The chapter falls into two parts. The first twelve verses form the last section of the second main division of the Epistle, God is Love (1 John 2:29 to 1 John 5:12): the last nine verses form the conclusion and summary of the whole. Some editors break up the first part of the chapter into two sectio... [ Continue Reading ]
Faith is the Source of Love, the Victory over the World and the Possession of Life 1. _Whosoever believeth_ Or, _Every one that believeth_: the construction is identical with that in 1Jn 2:29, 1 John 3:3-4; 1 John 4:2-3; 1 John 4:7, and in the second half of this verse. See concluding note on 1 John... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 2:29 to 1 John 5:12. God is Love There seems to be no serious break in the Epistle from this point onwards until we reach the concluding verses which form a sort of summary (1 John 5:13-21). The key-word -love" is distributed, and not very unevenly, over the whole, from 1 John 3:1 to 1 John... [ Continue Reading ]
The converse of the truth insisted upon in 1 John 4:20-21 is now stated. There love and obedience to God was shewn to involve love of His children: here love of God's children is said to follow from our love and obedience to God. The two (or three) ideas mutually imply one another. Love to God impli... [ Continue Reading ]
_For this is the love of God_ Or, _For the love of God is this_, i.e. consists in this: see on 1 John 1:5. The truth implied in 1 John 5:2, that love involves obedience, is here explicitly stated. Comp. John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23; John 15:10; 2 John 1:6. _his commandments are not grievous_ F... [ Continue Reading ]
Reason why keeping even the difficult commandment of loving others rather than oneself is not a grievous burden. It is the world and its ways which makes the Divine commands grievous, and the new birth involved in faith gives us a new unworldly nature and a strength which conquers the world. _For wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who is he that overcometh_ Here the present tense is right. The Apostle appeals to the daily experience of every victorious Christian. _that Jesus is the Son of God_ The faith that conquers is no mere vague belief in the existence of God, but a definite belief in the Incarnation: comp. _1Jn 5:1_, 1... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is he that came_ Closely connected with what precedes: -This _Son of God_is He that came". The identity of the historic person Jesus with the eternal Son of God is once more insisted upon as the central and indispensable truth of the Christian faith. Faith in this truth is the only faith that... [ Continue Reading ]
_For there are three that bear record in heaven_ If there is one thing that is certain in textual criticism, it is that this famous passage is not genuine. The Revisers have only performed an imperative duty in excluding it from both text and margin. External and internal evidence are alike overwhel... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there are three that bear witness in earth_ These words also are part of the spurious insertion. The true text of 1 John 5:7 runs: _For those who bear witness are three, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and_ THE _three agree in one_. S. John says -those who bear witness", not simply -t... [ Continue Reading ]
_If we receive the witness of men_ And it is notorious that we do so: comp. -if God so loved us" (1 John 4:11), and see on 2 John 1:10. The argument reads like an echo of that of Christ to the Pharisees, -In your law it is written that the witness of two _men_is true" (John 8:17); how much more ther... [ Continue Reading ]
S. John's characteristic repetition of the word -witness" is greatly weakened in A. V. by the substitution of -testify" in 1 John 5:9 and -record" in 1 John 5:10: see on 1 John 1:2; 1 John 2:15; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 4:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that believeth on the Son of God_ For the first time in this Epistle we have the full phrase -to believe _on_", of which S. John is so fond in his Gospel, where it occurs nearly 40 times. Elsewhere in N.T. it occurs only about 10 times. It expresses the strongest confidence and trust; faith move... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this is the record_ Better, as R.V., AND THE WITNESS IS THIS, as in 1 John 5:9: this is what the external witness of God, when it is internally appropriated by the believer, consists in; viz. the Divine gift of eternal life. _eternal life_ See on 1 John 1:2 and on John 3:36; John 5:24. -Hath g... [ Continue Reading ]
A deduction from the preceding clause. If the Son has the life in Himself, then whoever has the Son has the life, and no man can have the one without the other. -To have the Son" must be compared with -to have the Father" in 1 John 2:23. In both cases -have" signifies possession in living union thro... [ Continue Reading ]
_These things have I written unto you_ -These things" will cover the whole Epistle, and such is probably the meaning, as in 1 John 1:4, where S. John states the purpose of his Epistle in words which are explained by what he says here: there is nothing there or here, as there is in 1 John 2:26, to li... [ Continue Reading ]
Intercessory Love the Fruit of Faith and of the Possession of Life 13 17. Eternal life, faith, and brotherly love shewing boldness in intercession, are the leading ideas of this section. We have had most of these topics before, and the section is more or less of a recapitulation. But S. John "canno... [ Continue Reading ]
Conclusion and Summary Some modern writers consider that 1 John 5:13 constitutes the conclusion of the Epistle, the remainder (14 21) being a postscript or appendix, analogous to chap. 21. of the Gospel, and possibly by another hand. Some go so far as to conjecture that the same person added chap.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this is the confidence that we have in him_ Better, _And the_ BOLDNESS _that we have_ TOWARDS _Him is this_: see on 1 John 1:5 and 1 John 2:28. For the fourth and last time in the Epistle the Apostle touches on the subject of the Christian's -boldness." Twice he speaks of it in connexion with t... [ Continue Reading ]
_if we know that he hear us … we know that we have_ The one certitude depends upon the other: if we trust God's goodness, we are perfectly certain that our trust is not misplaced. Comp. -All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, _believe that ye have received them_, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11... [ Continue Reading ]
-The prayer of faith" is all-prevailing when it is in accordance with God's will. This is the sole limit as regards prayer on our own behalf. Is there any other limit in the case of prayer on behalf of another? Yes, there is that other's own will: this will prove a further limitation. Man's will has... [ Continue Reading ]
_All unrighteousness is sin_ A warning against _carelessness_about breaches of duty, whether in ourselves or in others. All such things are sin and need the cleansing blood of Christ (1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:2). Here, therefore, is a wide enough field for brotherly intercession. The statement serves al... [ Continue Reading ]
_We know_ This confident expression of the certitude of Christian faith stands at the beginning of each of these three verses and is the link which binds them together. We have had it twice before (1Jn 3:2; 1 John 3:14; comp. 1 John 2:20-21; 1 John 3:5; 1 John 3:15): and perhaps in all cases it is m... [ Continue Reading ]
The Sum of the Christian's Knowledge 18 20. The Epistle now draws rapidly to a close. Having briefly, yet with much new material, retouched some of the leading ideas of the Epistle, eternal life, faith in Christ and boldness in prayer united with brotherly love (13 17), the Apostle now goes on to em... [ Continue Reading ]
_And we know_ The conjunction must be omitted on abundant authority. This introduces the second great fact of which the believer has sure knowledge. And, as so often, S. John's divisions are not sharp, but the parts intermingle. The second fact is partly anticipated in the first; the first is partly... [ Continue Reading ]
_And we know_ This introduces the third great fact of which believers have certain knowledge. The first two Christian certitudes are that the believer as a child of God progresses under Christ's protection towards the sinlessness of God, while the unbelieving world lies wholly in the power of the ev... [ Continue Reading ]
Farewell Warning _Little children_ As usual (1Jn 2:1; 1 John 2:12; 1Jn 2:28, 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4), this refers to all his readers. _keep yourselves_ Better, as R. V., GUARD _yourselves_. It is not the verb used in 1 John 5:18 (τηρεῖν) but that used 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (φυλάσσειν); -... [ Continue Reading ]