1 JOHN CHAPTER 2 1 JOHN 2:1,2 Christ is our advocate with the Father,
and a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. 1 JOHN 2:3 Rightly
to know God is to keep his commandments, 1 JOHN 2:7 the chief of which
is, to love one another. 1 JOHN 2:12 The apostle addresseth Christians
of all ages sever... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE IS THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS: the adding of these words,
shows that our Lord grounds his intercession for pardon of sin unto
penitent believers, upon his having made atonement for them before;
and therefore that he doth not herein merely supplicate for favour,
but (which is the proper bus... [ Continue Reading ]
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This faith is often in the Holy Scripture signified by the name of
knowledge, ISAIAH 53:11 1 THESSALONIANS 17:3, viz. an appropriative,
transformative knowledge, by which we own and accept God in Christ, as
ours, (expressed also by acknowledgment, epignwsiv, EPHESIANS 1:17
COLOSSIANS 2:2), a... [ Continue Reading ]
A LIAR; a false, hypocritical pretender, as 1 JOHN 1:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
His faith _worketh by love,_ GALATIANS 5:6; his love is PERFECTED, and
attains its end in obedience, whereof it is the vital principle, 1
JOHN 5:3 1 THESSALONIANS 14:15. Such an efficacious governing
knowledge of him, therefore, as, by the power of the love which it
produces, subdues our souls to th... [ Continue Reading ]
And this proof we ought to give. For whereas our Lord Jesus Christ was
not only our Lawgiver, but our pattern, and practised himself what he
commanded us; if indeed we have an abiding, real union with him, we
partake of his Spirit, ROMANS 8:9, which must be understood to work
uniformly, and enable u... [ Continue Reading ]
This commandment must be that which he insists on, 1 JOHN 2:9, and
which in different respects he calleth both OLD and NEW. Not _new, _
he says, in opposition to their Gnostic seducers, to intimate he was
not about to entertain them with vain novelties, as they did; all
whose peculiar doctrines were... [ Continue Reading ]
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Yet also he calls it _a new commandment, _ as our Saviour did, 1
THESSALONIANS 13:34, upon the subjoined accounts. WHICH THING IS TRUE;
i.e. evident, or verified, fulfilled, exemplified. IN HIM; viz. in
that new and high demonstration he had given of the sincerity and
greatness of his own lo... [ Continue Reading ]
To be IN THE LIGHT, signifies to be under the transforming, governing
power of it, as the phrases import of being _in the flesh, _ and _in
the Spirit,_ ROMANS 8:9, being expounded by walking _after the flesh,
_ and _after the Spirit,_ 1 JOHN 2:1. He therefore that HATETH HIS
BROTHER, a thing so cont... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS BROTHER, put indefinitely, must be understood universally, i.e. he
that loveth not this or that fellow Christian, upon some personal or
private reason, but _all, _ upon one and the same common and truly
Christian account. ABIDETH IN THE LIGHT; shows or doth demonstrate the
settled, constant powe... [ Continue Reading ]
Hath no principle to guide or govern him, but what is common to the
unregenerate world, so that his whole life is a continual error; nor
doth he understand or consider the tendency of his course, being still
under the power of an affected darkness, that makes his eyes, or
understanding, of no more u... [ Continue Reading ]
He here uses an appellation before _\1 JOHN 2:1\_ applied to all in
common, being put alone; but being now set in contradistinction to
others, must be understood to intend a distinct rank of Christians,
viz. those more newly entered into the Christian state; and to them he
suggests the free remissio... [ Continue Reading ]
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UNTO FATHERS, because to such belong much experience, and the
knowledge of ancient things, he ascribeth the knowledge of HIM WHO IS
the Ancient of days, FROM THE BEGINNING, and than whom none is more
ancient, and whom they should be supposed so well to know by their
long continued course in... [ Continue Reading ]
To the former sort he only repeateth what he had said before,
supposing their greater wisdom to need no more; (see L. Brugens. Not.
in Bibl. Sacr. of the insertion of this clause); only the repetition
importeth his earnest desire they would again and again consider it.
The other he also puts in mind... [ Continue Reading ]
What he here means by the forbidden object of our love, must be
gathered from his own explication, 1 JOHN 2:16. The love itself
forbidden, in reference thereto, is that excess thereof, whereby any
adhere to terrene things, as their best good; wherewith, as he adds,
any sincere love to God is inconsi... [ Continue Reading ]
Here he explains his meaning, what, under the name of THE WORLD, and
_the things_ of it, we are not to love, or under what notion we ought
not to love it, viz. the world as it contains the objects and
nutriment of these mentioned lusts; either more grossly sensual,
called _the lust of the flesh, _ v... [ Continue Reading ]
He sets the difference in view, of living according to the common
genius, will, or inclination of the world, (which is lust), and
according to the Divine will, that he who unites himself in his will
and desire with the former, which vanishes, (objects and appetite
altogether), must (which is implied... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAST TIME; the time here referred to seems to be the destruction
of Jerusalem, and the finishing of the Jewish state, both civil and
ecclesiastical. In the Greek, the last hour, the approaching period of
Daniel's seventy weeks, as Mr. Mede understands it, in his Apostacy of
the Later Times. Wher... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THEY HAD BEEN OF US, THEY WOULD NO DOUBT HAVE CONTINUED WITH US:
sincere and living Christians are so strongly held in with Christ, and
the truly Christian community, by a union and bond of life, and by
sense of pleasures which thereupon they find in that holy communion,
with the expectation whic... [ Continue Reading ]
SEE POOLE ON "1 JOHN 2:27".... [ Continue Reading ]
He prudently intimates his confidence concerning them, together with
the pleasure he himself took (as any one would) in communicating the
sentiments of holy truth to prepared, receptive minds; implying also,
that any part of false doctrine doth so ill match and square with the
frame of Divine truth,... [ Continue Reading ]
Especially may the ill accord be discerned between Divine truth and a
lie, when the lie is so directly levelled against the foundations upon
which the whole fabric is built, as the denying Jesus to be the Christ
strikes at all. And though he that doth so, seems not only an
ANTICHRIST as directing hi... [ Continue Reading ]
To have the Father and the Son, is, by faith, love, and obedience,
vitally to adhere to the one and the other. The latter part of this
verse, though it be not in the ordinary Greek copies, is in some of
the versions, and said to be in some Greek manuscripts also, whence it
is supplied very agreeably... [ Continue Reading ]
He only exhorts them to persevere in that faith which they at first
received, whereby their union with God in Christ would be preserved
entire.... [ Continue Reading ]
Which perseverance they are highly encouraged to by the promise of so
great a thing as eternal life at length.... [ Continue Reading ]
So much he thought requisite to be said, in respect of their danger by
seducers, though their safety was principally to depend upon what he
next mentions... SEE POOLE ON "1 JOHN 2:27".... [ Continue Reading ]
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BUT THE ANOINTING WHICH YE HAVE RECEIVED: it is evident, that the
ancient anointing of persons to some eminent office, was not a mere
empty rite of investiture, or authorization, but also a symbol of
their qualification by another Spirit then coming upon them. Whereupon
our Lord Jesus was em... [ Continue Reading ]
He condescendingly includes himself with them, THAT WE MAY HAVE
CONFIDENCE; intimating, for their encouragement, the common mutual joy
they should have together at Christ's appearance; he, that he had not
been wanting in his endeavours that they might persevere; and they,
that they had persevered; w... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest he should be thought only solicitous to preserve among them the
right notions of the Christian docrine, as if that alone would suffice
them for their salvation and blessedness, (which was the conceit of
the Gnostics, touching their own notions, that the entertaining of
them would save men, what... [ Continue Reading ]