Ch. 2:1, 2. The Writer's Object is TO Prevent Sin in Believers; but He Would also Save Them from Despair in case They Do Sin.

Notwithstanding the clearness of the words and style, it is by no means easy to summarize the thought of these verses. There is evidently a very close connection between them and the verses immediately preceding; and a remembrance of this will aid the interpretation.

1. My little children. The aged apostle, great in gentleness, so calls the Christians whom he addresses. He may have been led to the use of these words by many reasons:1. Because he was a very old man, by whom even middle-aged people would be thought of as young. 2. Because he was conscious of a fatherly care and love for the disciples of Christ. 3. Because he had been instrumental in the conversion, or rather regeneration (τεκνία), of many of those to whom he wrote. Paul uses the same words for this reason in Gal. 4:19; compare 1 Cor. 4:15. 4. Because they possessed a humble, simple, childlike nature, after conversion (see Matt. 18:3, 4, 5, 6, 10), which drew them to him as their spiritual guide and overseer. 5. Because in their present imperfect and dependent state, they needed to be led by further instruction into the light of doctrine and life. The term 'little' is undoubtedly expressive of endearment. And John uses the whole phrase in the most eager affectionate solicitude for the welfare of the persons to whom it applies. The phrase itself is a loving appeal and protecting assurance. These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. One might connect this very closely, and almost exclusively, with the last verse of the preceding chapter, and say: "That ye sin not" — the sin just spoken of; to wit, that of making God a liar. But beyond question our verse has a broader connection, through the expression 'these things' (ταῦτα), with the preceding chapter; and the sin sought to be prevented is more general. John had just told how men come into conscious fellowship with God. It is not by ignoring their sins, but by recognizing and confessing them, and then feeling that the blood of Jesus has cleansed away all guilt Freed in this gospel manner from all unrighteousness, they come into holy light, and have fellowship with God. Now it is this comprehensive matter which John says he writes, that his readers sin not. And what he had thus said would tend to produce this effect. 1. Because it pointed out to them their faults and their liability to sin. This of itself would put them on their guard against sinning. 2. Because it inculcated the duty of confession, and where one is under a law to uncover his sins it makes him more careful about contracting sins which he must thus uncover and confess. 3. Because if they should thus come into the blessed sense of complete cleansing, or justification, through the blood of Christ, that very state of conscious cleansing would be the best possible preservative against subsequent sins. The consciousness of being justified from past sins is the best foundation of holy living afterwards. In fact, there is no evangelical holiness which does not spring from a sense of justification. If, therefore, says John, I can get you, through humble confession, to feel the perfect cleansing of the atoning blood, I lay the basis of a holy life in you. The remaining old nature in you is a sinning nature, but you will sin the less, you will more and more overcome, when once you feel justified. What John says is a suggestive statement of the truth, that a holy life, a sin-conquering life, can only come from a sense of pardon; that progressive sanctification is from the fountain of an ever newly realized justification. And if any man (ἐάν τις) sin, we have, etc. The term 'we' shows that the supposed case is within the Christian ranks. It is sin after one is forgiven that is supposed, and for which provision in the gospel is expressly asserted. It is as if John had said:" The aim of the gospel, as a ready means of cleansing, is not to encourage but to prevent sinning — that ye may not sin; and (καὶ) still do not be cast down if sin transpires; for while holiness is your aim, though there may be failures, Christ is your friend, and he will stand for you. It is a word of animation for those who feel the holy design of the gospel and are striving to realize it, while they are painfully conscious of remaining sin. An advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the (better, who is) righteous. The adjective has no article, and is simply predicative. The whole expression declares a fact and doctrine most wonderful, most comforting. But only Christians can claim the fact for themselves. Christ is the Advocate of his people only. 'We have,' etc. It was so in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John; it is so in heaven to-day; it will be so at the judgment day. God the Father is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. The least sin is an infinite evil, and an infinite offense against God's nature. A sin, by whomsoever committed, has a germ of hell in it. If the work of Christ did not continue to avail for men after their conversion, their sins would consign them again to perdition, through the necessary action of divine justice. Christians need effectual advocacy to shield them after they are converted. The word 'advocate,' or paraclete, here used is the same which is applied to the Holy Spirit in John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7, and is there rendered "Comforter." In John 14:16, the name is impliedly given to Christ as well. It belongs to one who is called to the side, or help, of another (παρά and κάλεω). Obviously it fitly names the leading office of the Spirit or of Christ. Applied to the Spirit, it designates him comprehensively as our Helper, inasmuch as he takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us, and as he becomes an intercessor in us. (Rom. 8:26.) [Christ is our Advocate with the Father, the Holy Spirit is Christ's Advocate with us. — A. H.] Applied to Christ, it designates him as our Helper; but whose help is chiefly, and wholly so in our passage, as an intercessor, pleader, proxy, advocate, for us, in heaven. (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25.) Christ stands for us as his clients in the court of heaven. He is there with his atonement, and all helpful appeal and defense, on the basis of it. A priestly advocate (ver. 2), and he will clear us. We have a living Saviour, who though ascended is still working for his people. The advocacy is successful, because it is that of Jesus Christ, and of him ' righteous.' Being completely righteous, he could atone for others; loving righteousness, he would vindicate divine justice while pleading the cause of the penitent; having a righteous sense of the sinfulness of sin and its eternal judgment, he would feel the weight of the matter, and rather die than see justice sacrificed. And if he pleads, it is not on the lightness of the offense or for sentimental mercy, but with the argument of the punishment endured in himself. In all his work for sinners, Christ, being righteous, studies the interests of righteousness, and identifies himself with the cause of righteousness, and so the Father regards the advocate's plea. The advocate is on the side of the law.

2. And he is the (rather, a) propitiation for our sins. What the word 'righteous' (δίκαιον) somewhat anticipated, what is necessary to the plea of the Righteous One, is now expressly unfolded. The advocate is himself (ἀυτός) the satisfaction of the sinner's penalty. What a warrant this gives the pleader! Christ did not accomplish the propitiation as a mere act, but he was, as Ebrard says, with his whole being and life a personal propitiation; and the propitiation is still a reality, forever continuing its effect in his person. As Lange says, it is of perpetual validity and operation (ἐστὶ). He who is a propitiator through himself is propitiation. That word has a great part of the theology of salvation in it. It is of God's eternal nature to be just. That is a fundamental proposition, standing as a base of granite beneath the whole gospel superstructure. Everything must be worked out in accord with that proposition. God is just towards sin. His nature burns with holy wrath against it. He judges it. Were it otherwise, he would not be God. And this judgment is not accidental, not contingent, but necessary and unchangeable. Now the Son of God knew this, and was in cordial, infinite sympathy with it. But was there any way by which a penitent sinner might be saved from this eternal judgment? Yes; by the Son of God taking the sinner's place, and suffering the judgment belonging to the sinner. So he stood as a sinner, "made sin," and received the shafts of eternal judgment. It was satisfaction of divine justice. The divine propitiousness ensues. Thus the mercy of God towards any sinner is not mere mercy, but propitiated mercy, a mercy that regards justice. This is the mercy the publican cried for. (Luke 18:13.) Be propitious to me, he said. The entire principle is powerfully set forth in Rom. 3:23-26. See 1 John 4:10; Heb. 2:17. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The whole moral world, impliedly a sinning world, considered as needing propitiation in its relation to God. The expression ' for the whole world ' is a condensation of ''for the sins of the whole world,' as the previous clause and the very meaning of the propitiation show. A breviloquence, Ebrard calls it, and compares John 5:36; an oratio variata, Winer says, and refers to Heb. 9:7 and Acts 20:26. Christ is the Paraclete of his people, but the propitiation of men in general. The statement is designed to set forth the sufficiency of the atonement for any number of sins or sinners, and so relieve his readers from all fear that they might exhaust the provision before they had got rid of all their sins. John says it is sufficient in itself for each of their thousand sins (note the plural) and for each one of the numberless sins of every sinful man on earth in all time. Compare John 1:29, where the general doctrine is similar, but the term for sin is in the singular number and collective sense. The condition of the atonement becoming effectually ours had been stated in the preceding chapter, and did not require repetition. This condition had been stated to be repentance, including confession, implying indeed faith. (1:9.) Paul also declares that the propitiation is through faith in his blood, or made available thereby, and is wrought, in order that God might justify him that believeth. (Rom. 3:25.26.) The propitiation is for our sins as often as we will confess them, and not for ours only, but for any number who will avail themselves of it in the way pointed out. This ought to give confidence to any sinner in coming for salvation, and encourage any Christian in his desires and aims to be holy. In the atonement there is no lack. If there is any lack, it is in us, in not confessing our sins, and so receiving the benefit of the blood of Christ.

3-6. Obedience the Fruit and Evidence OF A Loving Knowledge of God.

How shall we know that we have availed ourselves of the propitiation of Christ, have really his advocacy, and are in union and fellowship with him? The writer might speak of the evidence of an inward witness (5:10; Rom. 8:16), but he chooses to cite here the evidence of character and disposition to distinguish those who have entered into the true effects of the atonement, and not in mere name confessed their sins. The connection (καὶ) of the present section with the foregoing thoughts is thus explained.

3. Hereby. Herein, or, in this. We do know that we know him. Have come to a knowledge of him; the tense (perfect) including past and present, have known and still know. It is difficult to decide whether 'him,' the object of the knowing, refers to God the Father or to Christ the Son. The exegetes are much divided on the point. We think the reference is to the Son. For, 1. That is the most obvious and immediate antecedent. 2. When the keeping of his commandments and his word is spoken of in the context, it is more natural to think of the commands and word of Christ, especially after the very significant usage in John 14:15, 21, 23; 15:10, 14. These parallel passages in the Gospel of John decide the reference with great certainty. The express mention of God, when occasion calls for it, in verse 5, confirms our view. Nor does the change of pronoun (from αὐτός to ἐκεἵνος) at the close of ver. 6 weaken our position, since Christ is there thought of in a remote condition — namely, on earth in the flesh — and some increased emphasis is to be expressed. Of course, knowledge of the Son involves knowledge of the Father likewise, but the particular reference is to the Son. The knowing that we know denotes the coming of assurance into Christian experience. The apostle had before told us how we can come into immediate fellowship and acquaintance with Father and Son. We must take the gins that rise in consciousness, and spread them before the Lord as Hezekiah did Sennacherib's letter. (Isa. 37:14..) Instantly the blood of Jesus is applied, and, conscious of cleansing, we enter at once into divine fellowship and spiritual knowledge. This knowledge becomes assured by certain evidence. As to knowing Christ, there is a kind of knowledge that impenitent men have, a knowledge from report. But when one through confession and atoning blood is justified, he has fellowship with the Son, and knows him personally; knows him, and not merely something about him; and knows him with the affections, with a common uniting life. When we know a fact we receive it into our minds, our being; when we know Christ truly we receive him into our minds, our being. "The object of this knowing becomes the substance of him that knows." (Lange.) Intimate knowledge, because true knowledge, the knowledge of union; the knowledge of actual taste, experience. This meaning of the word (γινώσκω) is common to John. It is a pervasive idea in our Epistle. Compare John 17:3. Green says, when knowledge involves experience, this is the word (γινώσκω, not οἶδα) always used in the New Testament. (Eph. 3:19; Phil.3:10.) Now such knowledge of Christ is more or less self-evidencing. But there is confirming evidence beyond itself. We know that we have this knowledge, if we keep his commandments. This is the evidence implied in the word 'hereby,' which opens the sentence. ' Commandments.' Those found in the gospel of our Saviour, including, on the one hand, the spiritual duties of Christians to each other, and on the other, the precepts which Christ gave respecting his two simple ordinances. "Love one another" is a sample of the former. "Arise, and be baptized" and "Take, eat; this is my body" are specimens of the latter. Neither the outward observance nor the inner spiritual duty, imposed by Christ, is to be disregarded. Neither is unimportant The disciple of Jesus is certainly bound to obey one as well as the other. He has no discretion in the way of selection or variation. Christ's will is paramount as to any gospel command. Keep. To keep the Lord's commands involves three distinct things: 1. To regard them with watchful interest and approval. 2. To guard and preserve them as something precious. 3. To do them, to obey them. The disciple is bound to exemplify the full meaning of the word, in relation to any command of Christ. (Ps. 103:18.) Now John puts forth this keeping of the gospel commands as a proof of acquaintance with Christ. By this, in the way of deduction or inference, shall ye know that ye know him. But we think there is a further important truth implied — namely, that this keeping of the commands reacts upon the knowing act itself, and clarifies it. It is a means of becoming more definitely conscious of the divine fellowship, or of the blessing God gives. There is nothing so sure to clear away doubts from the mind as coming into practical relation to a positive command of Christ. Spiritual knowledge, at first dim and uncertain, is realized in the doing of the Lord's will, so far as we know it; according to the words in Isa. 1:19; Ps. 119:100; John 7:17. It is to those who obey him that God gives clear knowledge and assurance. Some who have begun to believe, are longing and praying for more evidence of their conversion. They are in pain about it. Now let their little faith begin to act in a way of obedience to gospel commands, and they shall have their desire. Objectively by deduction, and subjectively by intuition, they shall know that they know the Lord. The light of life comes in following Christ. (John 8:12.) By this the blessing of believers' baptism, so often testified of, may be, in part at least, understood. It is God's occasion of revealing the light of life more abundantly in the soul, according to the principle of our passage. They who will have all their light before obedience reverse the divine order, and the light professed is without its credentials. "The Gnostics, by the Spirit's prescient forewarning, are refuted, who boasted of knowledge, but set aside obedience." (Fausset.)

4. He that saith, etc. Such a person says what is not true. He is likewise acting a lie. He is not true to the relation in which he professes to be. Believers deny their very nature if they do not obey gospel commands. To know the Lord, and to disregard his will, are a contradiction. And the truth is not in him. Not a mere repetition, in a negative Corm, that the person lies; but a more radical and condemnatory statement, that he is utterly lacking in the gospel principle, the new nature, the true religion. See note on 1:8.

5. In him verily is the love of God perfected. The term 'verily' (ἀληθῶς) here means not only in reality, but also, in accordance with the principle of truth in the new man; harmonizing naturally somewhat with the similar word "truth" ἀλήθεια) just before used. ' In him ' is literally in this one — namely, the one who keeps Christ's word. "The love of God" is not God's love to us (Bengel), nor ours to him (Neander), nor the reciprocal love between him and us (Ebrard), nor the love commanded by God (Episcopions), but the principle of spiritual love in us which is of God as its source and as to its nature (4:7, 8), and which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us. (Rom. 5:5.) It is God's love in us; the divine element imparted to us. It is the element of the fountain found in the stream. It is not the same thing as the knowledge in ver. 3, though the spiritual knowledge of Christ and this love of God imply and mutually interpenetrate each other, and do not exist apart, in the regenerate man. This love is perfected in us as we keep the word of Christ. It is developed, matured, completed, brought to its true end and fullness, through obedience. Evangelical obedience is the carrying out and completion of love itself The important doctrine is taught, that the keeping of positive commands is necessary to the completeness of the inner life. The tree is not complete till it bears fruit; neither is our Christian life. Query: Is not the relation of faith and baptism in Mark 16:16 the same as that of love and obedience in this verse of John? Hereby know we that we are in him. 'Hereby,' herein— that is, in this love, enlarged and matured by obedience, this being the thought that immediately precedes. ' In him ' is in Christ. See note on ver. 3, This is according to the analogy of New Testament doctrine, that believers should be in Christ, while Christ is in the Father, and so our application of the pronouns in ver. 3 is confirmed. Being in Christ is one of the deepest facts of our Christian standing. It means vital union with him, as the branch is in the vine (John 15:5), as the members are in the body. (Eph. 5:30.) It is not a moral or sympathetic union; but a spiritual union, a union of life. In him and us there is one life. That life depends in in us upon the one Holy Spirit, by whom the union is effected and maintained. (1Cor.6:17;12:13.) This union, as our passage teaches, may be a matter of assured knowledge on the part of those who have come into it.

6. Abideth in him. That is, in Christ. See John 15:4, 6, and 1 John 2:28; 3:6 for plain references of this expression to Christ; also our interpretation of the pronoun in ver. 3, 5. Proof of the reference is cumulative. The term 'abideth' is the strongest assertion of the permanency of the state of union with Christ. Ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. The pronoun referring to Christ is changed (from αὐτὸς to ἐκεῖνος), because he is for the moment viewed more remotely in his earthly life, and because it is thus that the emphatic distinction between the subjects of the verbs, between the disciple and the exemplar, can be represented. He who claims to be in union with Christ ought ' himself (αὐτὸς) to walk in the path of loving obedience as that one (εχεἵνος) walked therein. 'That one' was in union with the Father, and did his commands. If we are in union with the Son, let us do his commands out of divine union and love (John 14:15; 15:10), copying the example of his own obedience in its exactness (Matt. 3:15) and cheerfulness. (John 4:34.)

7-11. A Leading Command to be kept BY THE Christian, as Evidence of having COME INTO God's Light, is the one WHICH Enjoins Brotherly Love.

Men have been happy, yet deceived at the same time as to their spiritual standing. There is a far more certain evidence of having come into God's light, and that is a heart to obey the gospel commands. Following Christ, doing his word, walking as he walked — this declares the new nature, and perfects the divine love in us. The apostle having thus set the positive gospel commands in their true relation to the Christian life, it is natural for him to recall one of those commands in particular, and dwell upon its power to disclose our religious state.

7. Brethren. The great textual critics, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, substitute the word beloved for 'brethren,' in this place. This epithet naturally introduces some expressions on the love commandment. It recognizes those addressed as persons who have entered into the circle of the divine love, and are especially dear to God and his people. It marks John's own feeling toward them. Standing in this relation to him, he could be the surer of their interest in what he was about to urge, and of their faithful application of it. I write no new commandment unto yon, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. After all the varying and elaborate opinions, written in the books, on the reference of the word ' commandment ' (ἐντολή, something enjoined) in this place, we regard the passages 3:11 and 2 John 5:6 as proving that John means by it the injunction of his Lord, that we should love one another. That this command was pre-eminent in John's mind is shown both by his own writings and by tradition. See Godet, " Com. on the Gospel of John," vol. I., p. 61. His readers would be already familiar with it, and with his emphasis of it. To remind them of it, he needed not in every case to express it. The remotest reference would be understood. A particular command referred to, if not expressly named, would immediately call to mind the oft-repeated paramount one relating to brotherly love. Possibly there had been some discussion among the readers as to the proper description of this commandment, whether it should be called old or new. If so, the somewhat abrupt justification of either term is accounted for, and the readers would be all the more aware just what commandment was intended. This commandment, though often designated as new, was yet old. It was no recent innovation, no novelty; but was prominent in the earliest preaching that had come to the churches. From the beginning of their acquaintance with the Christian message, they had had before them the love commandment. It was therefore old; not in the sense that the earth and the skies are old; but in the sense that the message of the gospel was already long familiar. Christ himself had said, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." It was his particular injunction, and ever since his day, for scores of years, it had been echoing through the churches. Which ye have heard. This suggests how they had come into possession of this sweet law of Christ. It was not their discovery, but a revelation, a testimony, brought to them by the apostles. They heard it from without, when they began their life in the faith. The repetition of the words, 'from the beginning,' at the close of the verse, should be omitted.

8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you. The word ' again ' is simply the introduction of another form of statement. "I have stated," says the writer, "that the command is old; but again I have to say that it is new as well. Jesus himself so entitled it." (John 13:34.) "And I do not wish" — so John would say— "to deny the lasting name he gave to it. On the other hand, I would retain the precious name, and all that it means." When we consider John's union of thinking with his Lord, his authorship of the gospel bearing his name, and the undoubted familiarity of his readers with his Lord's precepts, it seems impossible to suppose that the new commandment here can be other than that named in John 13:34. Neither John nor his readers could think of anything else when that expression was employed. How common to the line of New Testament thought is the precept relating to brotherly love may be understood by consulting John 13:34, 35; 15:12, 17; Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Eph. 5:2; 1Thess. 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; 2:17; 4:8, and the many references in John's Epistles. Why is it called a ' new ' commandment? Because it inculcated, as no previous commandment had done, a duty founded on the exclusive and peculiar relation of Christians to each other as spiritual kinsmen of Christ, children of the new birth, and members of God's elect family. The general duty of love from man to man, the neighborly and benevolent feeling that all men should have towards one another, had been long since enjoined. This commandment was as old as the law itself. But the peculiar love which the regenerate have for each other, through the promptings of the new life of Christ in them — such love, in fact, as Christ had for his own disciples, as distinguished from others— was first brought to light as a distinct duty, and made the subject of a command in the Gospel Dispensation, and within the gospel sphere. As Christ's feelings towards his own were different from those he felt towards others, and as members of the same earthly family feel towards each other an interest and affection which they cannot feel for others, so will Christ have the members of his spiritual family cherish the family interest and affection which their new relation of kinship calls for; and the command expressing this will is a new command. Brotherly love, in the meaning of Christ and his apostles, is the family grace. Christ first announced it, enjoined it. A fresh commandment indeed, marking the New Dispensation, and the intimate kinship of the redeemed people under it. It is something of which the world knows nothing. It is new with Christians. Which thing. Not the commandment, but that which is predicated of it — to wit, its character of newness; or, it may be, the fact that it was a new one. is true. Is realized and fulfilled; becomes actual truth, a feature of the truth system, reflecting God's own nature of light. In him. In Christ; in him who gave the new commandment. The pronoun 'him,' introduced as it is, without any expressed antecedent, indicates that the writer's mind is full of the thought of Christ in connection with the new commandment. And what new commandment should so readily connect itself with Christ, in the mind of John, as the command to love one another? Hence this is the one which most naturally falls into our verse, though unexpressed. Its character of newness is true in him, since he first realized it in his peculiar love to his people; and it was true in the disciples addressed, since they were among the first to realize it among themselves. They and he had tested it, and knew it. With them the new commandment was fulfilled as a reality; they were its living examples; it was new in them. Because the darkness is past (or, is passing away) and the true light now shineth. It is time, therefore, for the new commandment, and. to expect its illustrations in Christ, and in a people related to him. It is time for the realization of what has just been said of it. It corresponds to the period. The gospel day has been opened. Christ has come, the light of God, the shining holiness of God himself; and now all that believe in him partake of that light. The new life, by the Holy Spirit, abounds. It works, it must work, in the way of brotherly love. Where light is there is love, in God's nature, in man's. And in so far as God's light comes, moral darkness flees away. The true light is the genuine, ultimate light, of which all other is the type. Compare the true vine in John 15:1. On 'light' and 'darkness,' see note on 1:5. It is remarkable that in the Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, and Celtic tongues, God is named from the day, sky, or shining light.

9. He that saith. His saying does not weigh or prevail against the moral fact. Profession against truth is lighter than air. He is in the light — in the light of God's nature — that is, regenerate, a child of light. " In the community of light." (Ebrard.) Hateth his brother. The brother here is one's Christian brother, a kinsman in Christ, a fellow-partaker of the light-nature; and hence the object of the peculiar love prescribed in the new commandment. This command, as we have seen (ver. 8), is for the children of God. "It prescribes the affection which Christians are to entertain towards each other as distinguished from other men." (Hackott, MS. notes.) However benevolent and kind the world's people are, they know nothing, experimentally, of the brotherly love of the community of light. But the Christian must know it, and exercise it toward a brother, else he denies his professed light-nature. If he lives in a state of hatred towards a brother, he is outside of the light of God, which is also his love. He denies the very love-nature of God. He has no recognizable evidence of being a child of light, a converted man. See 3:14. How shall we love God, and not be in union with our kind? Hatred belongs to the region of darkness, foreign to God, the realm of sin. In ver. 3 John had applied the commandment test in general. He now applies a particular command — namely, the new one, and judges a Christian by it. Until now. Though gospel light has been shining many years, yet through it all, up to this very moment, and notwithstanding whatsoever profession, that man is in his sins. In the Greek, the word for 'darkness' has the article prefixed, as is usual with familiar abstract nouns. See T. S. Green's " N. T. Grammar," p. 16.

10. He that loveth his brother. With the peculiar love required in the new command — a love like that of Christ to his own. The converted do have a peculiar love to Christians; a tenderness, a spirit of forgiveness and forbearance towards them, a delight in them, a feeling of union with them utterly inexpressible. Abideth in the light. Abides consciously in it, through the cherishing of this love. He has the evidence of being in God's light, and realizes it. It is perhaps suggested that one way of losing this evidence is to neglect or violate brotherly love. Such neglect or violation destroys one's good feelings, corrodes the new life, kills the sense of fellowship with God, damages and darkens the whole religious life, and must dissipate Christian evidence. But if brotherly love continue, the sense of God's love continues. It is a great thing to abide in the sense of union and communion with him. There is none occasion of stumbling in him. There is not a stumbling-block (σκάνδαλον), an offense, in him— that is, in the one who loves his brother. There is nothing in him to cause himself or another to fall. He may have faults, but they will be so covered (Prov. 10:12; 1 Peter 4:8) or neutralized, or extenuated, by the presence of superabounding love, as to do little harm, and it will make easy the overcoming of offending things. A consistent life is easy where love is. But how the harboring of the spirit of hate towards a brother affects unfavorably, not only the person who persists in it, but others around him, both saints and sinners, while it lends to his other faults a doubly offensive power!

11. Is in darkness and walketh in darkness. (John 11:9, 10; 12:35.) Not only is the hater of his brother in the darkness of sin and error personally, but all his movements and ways in religion are those of a man who walks in the dark. There is not the firm tread, the confidence, the decision, the ease, the clearness of view, the straightness of course, of one who walks in the light of day. The groping, blind man is his picture. How he feels his way! how uncertain his gait! how little prepared to avoid the flying arrow! How solicitous we are as he nears the edge of danger! He is at the mercy of circumstances. He cannot command himself. Such is the image of one who allows any unrepented sin, but particularly that of brotherly hatred, to lie upon his heart, plunging him into darkness. Knoweth not whither he goeth. (Eccl. 10:15.) He cannot see his own path; he cannot see ahead; is uncertain where he will bring up at last; cannot tell exactly where he is. Why is this so? The last clause answers. Because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Blinded, not 'hath blinded,' is the exact sense. Blinded them at the first sin, though the state then begun, has continued. Nothing is more blinding to the spiritual eyesight than hatred. It will take away one's power of discerning the right and truth of a case. He will be blind to whatever is redeeming in the one he hates. He cannot perceive the foolishness and inconsistency of his own conduct. How poor a figure he cuts! He seems to be blind to the spirit of the gospel and the mind of Christ. He seems to be blind even as to the nature and duty of brotherly love itself. Besides, his vision of the true meaning of God's word is necessarily impaired. The whole result accords with reason and experience as well as with Scripture. Let us be afraid of this darkening sin. It is interesting to note John's habit of circling his thoughts about great pairs of principles, or moral states — pairs of opposites which are mutually exclusive, and which do not admit of any middle ground or mean, such as light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hatred, life and death, the spirit and the flesh, love of the Father and love of the world. Between these principles or states in a given pair, there is no compromise, no intermingling. (2:21.) They are strict alternatives. Alliance with one is the denial of a part in the other.

12-14. Facts in the Spiritual Character OF HIS Readers, which Encourage THE Apostle to Write to Them as he Does.

John has developed a system of experimental doctrine, reaching a life reflecting the light of God's nature. Confessed sin washed away in Christ's blood; then conscious fellowship with God; then obedience, running especially in the line of the love-command. A wonderful exposition of the law of the new life! There is presented the new life in its principle, method, and outworking — its principle, union with God; its method, forgiveness of sins through Christ; its outworking, obedience and love, especially brotherly love. And now, having completed this portrait of the new kingdom, and applied it in a way to test severely the spiritual standing of his readers, the writer deems it meet to ofi^er some words of confidence (as Heb. 6:9) and commendation, causing them to feel that it is from no distrust of their attainments that he writes as he does, and thus saving them unnecessary despondency.

12. I write unto you. In relation to the love-duty as testing their spiritual standing — the great matter occupying his heart and pen when he begins this verse. Little children (τεκνία). a name of endearment, applied here by the writer to the whole circle of big Christian readers, and recalling their new birth and their childlike attributes. See note on 2:1, and this obvious application of the word in 2:28; 3:18; 4:4; 5:21. Because your sins are forgiven you. True of all the Christians whom the apostle addressed. They had been forgiven, and still were a forgiven people. The assurance of this made them seem very near to the old apostle, and made writing to them a great pleasure. He had confidence in them, and therefore, with the less misgiving, could lay all the demands of the gospel, all the tests of the new life, upon them. His confidence set his pen free. The Christian pastor knows what it is to preach the great testing doctrines freely under such circumstances. And this strengthens and fortifies the good Christian against an evil day. How much more heartily, and no doubt usefully, we can preach these things, when we have confidence in the Christian character of our people, and can say so, as John did! "We learn, too, that even a people walking with God needs thorough gospel teaching. What a great fact to declare concerning any of the race of sinners: 'Your sins are forgiven you'! There is such a thing as full forgiveness of sin, and John's great, endeared flock knew what it is. For his name's sake — literally, and with clearer meaning, through his name. [Rather, "on account of his name," and the name represents the person. Christ, before described as "a propitiation of sins," is here affirmed to be the ground, reason, or motive of forgiveness. And this is evidently the meaning which the author has in mind, but has not clearly expressed by the word "through." The expression is of great doctrinal significance. — A. H.] This language carries back the mind to the method of forgiveness announced in 1:7 and 2:1, 2. The obvious reference is to the name of Jesus Christ, who bore in himself the punishment of sin, and for whose sake God can look propitiously on each penitent soul; the name symbolizes the atoning work wrought under that name. John says 'his name's sake,' without giving the name, because the name by which they were saved was already so deep in their knowledge and love.

13. Fathers. Having designated his readers generally by the name of ' little children,' and predicated of them the blessed fact of the forgiveness of their sins through Christ, the writer now gives more particular emphasis to his confidence by addressing them in classes according to their age, and affirms great things of either class. At the same time he wishes to forestall any possible idea of depreciation connecting itself with the name of 'little children.' You are, he would say, indeed 'little children' in your new life, humility, and relation to my heart; but in respect of strength and maturity you are men —fathers ripe in knowledge, young men strong in grace. Ye have known him that is from the beginning. Namely, Christ, who, though he had come in the flesh, lived in his divine nature in the beginning with God himself, (1:1; John 1:1.) Him who from everlasting was in union with the Father, they had come to know, and were by him raised to divine fellowship, and made partakers of the eternal life in him. To know Christ in the Johannean sense is something very deep and far-reaching. See note on 2:3. In this knowing, we are vitally identified or united with that which is known; we are conscious of the new life, the divine union and fellowship. There is something powerfully uplifting in this experience. In it there is a knowing of Christ, not only in his death, but as a Divine Saviour with eternal life in himself. This knowledge the 'fathers' had. Young men. Christians in their early manhood, a prominent class in the churches within the eye of John. He testifies that they had a vigor of Christian experience, an athletic activity, at the farthest remove from childlike weakness. They had his highest confidence. Because. For the causal significance, see note on ver. 12. Have overcome the wicked one. The word 'overcome ' (νικάω) is Johannean; being used sixteen times in Revelation, six times in our Epistle, and only four times in the rest of the New Testament. The victory affirmed here corresponds well with the peculiar temptations of those in early manhood. Nearly all understand the wicked one (τὸν πονηρόν) to mean the devil, or Satan, the tempter, whose badness is so pervading that he is altogether bad. (3:12; 5:18; Matt. 13:19; Eph. 6:16.) There is victory over this strong one and the sin which he fosters. The young men had achieved it. They had done so by coming to a knowledge that their sins are forgiven, and to a consciousness of union with God. The victory implies this knowledge and union. Up to the point of such knowledge and union, Satan makes a terrible fight to possess the soul. He holds it in darkness and bondage while he can, and has power over it till it comes into the knowledge and liberty of Christ. But when that great point is reached Satan is conquered. He is not slain. He does not cease to tempt. His buffetings are often severely felt. But he is no longer owner or master. And how shall one continue his victory over Satan but by living always in the conscious acceptance of Christ? While the justifying blood renders the soul happy Satan is overcome. The young men, then, were prevalent on the basis of a gospel experience. That is the source of strength to the spiritual athlete. I write (wrote, or have written, ἔγραψα, or., not γράφω, pres.,) unto yon. All modern critics of the sacred text give us this tense of the verb. We suppose the present tense got into use from an idea that the second-named 'little children' (παιδία not τεκνία) were literally in their age child-Christians, to be co-ordinated with the two preceding classes of 'fathers' and 'young men.' This idea naturally conformed the tense of the verb, introducing a supposed third class to that of the verbs introducing the other two classes in the category; and the same idea held the whole sentence to ver. 13, instead of allowing it to introduce, as it should, ver. 14. But the manuscript authority demands the aorist form; and that indicates that the little children here addressed do not form a third class with the two preceding classes in a division of age. The change in tense introduces a new series of statements, a going over the whole matter in a changed relation of time or point of view. Why the past tense? Beza, Düsterdieck and Hackett say it is the epistolary aorist, the writing being for the moment thought of as already in the reader's hands. Others think it refers to the former part of the Epistle. The first view seems forced, and the passages cited are doubtful parallels. The second view misses the fact that the thrice-repeated ' write ' relates to matter just written, and indeed to the very essence of the doctrine enunciated up to this point. We think the verb in the past tense relates to the very same matter that it did in the present tense. But that matter is viewed as a little more remote from the writer, a little farther back in the past, owing to the time elapsed since he began writing at ver. 12, or, more likely, owing to an interruption in the writing. Little children. The disciples in general are thus addressed by John. Here the Greek word (παιδία) is different from that rendered 'little children' before, but it means essentially the same as the other. See Matt. 18:3, 5; John 21:5; and note on ver. 18. It is simply a lively verbal variation. Alford and Lange maintain our view in the interest of harmony of structure and parallel correspondence in the two series of sentence. Have known the Father. What had been said of the spiritual knowledge of the fathers, in the former part of the verse, is true of all the disciples; knowledge of the Father and Son being essentially one.

14. He repeats his confidence in his readers, not only as a whole, but in classes. The repetition is made, because it was very pleasant to John, and it is for the sake of deepening the assurance and enlarging the testimony at some points. This testimony to the decided spiritual character of his readers is still rendered, because his testing words in relation to love and light, hatred and darkness, might seem to cast doubt upon their state. He writes, or wrote, not because he doubted them, but for the very reason that he believed well of them. Their true spiritual character encouraged him to write most searchingly and most radically. And there was the greater pleasure in writing to such as they, because they would appreciate his divine doctrine. Because ye are strong. As John is setting forth spiritual and not natural endowments, there can be no doubt that he testifies here to the spiritual strength of the young men, which was so appropriate at the same time to the more active period of their lives. This strength came from their sense of joyous union with the Lord. (Neh. 8:10; Eph. 6:10.) This is the way of strength to young and old. Strength is the unfailing product of a joyous experience of God's love — strength to do, to bear, to hold up the Saviour's name, to cope with Satan and all adversaries. The word of God abideth in you. Their birth into the light of God's nature synchronized with the entrance of God's word into their hearts. (Ps. 119:130.) This word is that of the gospel, the truth of salvation by confession, and the blood of Jesus. This word became living in their regeneration. The word thus planted abides. It is no temporary principle. In it there is the principle of obedience on the one hand, and steadfastness against error on the other. All this was exemplified in those young men. And so they were victors in the contest with the wicked one.

15-17. Those who are Forgiven and United to God must not Love the World.

Having written faithfully (3-11) to such a people as his readers were, the apostle can now warn them, and all the better, because of the confidence which he has in them and which he has just now expressed. He warns them against the worldliness which will tempt them, though so utterly foreign to their new life. They are indeed washed from their sins, are in conscious divine fellowship, are victorious over the wicked one, have the word of God abiding in them, but they are not yet taken out of the world, are still surrounded with evil, and the remains of a lustful, covetous, proud nature, are still within them. Forgiven are they, but not yet away from the scene or danger of sin. They are in the world and in the flesh. Hence the need of earnest caution. Having such great and glorious things said of them as John had been saying, thay might be tempted to forget their intimate connections with a worldly existence and a fleshly nature. They might imagine that with their divine attainments they could not fall into evil; that they were above temptation and worldly influence. Not so; "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. 10:12.) The freeing of the soul from guilt, and its elevation into the plane of God's light, do not annihilate the sinful nature. A happy spiritual attainment must not foster spiritual pride or vain confidence. There is still a law of the flesh warring against the law of the renewed mind. The new life is a plant in the midst of tares. The recognition of this fact will keep the most rejoicing Christian humble and cautious.

15. Love not the world. "Do not continue to cherish that affliction so natural to men. A negative command in the present (μὴ ἀγαπᾶτε) forbids an act already begun; in the subjunctive aorist, warns against one not yet begun." (Hackett.) 'The world' here means not only the sinful ways of the world, but all objects and concerns considered as divorced from God, and as an end in themselves. It includes all that may receive attention, and become an idol to our hearts, in place of God. In the unforgiven man, worldliness is the governing principle. He loves the objects of nature, or the walks of science, or the acquisition of wealth, or the displays of fashion, or honor from men, or pleasures of society or business or family, or his own thoughts and self, better than he loves God or his will. He is absorbed in the things of this life. The world is his thought, life, and love; his great idol, to which he has surrendered himself, and now gives his strength. But having received the new life, he must cease to give this supreme place to the world, and take God into his mind and heart. He is known by the object he makes supreme, by that which his life as a totality serves. It is implied that men, from their very nature, must love something supremely. Which shall it be, God or the world? We cannot serve two masters. We cannot give our affection to the world as an end in itself, and at the same time love God as God. " But," says one, "am I not to love the world at all?" No; not as something outside of God. (Col. 3:2; Rom. 12:2.) You may love the beauties of nature, your own family, food and raiment, etc., in subordination to your love of God, and for his sake. It is your duty to do it; and thus doing, this world will help you to love God the more. There is a loving of the world in benevolence, to do it good, that is even God-like. (John3:16.) Neither the things that are in the world. One might claim to have given up the world as a whole, and yet cling too fondly to some one object of gratification, like Ephraim. (Hosea 7:8 seq.) John foresees this danger, and so changes his expression from the general to the particular. One may have this idol; another, that. Let each avoid his particular idols, his peculiar indulgences. If any man love the world. As a sphere by itself, and for itself. The love of the Father is not in him. The love which has the Father for its object. The relation of the words in the conditional part of the sentence, and the alternative reasoning, call for this explanation. Here John's method of holding up two mutually excluding principles or spheres is strongly illustrated. See under ver. 11. If one love the world supremely, if worldliness is his life, his governing principle, he is not a Christian; that is all. He worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator. He cannot hold a filial relation to his Father in heaven, and treat him as a Father when immersed in any earthly idolatry. God will not give his glory to another; will not divide it with any mundane good or gratification. For God's claim, especially as a Father, see Mal. 1:6. For the same alternative principle, on which John reasons, see Matt. 6:24; Rom. 8:5, 7; 2 Cor. 6:15; Gal. 1:10; James 4:4. In this connection it is interesting to compare Paul's contrast of the two covenants, and his statement of the mutual exclusiveness of the systems of works and of grace. If one, then not the other. See Godet, "Com. on Luke" 5:36-38, for an exposition of Christ's thought of the exclusiveness of the old life and of the new.

16. The design of this verse is to illustrate and confirm (ὄτι) the strong assertion just before made concerning the utter incompatibility of the love of the world with the love of God. They belong to opposite spheres; they come from wholly different fountains. One is from beneath; the other from above. One is spiritual; the other fleshly. In order that Christians may better see what the love of the world is, the apostle gives specimens, or instances, of the various forms it takes. Some have thought that he intended to supply an exhaustive analysis, or description, of it. But it is only, as we think, leading exhibitions of it that he puts before us, sufficient to show its essentially grovelling and selfish nature. The writer has spoken of the objects of selfish love in the world. These objects are now singularly identified with the love itself, in the forms of lust and pride, and as such they are foreign to God. They take the character of one's selfish desire, and become of a piece with it. Or a worldly love, in the forms of lust and pride, having its end and scope wholly in the world, is put among its own objects as a part of the world, and hence foreign to God. The latter account of the case is more simple than the former. Either account explains the easy gliding of the writer's mind from the objects of love in the world to the desires which they awaken. The object and subject are a virtual unity. The lust of the flesh. The lust prompted by the flesh. (Gal. 5:17.) The word 'lust' (ἐπιθυμία) here, and in the next phrase, means longing desire, considered as inordinate. The various appetites of the bodily nature are intended. The love of the world in some is shown by seeking as their chief good the gratification of their appetites. (Phil. 3:19.) And here comes to view the drunkard, the glutton, the epicurean, the libertine, in their various stages. The last of the eyes. What is the relation of the eyes to the desire? It is subjective. The eyes are the exciting cause or occasion of the desire. This desire is less animal and more intellectual than the former, yet no less sinful when gratified for its own sake. This form of worldly love finds supreme pleasure in those things which gratify the outward sight, such as raiment, fashion, fine horses and chariots, palaces and furniture. Nor are those things which gratify the inward sight excluded. If one lives merely to gratify his intellect in systems, problems, philosophies; if he seeks art or science for their own sake only, and not with the higher end of loving and serving God, then is he as really, as supremely a lover of the world, as the devotee of dress. The pride of life. 'Life' (βίος) is not the vital principle (̓ζώη), but rather the manner, course, and circumstance of living; one's worldly state, or attainment. It becomes the exciting cause or occasion (subjective genitive) of pride. This pride is the boastfulness, swagger, vanity, ostentation, self-gratulation so prominent with some people. It finds ample means and occasions. How it grows upon one when indulged! How plain that he loves the praise of men more than the praise of God! This world is to him the means and theatre of vanity. His mind is filled with himself, and not with his God. Unlike Paul (Gal. 6:14), he glories in the show of this life. All this "threefold concupiscence" (Augustine), now considered, is strikingly brought to view and illustrated in the temptation of Eve (Gen.3:6), and in the temptation of our Lord. (Luke 4:3-11.) Is not of (ἐκ) the Father, but is of (ἐκ) the world. Has its origin in the carnal nature, in the plane of this world, not in the Father; for the mind that springs from him is directed to him. He in whom worldly love prevails is not one of the children (τεκνἰα) of the Father. His circle of life differs as much from the life of a child of God, as the whirl of a top differs from the orbit of the sun. A man is to be judged by his prevailing desires. "John grasps down to the very foundations of moral life, when he reminds his readers of the essentially distinct origin of the love of the world and the love of God. The inmost kernel of the matter is laid bare." (Düsterdieck.)

17. And the world passeth away. Another reason why we should not love the world: Worldliness is not only totally outside of God (ver. 16), but it is, as to both its objects and its desire, transient and perishing. (1 Cor. 7:31; James 4:14; 1 Peter 1:24.) The passing away is not annihilation, but rather a passing along or by. It describes the act of passing off the stage, or the breaking up of a scene, in a play. In our passage, it describes the breaking up of the present order and state of things. Selfish desires and their objects will soon cease to hold their present relations, passing on and over into darkness, disappointment, and ruin. The Cosmos, the worldly order, will be broken, and for the godless soul nothing will take its place! Nothing but a disordered, dark, fragmentary state, utterly hopeless! But he that doeth the will of God. This is the one who loves God. (ver.3, 5; 5:3; John14:15.) The love of God appears in its completest form when it is seen doing his will. Herein is the rounding out, the demonstration of our divine love. Abideth forever. Observe the present tense. He has already entered into that divine order which will not be broken up, but will increase more and more. He is united to him who passes not away. He is delivered from a perishable system. He carries with him through death and every possible shock the unchanging object of his love. The Christian will have his present God, but the sinner will not have his present world.

18-23. Attention is called to the Existing Antichrists.

The apostle has warned the members of the churches against the sin of worldliness. It was an evil of the heart to which every one of them was liable. Hence the need of the best saint walking cautiously, humbly. Having warned the obedient against the evil lurking in their own hearts, it is natural for the writer to pass next to a form of hostile influence that they must encounter in other men, even in those who claim the name of Christians, but who in reality deny Christ, and in heart are opposed to him. God's true children must be on their guard, not only against a love of the world in themselves, but against the wolves in sheep's clothing, who, professing to be Christians, teach doctrines which in effect destroy Christ. These are the hardest, most subtle, foes Christianity has to battle with, those who pretend to receive it, and at the same time are undermining it with their errors. Open infidels, opponents laying no claim to the Christian name, are not half so dangerous. The Christian religion has had more to suffer from those professing the gospel and at the same time perverting it, than from all the world besides.

18. Little children. This term (παιδία), the same as in ver. 13, applies figuratively to all the true saints, with reference especially to their dependence, their need of care and warning, and their pupil state. The other term for 'little children' (τεκνία, ver. 12), as applied to Christians, seems to suggest more their new birth and spiritual character, though the two terms practically cover very largely each other's ground. It is the last time. The word 'time' — literally, hour — designates a season having defined limits. What is meant by the last such season here announced? It must be remembered that the assertion was made eighteen hundred years ago, and was as true then as it would be if spoken to-day. Is it not said of the entire period of the Christian Church? When Christ was ascended, he gave the Holy Spirit. From that beginning was the Dispensation of the Spirit, to be continued till the last of the elect should be brought in. When the Spirit came, Peter said this was what Joel said should come to pass in the last days. In prophetical passages of the Old Testament the expression "last days" is used almost exclusively of the Messianic times. (Gen. 49:1; Isa. 2:2; Micah 4:1.) The expressions "latter times" in 1 Tim. 4:1, "last days" in 2 Tim. 3:1, Heb. 1:2, "last times" in 1 Peter 1:20, "last time" in Jude 18, "ends of the world" in 1 Cor. 10:11, "end of the world" in Heb. 9:26, appear from their context to designate the whole gospel period. It is the last stage of the world's religious history. There is to be no other season of salvation, no added forces of redemption in some after era. The theory of some that another more powerful Dispensation is yet to come for the men of the world is virtually denied. Now is the 'last time,' the last hour. This is the last Dispensation. The great ingatherings of Gentiles or Jews are to take place in it, and not beyond it. And as ye have heard that antichrist shall come. They heard (aorist) it at the outset under apostolic teaching. Comes — not ' shall come ' — is the present of ordained fixity, prophetic fixity. (Alford.) Is not the continuous appearance, or continually recurring appearance, of antichrist, or antichrists, characterizing the Christian period, suggested in this present tense? 'Antichrist' is a name used only in John's Epistles (ver. 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), though the doctrine of antichrist is in other passages, such as 2 Thess. 2:3-7; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Peter 2:1-3. The term, in its Greek composition, may mean exclusively an adversary of Christ, or it may mean one instead of Christ and by consequence against him. The prefix (ἀντί) signifies over against; and one can be over against the truth under the Christian name, or repudiating it; against it in name and act, or claiming to represent it and to stand for it, yet denying it. The connection in which John treats the subject shows clearly that his idea of antichrist is that of one who in some sense stands instead of Christ; taking the Christian name yet opposing that very kingdom of truth which the name implies. We think that Paul's and Peter's doctrine implies the same conception of antichrist. This antichrist may be, when fully developed (2 Thess. 2:3), a collective body of spiritual opposition falsely claiming the Christian name, or the leader of such a body. But the apostles had taught that though this man of sin, claiming true religion, but yet destroying it, should be fully developed near the second coming of Christ, yet he would have his forerunners, his types, all the way through the Gospel Dispensation. After referring to this antichrist Paul declares, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work"; which quite accords with John's teaching, "Ye heard that antichrist comes; even now many antichrists have arisen." And this fact that antichrists had already appeared was proof that the last decisive Dispensation had come: Whereby we know that it is the last time. The era of these characters is the world's last era. The rise of such men in the gospel epoch is a part of prophecy and fact, and the churches must not be disappointed or shocked by it. Here, then, is our idea of what an antichrist is. It is a false teacher of the gospel; one who while professing to believe the gospel, so perverts it as to destroy it. It is the subtle teacher of falsehood in Christianity's name. The fiercest opposition is within the temple of God, and in the name of God. (2 Thess. 2:4.) It is not the professed atheist, or infidel, who is an antichrist. Those mentioned by John were professors of Christ, and still held to him in their way. Their portrait is in Acts 20:30, and in the dark colors of Jude. Labeling themselves with the Christian name; saying and doing, it may be, many Christian things. — they are the most dangerous foes of the truth. They catch the unwary and inexperienced, while they teach errors that go to subvert Christianity, and to ruin the souls of men. From the days of the apostles till now, the Gospel and the Church have had this covert opposition, and even now there are many antichrists. The apostles have forewarned us of it all. It is a part of the cost to count in entering into Christian relations. It is something inevitably incident to an advancing gospel. Let us not be dismayed. The struggle is not doubtful.

19. They went out from us. Said of the antichrists, the false teachers of Christian doctrine. So far as the philology is concerned, the going out (̓ξῆλθον) may mean the going forth of these persons upon their mission as professed Christian teachers (see 4:1), or may mean their going out from the fellowship of the true Christian body, separating themselves. The latter meaning is the true one, as the whole tenor of the verse makes evident. Whether they went out because pressed out, or wholly of their own motion, does not appear. Though disagreeing with the main body of Christians, and separated, they still claimed to interpret the Christian doctrine, and evidently professed to be Christian teachers and, indeed, the true ones, else they could have had no power of seduction over Christian minds (ver. 26); and the injunction to try the spirits (4:1-3) would have been altogether needless. Persons who stood forth as direct opponents of Christianity, outside of the Christian pale, were already distinguished, and needed no testing; and such would scarcely come under the head of deceivers — for they played no false part, wore no mask. But they were not of us. And they never were. (Matt. 7:23; John 6:70; Acts 8:21.) ' From us,' in the preceding sentence, and 'of us,' here, are the same (ἐξ ἡμῶν) in the Greek. But the former, with its verb of motion, has a local meaning; while the latter, with its verb of being, has a meaning of spiritual derivation, affinity, or relationship. These men had no vital sympathy with the Church of Christ. They had taken the Christian name, but had never had the Christian nature. For if they had been of us, etc. The words no doubt, do not belong in the sentence, and the statement is stronger without them. The statement is explicit, that if those men had been true Christians, they would have abode in Christian union and fellowship, they would have remained with us (μεθ̒ ὴμῶν) in doctrine and association. Their defection was proof that they did not belong with the true flock (Matt. 7:15), and the doctrine is implied that truly regenerate men do not depart from the essential Christian faith, or the associate life of the Christian Church. They do not will to depart. They are kept. But [they did not remain with us] that. The telic 'that' — in order that (ἴνιε), dependent on an obvious idea shaped by the last verb, expresses the purpose, not of the seceders, but of God who suffered their action to take place, and who makes the wrath of man to praise him. " A design which should be accomplished according to God's counsel." (Ebrard.) They might be made manifest that they were not all of us. [Better, that they all were not of us. The negative particle modifies the verb, instead of the word "all," and the sense is, that none of them were of us.— A. H.] This is the divine purpose. The language is difficult to handle. The apostle begins with the actual seceders as the subject of the verb ' manifested,' and goes on to declare in what light they are manifested, as not being of the true flock; but before he completes the declaration, he compounds with it the further idea that those generally who claim to be of this flock are not all of it; and the course of the seceders manifests the fact by tending to distinguish those who are genuine, and those who are not. "The construction is a mixed one, compounded of two — (1) that they may be manifested that not are they of us; (2) that it may be manifested that not are all of us," though they may profess to be. (Alford.) So Lücke, Düsterdieck, Huther, Lange, Ebrard. Compare the teachings of 1 Cor. 11:19. There is then (1) the general fact, well for us to know, that there are the spurious among the true in the Church, (2) the fact that the spurious will prove and declare themselves sooner or later, (3) the fair implication that so proving themselves, their separation is to be desired. As false doctrines (ver. 22) was that which most of all separated these men, we find it does make a difference what a man believes; that though one profess to be a Christian, yet his doctrines may be such as to show that he cannot be a Christian. He may be amiable, gifted, apparently devoted, yet there are errors of doctrine which, if he believes them, show that he is not a child of God. In other words, the Christian standing of a man is to be tested by his doctrines, as well as his life. It does make a difference, or signify a difference, even with a man's heart, what he believes.

20. But (while all this is true of the false ones) ye (emphatic, in opposition to the false ones, the antichrists) have an unction from the Holy One. They pretend to be of the anointed (χριστοί), while ye have the anointing (χρῖσμα) indeed. 'Unction' is not the act of anointing, but the anointing oil, an emblem and name of the Holy Spirit, by whose bestowal on believers they are made kings, prophets, and priests unto God, and are one in life with Father and Son. ' The Holy One,' from whom believers have this gift, is, in this place, Christ. (Luke 1:35; Acts 3:14.) Christ has the Holy Spirit without measure (John 5:34), is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. (Heb. 1:9), and this he gives to his true people. From him his members receive the unction. (Ps. 133:2.) And there is a sense in which they receive it from the Father, inasmuch as Christ himself does. And ye know all things. The Holy Spirit which ye have enables you to do so. (John 14:26; 16:13.) [It may be fairly doubted whether the promise of Christ in John 16:13 was meant for all Christians in the same sense, or to the same extent, as far as knowledge is concerned, as for the apostles. It included inspiration for the latter. See '"Commentary on John." — A. H.] The knowing (οἴδατε) is the result of seeing with the spiritual eye opened by the Holy Spirit. The knowledge is qualitative, not quantitative; the knowing of nature, not extension. The knowledge is the same in kind with that which we have of Father and Son. (Luke 10:22) "The quality of an infinity we may know, even when we cannot know its quantity." (Joseph Cook.) The knowledge is the spiritual discerning of 1 Cor. 2:14. It is the discriminative knowledge of John 7:17. It recognizes the truth when it sees it, and distinguishes it from falsehood and error. It has an eye for it; knows it as the bee knows the honey. Of course, John is thinking mainly of the doctrines of religion as the object of this knowledge; and he teaches that a God-taught (1 Thess. 4:9) mind Cannot depart far into error. It will know the vital truths; and, knowing them, will adhere to them. If this is true of all the converted, it makes them one in the essential faith.

21. John again (see on ver. 12) assures his readers that it is not from distrust of them, but from hearty confidence, that he wrote (ἔγραψα) the plain things now before them; having now in mind particularly his admonition concerning the antichrists. It is because they know the truth (reflection or image of God's nature), and its utter antagonism to falsehood, that he can have courage and hope to write to them. He feels that they will understand and appreciate his words, and rightly use them for their good, contrasting, in this respect, with the unspiritual, unknowing errorists. By truth and life he describes the doctrinal positions of the anointed and the antichrists respectively, and their utter mutual exclusiveness in origin and matter.

22. The apostle proceeds to tell us what the 'lie,' the chief error, of the false teachers is. Who is a (literally, the) liar? The article the marks its substantive as one that has been already expressly or impliedly mentioned. "Implication in the word lie, ver. 21." (T. S. Green, "Gram. N. T.," p. 13.) Paraphrase:" I have spoken of a lie, I have said virtually that somebody has been lying; now, who is the liar?" Instead of asking, "What is the lie?" the writer passes vividly from the general abstract to the definite concrete and asks, " Who (implying what) is the liar?" We might also say that the implication of the word is in the term antichrists as far back as ver. 18. But (or, except, εί μὴ) depends on an implied negative answer to the question — He that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. The negative (οὑκ) in the original text is explained by supposing the proposition to be the tenor, or form, of the denial. The denying is to this effect, or in these terms, that Jesus is not the Christ. For idiom, see Luke 20:27; Gal. 5:17; Heb. 12:19. This position was held in two forms (1). that Jesus Christ was not literal man (4:2), and the humanity being denied, the Messiahship was denied, since the former was necessary to the latter; (2) that Jesus and the Logos were only temporarily and, as it were, mechanically connected; and as the Logos and the Messiah were held to be essentially identical, so Jesus could not be the Christ, or Messiah. See history of the Gnostic Cerinthus. Jesus might be accepted in a sense; and so Christ, in a sense; but that Jesus was the Christ was denied. He is antichrist. Better, This is the antichrist. (Revised Version.) This one who denies that Jesus is the Christ is to be identified with the (already mentioned) antichrist. That denieth the Father and the Son. Appositional clause further defining the antichrist, equivalent to even he that denieth, etc. (Revised Version.) To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Son of God, since the Son is Jesus Christ. And to deny the Sonship is to deny God's natural relation to Christ as Father. Hence, Father and Son are both denied. God's great reason for having the name of Father is his relation to his Son. If that relation be denied, the Fatherhood in its deepest sense is denied. Besides, God the Father is manifested, and is understood, only through the Son. (Matt. 11:27.) Strange that the deniers of Christ's true nature do not see that their error invades and mars the true nature of God himself. It is a generic, far-reaching lie, affecting the whole system of truth; and the words of John Newton will come for utterance:

What think ye of Christ? is the test

     To try both your state and your scheme;

You cannot be right in the rest,

     Unless you think rightly of him.

23. The same hath not the Father. Every one who denies the Son is evidently destitute of him, and of the Father also. To be without the Son is to be without the Father, for the Father is in the Son. (Johnu:9.) Not to have the Father means not to have union or communion with him or inheritance in him. (But) he that acknowledgeth (confesseth, as in the Revised Version, is the better rendering) the Son, hath the Father also. The translators of our Common Version doubted the genuineness of these words, hence their italics. Later criticism puts them into the true text. The confessing is the opposite of the denial; and it is open, express confession, such as Rom. 10:9; Matt. 10:32; Luke 12:8 and John 12:32 emphasize the necessity of. Nor is it such a confession in a mere intellectual way, but in a spiritual way, and from the centre of the soul. That confession secures the Son, and with him all the riches of the Father.

24-29. Abiding in the Truth and Abiding in the Blessings of the New Life go Together.

Having spoken of the position of the deceiving antichrists, and of the doctrinal disaster and utter spiritual impoverishment involved in it, John turns to his readers, sound in faith, and exhorts them in the spirit of loving confidence.

24. Let that therefore abide in yon, etc. The Revised Version is more exact: As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. The original sentence is not completed, as the opening words might lead one to expect. But it is so constructed as to make the pronoun emphatic: Ye, on your part, in contrast with the false teachers. From the beginning is explained at ver. 7. What they heard from that time is the apostolic doctrine, especially that denied by the antichrists. 'In you' is in the place of emphasis. "What they heard with the outward ear, the apostle exhorts them to have, without change, in living union with their hearts. "Keep it," he says, "rooted fast in warm convictions, against all perversions of the antichrists." How often John recalls, and uses for himself, words from his well-remembered Saviour's lips! This word abide, with its deep adjunct 'in you' (compare John 15:1-10), is an example. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. The words 'remain' and 'continue' represent the same original verb as the word 'abide' in the first clause; and the Revised Version does well in giving it the same rendering in every instance. ' Ye also,' as well as the true doctrine. If the true doctrine of the Son and Father (note the order of persons, order of faith and experience) abides in you, ye in turn shall abide in them; the truth in you, you in the Son and Father; the truth in living union with you, you in living union with them. The truth abiding in us, and we abiding in the highest spiritual blessings; these go together. Divine union and fellowship are connected with a right doctrinal faith. It is dangerous to speculate one's self, in the slightest measure, away from the foundation of apostolic truth. A man wrests vital truth to his own desolation.

25. And this. Namely, the reality of abiding in the Son and Father; this union with them just spoken of. So Hackett. Is the promise that he (that is, Christ, who is the centre of thought in many verses back) hath promised us. When he was on earth. Union with Son and Father is the essence or principle of that which was promised — namely, the eternal life. Even (the) eternal life is in a sense appositional with 'the promise,' but in form (Greek) is attracted into the case of the intervening relative. In John 17:3, the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ is substantially eternal life. But this knowledge is union with its object. "Oneness in will with God, and partaking of his nature, is itself eternal life." (Alford.) The eternal life is divine life, or spiritual life, the true life, or the life indeed (1 Tim. 6:19, Greek text), something distinct from continuous natural existence which sinners, even devils, possess. One must carefully mark this distinction, that he be not entangled in the snare of materialism. Men who already possessed natural existence received the superadded gift of the life indeed. Eternal life is the life of the Spirit. One has this life the moment he believes. The interpretations given to eternal life by materialism and spiritual religion are irreconcilably different. The former makes it the mere carrying on of natural existence, so that notwithstanding death there is being afterwards; while the latter makes it another and new life, beginning the moment one believes, it maybe long before death; something which does not make natural existence any more certain after death, but turns it into a blessing. Mere conscious existence, temporary or eternal, is not of itself necessarily a blessing. It may be a curse. The devils find it so. Lost men will find it so. Only the new life laid upon it can make it a blessing to one who has sinned. Christ did not die to purchase for us mere continuous conscious existence. He purchased for us a new life, able to turn conscious existence, otherwise a curse, into a blessing; an existence out of God, into a blissful one in God.

26. These things. That have preceded (see note on 1:4) from ver. 18 onward, regarding the false teachers and their denial of the truth. Have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 'Seduce you' from the truth. Doing it as an occupation. It is the act of deceiving and causing to wander. John puts the faithful on their guard, and fortifies them by impressing them with the enormity of the antichristian error, and its logical outcome. He implies that there are aspects to the teaching or acting of errorists that are seductive, calculated to deceive, were it possible, the very elect. It has such a part of truth, or is so agreeable to the natural heart, or is accompanied with such professions of sincerity, or such appearance of amiability, or invites to such associations, or so flatters the vanity of intellectualism or singularity, that it is adapted to deceive; and the warning must be emphatic.

27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. The Revised Version is more literal: And as for you, etc. See note on ver. 24. It vividly contrasts the apostle's trusted readers with the doctrinal seducers, and introduces the favorite testimony of the spiritual standing that made them as a rock against all error. ' The anointing.' Anointing-oil; emblematic name of the Holy Spirit. There must be a reason why here and in ver. 20, this particular name is given to the Spirit when his work is regarded as the source of the spiritual knowledge of Christians. Is that reason suggested in Rev. 3:18? 'Which ye have received.' When they were first consciously saved. This receiving is by the hearing of faith (gal. 3:2), and by obeying. (Acts 5:32.) 'Prom him' — namely, Christ (2:20), who has the Spirit to give to his people in fulfillment of one of his divine offices. The one ever present to the apostle's thought, the one about whom both error and faith chiefly revolved, the one running as a life-current in all the Epistle, needed only a pronoun by which to be recognized. 'Abideth in you.' It is no temporary gift. Once received, the Spirit abides in us, as do his graces, (1 Cor. 13:13.) True, his manifestations in experience maybe hid at times; but he himself remains an eternal possession. And ye need not. And so ye have no need. That any man teach you. There may be some peculiar meaning in the word 'that' (ἴνα), some sort of aim or purpose, as if a need of knowledge were designed to invite instruction; still it is simpler to take Winer's position, and regard the word 'that' here, with its verb, as used in place of the infinitive as found in Heb. 5:12; Matt. 3:14; 1 Thess. 1:8, a usage beginning to appear in New Testament times, and now universally employed in the modern Greek. See John 2:25; 16:30; 18:39. It is evident from Jer. 31:33; John 6:45; Heb. 8:10; 1 John 2:20, that there is a knowledge on the part of the regenerate — given by the Holy Spirit — which supersedes the necessity of external teachers. This knowledge relates to the nature of spiritual objects. It is qualitative and discriminative. The objects being presented, it knows the true through the Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:11, 14.) The Spirit in us does not reveal new truth, but illumines, certifies, and leads into the old, and roots it in the convictions. And by this we are fortified against the novelties and errors of human wisdom. But. In contrast with ' need not.' As the same anointing. The weight of criticism is altogether in favor of the words 'of him' (Revised Version " his ") in place of ' the same ': The anointing of him — that is, of Christ. And this rendering helps to carry the mind to Christ as the subject of the word 'hath taught' near the close of the verse, and the one meant by ' in him ' at the very close. Teacheth. This work of the Spirit is continuous and ever present; while Christ taught (ἐδίδαξεν) once for all, and passed to heaven. If Christ teaches now, it is by the Spirit. And is truth. Or, better, true. Said of the Spirit. And if he be true, he is no lie (compare ver. 21), and his teaching is exclusive and binding — his teaching especially, that we should abide in Christ, for all that he is. And even as it hath taught you. The 'and' naturally introduces something additional to the Spirit's teaching; and the 'even as,' stronger than the simple " as " before given, naturally introduces something that backs up and makes more cogent the lesson coming from the Spirit's teaching. And what is so likely to be that something additional, and that something enforcing the Spirit's lesson, as a citing of Christ's own teaching of the same tenor and effect? Then the aorist tense of the word 'taught' (not, 'hath taught') points back to the definite historical act of some person, other than the Spirit, who is a constant working presence. And what so natural as to think here of the oral teaching of Christ, especially as he is brought into view at the opening of the sentence, and is surely referred to by the words abide in him at the close? And, to confirm all, there is the known record in John 15:4, that he did teach his people this very duty, to abide in him. This teaching of Christ's own lips, we believe John recalls, to enforce the Spirit's teaching, as against the seduction of the antichrists. Our rendering of this difficult passage then is: But as the anointing of him teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as he (Christ himself) taught you, abide (μένετε, not the future μενεῖτε) in him,,

28, And now denotes simple transition to a new phase of the matter of abiding in Christ. John had just urged it from the consideration that it was the Spirit's and the Lord's teaching. He now urges it from the consideration of the Lord's second coming. Little children. Humble, beloved, born of God. The very name an enforcement of spiritual obligations, and inspiring loving obedience. Abide in him. In Christ. Repeated from the close of the preceding verse, partly from the importance of the injunction, partly that the apostle may lay it upon the hearts of his dear ones as his own independent charge, but most of all for the sake of enforcing it with the new consideration of the approaching second advent. The certainty of our salvation is consistent with watchful caution and effort lest we be lost. None of the men in the ship (Acts 27:22-24) shall be lost. Nevertheless, "except these (men) abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." (27:31.) God works the sure result through our free acting. Means as well as ends are of God's purpose. There is something wrong about an assurance that is careless. The one actually safe in Christ will try carefully to abide in him. That when he (Christ) shall appear (better, if he be manifested, at any time, as he will be some time), we may have confidence (or, boldness). The boldness is that childlike freedom, that perfect sense of justification, that up-looking spiritual assurance, which they have who are consciously in Christ, and which they will have under the greatest revelation, even that of the Lord coming in the air. (1 Thess. 4:17.) And not be ashamed (shrink with shame) before (literally, from) him— that is, from Christ, the Judge. The expression 'from (ἀπὸ) him' implies a motion of the body; it may be an averting or hanging of the face, caused by the sense of shame belonging to conscious guilt. This feeling is the opposite of that boldness in the day of judgment (4:17), cheering those united to Christ. At his coming. In his 'coming' or presence (παρούσια), when manifested at the last day. The important word occurs but once in all John's writings, though several times elsewhere in the New Testament.

29, If ye know (as a fact) that he is righteous. The previous context, which has suggested the idea of righteousness here, demands that the word 'he' should relate to Christ. It is the natural subject; and it brings us back to the very character of Christ with which the chapter opened:' Jesus Christ (who is) righteous.' See note on 2:1. This character of Christ is suggested by the boldness or shame felt by those who meet him at his second coming. These feelings imply the righteous attribute in him. Besides, righteousness is always thought of as a kind of omnipresence at the second advent. Ver. 28 suggests the opening declaration of ver. 29. Of course, if 'he' refers to Christ, 'of him' at the close most naturally has the same reference. And why may not the believer be said to be born or begotten of Christ? Strictly, it is the Holy Spirit who is the agent in regeneration, and it is Christ who works in the work of the Spirit as much and as truly as it is the Father. [In 1 Cor. 4:15 Paul says: "For in Christ Jesus" — that is, in the power of Christ Jesus exercised doubtless by the Holy Spirit — " I begat you through the gospel " — a passage confirming the view of the author. — A. H.] Ye know (experimentally) that every one that doeth righteousness is born (or begotten) of him. The doing of righteousness, as a tree bears fruit and as a continuous activity, is intimately connected with abiding in Christ. It is doing as Christ the righteous one does. It is acting out the same nature and life. It is the proof of kinship, of the new birth. And they who have this relationship with Christ will find their family likeness to him perfected as they meet him at the final day (8:2), and will not be ashamed. It is 3:2 that completes the thought of this verse, and brings it up into relation with the searching parousia noticed in the preceding verse. Spiritual kinship in the new birth guarantees moral and spiritual likeness, and such likenesss will produce the home feeling before the manifested Christ.