1 John 4:9

ἐν τούτῳ ἐφ. For the sake of uniformity with 1 John 4:10; 1 John 4:13; 1 John 4:17, Herein was manifested: we have the same Greek in all four verses. ‘Herein’ plainly refers to what follows: comp. 1 John 3:16 and see on 1 John 3:19. For ἐφανερώθη see on 1 John 1:2. This is a second reason for our loving one another. We must do this (1) because love is the very Being of Him whose children we are; (2) because of the transcendent way in which His love was manifested. The context shews that ‘the love of God’, which usually in this Epistle means our love to God, here means His love to us: comp. 1 John 3:16.

ἐν ἡμῖν. Rather in us than ‘toward us’: we are in the sphere in which God’s love is exhibited: comp. 1 John 4:16 and John 9:3, which is very parallel. The latter passage tends to shew that ἐν ἡμῖν is to be joined with ἐφανερώθη rather than with ἡ�. θεοῦ: Herein was the love of God manifested in us. The rendering ‘in our case’ (R.V. margin) is improbable: comp. 1 John 4:12.

τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μον. His Son, His only-begotten: comp. John 3:16. As in τήν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον (1 John 1:2), ἡ κοινωνία ἡ ἡμετέρα (1 John 1:3), ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ παλαιά (1 John 2:7), and τὸ φῶς τὸ� (1 John 2:8), the repetition of the article makes both ideas, ‘son’ and ‘only-begotten’, prominent and distinct. Comp. 2 John 1:11; 2 John 1:13. His Son was much to send, but it was also His only Son. Μονογενής as applied to Christ is peculiar to S. John: it occurs four times in the Gospel (John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16; John 3:18) and here. ‘Only-born’ would be a more accurate rendering: Christ is the only born Son as distinct from the many who have become sons. The word occurs in LXX. to translate a Hebrew word (yachid), which is elsewhere rendered ἀγαπητός (‘beloved’ or ‘darling’): and oddly enough where the Greek has μονογενής the A.V. has ‘darling’ and vice versa. Contrast Genesis 22:2; Genesis 22:12; Genesis 22:16 with Psalms 22:21; Psalms 35:17 : in the latter texts R.V. has ‘my only one’ in the margin. The Vulgate has unigenitus and unicus. Comp. Romans 5:8; Romans 8:32.

ἀπέσταλκεν. Hath sent; the perfect indicates the permanent result of Christ’s mission and should be distinguished from the aorists, ἠγάπησεν and ἀπέστειλεν, which express past acts without reference to their permanent effects (1 John 4:10).

ἵνα ζήσωμεν διʼ αὐτοῦ. These are the important words, setting forth that in which God’s love is so conspicuous and so unique. The only Son has been sent for this purpose (ἵνα), that we may live, and not die, as we should otherwise have done; comp. 1 John 3:14; 1 John 5:11; John 3:16-17; John 3:36; John 10:10; John 11:25-26. Just as πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο (John 1:3), so He was sent ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος διʼ αὐτοῦ (John 3:17) and ἵνα ζήσωμεν διʼ αὐτοῦ.