.
CONTENTS.--The leading subject of the whole is, fellowship with the Father and the Son (@1Jo 1:3). Two principal divisions may be noted: (1) @1Jo 1:5-2:28: the theme of this portion is stated at the outset, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"; consequently, in order to have fellowship with Him, we must walk in light (@1Jo 1:7); connected with which in the confession and subsequent forgiveness of our sins through Christ's propitiation and advocacy, without which forgiveness there could be no light or fellowship with God: a farther step in thus walking in the light is, positively keeping God's commandments, the sum of which is love, as opposed to hatred, the acme of disobedience to God's word: negatively, he exhorts them according to their several stages of spiritual growth, children, fathers, young men, in consonance with their privileges as forgiven, knowing the Father, and having overcome the wicked one, not to love the world, which is incompatible with the indwelling of the love of the Father, and to be on their guard against the Antichristian teachers already in the world, who were not of the Church, but of the world, against whom the true defense is, that his believing readers who have the anointing of God, should continue to abide in the Son and in the Father. (2) The second division (@1Jo 2:29-5:5) discusses the theme with which it opens, He is righteous; consequently (as in the first division), "every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Sonship in us involves our purifying ourselves as He is pure, even as we hope to see, and therefore to be made like our Lord when He shall appear; in this second, as in the first division, both a positive and a negative side are presented of "doing righteousness as He is righteous," involving a contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil. Hatred marks the latter; love, the former: this love gives assurance of acceptance with God for ourselves and our prayers, accompanied as they are (@1Jo 3:23) with obedience to His great commandment, to "believe on Jesus, and love one another"; the seal (@1Jo 3:24) of His dwelling in us and assuring our hearts, is the Spirit which He hath given us. In contrast to this (as in the first division), he warns against false spirits, the notes of which are, denial of Christ, and adherence to the world. Sonship, or birth of God, is then more fully described: its essential feature is unslavish, free love to God, because God first loved us, and gave His Son to die for us, and consequent love to the brethren, grounded on their being sons of God also like ourselves, and so victory over the world; this victory being gained only by the man who believes in Jesus as the Son of God. (3) The conclusion establishes this last central truth, on which rests our fellowship with God, Christ's having come by the water of baptism, the blood of atonement, and the witnessing Spirit, which is truth. As in the opening he rested this cardinal truth on the apostles' witness of the eye, the ear, and the touch, so now at the close he rests it on God's witness, which is accepted by the believer, in contrast with the unbeliever, who makes God a liar. Then follows his closing statement of his reason for writing (@1Jo 5:13; compare the corresponding @1Jo 1:4, at the beginning), namely, that believers in Christ the Son of God may know that they have (now already) eternal life (the source of "joy," @1Jo 1:4; compare similarly his object in writing the Gospel, @Joh 20:31), and so have confidence as to their prayers being answered (corresponding to @1Jo 3:22 in the second part); for instance, their intercessions for a sinning brother (unless his sin be a sin unto death). He closes with a brief summing up of the instruction of the Epistle, the high dignity, sanctity, and safety from evil of the children of God in contrast to the sinful world, and a warning against idolatry, literal and spiritual: "Keep yourselves from idols."
Though the Epistle is not directly polemical, the occasion which suggested his writing was probably the rise of Antichristian teachers; and, because he knew the spiritual character of the several classes whom he addresses, children, youths, fathers, he feels it necessary to write to confirm them in the faith and joyful fellowship of the Father and Son, and to assure them of the reality of the things they believe, that so they may have the full privileges of believing.
STYLE.--His peculiarity is fondness for aphorism and repetition. His tendency to repeat his own phrase, arises partly from the affectionate, hortatory character of the Epistle; partly, also, from its Hebraistic forms abounding in parallel clauses, as distinguished from the Grecian and more logical style of Paul; also, from his childlike simplicity of spirit, which, full of his one grand theme, repeats, and dwells on it with fond delight and enthusiasm. Moreover as ALFORD well says, the appearance of uniformity is often produced by want of deep enough exegesis to discover the real differences in passages which seem to express the same. Contemplative, rather than argumentative, he dwells more on the general, than on the particular, on the inner, than on the outer, Christian life. Certain fundamental truths he recurs to again and again, at one time enlarging on, and applying them, at another time repeating them in their condensed simplicity. The thoughts do not march onward by successive steps, as in the logical style of Paul, but rather in circle drawn round one central thought which he reiterates, ever reverting to it, and viewing it, now under its positive, now under its negative, aspect. Many terms which in the Gospel are given as Christ's, in the Epistle appear as the favorite expressions of John, naturally adopted from the Lord. Thus the contrasted terms, "flesh" and "spirit," "light" and "darkness," "life" and "death," "abide in Him": fellowship with the Father and Son, and with one another," is a favorite phrase also, not found in the Gospel, but in Acts and Paul's Epistles. In him appears the harmonious union of opposites, adapting him for his high functions in the kingdom of God, contemplative repose of character, and at the same time ardent zeal, combined with burning, all-absorbing love: less adapted for active outward work, such as Paul's, than for spiritual service. He handles Christian verities not as abstract dogmas, but as living realities, personally enjoyed in fellowship with God in Christ, and with the brethren. Simple, and at the same time profound, his writing is in consonance with his spirit, unrhetorical and undialectic, gentle, consolatory, and loving: the reflection of the Spirit of Him on whose breast he lay at the last supper, and whose beloved disciple he was. EWALD in ALFORD, speaking of the "unruffled and heavenly repose" which characterizes this Epistle, says, "It appears to be the tone, not so much of a father talking with his beloved children, as of a glorified saint addressing mankind from a higher world. Never in any writing has the doctrine of heavenly love--a love working in stillness, ever unwearied, never exhausted--so thoroughly approved itself as in this Epistle."
JOHN'S PLACE IN THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH.--As Peter founded and Paul propagated, so John completed the spiritual building. As the Old Testament puts prominently forward the fear of God, so John, the last writer of the New Testament, gives prominence to the love of God. Yet, as the Old Testament is not all limited to presenting the fear of God, but sets forth also His love, so John, as a representative of the New Testament, while breathing so continually the spirit of love, gives also the plainest and most awful warnings against sin, in accordance with his original character as Boanerges, "son of thunder." His mother was Salome, mother of the sons of Zebedee, probably sister to Jesus' mother (compare @Joh 19:25, "His mother's sister," with @Mt 27:56 Mr 15:40), so that he was cousin to our Lord; to his mother, under God, he may have owed his first serious impressions. Expecting as she did the Messianic kingdom in glory, as appears from her petition (@Mt 20:20-23), she doubtless tried to fill his young and ardent mind with the same hope. NEANDER distinguishes three leading tendencies in the development of the Christian doctrine, the Pauline, the Jacobean (between which the Petrine forms an intermediate link), and the Johannean. John, in common with James, was less disposed to the intellectual and dialectic cast of thought which distinguishes Paul. He had not, like the apostle of the Gentiles, been brought to faith and peace through severe conflict; but, like James, had reached his Christian individuality through a quiet development: James, however, had passed through a moulding in Judaism previously, which, under the Spirit, caused him to present Christian truth in connection with the law, in so far as the latter in its spirit, though not letter, is permanent, and not abolished, but established under the Gospel. But John, from the first, had drawn his whole spiritual development from the personal view of Christ, the model man, and from intercourse with Him. Hence, in his writings, everything turns on one simple contrast: divine life in communion with Christ; death in separation from Him, as appears from his characteristic phrases, "life, light, truth; death, darkness, lie." "As James and Peter mark the gradual transition from spiritualized Judaism to the independent development of Christianity, and as Paul represents the independent development of Christianity in opposition to the Jewish standpoint, so the contemplative element of John reconciles the two, and forms the closing point in the training of the apostolic Church" [NEANDER].
CHAPTER 1
@1Jo 1:1-10. THE WRITER'S AUTHORITY AS AN EYEWITNESS TO THE GOSPEL FACTS, HAVING SEEN, HEARD, AND HANDLED HIM WHO WAS FROM THE BEGINNING: HIS OBJECT IN WRITING: HIS MESSAGE. IF WE WOULD HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM, WE MUST WALK IN LIGHT, AS HE IS LIGHT.
1. Instead of a formal, John adopts a virtual address (compare
@1Jo 1:4). To wish joy to the reader was the ancient customary
address. The sentence begun in @1Jo 1:1 is broken off by the
parenthetic @1Jo 1:2, and is resumed at @1Jo 1:3 with the
repetition of some words from @1Jo 1:1.
That which was--not "began to be," but was essentially (Greek, "een," not "egeneto") before He was manifested (@1Jo 1:2);
answering to "Him that is from the beginning" (@1Jo 2:13); so
John's Gospel, @Joh 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word." @Pr 8:23,
"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the
earth was."
we--apostles.
heard . . . seen . . . looked upon . . . handled--a series rising in
gradation. Seeing is a more convincing proof than hearing of;
handling, than even seeing. "Have heard . . . have seen"
(perfect tenses), as a possession still abiding with us; but in
Greek (not as English Version "have," but simply) "looked upon"
(not perfect tense, as of a continuing thing, but aorist, past time) while Christ the incarnate Word was still with us. "Seen,"
namely, His glory, as revealed in the Transfiguration and in His
miracles; and His passion and death in a real body of flesh and blood.
"Looked upon" as a wondrous spectacle steadfastly, deeply,
contemplatively; so the Greek. Appropriate to John's contemplative
character.
hands . . . handled--Thomas and the other disciples on distinct
occasions after the resurrection. John himself had leaned on Jesus'
breast at the last supper. Contrast the wisest of the heathen
feeling after (the same Greek as here; groping after
WITH THE HANDS")
if haply they might find God (see @Ac 17:27).
This proves against Socinians he is here speaking of the
personal incarnate Word, not of Christ's teaching from the
beginning of His official life.
of--"concerning"; following "heard." "Heard" is the verb most applying
to the purpose of the Epistle, namely the truth which John had
heard concerning the Word of life, that is, (Christ) the Word who is the life. "Heard," namely, from Christ Himself, including all
Christ's teachings about Himself. Therefore he puts "of," or
"concerning," before "the word of life," which is inapplicable to any of
the verbs except "heard"; also "heard" is the only one of the verbs
which he resumes at @1Jo 1:5.
2. the life--Jesus, "the Word of life."
was manifested--who had previously been "with the Father."
show--Translate as in @1Jo 1:3, "declare" (compare @1Jo 1:5).
Declare is the general term; write is the particular
(@1Jo 1:4).
that eternal life--Greek, "the life which is eternal." As the
Epistle begins, so it ends with "eternal life," which we shall ever
enjoy with, and in, Him who is "the life eternal."
which--Greek, "the which." the before-mentioned (@1Jo 1:1)
life which was with the Father "from the beginning" (compare
@Joh 1:1). This proves the distinctness of the First and Second Persons
in the one Godhead.
3. That which we have seen and heard--resumed from @1Jo 1:1,
wherein the sentence, being interrupted by @1Jo 1:2, parenthesis,
was left incomplete.
declare we unto you--Oldest manuscripts add also; unto you also who have not seen or heard Him.
that ye also may have fellowship with us--that ye also who have
not seen, may have the fellowship with us which we who have seen
enjoy; what that fellowship consists in he proceeds to state, "Our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son." Faith realizes what we
have not seen as spiritually visible; not till by faith we too have
seen, do we know all the excellency of the true Solomon. He Himself is
ours; He in us and we in Him. We are "partakers of the divine nature."
We know God only by having fellowship with Him; He may thus be
known, but not comprehended. The repetition of "with" before the
"Son," distinguishes the persons, while the fellowship or
communion with both Father and Son, implies their unity. It
is not added "and with the Holy Ghost"; for it is by the Holy Ghost
or Spirit of the Father and Son in us, that we are enabled to have
fellowship with the Father and Son (compare @1Jo 3:24). Believers
enjoy the fellowship OF, but not
WITH, the Holy Ghost. "Through Christ
God closes up the chasm that separated Him from the human race, and
imparts Himself to them in the communion of the divine life"
[NEANDER].
4. these things--and none other, namely, this whole Epistle.
write we unto you--Some oldest manuscripts omit "unto you," and
emphasize "we." Thus the antithesis is between "we" (apostles and
eye-witnesses) and "your." We write thus that your joy may be
full. Other oldest manuscripts and versions read "OUR joy," namely,
that our joy may be filled full by bringing you also into fellowship
with the Father and Son. (Compare @Joh 4:36, end; @Php 2:2, "Fulfil
ye my joy," @Php 2:16 4:1 2Jo 1:8). It is possible that "your" may
be a correction of transcribers to make this verse harmonize with
@Joh 15:11 16:24; however, as John often repeats favorite phrases,
he may do so here, so "your" may be from himself. So @2Jo 1:12, "your"
in oldest manuscripts. The authority of manuscripts and versions on both
sides here is almost evenly balanced. Christ Himself is the source,
object, and center of His people's joy (compare @1Jo 1:3, end); it
is in fellowship with Him that we have joy, the fruit of faith.
5. First division of the body of the Epistle
(compare Introduction).
declare--Greek, "announce"; report in turn; a different Greek word from @1Jo 1:3. As the Son announced the message heard from the
Father as His apostle, so the Son's apostles announce what they have
heard from the Son. John nowhere uses the term "Gospel"; but the
witness or testimony, the word, the truth, and here the
message.
God is light--What light is in the natural world, that God, the source
of even material light, is in the spiritual, the fountain of wisdom,
purity, beauty, joy, and glory. As all material life and growth depends
on light, so all spiritual life and growth depends on
GOD. As God
here, so Christ, in @1Jo 2:8, is called "the true light."
no darkness at all--strong negation; Greek, "No, not even one
speck of darkness"; no ignorance, error, untruthfulness, sin, or death.
John heard this from Christ, not only in express words, but in His acted
words, namely, His is whole manifestation in the flesh as "the
brightness of the Father's glory." Christ Himself was the embodiment
of "the message," representing fully in all His sayings, doings, and
sufferings, Him who is LIGHT.
6. say--profess.
have fellowship with him--(@1Jo 1:3). The essence of the Christian
life.
walk--in inward and outward action, whithersoever we turn ourselves
[BENGEL].
in darkness--Greek, "in the darkness"; opposed to "the light"
(compare @1Jo 2:8,11).
lie--(@1Jo 2:4).
do not--in practice, whatever we say.
the truth--(@Eph 4:21 Joh 3:21).
7. Compare @Eph 5:8,11-14. "WE WALK";
"God is (essentially in His very nature as 'the light,'
@1Jo 1:5) in the light." WALKING
in the light, the element in which God Himself is, constitutes the
test of fellowship with Him. Christ, like us, walked in the light
(@1Jo 2:6). ALFORD
notices, Walking in the light as He is in the
light, is no mere imitation of God,
but an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the
essential element of God's eternal being.
we have fellowship one with another--and of course with God (to
be understood from @1Jo 1:6). Without having fellowship with God
there can be no true and Christian fellowship one with another (compare
@1Jo 1:3).
and--as the result of "walking in the light, as He is in the light."
the blood of Jesus . . . cleanseth us from all sin--daily contracted
through the sinful weakness of the flesh. and the power of Satan and
the world. He is speaking not of justification through His blood once
for all, but of the present sanctification ("cleanseth" is
present tense) which the believer, walking in the light and
having fellowship with God and the saints, enjoys as His privilege.
Compare @Joh 13:10, Greek, "He that has been bathed, needeth
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." Compare
@1Jo 1:9, "cleanse us from all unrighteousness," a further step
besides "forgiving us our sins." Christ's blood is the cleansing
mean, whereby gradually, being already justified and in fellowship with
God, we become clean from all sin which would mar our fellowship
with God. Faith applies the cleansing, purifying blood. Some oldest
manuscripts omit "Christ"; others retain it.
8. The confession of sins is a necessary consequence of "walking
in the light" (@1Jo 1:7). "If thou shalt confess thyself a sinner,
the truth is in thee; for the truth is itself light. Not yet
has thy life become perfectly light, as sins are still in thee, but yet
thou hast already begun to be illuminated, because there is in thee
confession of sins" [AUGUSTINE].
that we have no sin--"HAVE,"
not "have had," must refer not to
the past sinful life while unconverted, but to the present state
wherein believers have sin even still. Observe, "sin" is in the
singular; "(confess our) sins" (@1Jo 1:9) in the plural. Sin refers to the corruption of the old man still present in us, and the
stain created by the actual sins flowing from that old nature in
us. To confess our need of cleansing from present sin is essential
to "walking in the light"; so far is the presence of some sin
incompatible with our in the main "walking in light." But the
believer hates, confesses, and longs to be delivered from all sin, which
is darkness. "They who defend their sins, will see in the great day
whether their sins can defend them."
deceive ourselves--We cannot deceive God; we only make ourselves to
err from the right path.
the truth--(@1Jo 2:4). True faith. "The truth respecting God's
holiness and our sinfulness, which is the very first spark of light in
us, has no place in us" [ALFORD].
9. confess--with the lips, speaking from a contrite heart; involving
also confession to our fellow men of offenses committed against them.
he--God.
faithful--to His own promises; "true" to His word.
just--Not merely the mercy, but the justice or righteousness of God is set forth in the redemption of the penitent believer in
Christ. God's promises of mercy, to which He is faithful, are in
accordance with His justice.
to--Greek, "in order that." His forgiving
us our sins and cleansing us, &c. is in furtherance of the
ends of His eternal faithfulness and justice.
forgive--remitting the guilt.
cleanse--purify from all filthiness, so that henceforth we more and
more become free from the presence of sin through the Spirit of
sanctification (compare @Heb 9:14; and above,
see on 1Jo 1:7).
unrighteousness--offensive to Him who "is just" or righteous; called "sin," @1Jo 1:7, because "sin is the transgression of the
law," and the law is the expression of God's righteousness, so that
sin is unrighteousness.
10. Parallel to @1Jo 1:8.
we have not sinned--referring to the commission of actual sins, even after regeneration and conversion; whereas in @1Jo 1:8, "we
have no sin," refers to the present GUILT remaining (until cleansed) from Believerscafe.com actual sins committed, and to the SIN
of our corrupt old
nature still adhering to us. The perfect "have . . . sinned" brings down
the commission of sins to the present time, not merely sins committed
before, but since, conversion.
we make him a liar--a gradation; @1Jo 1:6, "we lie"; @1Jo 1:8,
"we deceive ourselves"; worst of all, "we make Him a liar," by denying
His word that all men are sinners (compare @1Jo 5:10).
his word is not in us--"His word," which is "the truth" (@1Jo 1:8),
accuses us truly; by denying it we drive it from our hearts (compare
@Joh 5:38). Our rejection of "His word" in respect to our being
sinners, implies as the consequence our rejection of His word and will
revealed in the .law and Gospel as a whole; for these throughout
rest on the fact that we have sinned, and have sin.
CHAPTER 2
@1Jo 2:1-29. THE ADVOCACY OF CHRIST IS OUR ANTIDOTE TO SIN WHILE WALKING IN THE LIGHT; FOR TO KNOW GOD, WE MUST KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS AND LOVE THE BRETHREN, AND NOT LOVE THE WORLD, NOR GIVE HEED TO ANTICHRISTS, AGAINST WHOM OUR SAFETY IS THROUGH THE INWARD ANOINTING OF GOD TO ABIDE IN GOD: SO AT CHRIST'S COMING WE SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED.
1. (@1Jo 5:18.)
My little children--The diminutive expresses the tender affection of
an aged pastor and spiritual father. My own dear children, that is,
sons and daughters (see on 1Jo 2:12).
these things--(@1Jo 1:6-10). My purpose in writing what I have
just written is not that you should abuse them as giving a license to
sin but, on the contrary, "in order that ye may not sin at all" (the
Greek aorist, implying the absence not only of the habit, but of
single acts of sin [ALFORD]). In order to "walk in the light"
(@1Jo 1:5,7), the first step is confession of sin (@1Jo 1:9),
the next (@1Jo 2:1) is that we should forsake all sin. The
divine purpose has for its aim, either to prevent the commission of, or
to destroy sin [BENGEL].
And, &c.--connected with the former; Furthermore, "if any man
sin," let him, while loathing and condemning it, not fear to go at once
to God, the Judge, confessing it, for "we have an Advocate with Him." He
is speaking of a BELIEVER'S
occasional sins of infirmity through
Satan's fraud and malice. The use of "we" immediately afterwards implies
that we all are liable to this, though not necessarily
constrained to sin.
we have an advocate--Advocacy is God's family blessing; other blessings
He grants to good and bad alike, but justification, sanctification,
continued intercession, and peace, He grants to His children alone.
advocate--Greek, "paraclete," the same term as is applied to
the Holy Ghost, as the "other Comforter"; showing the unity of the
Second and Third Persons of the Trinity. Christ is the Intercessor
for us above; and, in His absence, here below the Holy Ghost is the
other Intercessor in us. Christ's advocacy is inseparable from
the Holy Spirit's comfort and working in us, as the spirit of
intercessory prayer.
righteous--As our "advocate," Christ is not a mere suppliant
petitioner. He pleads for us on the ground of justice, or
righteousness, as well as mercy. Though He can say nothing good
of us, He can say much for us. It is His righteousness, or
obedience to the law, and endurance of its full penalty for us, on which
He grounds His claim for our acquittal. The sense therefore is, "in that
He is righteous"; in contrast to our sin ("if any man sin").
The Father, by raising Him from the dead, and setting Him at His own
right, has once for all accepted Christ's claim for us. Therefore the
accuser's charges against God's children are vain. "The righteousness
of Christ stands on our side; for God's righteousness is, in Jesus
Christ, ours" [LUTHER].
2. And he--Greek, "And Himself." He is our all-prevailing
Advocate, because He is Himself "the propitiation"; abstract, as
in @1Co 1:30: He is to us all that is needed for propitiation "in behalf of our sins"; the propitiatory sacrifice, provided by the
Father's love, removing the estrangement, and appeasing the righteous
wrath, on God's part, against the sinner. "There is no incongruity that
a father should be offended with that son whom he loveth, and at
that time offended with him when he loveth him"
[BISHOP
PEARSON].
The only other place in the New Testament where Greek "propitiation"
occurs, is @1Jo 4:10; it answers in the Septuagint to Hebrew, "caphar," to effect an atonement or reconciliation with God;
and in @Eze 44:29, to the sin offering. In @Ro 3:25,
Greek, it is "propitiatory," that is, the mercy seat, or lid of the
ark whereon God, represented by the Shekinah glory above it, met His
people, represented by the high priest who sprinkled the blood of the
sacrifice on it.
and--Greek, "yet."
ours--believers: not Jews, in contrast to Gentiles; for he is
not writing to Jews (@1Jo 5:21).
also for the sins of the whole world--Christ's "advocacy" is limited
to believers (@1Jo 2:1 1Jo 1:7): His propitiation extends as
widely as sin extends:
see on 2Pe 2:1, "denying the Lord
that bought them." "The whole world" cannot be restricted to the
believing portion of the world (compare @1Jo 4:14; and "the
whole world," @1Jo 5:19). "Thou, too, art part of the world, so
that thine heart cannot deceive itself and think, The Lord died for
Peter and Paul, but not for me" [LUTHER].
3. hereby--Greek, "in this." "It is herein," and herein
only, that we know (present tense) that we have knowledge of
(perfect tense, once-for-all obtained and continuing knowledge of) Him"
(@1Jo 2:4,13,14). Tokens whereby to discern grace are frequently
given in this Epistle. The Gnostics, by the Spirit's prescient
forewarning, are refuted, who boasted of knowledge, but set aside
obedience. "Know Him," namely, as "the righteous" (@1Jo 2:1,29);
our "Advocate and Intercessor."
keep--John's favorite word, instead of "do," literally, "watch,"
"guard," and "keep safe" as a precious thing; observing so as to keep.
So Christ Himself. Not faultless conformity, but hearty acceptance of,
and willing subjection to, God's whole revealed will, is meant.
commandments--injunctions of faith, love, and obedience. John
never uses "the law" to express the rule of Christian obedience: he uses
it as the Mosaic law.
4. I know--Greek, "I have knowledge of (perfect) Him." Compare with this verse @1Jo 1:8.
5. Not merely repeating the proposition, @1Jo 2:3, or asserting
the merely opposite alternative to @1Jo 2:4, but expanding the "know
Him" of @1Jo 2:3, into "in Him, verily (not as a matter of vain
boasting) is the love of
(that is towards) God perfected," and "we are
in Him." Love here answers to knowledge in @1Jo 2:3. In
proportion as we love God, in that same proportion we know Him, and
vice versa, until our love and knowledge shall attain their full
maturity of perfection.
his word--His word is one
(see on 1Jo 1:5), and comprises
His "commandments," which are many (@1Jo 2:3).
hereby--in our progressing towards this ideal of perfected love and
obedience. There is a gradation: @1Jo 2:3, "know Him";
@1Jo 2:5, "we are in Him"; @1Jo 2:6, "abideth in Him";
respectively, knowledge, fellowship, abiding constancy.
[BENGEL].
6. abideth--implying a condition lasting, without intermission, and
without end.
He that saith . . . ought--so that his deeds may be consistent with
his words.
even as he--Believers readily supply the name, their hearts being
full of Him (compare @Joh 20:15). "Even as He walked" when on earth,
especially in respect to love. John delights in referring to Christ
as the model man, with the words, "Even as He," &c. "It is not
Christ's walking on the sea, but His ordinary walk, that we are called
on to imitate" [LUTHER].
7. Brethren--The oldest manuscripts and versions read instead,
"Beloved," appropriate to the subject here, love.
no new commandment--namely, love, the main principle of walking
as Christ walked (@1Jo 2:6), and that commandment, of which one
exemplification is presently given, @1Jo 2:9,10,
the love of brethren.
ye had from the beginning--from the time that ye first heard the
Gospel word preached.
8. a new commandment--It was "old," in that Christians as such
had heard it from the first; but "new" (Greek, "kaine," not
"nea": new and different from the old legal precept) in that
it was first clearly promulgated with Christianity; though the inner
spirit of the law was love even to enemies, yet it was enveloped
in some bitter precepts which caused it to be temporarily almost
unrecognized, till the Gospel came. Christianity first put
love to brethren on the new and highest
MOTIVE, instinctive love
to Him who first loved us, constraining us to love all, even enemies,
thereby walking in the steps of Him who loved us when enemies. So
Jesus calls it "new," @Joh 13:34,35, "Love one another
as I have loved you" (the new motive); @Joh 15:12.
which thing is true in him and in you--"In Christ all things are
always true, and were so from the beginning; but in Christ and in us conjointly
the commandment [the love of brethren] is then true
when we acknowledge the truth which is in Him, and have the same
flourishing in us" [BENGEL].
ALFORD explains, "Which thing
(the fact that the commandment is a new one) is true in Him and in
you because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is now
shining; that is, the commandment is a new one, and this is true
both in the case of Christ and in the case of you; because in you the darkness is passing away, and in Him the true light is shining;
therefore, on both accounts, the command is a new one: new as
regards you, because you are newly come from darkness into light; new
as regards Him, because He uttered it when He came into the world to
lighten every man, and began that shining which even now continues." I
prefer, as BENGEL, to explain, The new commandment finds its
truth in its practical realization in the walk of Christians in
union with Christ. Compare the use of "verily," @1Jo 2:5.
@Joh 4:42, "indeed"; @Joh 6:55. The repetition of "in" before
"you," "in Him and in you," not "in Him and you" implies that the love
commandment finds its realization separately: first it did so
"in Him," and then it does so "in us," in so far as we now "also walk
even as He walked"; and yet it finds its realization also
conjointly, by the two being united in one sentence, even as it is
by virtue of the love commandment having been first fulfilled in Him, that it is also now fulfilled in us, through His Spirit in us:
compare a similar case, @Joh 20:17, "My Father and your Father"; by virtue of His being "My Father," He is also your
Father.
darkness is past--rather, as in @1Jo 2:17, "is passing away." It
shall not be wholly "past" until "the Sun of righteousness" shall arise
visibly; "the light is now shining" already, though but partially
until the day bursts forth.
9-11. There is no mean between light and darkness, love and
hatred, life and death, God and the world: wherever spiritual
life is, however weak, there darkness and death no longer
reign, and love supplants hatred; and @Lu 9:50 holds good:
wherever life is not, there death, darkness, the flesh, the
world, and hatred, however glossed over and hidden from man's
observation, prevail; and @Lu 11:23 holds good. "Where love is not,
there hatred is; for the heart cannot remain a void" [BENGEL].
in the light--as his proper element.
his brother--his neighbor, and especially those of the Christian
brotherhood. The very title "brother" is a reason why love should be
exercised.
even until now--notwithstanding that "the true light already has
begun to shine" (@1Jo 2:8).
10. Abiding in love is abiding in the light; for the
Gospel light not only illumines the understanding, but warms the heart
into love.
none occasion of stumbling--In contrast to, "He that hateth his
brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither
he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." "In him who
loves there is neither blindness nor occasion of stumbling [to
himself]: in him who does not love, there is both blindness and
occasion of stumbling. He who hates his brother, is both a
stumbling-block to himself, and stumbles against himself and everything
within and without; he who loves has an unimpeded path"
[BENGEL]. John
has in mind Jesus' words, @Joh 11:9,10.
ALFORD well says, "The light
and the darkness are within ourselves; admitted into us by the eye,
whose singleness fills the whole body with light."
11. is in darkness . . . walketh--"is" marks his continuing STATE:
he has never come out of "the darkness" (so Greek); "walketh" marks
his OUTWARD WALK and acts.
whither--Greek, "where"; including not only the destination
to which, but the way whereby.
hath blinded--rather, as Greek aorist, "blinded" of old. Darkness
not only surrounds, but blinds him, and that a blindness of long
standing.
12. little children--Greek, "little sons," or "dear sons and
daughters"; not the same Greek as in @1Jo 2:13, "little
children," "infants" (in age and standing). He calls
ALL to whom he
writes, "little sons" (@1Jo 2:1, Greek; @1Jo 2:28 3:18 4:4 5:21); but only in @1Jo 2:13,18 he uses the
term "little children," or "infants." Our Lord, whose Spirit John so
deeply drank into, used to His disciples (@Joh 13:33) the term
"little sons," or dear sons and daughters; but in @Joh 21:5,
"little children." It is an undesigned coincidence with the Epistle
here, that in John's Gospel somewhat similarly the classification,
"lambs, sheep, sheep," occurs.
are forgiven--"have been, and are forgiven you": ALL God's
sons and daughters alike enjoy this privilege.
13, 14. All three classes are first addressed in the present. "I
write"; then in the past (aorist) tense, "I wrote"
(not "I have written"; moreover, in the oldest manuscripts and versions, in the end
of @1Jo 2:13, it is past, "I wrote," not as English Version, "I
write"). Two classes, "fathers" and "young men," are addressed with the
same words each time (except that the address to the young men has
an addition expressing the source and means of their victory); but the
"little sons" and "little children" are differently addressed.
have known--and do know: so the Greek perfect means. The "I
wrote" refers not to a former Epistle, but to this Epistle. It was an
idiom to put the past tense, regarding the time from the
reader's point of view; when he should receive the Epistle the
writing would be past. When he uses "I write," he speaks from
his own point of view.
him that is from the beginning--Christ: "that which was from the
beginning."
overcome--The fathers, appropriately to their age, are
characterized by knowledge. The young men, appropriately to
theirs, by activity in conflict. The fathers, too, have
conquered; but now their active service is past, and they and
the children alike are characterized by knowing (the fathers know Christ, "Him that was from the beginning"; the children
know the Father). The first thing that the little children realize
is that God is their Father; answering in the parallel clause to
"little sons . . . your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake," the
universal first privilege of all those really-dear sons of God.
Thus this latter clause includes all, whereas the former clause
refers to those more especially who are in the first stage of
spiritual life, "little children." Of course, these can only know
the Father as theirs through the Son (@Mt 11:27). It is
beautiful to see how the fathers are characterized as reverting back
to the first great truths of spiritual childhood, and the sum and ripest
fruit of advanced experience, the
knowledge of Him that was from the beginning (twice repeated,
@1Jo 2:13,14). Many of them had probably known Jesus in person,
as well as by faith.
14. young men . . . strong--made so out of natural
weakness, hence enabled to overcome "the strong man armed"
through Him that is "stronger." Faith is the victory that overcomes the
world. This term "overcome" is peculiarly John's, adopted from his loved
Lord. It occurs sixteen times in the Apocalypse, six times in the First
Epistle, only thrice in the rest of the New Testament. In order to
overcome the world on the ground, and in the strength, of the blood of
the Saviour, we must be willing, like Christ, to part with whatever of
the world belongs to us: whence immediately after "ye have overcome the
wicked one (the prince of the world)," it is added, "Love not the world,
neither the things . . . in the world."
and, &c.--the secret of the young men's strength: the Gospel
word, clothed with living power by the Spirit who abideth permanently in them; this is "the sword of the Spirit" wielded in
prayerful waiting on God. Contrast the mere physical strength of young
men, @Isa 40:30,31. Oral teaching prepared these youths for the
profitable use of the word when written. "Antichrist cannot
endanger you (@1Jo 2:18), nor Satan tear from you
the word of God."
the wicked one--who, as "prince of this world," enthrals "the world"
(@1Jo 2:15-17 5:19, Greek, "the wicked one"), especially the
young. Christ came to destroy this "prince of the world." Believers
achieve the first grand conquest over him when they pass from darkness
to light, but afterwards they need to maintain a continual keeping of themselves from his assaults, looking to God by whom alone they are
kept safe. BENGEL thinks John refers specially to the remarkable
constancy exhibited by youths in Domitian's persecution. Also to the
young man whom John, after his return from Patmos, led with gentle,
loving persuasion to repentance. This youth had been commended to the
overseers of the Church by John, in one of his tours of superintendency,
as a promising disciple; he had been, therefore, carefully watched up to
baptism. But afterwards relying too much on baptismal grace, he joined
evil associates, and fell from step to step down, till he became a
captain of robbers. When John, some years after, revisited that Church
and heard of the youth's sad fall, he hastened to the retreat of the
robbers, suffered himself to be seized and taken into the captain's
presence. The youth, stung by conscience and the remembrance of former
years, fled away from the venerable apostle. Full of love the aged
father ran after him, called on him to take courage, and announced to
him forgiveness of his sins in the name of Christ. The youth was
recovered to the paths of Christianity, and was the means of inducing
many of his bad associates to repent and believe
[CLEMENT OF
ALEXANDRIA,
Who Is the Rich Man Who Shall Be Saved? 4.2; EUSEBIUS,
Ecclesiastical History, 3.20; CHRYSOSTOM,
First Exhortation to Theodore, 11].
15. Love not the world--that lieth in the wicked one (@1Jo 5:19), whom ye young men have overcome. Having once for
all, through faith, overcome the world (@1Jo 4:4 5:4), carry
forward the conquest by not loving it. "The world" here means "man, and
man's world" [ALFORD], in his and its state as fallen from God. "God
loved [with the love of compassion] the world," and we should feel
the same kind of love for the fallen world; but we are not to
love the world with congeniality and sympathy in its
alienation from God; we cannot have this latter kind of love for the
God-estranged world, and yet have also "the love of the Father in" us.
neither--Greek, "nor yet." A man might deny in general that he
loved the world, while keenly following some one of
THE THINGS IN IT:
its riches, honors, or pleasures; this clause prevents him escaping
from conviction.
any man--therefore the warning, though primarily addressed to the
young, applies to all.
love of--that is, towards "the Father." The two, God and the
(sinful) world, are so opposed, that both cannot be congenially loved at
once.
16. all that is in the world--can be classed under one or other of
the three; the world contains these and no more.
lust of the flesh--that is, the lust which has its seat and source
in our lower animal nature. Satan tried this temptation the first on
Christ: @Lu 4:3, "Command this stone that it be made bread."
Youth is especially liable to fleshly lusts.
lust of the eyes--the avenue through which outward things of the
world, riches, pomp, and beauty, inflame us. Satan tried this temptation
on Christ when he showed Him the kingdoms of the world in a moment. By
the lust of the eyes David (@2Sa 11:2) and Achan fell (@Jos 7:21).
Compare David's prayer, @Ps 119:37; Job's resolve,
@Ps 31:1 Mt 5:28. The only good of worldly riches to the possessor
is the beholding them with the eyes. Compare @Lu 14:18, "I must
go and SEE it."
pride of life--literally, "arrogant assumption": vainglorious display.
Pride was Satan's sin whereby he fell and forms the link between the
two foes of man, the world (answering to "the lust of the eyes") and
the devil (as "the lust of the flesh" is the third foe). Satan tried
this temptation on Christ in setting Him on the temple pinnacle that, in
spiritual pride and presumption, on the ground of His Father's
care, He should cast Himself down. The same three foes appear in the
three classes of soil on which the divine seed falls: the wayside
hearers, the devil; the thorns, the world; the rocky undersoil,
the flesh (@Mt 13:18-23 Mr 4:3-8). The world's awful
antitrinity, the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life," similarly is presented in Satan's temptation of Eve:
"When she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise," @Ge 3:6
(one manifestation of "the pride of life," the desire to know above what
God has revealed, @Col 2:8, the pride of unsanctified knowledge).
of--does not spring from "the Father" (used in relation to the
preceding "little children," @1Jo 2:12, or "little sons"). He who
is born of God alone turns to God; he who is of the world turns
to the world; the sources of love to God and love to the world, are
irreconcilably distinct.
17. the world--with all who are of the world worldly.
passeth away--Greek, "is passing away" even now.
the lust thereof--in its threefold manifestation (@1Jo 2:16).
he that doeth the will of God--not his own fleshly will, or the
will of the world, but that of God (@1Jo 2:3,6), especially in
respect to love.
abideth for ever--"even as God also abideth for ever" (with whom the
godly is one; compare @Ps 55:19, "God, even He that abideth of old):
a true comment, which CYPRIAN and
LUCIFER have added to the text without support of Greek manuscripts. In contrast to the three
passing lusts of the world, the doer of God's will has three
abiding goods, "riches, honor, and life" (@Pr 22:4).
18. Little children--same Greek as @1Jo 2:13; children
in age. After the fathers and young men were gone, "the last
time" with its "many Antichrists" was about to come suddenly on
the children. "In this last hour we all even still live"
[BENGEL].
Each successive age has had in it some of the signs of "the last time"
which precedes Christ's coming, in order to keep the Church in continual
waiting for the Lord. The connection with @1Jo 2:15-17 is:There are
coming those seducers who arc of the world (@1Jo 4:5), and would
tempt you to go out from us (@1Jo 2:19) and deny Christ
(@1Jo 2:22).
as ye have heard--from the apostles, preachers of the Gospel (for
example, @2Th 2:3-10; and in the region of Ephesus, @Ac 20:29,30).
shall come--Greek, "cometh," namely, out of his own place.
Antichrist is interpreted in two ways: a false Christ
(@Mt 24:5,24), literally, "instead of Christ"; or an adversary of Christ, literally, "against Christ." As John never uses
pseudo-Christ, or "false Christ," for Antichrist, it is plain he
means an adversary of Christ, claiming to himself what belongs to
Christ, and wishing to substitute himself for Christ as the supreme
object of worship. He denies the Son, not merely, like the pope,
acts in the name of the Son, @2Th 2:4, "Who opposeth himself
(Greek, "ANTI-keimenos") [to] all that is called God," decides
this. For God's great truth, "God is man," he would substitute his own
lie, "man is God" [TRENCH].
are there--Greek, "there have begun to be"; there have arisen.
These "many Antichrists" answer to "the spirit of lawlessness
(Greek) doth already work." The Antichristian principle appeared
then, as now, in evil men and evil teachings and writings; but still
"THE Antichrist" means a hostile person, even as
"THE Christ" is a
personal Saviour. As "cometh" is used of Christ, so here of
Antichrist, the embodiment in his own person of all the Antichristian
features and spirit of those "many Antichrists" which have been, and
are, his forerunners. John uses the singular of him. No other New
Testament writer uses the term. He probably answers to "the little horn
having the eyes of a man, and speaking great things" (@Da 7:8,20);
"the man of sin, son of perdition" (@2Th 2:3); "the beast ascending
out of the bottomless pit" (@Re 11:7 17:8), or rather, "the false
prophet," the same as "the second beast coming up out of the earth"
(@Re 13:11-18 16:13).
19. out from us--from our Christian communion. Not necessarily a
formal secession or going out: thus Rome has spiritually gone out, though formally still of the Christian Church.
not of us--by spiritual fellowship (@1Jo 1:3). "They are like bad
humors in the body of Christ, the Church: when they are vomited out,
then the body is relieved; the body of Christ is now still under
treatment, and has not yet attained the perfect soundness which it shall
have only at the resurrection" [AUGUSTINE,
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 3.4].
they would . . . have continued--implying the indefectibility of
grace in the elect. "Where God's call is effectual, there will be sure
perseverance" [CALVIN]. Still, it is no fatal necessity, but a
"voluntary necessity"
[DIDYMUS], which causes men to remain, or else go
from the body of Christ. "We are either among the members, or else
among the bad humors. It is of his own will that each is either an
Antichrist, or in Christ"
[AUGUSTINE]. Still God's actings in eternal
election harmonize in a way inexplicable to us, with man's free
agency and responsibility. It is men's own evil will that chooses the
way to hell; it is God's free and sovereign grace that draws any to
Himself and to heaven. To God the latter shall ascribe wholly their
salvation from first to last: the former shall reproach themselves
alone, and not God's decree, with their condemnation (@1Jo 3:9 5:18).
that they were not all of us--This translation would imply
that some of the Antichrists are of us! Translate, therefore, "that
all (who are for a time among us) are not of us." Compare @1Co 11:19,
"There must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you." For "were" some of the oldest manuscripts
read "are." Such occasions test who are, and who are not, the Lord's
people.
20. But--Greek, "And." He here states the means which they as
believers have wherewith to withstand. Antichrists (@1Jo 2:18),
namely, the chrism (so the Greek: a play upon similar sounds),
or "anointing unguent," namely, the Holy Spirit
(more plainly mentioned
further on, as in John's style, @1Jo 3:24 4:13 5:6), which
they ("ye" is emphatical in contrast to those apostates, @1Jo 2:19)
have "from the Holy One, Christ" (@Joh 1:33 3:34 15:26 16:14): "the
righteous" (@1Jo 2:1), "pure" (@1Jo 3:3), "the Holy One"
(@Ac 3:14) "of God"; @Mr 1:24. Those anointed of God in Christ alone can resist those anointed with the spirit of Satan,
Antichrists,
who would sever them from the Father and from the Son. Believers have
the anointing Spirit from the Father also, as well as from the Son;
even as the Son is anointed therewith by the Father. Hence the Spirit is
the token that we are in the Father and in the Son; without it a man is
none of Christ. The material unguent of costliest ingredients, poured
on the head of priests and kings, typified this spiritual unguent,
derived from Christ, the Head, to us, His members. We can have no share
in Him as Jesus, except we become truly Christians, and so be in
Him as Christ, anointed with that unction from the Holy One. The
Spirit poured on Christ, the Head, is by Him diffused through all the
members. "It appears that we all are the body of Christ, because we
all are anointed: and we all in Him are both Christ's and
Christ, because in some measure the whole Christ is Head and
body."
and--therefore.
ye know all things--needful for acting aright against Antichrist's
seductions, and for Christian life and godliness. In the same measure as
one hath the Spirit, in that measure (no more and no less) he knows
all these things.
21. but because ye know it, and that, &c.--Ye not only know what is the truth (concerning the Son and the Father, @1Jo 2:13), but also are able to detect a lie as a thing opposed to the truth. For right (a straight line) is the index of itself and of what is crooked [ESTIUS]. The Greek is susceptible of ALFORD'S translation, "Because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth" (literally, "every lie is excluded from being of the truth"). I therefore wrote (in this Epistle) to point out what the lie is, and who the liars are.
22. a liar--Greek, "Who is the liar?" namely, guilty of the lie
just mentioned (@1Jo 2:21).
that Jesus is the Christ--the grand central truth.
He is Antichrist--Greek, "the Antichrist"; not however here
personal, but in the abstract; the ideal of Antichrist is "he that
denieth the Father and the Son." To deny the latter is virtually to deny
the former. Again, the truth as to the Son must be held in its
integrity; to deny that Jesus is the Christ, or that He is the Son of
God, or that He came in the flesh, invalidates the whole (@Mt 11:27).
23. Greek, "Every one who denieth the Son, hath not the Father
either" (@1Jo 4:2,3): "inasmuch as God hath given Himself to us
wholly to be enjoyed in Christ" [CALVIN].
he--that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. These words
ought not to be in italics, as though they were not in the original: for
the oldest Greek manuscripts have them.
hath--namely, in his abiding possession as his "portion"; by living
personal "fellowship."
acknowledgeth--by open confession of Christ.
24. Let that--truth respecting the Father and the Son, regarded as a
seed not merely dropped in, but having taken root (@1Jo 3:9).
ye--in the Greek standing emphatically at the beginning of the
sentence. YE, therefore, acknowledge the Son, and so shall ye
have the Father also (@1Jo 2:23).
from the beginning--from the time of your first hearing the Gospel.
remain--Translate as before, "abide."
ye also--in your turn, as distinguished from "that which ye have
heard," the seed abiding in you. Compare @1Jo 2:27, "the anointing
abideth in you . . . ye shall abide in Him." Having taken into
us the living seed of the truth concerning the Father and the Son, we
become transformed into the likeness of Him whose seed we have taken
into us.
25. this is the promise--Eternal life shall be the permanent
consummation of thus abiding in the Son and in the Father (@1Jo 2:24).
he--Greek, "Himself," Christ, "the Son" (compare @1Jo 1:1).
promised--(@Joh 3:15,36 6:40,47,57 17:2,3).
26. These things--(@1Jo 2:18-25).
have I written--resumed from @1Jo 2:21 and @1Jo 2:14.
seduce you--that is, are trying to seduce or lead you into error.
27. But--Greek, "And you
(contrasting the believing readers with
the seducers; the words 'and you' stand prominent, the construction
of the sentence following being altered, and no verb agreeing with 'and
you' until 'need not') . . . the anointing," &c.
(resumed from @1Jo 2:20).
received of him--(@Joh 1:16). So we "are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ."
abideth in you--He tacitly thus admonishes them to say, when tempted
by seducers, "The anointing abideth in us; we do not need a teacher [for
we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher, @Jer 31:34 Joh 6:45 16:13]; it
teaches us the truth; in that teaching we will abide"
[BENGEL].
and--and therefore. God is sufficient for them who are taught of
Him; they are independent of all others, though, of course, not
declining the Christian counsel of faithful ministers. "Mutual
communication is not set aside, but approved of, in the case of those
who are partakers of the anointing in one body" [BENGEL].
the same anointing--which ye once for all received, and which now
still abides in you.
of--"concerning."
all things--essential to salvation; the point under discussion. Not
that the believer is made infallible, for no believer here receives the
Spirit in all its fulness, but only the measure needful for keeping him
from soul-destroying error. So the Church, though having the Spirit in
her, is not infallible (for many fallible members can never make an
infallible whole), but is kept from ever wholly losing the saving truth.
no lie--as Antichristian teaching.
ye shall abide in him--(@1Jo 2:24, end); even as "the anointing
abideth in you." The oldest manuscripts read the imperative, "abide in Him."
28. little children--Greek, "little sons," as in @1Jo 2:12;
believers of every stage and age.
abide in him--Christ. John repeats his monition with a loving
appellation, as a father addressing dear children.
when--literally, "if"; the uncertainty is not as to the fact, but
the time.
appear--Greek, "be manifested."
we--both writer and readers.
ashamed before him--literally, "from Him"; shrink back
from Him ashamed. Contrast "boldness in the day of judgment,"
@1Jo 4:17; compare @1Jo 3:21 5:14. In the Apocalypse (written,
therefore, BENGEL thinks, subsequently), Christ's coming is represented
as put off to a greater distance.
29. The heading of the second division of the Epistle: "God is
righteous; therefore, every one that doeth righteousness is born of
Him." Love is the grand feature and principle of "righteousness"
selected for discussion, @1Jo 2:29-3:3.
If ye know . . . ye know--distinct Greek verbs: "if ye
are aware (are in possession of the knowledge) . . . ye discern or apprehend also that," &c. Ye are already aware that God ("He"
includes both "the Father," of whom the believer is born (end of
this verse, and @1Jo 3:1), and "the Son," @1Jo 2:1,23)
is righteous, ye must necessarily, thereby, perceive also the
consequence of that truth, namely, "that everyone that doeth
righteousness (and he alone; literally, the righteousness such as
the righteous God approves) is born of Him." The righteous produceth
the righteous. We are never said to be born again of Christ,
but of God, with whom Christ is one.
HOLLAZ in
ALFORD defines
the righteousness of God, "It is the divine energy by whose power
God wills and does all things which are conformable to His eternal law,
prescribes suitable laws to His creatures, fulfils His promises to men,
rewards the good, and punishes the ungodly."
doeth--"For the graces (virtues) are practical, and have their being
in being produced (in being exercised); for when they have ceased to
act, or are only about to act, they have not even being"
[ÆCUMENIUS].
"God is righteous, and therefore the source of righteousness; when
then a man doeth righteousness, we know that the source of his
righteousness is God, that consequently he has acquired by new birth
from God that righteousness which he had not by nature. We argue from
his doing righteousness, to his being born of God. The error of
Pelagians is to conclude that doing righteousness is a condition of
becoming a child of God" [ALFORD most truly]. Compare
@Lu 7:47,50: Her much love evinced that her sins
were already forgiven; not, were the condition of her
sins being forgiven.
CHAPTER 3
@1Jo 3:1-24. DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL. BROTHERLY LOVE THE ESSENCE OF TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. Behold--calling attention, as to some wonderful exhibition, little
as the world sees to admire. This verse is connected with the previous
@1Jo 2:29, thus: All our doing of righteousness is a mere sign
that God, of His matchless love, has adopted us as children; it does not
save us, but is a proof that we are saved of His grace.
what manner of--of what surpassing excellence, how gracious on His
part, how precious to us.
love . . . bestowed--He does not say that God hath given us some
gift, but love itself and the fountain of all honors, the heart
itself, and that not for our works or efforts, but of His grace
[LUTHER].
that--"what manner of love"; resulting in, proved by, our being, &c.
The immediate effect aimed at in the bestowal of this love is,
"that we should be called children of God."
should be called--should have received the privilege of such a
glorious title (though seeming so imaginary to the world), along with
the glorious reality. With God to call is to
make really to be. Who so great as God? What nearer relationship
than that of sons? The oldest manuscripts add, "And we
ARE SO" really.
therefore--"on this account," because "we are (really) so."
us--the children, like the Father.
it knew him not--namely, the Father. "If they who regard not God,
hold thee in any account, feel alarmed about thy state" [BENGEL].
Contrast @1Jo 5:1. The world's whole course is one great act of
non-recognition of God.
2. Beloved--by the Father, and therefore by me.
now--in contrast to "not yet." We now already are really sons,
though not recognized as such by the world, and (as the consequence) we
look for the visible manifestation of our sonship, which not yet has
taken place.
doth not yet appear--Greek, "it hath not yet ('at any time,'
Greek aorist) been visibly manifested what we shall be"--what
further glory we shall attain by virtue of this our sonship. The "what"
suggests a something inconceivably glorious.
but--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Its insertion in
English Version gives a wrong antithesis. It is not,
"We do not yet know manifestly what . . . but we know," &c.
Believers have some degree of the manifestation already, though the
world has not. The connection is, The manifestation to the world of what we shall be, has not yet taken place; we know (in general;
as a matter of well-assured knowledge; so the Greek) that when
(literally, "if"; expressing no doubt as to the fact, but only as to the
time; also implying the coming preliminary fact, on which the
consequence follows, @Mal 1:6 Joh 14:3) He
(not "it," namely, that
which is not yet manifested [ALFORD])
shall be manifested (@1Jo 3:5 2:28), we shall be like Him
(Christ; all sons have a
substantial resemblance to their father, and Christ, whom we shall be
like, is "the express image of the Father's person," so that in
resembling Christ, we shall resemble the Father). We
wait for the manifestation (literally, the "apocalypse"; the same
term as is applied to Christ's own manifestation) of the sons of God. After our natural birth, the new birth into the life of grace is
needed, which is to be followed by the new birth into the life of
glory; the two latter alike are termed "the regeneration" (@Mt 19:28).
The resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of
the earth, and being born into another life. Our first temptation was
that we should be like God in knowledge, and by that we fell; but being
raised by Christ, we become truly like Him, by knowing Him as we are
known, and by seeing Him as He is
[PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].
As the first immortality which Adam lost was to be able not to die, so
the last shall be not to be able to die. As man's first free choice or
will was to be able not to sin, so our last shall be not to be able to
sin [AUGUSTINE, The City of God, 22.30].
The devil fell by aspiring
to God's power; man, by aspiring to his knowledge; but aspiring
after God's goodness, we shall ever grow in His likeness. The
transition from God the Father to "He," "Him," referring to Christ
(who alone is ever said in Scripture to be manifested; not the
Father, @Joh 1:18), implies the entire unity of the Father and the
Son.
for, &c.--Continual beholding generates likeness (@2Co 3:18);
as the face of the moon being always turned towards the sun, reflects
its light and glory.
see him--not in His innermost Godhead, but as manifested in Christ.
None but the pure can see the infinitely Pure One. In all these passages
the Greek is the same verb opsomai; not denoting the action of
seeing, but the state of him to whose eye or mind the object is
presented; hence the Greek verb is always in the middle or reflexive
voice, to perceive and inwardly appreciate
[TITTMANN]. Our
spiritual bodies will appreciate and recognize spiritual beings
hereafter, as our natural bodies now do natural objects.
3. this hope--of being hereafter "like Him." Faith and love, as well as hope, occur in @1Jo 3:11,23.
in--rather, "(resting) upon Him"; grounded on His promises.
purifieth himself--by Christ's Spirit in him (@Joh 15:5, end).
"Thou purifiest thyself, not of thyself, but of Him who comes that He
may dwell in thee" [AUGUSTINE]. One's justification through faith is
presupposed.
as he is pure--unsullied with any uncleanness. The Second Person, by
whom both the Law and Gospel were given.
4. Sin is incompatible with birth from God (@1Jo 3:1-3). John
often sets forth the same truth negatively, which he had before set
forth positively. He had shown, birth from God involves
self-purification; he now shows where sin, that is, the want of
self-purification, is, there is no birth from God.
Whosoever--Greek, "Every one who."
committeth sin--in contrast to @1Jo 3:3, "Every man that hath
this hope in Him purifieth himself"; and @1Jo 3:7, "He that doeth
righteousness."
transgresseth . . . the law--Greek, "committeth transgression of
law." God's law of purity; and so shows he has no such hope of being
hereafter pure as God is pure, and, therefore, that he is not born of
God.
for--Greek, "and."
sin is . . . transgression of . . . law--definition of sin in
general. The Greek having the article to both, implies that they are
convertible terms. The Greek "sin" (hamartia) is literally, "a
missing of the mark." God's will being that mark to be ever aimed at.
"By the law is the knowledge of sin." The crookedness of a line is shown
by being brought into juxtaposition with a straight ruler.
5. Additional proof of the incompatibility of sin and sonship;
the very object of Christ's manifestation in the flesh was
to take away (by one act, and entirely, aorist) all sins, as the
scapegoat did typically.
and--another proof of the same.
in him is no sin--not "was," but "is," as in @1Jo 3:7,
"He is righteous," and @1Jo 3:3, "He
is pure." Therefore we are to be so.
6. He reasons from Christ's own entire separation from sin, that
those in him must also be separate from it.
abideth in him--as the branch in the vine, by vital union living by
His life.
sinneth not--In so far as he abides in Christ, so far is he free from
all sin. The ideal of the Christian. The life of sin and the life of God
mutually exclude one another, just as darkness and light. In matter of
fact, believers do fall into sins (@1Jo 1:8-10 2:1,2); but all such
sins are alien from the life of God, and need Christ's cleansing blood,
without application to which the life of God could not be maintained. He
sinneth not so long as he abideth in Christ.
whosoever sinneth hath not seen him--Greek perfect, "has not seen,
and does not see Him." Again the ideal of Christian intuition and
knowledge is presented (@Mt 7:23). All sin as such is at variance
with the notion of one regenerated. Not that "whosoever is betrayed into
sins has never seen nor known God"; but in so far as sin exists,
in that degree the spiritual intuition and knowledge of God do not
exist in him.
neither--"not even." To see spiritually is a further step than
to know; for by knowing we come to seeing by vivid realization
and experimentally.
7, 8. The same truth stated, with the addition that he who sins is,
so far as he sins, "of the devil."
let no man deceive you--as Antinomians try to mislead men.
righteousness--Greek, "the righteousness," namely, of Christ
or God.
he that doeth . . . is righteous--Not his doing makes him
righteous, but his being righteous (justified by the
righteousness of God in Christ, @Ro 10:3-10) makes him to do
righteousness: an inversion common in familiar language, logical in
reality, though not in form, as in @Lu 7:47 Joh 8:47. Works do not
justify, but the justified man works. We infer from his
doing righteousness that he is already righteous
(that is, has the true and only principle of doing righteousness,
namely, faith),
and is therefore born of God (@1Jo 3:9); just as we
might say, The tree that bears good fruit is a good tree, and has a
living root; not that the fruit makes the tree and its root to be
good, but it shows that they are so.
he--Christ.
8. He that committeth sin is of the devil--in contrast to "He that
doeth righteousness," @1Jo 3:7. He is a son of the devil (@1Jo 3:10 Joh 8:44). John does not, however, say, "born
of the
devil." as he does "born of God," for "the devil begets none, nor does
he create any; but whoever imitates the devil becomes a child of the
devil by imitating him, not by proper birth" [AUGUSTINE,
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 4.10]. From the
devil there is not generation, but corruption [BENGEL].
sinneth from the beginning--from the time that any began to sin
[ALFORD]: from the time that he became what he is, the devil. He seems
to have kept his first estate only a very short time after his creation
[BENGEL]. Since the fall of man
[at the beginning of our world]
the devil is (ever) sinning
(this is the force of "sinneth";
he has sinned from the beginning, is the cause of all sins, and still
goes on sinning; present). As the author of sin, and prince of this
world, he has never ceased to seduce man to sin [LUECKE].
destroy--break up and do away with; bruising and crushing the
serpent's head.
works of the devil--sin, and all its awful consequences. John
argues, Christians cannot do that which Christ came to destroy.
9. Whosoever is born of God--literally, "Everyone that is begotten
of God."
doth not commit sin--His higher nature, as one born or begotten of
God, doth not sin. To be begotten of God and to sin, are states
mutually excluding one another. In so far as one sins, he makes it
doubtful whether he be born of God.
his seed--the living word of God, made by the Holy Spirit the seed
in us of a new life and the continual mean of sanctification.
remaineth--abideth in him (compare Note,
see on 1Jo 3:6;
@Joh 5:38). This does not contradict @1Jo 1:8,9; the regenerate
show the utter incompatibility of sin with regeneration, by
cleansing away every sin into which they may be betrayed by the old
nature, at once in the blood of Christ.
cannot sin, because he is born of God--"because it is of God that
he is born" (so the Greek order, as compared with the order of
the same words in the beginning of the verse);
not "because he was born of God"
(the Greek is perfect tense, which is present in
meaning, not aorist); it is not said, Because a man was once for all
born of God he never afterwards can sin; but, Because he is born of God,
the seed abiding now in Him, he cannot sin; so long as it energetically
abides, sin can have no place. Compare @Ge 39:9, Joseph, "How
CAN I
do this great wickedness and sin against God?" The principle within me
is at utter variance with it. The regenerate life is incompatible with
sin, and gives the believer a hatred for sin in every shape, and an
unceasing desire to resist it. "The child of God in this conflict
receives indeed wounds daily, but never throws away his arms or makes
peace with his deadly foe" [LUTHER]. The exceptional sins into which
the regenerate are surprised, are owing to the new life principle being
for a time suffered to lie dormant, and to the sword of the Spirit not
being drawn instantly. Sin is ever active, but no longer reigns. The
normal direction of the believer's energies is against sin; the law
of God after the inward man is the ruling principle of his true self
though the old nature, not yet fully deadened, rebels and sins.
Contrast @1Jo 5:18 with @Joh 8:34; compare
@Ps 18:22,23 32:2,3 119:113,176. The magnetic needle, the nature of
which is always to point to the pole, is easily turned aside, but always
reseeks the pole.
10. children of the
devil--(See on 1Jo 3:8;
@Ac 13:10). There is no middle class between the children of God
and the children of the devil.
doeth not righteousness--Contrast @1Jo 2:29.
he that loveth not his brother--(@1Jo 4:8); a particular
instance of that love which is the sum and fulfilment of all
righteousness, and the token (not loud professions, or even seemingly
good works) that distinguishes God's children from the devil's.
11. the message--"announcement," as of something good; not a mere command, as the law. The Gospel message of Him who loved us, announced by His servants, is, that we love the brethren; not here all mankind, but those who are our brethren in Christ, children of the same family of God, of whom we have been born anew.
12. who--not in the Greek.
of that wicked one--Translate, "evil one," to accord with
"Because his own works were evil." Compare @1Jo 3:8, "of the
devil," in contrast to "of God," @1Jo 3:10.
slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous--through envy and hatred of his brother's piety, owing to
which God accepted Abel's, but rejected Cain's offering. Enmity from the
first existed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
13. Marvel not--The marvel would be if the world loved you.
the world--of whom Cain is the representative (@1Jo 3:12).
hate you--as Cain hated even his own brother, and that to the extent
of murdering him. The world feels its bad works tacitly reproved by your
good works.
14. We--emphatical; hated though we be by the world, we know
what the world knows not.
know--as an assured fact.
passed--changed our state. @Col 1:13, "from the power of
darkness . . . translated into the kingdom of His dear Son."
from death unto life--literally, "out of the death
(which enthrals the unregenerate) into the life
(of the regenerate)." A palpable coincidence of language and thought,
the beloved disciple adopting his Lord's words.
because we love the brethren--the ground, not of our
passing over out of death into life, but of our knowing that we
have so. Love, on our part, is the evidence of our justification
and regeneration, not the cause of them. "Let each go to his own
heart; if he find there love to the brethren, let him feel assured that
he has passed from death unto life. Let him not mind that his glory is
only hidden; when the Lord shall come, then shall he appear in glory.
For he has vital energy, but it is still wintertime; the root has
vigor, but the branches are as it were dry; within there is marrow
which is vigorous, within are leaves, within fruits, but they must wait
for summer" [AUGUSTINE].
He that loveth not--Most of the oldest manuscripts omit "his brother,"
which makes the statement more general.
abideth--still.
in death--"in the (spiritual) death" (ending in eternal death)
which is the state of all by nature. His want of love evidences that
no saving change has passed over him.
15. hateth--equivalent to "loveth not" (@1Jo 3:14); there is no
medium between the two. "Love and hatred, like light and darkness, life
and death, necessarily replace, as well as necessarily exclude, one
another" [ALFORD].
is a murderer--because indulging in that passion, which, if followed
out to its natural consequences, would make him one. "Whereas,
@1Jo 3:16 desires us to lay down our lives for the brethren;
duels require one (awful to say!) to risk his own life, rather
than not deprive another of life"
[BENGEL]. God regards the inward
disposition as tantamount to the outward act which would flow from it.
Whomsoever one hates, one wishes to be dead.
hath--Such a one still "abideth in death." It is not his future state, but his present, which is referred to. He who hates (that is,
loveth not) his brother
(@1Jo 3:14), cannot in this his present
state have eternal life abiding in him.
16. What true love to the brethren is, illustrated by the love
of Christ to us.
Hereby--Greek, "Herein."
the love of God--The words "of God" are not in the original.
Translate, "We arrive at the knowledge of love"; we apprehend what true
love is.
he--Christ.
and we--on our part, if absolutely needed for the glory of God, the
good of the Church, or the salvation of a brother.
lives--Christ alone laid down His one life for us all; we ought
to lay down our lives severally for the lives of the brethren; if
not actually, at least virtually, by giving our time, care, labors,
prayers, substance: Non nobis, sed omnibus. Our life ought not to be
dearer to us than God's own Son was to Him. The apostles and martyrs
acted on this principle.
17. this world's good--literally, "livelihood" or substance. If we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (@1Jo 3:16), how
much more ought we not to withhold our substance?
seeth--not merely casually, but deliberately contemplates as
a spectator; Greek, "beholds."
shutteth up his bowels of compassion--which had been momentarily
opened by the spectacle of his brother's need. The "bowels" mean the
heart, the seat of compassion.
how--How is it possible that "the love of (that is, 'to')
God dwelleth (Greek, 'abideth') in him?" Our superfluities should
yield to the necessities; our comforts, and even our necessaries in some
measure, should yield to the extreme wants of our brethren. "Faith gives
Christ to me; love flowing from faith gives me to my neighbor."
18. When the venerable John could no longer walk to the meetings of
the Church but was borne thither by his disciples, he always uttered the
same address to the Church; he reminded them of that one commandment
which he had received from Christ Himself, as comprising all the rest,
and forming the distinction of the new covenant, "My little children,
love one another." When the brethren present, wearied of hearing the
same thing so often, asked why he always repeated the same thing, he
replied, "Because it is the commandment of the Lord, and if this one
thing be attained, it is enough" [JEROME].
in word--Greek, "with word . . . with tongue, but in deed
and truth."
19. hereby--Greek, "herein"; in our
loving in deed and in truth (@1Jo 3:18).
we know--The oldest manuscripts have "we shall know," namely, if we
fulfil the command (@1Jo 3:18).
of the truth--that we are real disciples of, and belonging to,
the truth, as it is in Jesus: begotten of God with the word of
truth. Having herein the truth radically, we shall be sure not to
love merely in word and tongue. (@1Jo 3:18).
assure--literally, "persuade," namely, so as to cease to condemn us;
satisfy the questionings and doubts of our consciences as to whether we
be accepted before God or not (compare @Mt 28:14 Ac 12:20,
"having made Blastus their friend," literally, "persuaded"). The
"heart," as the seat of the feelings, is our inward judge; the
conscience, as the witness, acts either as our justifying advocate,
or our condemning accuser, before God even now. @Joh 8:9, has
"conscience," but the passage is omitted in most old manuscripts. John
nowhere else uses the term "conscience." Peter and Paul alone use it.
before him--as in the sight of Him, the omniscient Searcher of
hearts. Assurance is designed to be the ordinary experience and
privilege of the believer.
20. LUTHER and BENGEL take this verse as consoling the believer whom his heart condemns; and who, therefore, like Peter, appeals from conscience to Him who is greater than conscience. "Lord, Thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love Thee." Peter's conscience, though condemning him of his sin in denying the Lord, assured him of his love; but fearing the possibility, owing to his past fall, of deceiving himself, he appeals to the all-knowing God: so Paul, @1Co 4:3,4. So if we be believers, even if our heart condemns us of sin in general, yet having the one sign of sonship, love, we may still assure our hearts (some oldest manuscripts read heart, @1Jo 3:19, as well as @1Jo 3:20), as knowing that God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. But thus the same Greek is translated "because" in the beginning, and "(we know) that" in the middle of the verse, and if the verse were consolatory, it probably would have been, "Because EVEN if our heart condemn us," &c. Therefore translate, "Because (rendering the reason why it has been stated in @1Jo 3:19 to be so important to 'assure our hearts before Him') if our heart condemn (Greek, 'know [aught] against us'; answering by contrast to 'we shall know that we are of the truth') us (it is) because God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things." If our heart judges us unfavorably, we may be sure that He, knowing more than our heart knows, judges us more unfavorably still [ALFORD]. A similar ellipsis ("it is") occurs in @1Co 14:27 2Co 1:6 8:23. The condemning testimony of our conscience is not alone, but is the echo of the voice of Him who is greater and knoweth all things. Our hypocrisy in loving by word and tongue, not in deed and truth, does not escape even our conscience, though weak and knowing but little, how much less God who knows all things! Still the consolatory view may be the right one. For the Greek for "we shall assure our hearts" (see on 1Jo 3:19), is gain over, persuade so as to be stilled, implying that there was a previous state of self-condemnation by the heart (@1Jo 3:20), which, however, is got over by the consolatory thought, "God is greater than my heart" which condemns me, and "knows all things" (Greek "ginoskei," "knows," not "kataginoskei," "condemns"), and therefore knows my love and desire to serve Him, and knows my frame so as to pity my weakness of faith. This gaining over the heart to peace is not so advanced a stage as the having CONFIDENCE towards God which flows from a heart condemning us not. The first "because" thus applies to the two alternate cases, @1Jo 3:20,21 (giving the ground of saying, that having love we shall gain over, or assure our minds before Him, @1Jo 3:19); the second "because" applies to the first alternate alone, namely, "if our heart condemn us." When he reaches the second alternate, @1Jo 3:21, he states it independently of the former "because" which had connected it with @1Jo 3:19, inasmuch as CONFIDENCE toward God is a farther stage than persuading our hearts, though always preceded by it.
21. Beloved--There is no "But" contrasting the two cases, @1Jo 3:20,21, because "Beloved" sufficiently marks the transition to the case of the brethren walking in the full confidence of love (@1Jo 3:18). The two results of our being able to "assure our hearts before Him" (@1Jo 3:19), and of "our heart condemning us not" (of insincerity as to the truth in general, and as to LOVE in particular) are, (1) confidence toward God; (2) a sure answer to our prayers. John does not mean that all whose hearts do not condemn them, are therefore safe before God; for some have their conscience seared, others are ignorant of the truth, and it is not only sincerity, but sincerity in the truth which can save men. Christians are those meant here: knowing Christ's precepts and testing themselves by them.
22. we receive--as a matter of fact, according to His promise.
Believers, as such, ask only what is in accordance with God's will; or
if they ask what God wills not, they bow their will to God's will, and
so God grants them either their request, or something better than it.
because we keep his commandments--Compare
@Ps 66:18 34:15 145:18,19. Not as though our merits earned a hearing
for our prayers, but when we are believers in Christ, all our works of
faith being the fruit of His Spirit in us, are "pleasing in God's
sight"; and our prayers being the voice of the same Spirit of God in us,
naturally and necessarily are answered by Him.
23. Summing up of God's commandments under the Gospel dispensation
in one commandment.
this is his commandment--singular: for faith and love are
not separate commandments, but are indissolubly united. We cannot
truly love one another without faith in Christ, nor can we truly
believe in Him without love.
believe--once for all; Greek aorist.
on the name of his Son--on all that is revealed in the Gospel
concerning Him, and on Himself in respect to His person, offices, and
atoning work.
as he--as Jesus gave us commandment.
24. dwelleth in him--The believer dwelleth in Christ.
and he in him--Christ in the believer. Reciprocity. "Thus he returns
to the great keynote of the Epistle, abide in Him, with which the
former part concluded" (@1Jo 2:28).
hereby--herein we (believers) know that he abideth in us, namely,
from (the presence in us of) the Spirit "which He hath given us." Thus
he prepares, by the mention of the true Spirit, for the transition to
the false "spirit," @1Jo 4:1-6; after which he returns again to the
subject of love.
CHAPTER 4
@1Jo 4:1-21. TESTS OF FALSE PROPHETS. LOVE, THE TEST OF BIRTH FROM GOD, AND THE NECESSARY FRUIT OF KNOWING HIS GREAT LOVE IN CHRIST TO US.
1. Beloved--the affectionate address wherewith he calls their
attention, as to an important subject.
every spirit--which presents itself in the person of a prophet. The
Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error, speak by men's spirits as
their organs. There is but one Spirit of truth, and one spirit of
Antichrist.
try--by the tests (@1Jo 4:2,3). All believers are to do so: not
merely ecclesiastics. Even an angel's message should be tested by the
word of God: much more men's teachings, however holy the teachers may
seem.
because, &c.--the reason why we must "try," or test the spirits.
many false prophets--not "prophets" in the sense "foretellers," but
organs of the spirit that inspires them, teaching accordingly either
truth or error: "many Antichrists."
are gone out--as if from God.
into the world--said alike of good and bad prophets
(@2Jo 1:7).
The world is easily seduced (@1Jo 4:4,5).
2. Hereby--"Herein."
know . . . the Spirit of God--whether he be, or not, in those teachers
professing to be moved by Him.
Every spirit--that is, Every teacher claiming inspiration by the
HOLY
SPIRIT.
confesseth--The truth is taken for granted as established. Man is
required to confess it, that is, in his teaching to profess it
openly.
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh--a twofold truth confessed, that
Jesus is the Christ, and that He is come (the Greek perfect tense implies not a mere past historical fact, as the aorist
would, but also the present continuance of the fact and its blessed effects)
in the flesh ("clothed with flesh": not with a mere
seeming humanity, as the Docetæ afterwards taught: He therefore
was, previously, something far above flesh). His flesh implies His
death for us, for only by assuming flesh could He die (for as God He
could not), @Heb 2:9,10,14,16; and His death implies His
LOVE for us
(@Joh 15:13). To deny the reality of His flesh is to deny His
love, and so cast away the root which produces all true love on the
believer's part (@1Jo 4:9-11,19). Rome, by the doctrine of the
immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, denies Christ's proper
humanity.
3. confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh--IRENÆUS
[3.8], LUCIFER,
ORIGEN, on @Mt 25:14, and Vulgate read, "Every
spirit which destroys (sets aside, or does away with) Jesus
(Christ)." CYPRIAN and
POLYCARP support English Version text. The
oldest extant manuscripts, which are, however, centuries after
POLYCARP,
read, "Every spirit that confesseth not (that is, refuses to confess)
Jesus" (in His person, and all His offices and divinity), omitting "is
come in the flesh."
ye have heard--from your Christian teachers.
already is it in the world--in the person of
the false prophets (@1Jo 4:1).
4. Ye--emphatical: YE
who confess Jesus: in contrast to "them," the
false teachers.
overcome them--(@1Jo 5:4,5); instead of being "overcome and brought
into (spiritual) bondage" by them (@2Pe 2:19). @Joh 10:8,5, "the
sheep did not hear them": "a stranger will they not follow, but will
flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
he that is in you--God, of whom ye are.
he that is in the word--the spirit of Antichrist, the devil, "the
prince of this world."
5. of the world--They derive their spirit and teaching from the
world, "unregenerate human nature, ruled over and possessed by Satan,
the prince of this world" [ALFORD].
speak they of the word--They draw the matter of their conversation
from the life, opinions, and feelings of the world.
the world heareth them--(@Joh 15:18,19).
The world loves its own.
6. We--true teachers of Christ: in contrast to them.
are of God--and therefore speak of God: in contrast to "speak
they of the world," @1Jo 4:5.
knoweth God--as his Father, being a child "of God"
(@1Jo 2:13,14).
heareth us--Compare @Joh 18:37, "Every one that is of the truth,
heareth My voice."
Hereby--(@1Jo 4:2-6); by their confessing, or not confessing,
Jesus; by the kind of reception given them respectively by those who
know God, and by those who are of the world and not of God.
spirit of truth--the Spirit which comes from God and teaches
truth.
spirit of error--the spirit which comes from Satan and seduces
into error.
7. Resumption of the main theme (@1Jo 2:29). Love, the sum
of righteousness, is the test of our being born of God. Love
flows from a sense of God's love to us: compare @1Jo 4:9 with
@1Jo 3:16, which @1Jo 4:9 resumes; and @1Jo 4:13 with
@1Jo 3:24, which similarly @1Jo 4:13 resumes. At the same time,
@1Jo 4:7-21 is connected with the immediately preceding context,
@1Jo 4:2 setting forth
Christ's incarnation, the great proof of God's love (@1Jo 4:10).
Beloved--an address appropriate to his subject, "love."
love--All love is from God as its fountain: especially that
embodiment of love, God manifest in the flesh. The Father also is
love (@1Jo 4:8). The Holy Ghost sheds love as its first
fruit abroad in the heart.
knoweth God--spiritually, experimentally, and habitually.
8. knoweth not--Greek aorist: not only knoweth not now, but
never knew, has not once for all known God.
God is love--There is no Greek article to love, but to God; therefore we cannot translate, Love is God. God is fundamentally and
essentially LOVE:
not merely is loving, for then John's argument would
not stand; for the conclusion from the premises then would be this,
This man is not loving: God is loving; therefore he knoweth not God
IN SO FAR AS
GOD IS LOVING; still he might know Him in His
other attributes. But when we take love as God's essence, the
argument is sound: This man doth not love, and
therefore knows not love: God is essentially love, therefore he
knows not God.
9. toward us--Greek, "in our case."
sent--Greek, "hath sent."
into the world--a proof against Socinians, that the Son existed before
He was "sent into the world." Otherwise, too, He could not have been our
life (@1Jo 4:9), our "propitiation" (@1Jo 4:10), or our
"Saviour" (@1Jo 4:14). It is the grand proof of God's love, His
having sent "His only-begotten Son, that we might live through Him,"
who is the Life, and who has redeemed our forfeited life; and it is
also the grand motive to our mutual love.
10. Herein is love--love in the abstract: love, in its highest
ideal, is herein. The love was all on God's side, none on ours.
not that we loved God--though so altogether worthy of love.
he loved us--though so altogether unworthy of love. The Greek aorist expresses, Not that we did any act of love at any time to
God, but that He did the act of love to us in sending Christ.
11. God's love to us is the grand motive for our love to one another
(@1Jo 3:16).
if--as we all admit as a fact.
we . . . also--as being born of God, and therefore resembling our
Father who is love. In proportion as we appreciate God's love to us, we
love Him and also the brethren, the children (by regeneration) of
the same God, the representatives of the unseen God.
12. God, whom no man hath seen at any time, hath appointed
His children as the visible recipients of our outward kindness which
flows from love to Himself, "whom not having seen, we love,"
compare Notes, 1Jo 4:11,
1Jo 4:19,20. Thus
@1Jo 4:12 explains why, instead (in @1Jo 4:11) of saying, "If
God so loved us, we ought also to love God," he said, "We ought also
to love one another."
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us--for God is love; and it
must have been from Him dwelling in us that we drew the real love we
bear to the brethren (@1Jo 4:8,16). John discusses this in
@1Jo 4:13-16.
his love--rather, "the love of Him," that is, "to Him" (@1Jo 2:5),
evinced by our love to His representatives, our brethren.
is perfected in us--John discusses this in @1Jo 4:17-19. Compare
@1Jo 2:5, "is perfected," that is, attains its proper maturity.
13. Hereby--"Herein." The token vouchsafed to us of God's dwelling (Greek, "abide") in us, though we see Him not, is this, that He hath given us "of His Spirit" (@1Jo 3:24). Where the Spirit of God is, there God is. ONE Spirit dwells in the Church: each believer receives a measure "of" that Spirit in the proportion God thinks fit. Love is His first-fruit (@Ga 5:22). In Jesus alone the Spirit dwelt without measure (@Joh 3:34).
14. And we--primarily, we apostles, Christ's appointed
eye-witnesses to testify to the facts concerning Him. The internal
evidence of the indwelling Spirit (@1Jo 4:13) is corroborated by the
external evidence of the eye-witnesses to the fact of the Father having
"sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world."
seen--Greek, "contemplated," "attentively beheld"
(see on 1Jo 1:1).
sent--Greek, "hath sent": not an entirely past fact (aorist),
but one of which the effects continue (perfect tense).
15. shall confess--once for all: so the Greek aorist means.
that Jesus is the Son of God--and therefore "the Saviour of the world"
(@1Jo 4:14).
16. And we--John and his readers (not as @1Jo 4:14,
the apostles only).
known and believed--True faith, according to John, is a faith of
knowledge and experience: true knowledge is a knowledge
of faith [LUECKE].
to us--Greek, "in our case"
(see on 1Jo 4:9).
dwelleth--Greek, "abideth." Compare with this verse,
@1Jo 4:7.
17, 18. (Compare @1Jo 3:19-21.)
our love--rather as the Greek, "LOVE
(in the abstract, the principle of love [ALFORD])
is made perfect (in its relations)
with us." Love dwelling in us advances to its consummation
"with us" that is, as it is concerned with us: so Greek. @Lu 1:58, "showed mercy upon (literally, 'with') her":
@2Jo 1:2, the truth "shall be with us for ever."
boldness--"confidence": the same Greek as @1Jo 3:21, to
which this passage is parallel. The opposite of "fear," @1Jo 4:18.
Herein is our love perfected, namely,
in God dwelling in us, and our dwelling in God (@1Jo 4:16),
involving as its result "that we can have confidence (or boldness)
in the day of judgment" (so terrible to all other men,
@Ac 24:25 Ro 2:16).
because, &c.--The ground of our "confidence" is, "because even
as He (Christ) is, we also are in this world"
(and He will not, in that
day, condemn those who are like Himself), that is, we are righteous as He is righteous, especially in respect to that which is the sum of
righteousness, love (@1Jo 3:14). Christ IS righteous, and
love itself, in heaven: so are we, His members, who are still "in
this world." Our oneness with Him even now in His exalted position
above (@Eph 2:6), so that all that belongs to Him of righteousness,
&c., belongs to us also by perfect imputation and progressive
impartation, is the ground of our love being
perfected so that we can have confidence in the day of judgment. We
are in, not of, this world.
18. Fear has no place in love. Bold confidence (@1Jo 4:17), based on love, cannot coexist with fear. Love,
which, when perfected, gives bold confidence, casts out fear (compare @Heb 2:14,15). The design of Christ's propitiatory death
was to deliver from this bondage of fear.
but--"nay" [ALFORD].
fear hath torment--Greek, "punishment." Fear is always revolving
in the mind the punishment deserved [ESTIUS]. Fear, by anticipating
punishment (through consciousness of deserving it), has it even now,
that is, the foretaste of it. Perfect love is incompatible with such
a self-punishing fear. Godly fear of offending God is quite distinct
from slavish fear of consciously deserved punishment. The latter
fear is natural to us all until love casts it out. "Men's
states vary: one is without fear and love; another, with fear without
love; another, with fear and love; another, without fear with love"
[BENGEL].
19. him--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Translate, We (emphatical: WE on our part) love (in general: love alike Him, and the brethren, and our fellow men), because He (emphatical: answering to "we"; because it was He who) first loved us in sending His Son (Greek aorist of a definite act at a point of time). He was the first to love us: this thought ought to create in us love casting out fear (@1Jo 4:18).
20. loveth not . . . brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen--It is easier for us, influenced as we are here
by sense, to direct love towards one within the range of our senses than
towards One unseen, appreciable only by faith. "Nature is prior to
grace; and we by nature love things seen, before we love things unseen"
[ESTIUS]. The eyes are our leaders in love. "Seeing is an incentive
to love" [ÆCUMENIUS].
If we do not love the brethren, the visible
representatives of God, how can we love God, the invisible One,
whose children they are? The true ideal of man, lost in Adam, is
realized in Christ, in whom God is revealed as He is, and man as he
ought to be. Thus, by faith in Christ, we learn to love both the true
God, and the true man, and so to love the brethren as bearing His image.
hath seen--and continually sees.
21. Besides the argument (@1Jo 4:20) from the common feeling of
men, he here adds a stronger one from God's express commandment (@Mt 22:39). He who loves, will do what the object of his love
wishes.
he who loveth God--he who wishes to be regarded by God as loving Him.
CHAPTER 5
@1Jo 5:1-21. WHO ARE THE BRETHREN ESPECIALLY TO BE LOVED (@1Jo 4:21); OBEDIENCE, THE TEST OF LOVE, EASY THROUGH FAITH, WHICH OVERCOMES THE WORLD. LAST PORTION OF THE EPISTLE. THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS TO THE BELIEVER'S SPIRITUAL LIFE. TRUTHS REPEATED AT THE CLOSE: FAREWELL WARNING.
1. Reason why our "brother" (@1Jo 4:21) is entitled to such
love, namely, because he is "born (begotten) of God": so that if we
want to show our love to God, we must show it to God's visible
representative.
Whosoever--Greek, "Everyone that." He could not be our "Jesus"
(God-Saviour) unless He were "the Christ"; for He could not reveal the
way of salvation, except He were a prophet: He could not work out
that salvation, except He were a priest: He could not confer that
salvation upon us, except He were a king: He could not be
prophet, priest, and king, except He were the Christ
[PEARSON,
Exposition of the Creed].
born--Translate, "begotten," as in the latter part of the verse, the
Greek being the same. Christ is the "only-begotten Son" by
generation; we become begotten sons of God by regeneration and
adoption.
every one that loveth him that begat--sincerely, not in mere profession
(@1Jo 4:20).
loveth him also that is begotten of him--namely, "his brethren"
(@1Jo 4:21).
2. By--Greek, "In." As our love to the brethren is the sign
and test of our love to God, so (John here says) our love to God (tested by our "keeping his commandments") is, conversely, the ground
and only true basis of love to our brother.
we know--John means here, not the outward criteria of genuine
brotherly love, but the inward spiritual criteria of it,
consciousness of love to God manifested in a hearty keeping of His
commandments. When we have this inwardly and outwardly confirmed
love to God, we can know assuredly that we truly
love the children of God. "Love to one's brother is prior,
according to the order of nature
(see on 1Jo 4:20);
love to God is so, according to the order of grace (@1Jo 5:2).
At one time the former is more immediately known, at another time the
latter, according as the mind is more engaged in human relations or in
what concerns the divine honor" [ESTIUS]. John shows what true love is, namely, that which is referred to God as its first object. As
previously John urged the effect, so now he urges the cause. For he
wishes mutual love to be so cultivated among us, as that God should
always be placed first [CALVIN].
3. this is--the love of God consists in this.
not grievous--as so many think them. It is "the way of the
transgressor" that "is hard." What makes them to the regenerate "not
grievous," is faith which "overcometh the world" (@1Jo 5:4):in
proportion as faith is strong, the grievousness of God's commandments to
the rebellious flesh is overcome. The reason why believers feel any
degree of irksomeness in God's commandments is, they do not realize
fully by faith the privileges of their spiritual life.
4. For--(See on 1Jo 5:3). The reason why "His commandments
are not grievous." Though there is a conflict in keeping them, the sue
for the whole body of the regenerate is victory over every opposing
influence; meanwhile there is a present joy to each believer in
keeping them which makes them "not grievous."
whatsoever--Greek, "all that is begotten of God." The neuter
expresses the universal whole, or aggregate of the regenerate,
regarded as one collective body @Joh 3:6 6:37,39, "where
BENGEL
remarks, that in Jesus' discourses, what the Father has given Him is
called, in the singular number and neuter gender, all whatsoever;
those who come to the Son are described in the masculine gender and
plural number, they all, or singular, every one. The Father has
given, as it were, the whole mass to the Son, that all whom He gave may
be one whole: that universal whole the Son singly evolves, in
the execution of the divine plan."
overcometh--habitually.
the world--all that is opposed to keeping the commandments of God,
or draws us off from God, in this world, including our corrupt
flesh, on which the world's blandishments or threats act, as also
including Satan, the prince of this world (@Joh 12:31 14:30 16:11).
this is the victory that overcometh--Greek aorist, ". . . that
hath (already) overcome the world": the victory
(where faith is) hereby is implied as having been
already obtained (@1Jo 2:13 4:4).
5. Who--"Who" else "but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God:" "the Christ" (@1Jo 5:1)? Confirming, by a triumphant question defying all contradiction, as an undeniable fact, @1Jo 5:4, that the victory which overcomes the world is faith. For it is by believing: that we are made one with Jesus the Son of God, so that we partake of His victory over the world, and have dwelling in us One greater than he who is in the world (@1Jo 4:4). "Survey the whole world, and show me even one of whom it can be affirmed with truth that he overcomes the world, who is not a Christian, and endowed with this faith" [EPISCOPIUS in ALFORD].
6. This--the Person mentioned in @1Jo 5:5. This Jesus.
he that came by water and blood--"by water," when His ministry was
inaugurated by baptism in the Jordan, and He received the Father's
testimony to His Messiahship and divine Sonship. Compare @1Jo 5:5,
"believeth that Jesus is the Son of God," with @Joh 1:33,34, "The
Spirit . . . remaining on Him . . . I saw and bare record that this is
the Son of God"; and @1Jo 5:8, below, "there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood."
Corresponding to this is the baptism of water and the Spirit which
He has instituted as a standing seal and mean of initiatory
incorporation with Him.
and blood--He came by "the blood of His cross" (so "by" is used,
@Heb 9:12: "by," that is, with, "His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place"): a fact seen and so solemnly witnessed to
by John. "These two past facts in the Lord's life are this abiding
testimony to us, by virtue of the permanent application to us of
their cleansing and atoning power."
Jesus Christ--not a mere appellation, but a solemn assertion of the
Lord's Person and Messiahship.
not by, &c.--Greek, "not IN the water only, but
IN the
water and IN (so oldest manuscripts add) the blood." As "by"
implies the mean through, or with, which He came: so "in,"
the element in which He came. "The" implies that the water and
the blood were sacred and well-known symbols. John Baptist came only
baptizing with water, and therefore was not the Messiah. Jesus came
first to undergo Himself the double baptism of water and blood, and then
to baptize us with the Spirit-cleansing, of which water is the
sacramental seal, and with His atoning blood, the efficacy of which,
once for all shed, is perpetual in the Church; and therefore is
the Messiah. It was His shed blood which first gave
water baptism its spiritual significancy. We are baptized
into His death: the grand point of union between us and Him, and,
through Him, between us and God.
it is the Spirit, &c.--The Holy Spirit is an additional witness
(compare @1Jo 5:7), besides the water and the blood, to
Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship. The Spirit attested these truths
at Jesus' baptism by descending on Him, and throughout His ministry by
enabling Him to speak and do what man never before or since has spoken
or, done; and "it is the Spirit that beareth witness" of Christ, now
permanently in the Church: both in the inspired New Testament
Scriptures, and in the hearts of believers, and in the spiritual
reception of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
because the Spirit is truth--It is His essential truth which gives
His witness such infallible authority.
7. three--Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth," are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus, copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples, with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the old versions omit the words. The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate manuscript which has them being Wizanburgensis, 99, of the eighth century. A scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts "there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS OF THE TRINITY. To this CYPRIAN, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using "three" (Greek) in the masculine, though the antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That THE TRINITY was the truth meant is a natural inference: the triad specified pointing to a still Higher Trinity; as is plain also from @1Jo 5:9, "the witness of GOD," referring to the Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water, and blood. It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth the divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. LUECKE notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses "the Father" and "the Word" as correlates, but, like other New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the Father," and always refers "the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not "the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first who quotes the disputed words as in the text; but no Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth is extant with them. The term "Trinity" occurs first in the third century in TERTULLIAN [Against Praxeas, 3].
8. agree in one--"tend unto one result"; their agreeing testimony to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship they give by the sacramental grace in the water of baptism, received by the penitent believer, by the atoning efficacy of His blood, and by the internal witness of His Spirit (@1Jo 5:10):answering to the testimony given to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship by His baptism, His crucifixion, and the Spirit's manifestations in Him (see on 1Jo 5:6). It was by His coming by water (that is, His baptism in Jordan) that Jesus was solemnly inaugurated in office, and revealed Himself as Messiah; this must have been peculiarly important in John's estimation, who was first led to Christ by the testimony of the Baptist. By the baptism then received by Christ, and by His redeeming blood-shedding, and by that which the Spirit of God, whose witness is infallible, has effected, and still effects, by Him, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite, as the threefold witness, to verify His divine Messiahship [NEANDER].
9. If, &c.--We do accept (and rightly so) the witness of veracious
men, fallible though they be; much more ought we to accept the infallible witness of God (the Father). "The testimony of the Father is,
as it were, the basis of the testimony of the Word and of the Holy
Spirit; just as the testimony of the Spirit is, as it were, the
basis of the testimony of the water and the blood"
[BENGEL].
for--This principle applies in the present case, FOR
which--in the oldest manuscripts, "because He hath given testimony
concerning His Son." What that testimony is we find above in
@1Jo 5:1,5, "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God"; and below in
@1Jo 5:10,11.
10. hath the witness--of God, by His Spirit (@1Jo 5:8).
in himself--God's Spirit dwelling in him and witnessing that
"Jesus is the Lord," "the Christ," and "the Son of God" (@1Jo 5:1,5).
The witness of the Spirit in the believer himself to his own
sonship is not here expressed, but follows as a consequence of believing
the witness of God to Jesus' divine Sonship.
believeth not God--credits not His witness.
made him a liar--a consequence which many who virtually, or even
avowedly, do not believe, may well startle back from as fearful
blasphemy and presumption (@1Jo 1:10).
believeth not the record--Greek, "believeth not IN the record,
or witness." Refusal to credit God's testimony ("believeth not
God") is involved in refusal to believe IN
(to rest one's trust in)
Jesus Christ, the object of God's record or testimony. "Divine
"faith" is an assent unto something as credible upon the testimony of
God. This is the highest kind of faith; because the object hath the
highest credibility, because grounded upon the testimony of God, which
is infallible" [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed]. "The authority
on which we believe is divine; the doctrine which we follow is divine"
[LEO].
gave--Greek, "hath testified, and now testifies."
of--concerning.
11. hath given--Greek, aorist: "gave" once for all. Not only
"promised" it.
life is in his Son--essentially (@Joh 1:4 11:25 14:6); bodily
(@Col 2:9); operatively (@2Ti 1:10)
[LANGE in
ALFORD]. It is in
the second Adam, the Son of God, that this life is secured to us,
which, if left to depend on us, we should lose, like the first Adam.
12. the Son . . . life--Greek, "THE life." BENGEL remarks, The verse has two clauses: in the former the Son is mentioned without the addition "of God," for believers know the Son: in the second clause the addition "of God" is made, that unbelievers may know thereby what a serious thing it is not to have Him. In the former clause "has" bears the emphasis; in the second, life. To have the Son is to be able to say as the bride, "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine" [@So 6:3]. Faith is the mean whereby the regenerate HAVE Christ as a present possession, and in having Him have life in its germ and reality now, and shall have life in its fully developed manifestation hereafter. Eternal life here is: (1) initial, and is an earnest of that which is to follow; in the intermediate state (2) partial, belonging but to a part of a man, though that is his nobler part, the soul separated from the body; at and after the resurrection (3) perfectional. This life is not only natural, consisting of the union of the soul and the body (as that of the reprobate in eternal pain, which ought to be termed death eternal, not life), but also spiritual, the union of the soul to God, and supremely blessed for ever (for life is another term for happiness) [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].
13. The oldest manuscripts and versions read, "These things have I
written unto you [omitting
'that believe on the name of the Son of God'] that ye may know that
ye have eternal life (compare @1Jo 5:11),
THOSE (of you I mean)
WHO
believe (not as English Version reads, 'and that ye may believe')
on the name of the Son of God." English Version, in the latter
clause, will mean, "that ye may continue to believe," &c. (compare
@1Jo 5:12).
These things--This Epistle. He, towards the close of his Gospel
(@Joh 20:30,31), wrote similarly, stating his purpose in having
written. In @1Jo 1:4 he states the object of his writing this Epistle
to be, "that your joy may be full." To "know that we have eternal life"
is the sure way to "joy in God."
14. the confidence--boldness (@1Jo 4:17) in prayer, which
results from knowing that we have eternal life (@1Jo 5:13 1Jo 3:19,22).
according to his will--which is the believer's will, and which is
therefore no restraint to his prayers. In so far as God's will is not
our will, we are not abiding in faith, and our prayers are not accepted.
ALFORD well says, If we knew God's will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be impossible for us to ask anything for the
spirit or for the body which He should not perform; it is this ideal
state which the apostle has in view. It is the Spirit who teaches
us inwardly, and Himself in us asks according to the will of God.
15. hear--Greek, "that He heareth us."
we have the petitions that we desired of him--We have, as present
possessions, everything whatsoever we desired (asked) from Him. Not one of our past prayers offered in faith,
according to His will, is lost. Like Hannah, we can rejoice over
them as granted even before the event; and can recognize the event when
it comes to pass, as not from chance, but obtained by our past prayers.
Compare also Jehoshaphat's believing confidence in the issue of his
prayers, so much so that he appointed singers to praise the Lord
beforehand.
16. If any . . . see--on any particular occasion; Greek aorist.
his brother--a fellow Christian.
sin a sin--in the act of sinning, and continuing in the sin: present.
not unto death--provided that it is not unto death.
he shall give--The asker shall be the means, by his intercessory
prayer, of God giving life to the sinning brother. Kindly reproof
ought to accompany his intercessions. Life was in process of being
forfeited by the sinning brother when the believer's intercession
obtained its restoration.
for them--resuming the proviso put forth in the beginning of the
verse. "Provided that the sin is not unto death." "Shall give life," I
say, to, that is, obtain life "for (in the case of) them that
sin not unto death."
I do not say that he shall pray for it--The Greek for "pray" means
a REQUEST as of one on an equality, or at least on terms of familiarity,
with him from whom the favor is sought. "The Christian intercessor for
his brethren, John declares, shall not assume the authority which would
be implied in making request for a sinner who has sinned the sin unto
death (@1Sa 15:35 16:1 Mr 3:29), that it might be forgiven him"
[TRENCH, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. Compare @De 3:26.
Greek "ask" implies the humble petition of an inferior; so that our
Lord never uses it, but always uses (Greek) "request." Martha, from
ignorance, once uses "ask" in His case (@Joh 11:22). "Asking" for a
brother sinning not unto death, is a humble petition in consonance with
God's will. To "request" for a sin unto death
[intercede, as it were, authoritatively for it, as though we were
more merciful than God] would savor of presumption; prescribing to God
in a matter which lies out of the bounds of our brotherly yearning
(because one sinning unto death would thereby be demonstrated not to
be, nor ever to have been, truly a brother, @1Jo 2:19), how He
shall inflict and withhold His righteous judgments. Jesus Himself
intercedes, not for the world which hardens itself in unbelief, but for
those given to Him out of the world.
17. "Every unrighteousness (even that of believers, compare
@1Jo 1:9 3:4. Every coming short of right) is sin";
(but) not every sin is the sin unto death.
and there is a sin not unto death--in the case of which, therefore,
believers may intercede. Death and life stand in correlative
opposition (@1Jo 5:11-13). The sin unto death must be one
tending "towards" (so the Greek), and so resulting in, death.
ALFORD makes it to be an appreciable ACT of sin, namely,
the denying Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God (in contrast to
confess this truth, @1Jo 5:1,5), @1Jo 2:19,22 4:2,3 5:10. Such
wilful deniers of Christ are not to be received into one's house, or
wished "God speed." Still, I think with BENGEL,
not merely the act, but also the state of apostasy accompanying the act, is
included--a "state of soul in which faith, love, and hope, in short,
the new life, is extinguished. The chief commandment is faith and
love. Therefore, the chief sin is that by which faith and love are
destroyed. In the former case is life; in the latter, death. As
long as it is not evident
(see on 1Jo 5:16, on 'see') that it
is a sin unto death, it is lawful to pray. But when it is deliberate
rejection of grace, and the man puts from him life thereby, how can
others procure for him life?" Contrast @Jas 5:14-18. Compare
@Mt 12:31,32 as to the wilful rejection of Christ, and resistance
to the Holy Ghost's plain testimony to Him as the divine Messiah.
Jesus, on the cross, pleaded only for those who KNEW NOT
what they were doing in crucifying Him, not for those wilfully
resisting grace and knowledge. If we pray for the impenitent, it
must be with humble reference of the matter to God's will, not with the
intercessory request which we should offer for a brother when
erring.
18. (@1Jo 3:9.)
We know--Thrice repeated emphatically, to enforce the three truths
which the words preface, as matters of the brethren's joint experimental
knowledge. This @1Jo 5:18 warns against abusing @1Jo 5:16,17, as
warranting carnal security.
whosoever--Greek, "every one who." Not only advanced believers,
but every one who is born again, "sinneth not."
he that is begotten--Greek aorist, "has been (once for all in
past time) begotten of God"; in the beginning of the verse it is
perfect. "Is begotten," or "born," as a continuing state.
keepeth himself--The Vulgate translates, "The having been begotten
of God keepeth HIM" (so one of the oldest manuscripts reads): so
ALFORD.
Literally, "He having been begotten of God (nominative pendent), it (the divine generation implied in the nominative) keepeth him." So
@1Jo 3:9, "His seed remaineth in him." Still, in English Version reading, God's working by His Spirit inwardly, and man's working under
the power of that Spirit as a responsible agent, is what often occurs
elsewhere. That God must keep us, if we are to keep ourselves from evil, is certain. Compare @Joh 17:15 especially with this
verse.
that wicked one toucheth him not--so as to hurt him. In so far as he
realizes his regeneration-life, the prince of this world
hath nothing in him to fasten his deadly temptations on, as in
Christ's own case. His divine regeneration has severed once for all
his connection with the prince of this world.
19. world lieth in wickedness--rather, "lieth in the wicked one," as the Greek is translated in @1Jo 5:18 1Jo 2:13,14; compare @1Jo 4:4 Joh 17:14,15. The world lieth in the power of, and abiding in, the wicked one, as the resting-place and lord of his slaves; compare "abideth in death," @1Jo 3:14; contrast @1Jo 5:20, "we are in Him that is true." While the believer has been delivered out of his power, the whole world lieth helpless and motionless still in it, just as it was; including the wise, great, respectable, and all who are not by vital union in Christ.
20. Summary of our Christian privileges.
is come--is present, having come. "HE IS HERE--all
is full of Him--His incarnation, work, and abiding presence, is to us a living
fact" [ALFORD].
given us an understanding--Christ's, office is to give the inner
spiritual understanding to discern the things of God.
that we may know--Some oldest manuscripts read, "(so) that
we know."
him that is true--God, as opposed to every kind of idol or false
god (@1Jo 5:21). Jesus, by virtue of His oneness with God, is also
"He that is true" (@Re 3:7).
even--"we are in the true" God, by virtue of being "in His
Son Jesus Christ."
This is the true God--"This Jesus Christ (the last-named Person)
is the true God" (identifying Him thus with the Father in His attribute,
"the only true God," @Joh 17:3, primarily attributed to the Father).
and eternal life--predicated of the Son of God;
ALFORD wrongly says,
He was the life, but not eternal life. The Father is indeed
eternal life as its source, but the Son also is that
eternal life manifested, as the very passage (@1Jo 1:2) which
ALFORD quotes, proves against him. Compare also @1Jo 5:11,13.
Plainly it is as the Mediator of ETERNAL LIFE to us that Christ
is here contemplated. The Greek is, "The true God and eternal life
is this" Jesus Christ, that is, In believing in Him we believe in the
true God, and have eternal life. The Son is called "He that is TRUE,"
@Re 3:7, as here. This naturally prepares the way for warning
against false gods (@1Jo 5:21). Jesus Christ is the only
"express image of God's person" which is sanctioned, the only true
visible manifestation of God. All other representations of God are
forbidden as idols. Thus the Epistle closes as it began
(@1Jo 1:1,2).
21. Affectionate parting caution.
from idols--Christians were then everywhere surrounded by
idolaters, with whom it was impossible to avoid intercourse. Hence
the need of being on their guard against any even indirect compromise or
act of communion with idolatry. Some at Pergamos, in the region whence
John wrote, fell into the snare of eating things sacrificed to idols.
The moment we cease to abide "in Him that is true (by abiding) in Jesus
Christ," we become part of "the world that lieth in the wicked one,"
given up to spiritual, if not in all places literal, idolatry
(@Eph 5:5 Col 3:5).
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