1 John 2:23

The previous statement is emphasized by an expansion of it stated both negatively and positively. The expansion consists in declaring that to deny the Son is not merely to do that, and indeed not merely to deny the Father, but also (οὐδέ) to debar oneself from communion with the Father. So that we now have a third consequence of denying that Jesus is the Christ. To deny this is (1) to deny the Son, which is (2) to deny the Father, which is (3) to be cut off from the Father. -To have the Father" must not be weakened to mean -to hold as an article of faith that He is the Father"; still less, -to know the Father's will". It means, quite literally, -to have Him as his own Father". Those who deny the Son cancel their own right to be called -sons of God": they ipso factoexcommunicate themselves from the great Christian family in which Christ is the Brother, and God is the Father, of all believers. -To as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).

but he that acknowledged the Son Better, as R. V., he that confesseth the Son:it is the same verb (ὁμολογεῖν) as is used 1 John 1:9; 1 John 4:2-3; 1Jn 4:15; 2 John 1:7. It is surprising that A. V., while admitting the passage about the three Heavenly Witnesses (1 John 5:7) without any mark of doubtfulness, prints the second half of this verse in italics, as if there were nothing to represent it in the Greek. Excepting the -but", the sentence is undoubtedly genuine, being found in all the best MSS. (א ABC) and many other authorities. A few authorities omit it accidentally, owing to the two halves of the verse ending in the Greek with the same three words (τὸν πατέρα ἔχει). Tyndale and the Genevan omit the sentence: Cranmer and the Rhemish retain it; Cranmer marking it as wanting authority, and both omitting -but", which Wiclif inserts, although there is no conjunction in the Vulgate. The asyndeton is impressive and continues through three verses, 22, 23, 24. "The sentences fall on the reader's soul like notes of a trumpet. Without cement, and therefore all the more ruggedly clasping each other, they are like a Cyclopean wall" (Haupt). It would be possible to translate, -He that confesseth, hath the Son and the Father" (comp. 2 John 1:9): but this is not probable.