ANALYSIS. Believe not false teachers that urge the acceptance of their false doctrines upon you, for such are in the world. First try them. Here is a certain test. If they do not confess that Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh, they are antichrist, and are of the world and speak for the world.... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 1. BELOVED, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT. Here a solemn injunction is laid upon the brethren to whom this epistle is addressed. We must first understand just what is exacted of us before we can comply with the injunction. What is it to believe but to have faith in? We are not to believe what? Eve... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 2. HEREBY KNOW YE THE SPIRIT OF GOD. There is, then, a spirit which is of God, and a spirit not of God. The former only are we to place faith in, and the latter reject. That we may know assuredly the spirit which is of God, this shall be the criterion, the crucial test the spirit that confess... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 3. AND EVERY SPIRIT THAT CONFESSETH NOT. The crucial test being given, and the spirit tried by this test refusing to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, you may know, beyond question, is not of God, but is of antichrist. It was not only foretold that antichrist would come, but be... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 4. YE ARE OF GOD, LITTLE CHILDREN. These, here called little children, were the servants of God, had received God's spirit, were enabled to detect and refute these false teachers, because they believed in and relied upon God. The spirit that was in them was greater and mightier, being from Go... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 5. THEY ARE OF THE WORLD. These false teachers are of the world. They belong to the world, and, speaking only from the principles of the world, all of their own kind, the wicked in the world, listen to and receive their utterances with pleasure.... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 6. WE ARE OF GOD. Here, I think, the writer, by the word "we," means the apostles. They were clothed with miraculous or God-given powers, by which they could demonstrate that their message was from God. Now, a teacher who knows God, will hear us apostles and acknowledge our authority. A teach... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 7. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER. We must not in any manner imitate the false teachers, for they would lead us astray, but be governed by the example and spirit of our Master. We show, as he did, by doing the will of God, our love of God. His command, repeated over and over again, is that... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 8. HE THAT LOVETH NOT, KNOWETH NOT GOD. We may pretend what we please, and yet if we do not love our brother, we do not know God aright, for GOD IS LOVE. God is essentially love. Here there is no mixture of malevolence whatever. As he is infinite in his other attributes, so in this God is i... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 9. IN THIS WAS MANIFESTED THE LOVE OF GOD. The highest and grandest possible demonstration God could give to the world of his love is the sending of his Son his only begotten Son that through him the world might be saved might have life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only bego... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 10. HEREIN IS LOVE. The highest and grandest exhibition of love ever known, or that can be known in the universe, God manifested to man. While man loved not while man was an enemy to God God sent his Son into the world to die for man, that thereby a way might be opened up by which man the ene... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 11. BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US. Now, if God so loved us while we were sinners, we at least ought to show our gratitude for his matchless mercy by imitating his example in loving one another.... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 12. NO MAN BATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME. By our mortal eyes we can not see God. He has not been so seen by any one at any time. He is invisible. We, however, may have a sense of his presence in us, and this we know when we are assured that we love the brethren, for this is of God. His nature abi... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 13. HEREBY KNOW WE THAT WE DWELL IN HIM. The term "we," it would appear, more particularly applies to the apostles than to believers generally. I so conclude from the statement "he hath given to us of his Spirit." It is true, all believers have the Spirit, but when the next verse is consulted... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 14. AND WE HAVE SEEN AND DO TESTIFY. This is certainly personal. By the "we" John means himself and fellow apostles. They saw the Son when he was here on earth saw his miracles; heard his teaching; saw him die. Saw him, and heard him, and handled him after his resurrection. Received from him... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 15. WHOSOEVER SHALL CONFESS, This is largely a repetition of verse 2; the only difference being that in verse 2, one coming and confessing that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh would be proof that the one so confessing did not possess the spirit of a false prophet; whereas, in the verse bef... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 16.--AND WE HAVE KNOWN AND BELIEVED. Whether we love God or not is a matter of knowledge. That God loved us we believed when we heard the message of love his inspired apostles brought to us. And keeping the divine model before, and observing all God's requirements, increase our confidence to... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 17. HEREIN IS OUR LOVE MADE PERFECT. By the operation of God's love in our hearts we are enabled to love our brethren and our neighbor, exhibiting the fruits of our love all around us, and so perfecting our love that when the great day of judgment shall come, we shall stand before him in all... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 18. THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE. The word fear is here used in the sense of terror. Now, this kind of fear is banished when love appears. There may be, and there is, and there ought to be the fear of reverence. PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR. Where one truly loves God and his fellow-man all fea... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 19. WE LOVE HIM, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US. Love begets love. God's wonderful love, exhibited through Christ, fills every redeemed soul with love, and we show our love and gratitude to God by loving our brethren.... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 20. IF A MAN SAY, I LOVE GOD. How can any one say he loves the unseen One, and yet hates his brother, whom he sees and knows. Such a claim is mere pretense. The one so claiming, the apostle says, is a liar. Here, then, we need not be deceived. Should one claiming to be a teacher, claim that h... [ Continue Reading ]
VERSE 21. AND THIS COMMANDMENT HAVE WE FROM HIM. Besides, we all have God's will, expressed in a command given by him, that every one who loves God must love his brother also. This is the end of the matter. No command can be obeyed in part. A rejection of a part is the rejection of the whole, and i... [ Continue Reading ]