Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 1:5

The Message, which is the compendium of Christ's teaching.

1 John 1:5. And, resuming the ‘we have heard' in the Introduction, this is the message which we have heard from Him: from ‘His Son Jesus Christ' (1 John 1:3), the ‘Him' being enough if we remember the ‘fellowship' between the Father and the Son. As the apostle condenses the whole of the revelation of Christ's Person into one word ‘was manifested,' so he condenses the sum of His teaching into one word ‘message:' this word occurs again only in chap. 1 John 3:11, there concerning love as here concerning light.

And announce unto you or, as it were, ‘re-message' to you; the word being different from declare, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: the positive and negative assertion of a truth, so characteristic of this Epistle, here begins; and the two clauses must be combined in one concept. The subject is fellowship with God; that is, the possession of something common to God and to us. This is hereafter love, ‘God is love;' here it is light, or unmingled and diffusive holiness. All interpretations that refer this to the essence of God are superfluous. God in His moral nature is to us light: ‘light' is one of the predicates of God, as related to moral creatures. It is purely ethical, as love is in the other passage: the Epistle does not contain one reference to the essence of God, or the manifestation of His essence. It is only said that ‘no man hath seen Him at any time;' and it is remarkable that the ‘glory' so common in the Gospel and Revelation is absent here: the only revelation is in Christ, and as such only a revelation of holiness and love. Holiness in God repels evil, and that to the sinner is its first aspect: ‘in Him is no darkness' of sin that can be common to Him and us. But holiness in Him is diffusive, as the light is, or it could not become common to Him and to His saints. Both aspects unite in the atonement which is near at hand with its explanation.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 1:5

Old Testament

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