The Remedy for the Sins of Believers. “My little children, these things I am writing to you in order that ye may not sin. And if any one sin an Advocate have we with the Father Jesus Christ, a righteous One. And He is Himself the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whol... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe the sudden change in the Apostle's manner. His heart is very tender toward his people, and he adopts an affectionate and personal tone: (1) He passes from the formal “we” to “I”. (2) He styles them τεκνία μου, _filioli mci, mcine_ _Kindlein_ his favourite appellation (_cf._ 1 John 2:12; 1 Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
Our Advocate does not plead that we are innocent or adduce extenuating circumstances. He acknowledges our guilt and presents His vicarious work as the ground of our acquittal. He stands in the Court of Heaven ἀρνίον ὡς ἐσφαγμένον (Revelation 5:6) and the marks of His sore Passion are a mute but eloq... [ Continue Reading ]
The principle is that it is not enough to understand the theory; we must put it into practice. _E.g._, what makes an artist? Not merely learning the rules of perspective and mixture of colours, but actually putting one's hand to brush and canvas. First attempts may be unsuccessful, but skill comes b... [ Continue Reading ]
The Proof of our Interest in Christ's Propitiation and Advocacy. “And herein we get to know that we know Him if we observe His commandments. He that saith ‘I know Him,' and observeth not His commandments, is a liar, and in this man the Truth is not; but whosoever observeth His Word, truly in this ma... [ Continue Reading ]
μὴ τηρῶν, in classical Greek a gentle hypothesis, merely suggesting a possible case; but in later Greek μή is the regular negative with participles. It was an actual error, else the Apostle would hardly have spoken so emphatically about it. ψεύστης, see note on 1 John 1:6. ἀλήθεια, see note on 1 Joh... [ Continue Reading ]
ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ, “the love of God,” is ambiguous like אַהֲבַת יְהֹוָה, _amor Dei, l' amore di Dio, l'amour de Dieu, die Liebe Gottes_. It might be objective genitive, “love for God,” “die Liebe zu Gott” (Rothe). But the believer's love for God is never perfected in this life. The genitive is subjec... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀγαπητοί, St. John's favourite style (_cf._ 1 John 3:2; 1 John 3:21; 1 John 4:1; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 4:11). About to enjoin love, he begins by loving. καινός, “novel,” “new _in kind_ ” (_novus_) as distinguished from νέος, “new _in time_ ” (_recens_). ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, here not as in 1 John 1:1, but “from t... [ Continue Reading ]
A New Meaning in an Old Commandment. “Beloved, it is no new commandment that I am writing to you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard. Again, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you a thing which is true in Him and in yon, b... [ Continue Reading ]
πάλιν, “again,” _i.e._ in another sense, from another point of view, not in itself but in our recognition of it, “it is a new commandment”. ὅ ἐστιν ἀληθές, in apposition to ἐντολήν “a thing which is true,” _viz._, the paramount necessity of Love. This truth, though unperceived, is contained in the r... [ Continue Reading ]
He says and perhaps thinks he is in the light, but he has never seen the light; it has never shone on him. ἀδελφόν, on the lips of Jesus a fellow-man (_cf._ Matthew 5:45; Luke 15:30; Luke 15:32), in the apostolic writings a fellow-Christian (_cf._ 1 John 2:1-2; 1 John 2:16) one of the apostolic narr... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν τῷ φωτὶ μένει : he does not merely catch glimpses of the light but “abideth in it,” being of one mind with God, the common Father, who “is light” (1 John 1:5). σκάνδαλον οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ, “there is no occasion of stumbling, nothing to trip him up and make him fall, in his case” an echo of John 1... [ Continue Reading ]
St. John recognises no neutral attitude between “love” and “hatred”. Love is active benevolence, and less than this is hatred, just as indifference to the Gospel-call amounts to rejection of it (_cf._ Matthew 22:5-7). Observe the climax: “in the darkness is, and in the darkness walketh, and knoweth... [ Continue Reading ]
τεκνία, all the Apostle's readers, his customary appellation (see n. on 1 John 2:1). ἀφέωνται, perf., the Doric form of ἀφεῖνται. τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, the character, mind, purpose of God revealed in Christ. “The name of God” is “whatsoever there is whereby he makes himself known” (_Westm. Larg. Catech._)... [ Continue Reading ]
The Appeal of Experience. “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake; I am writing to you, fathers, because ye have got to know Him that it is from the beginning I am writing to you, young men, because ye have conquered the Evil One. I wrote t... [ Continue Reading ]
He now subdivides τεκνία into ποτέρες, _i.e._, mature believers with a long and ever-deepening (ἐγνώκατε) experience behind them, and νεανίσκοι, who, though ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός is strong within them, have conquered the Evil One by the aids of grace an evidence of the reality of their interest in C... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle gives the same reason as before for writing to the fathers, as though there could be none greater. He gives the same reason also for writing to the young men, but he amplifies it: they have the strength of youth, but it is disciplined by the indwelling Word, and therefore they have conqu... [ Continue Reading ]
He is dealing with believers who have a large experience of the grace of Christ, and on this fact he proceeds to base an appeal, a call to further advancement and higher attainment: “Love not the world”. Yet God “loved the world” (John 3:16). Observe that the Apostle does not say that the world is e... [ Continue Reading ]
ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός, not object. gen. (Aug.: “desiderium earum rerum quæ pertinent ad carnem, sicut cibus et concubitus, et cætera hujusmodi,”) but subject.: “the lust which the flesh feels, which resides in the flesh”. _Cf._ ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. ἀλαζονία, vain pretension, claiming what one re... [ Continue Reading ]
An explanation, especially of ἡ ἀλαζονία τοῦ βίου. To set one's affection on the things in the world is “braggart boasting”; for they are not ours, they are transient. _Cf._ Mohammed: “What have I to do with the comforts of this life? The world and I what connection is there between us? Verily the w... [ Continue Reading ]
Aug.: “Pueros alloquitur, ut festinent crescere, quia novissima hora est.… Proficite, currite, crescite, novissima hora est”. 1 John 2:28 puts it beyond doubt that ἐσχάτη ὥρα means “the end of the world,” and rules out various attempts which have been made to give it another reference and absolve th... [ Continue Reading ]
A Warning against Heretical Teaching. “Little ones, it is the last hour; and, as ye heard that Antichrist is coming, even now have many antichrists arisen; whence we recognise that it is the last hour. From our company they went out, but they were not of our company; for, if they had been of our com... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cf._ Aug.: “Sic sunt in corpore Christi quomodo humores mali. Quando evomuntur, tunc relevatur corpus: sic et mali quando exeunt, tunc Ecclesia relevatur. Et dicit quando eos evomit atque projicit corpus: Ex me exierunt umores isti, sed non erant ex me. Quid est, non erant ex me? Non de carne mea p... [ Continue Reading ]
An expression of confidence in his readers: they will not be led astray; they have received “a chrism,” the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit, “which He poured forth upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:6). Baptism was called χρῖσμα in later days (Greg. Naz. _Orat._ xl. 4) b... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔγραψα, “I wrote,” may refer to the Gospel, which is an exposition of the Incarnation, ἡ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἔνσαρκος οἰκονομία (_cf._ note on 1 John 2:14); but more probably “aor. referring to the moment just past” (Jebb on Soph. _O.T._ 337). The aor. is appropriate. No sooner has he spo... [ Continue Reading ]
ψεύστης, _cf._ n. on 1 John 1:6. The Cerinthian distinction between Jesus and the Christ was a denial of the possibility of the Incarnation, _i.e._, of the filial relation of man to God. οὐκ in dependent clause after ἀρνεῖσθαι is a common Gk. idiom, not unknown in English; _cf._ Shakespeare, _Comedy... [ Continue Reading ]
Since the Father is manifested and interpreted in the Son. _cf._ John 1:18; John 14:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, as in 1 John 2:7. The significant iteration of μένειν is lost in A.V. (“abide … remain … continue”). ἐν τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ ἐν τῷ Πατρί : observe the order. The Son is the manifestation of the Father; through Him we reach the Unseen Father (_cf._ John 14:9).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπαγγελία, _repromissio_, “promise”; only here in the Johannine writings (see note on 1 John 1:5). αὐτός, _i.e._, the Father. God is the Promiser, and His promises are made in Christ (_cf._ 2 Corinthians 1:20).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔγραψα, see note on 1 John 2:21. τῶν πλανώντων, the heretical teachers. Pres. partic., “are leading astray” but unsuccessfully.... [ Continue Reading ]
The ground of the Apostle's confidence in his readers. They need not be taught but only reminded. ἀλλʼ ὡς, κ. τ. λ., a single sentence with one apodosis. Vulg. makes it a double sentence with two apodoses: “as His chrism is teaching you regarding all things, it is indeed true and is not a lie; and e... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ νῦν, continuing and reinforcing the exhortation, ἐὰν φανερωθῇ : the uncertainty is not in the manifestation but in the time of it, and this is the reason for steadfast abiding in Him. _Cf._ unwritten saying of Jesus: ἐφʼ οἷς γὰρ ἂν εὕρω ὑμᾶς, φησὶν, ἐπὶ τούτοις καὶ κρινῶ. σχῶμεν, aor. marking th... [ Continue Reading ]
In view of the preceding verse δίκαιος must refer to Christ (_cf._ 1 John 2:1), and it is equally certain that ἐξ αὐτοῦ refers to the Father, since “begotten of Christ” (_cf._ Tennyson's “our fair father Christ”) is not a Scriptural idea. The abrupt transition evinces St. John's sense of the oneness... [ Continue Reading ]