Author and context

Although the author of this epistle does not mention his name, the fact that he speaks of himself as an eye-witness of the ministry and of the Passion of Christ, and the other point, that the thoughts, the style, and the entire contents of the letter agree so closely with those of the fourth gospel, make it certain beyond reasonable doubt that John, the Apostle of Love, is the author. From the tone which he employs throughout it appears that John was well known to his readers, was on terms of loving intimacy with them. It is generally assumed that they were members of the Christian congregations in Asia Minor, especially of the western part, in the Roman province of Asia. They seem to have been the same people for whom John also wrote his gospel. These congregations had been founded by Paul or his companions and pupils. But after Paul had died as martyr in Rome, about 67 A. D., John left Jerusalem and made Ephesus his home. During the remaining thirty odd years of his life he had the oversight over the churches in Asia Minor. It was toward the end of his life that he wrote this letter. As the only surviving apostle and as an aged pastor addressing men of a later generation, he speaks in a tone befitting his station, that of a father instructing and admonishing his children, in a series of most beautiful appeals.

Purpose

The general purpose of the letter is to warn against false teachers, most of whom, if not all, had come from the congregations themselves. He designates them as false prophets and as antichrists, because they denied the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus, attempted to reduce the horror which Christians should feel toward sin, and denied brotherly love. This was a trend of thought and practise which was found quite generally in those days, also in the case of sectarians that troubled the Christian Church for almost another century.

Contents

Although the epistle does not show a sharp outline, being written in letter style, yet we may distinguish certain groups of instructions and admonitions. The introduction gives the subject-matter and the purpose of the epistle. Under the general thought “God is Light” the apostle shows that walking in the light involves fellowship with God and with the brethren, consciousness and confession of sin, keeping God’s commandments; it excludes hatred of the brethren, love of the world, and discipleship under false teachers. Under a second general topic “God is Love” the apostle depicts the singular love of God in calling us His children, naming as the evidence of sonship righteousness and brotherly love. He warns against believing all teachers who boast of the Spirit. He exhorts the believers to love one another and to be like God, who is Love, and in this love sent His Son to be our Savior. He shows that faith in Christ is the source of love, and describes the witnesses of our faith. In the conclusion he summarizes all his teaching and admonishing in a powerful appeal ^■953 .

Overview of 1 – 3 John

The First Epistle of John is a genuine apostolic epistle and ought properly to follow right after his Gospel. For as, in the Gospel, he deals with faith, so here he opposes those who boast of faith without works, and teaches in many ways that works cannot be absent, where faith is; if they are not present, then faith is not genuine, but is lies and darkness. This he does, not by insisting upon the Law, as James’ Epistle does, but by inciting us to love as God has loved us.

He also writes vigorously against the Corinthians, and against the spirit of Antichrist, which was beginning even then to deny that Christ was come in the flesh, and which is now for the first time really in full sway. For although men do not now publicly deny with the lips that Christ is come in the flesh, they do deny it with their hearts, by their doctrine and life. For he who would be righteous and be saved by his own works and deeds does the same as he who denies Christ, since Christ is come in the flesh in order to make us righteous and save us without our works, by His blood alone.

Thus this Epistle fights against both parties, — against those who would be in faith without any works, and against those who would be righteous and be saved with works. So it keeps us in the true middle way, that we may become righteous and free from sin through faith, and afterwards, when we are righteous, practice good works and love for God’s sake, freely and without seeking anything.

The other two Epistles are not epistles of doctrine, but examples of love and faith, and have, besides, a true apostolic spirit.

Verses 1-10

Christ’s person and office

Concerning the person of Christ:

The apostle here announces the topic, or subject-matter, of his letter: Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, became flesh for the salvation of mankind. In the form which shows his intimate knowledge of the subject he writes: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we inspected and our hands touched, concerning the Word of Life. The Word of Life is his theme, the eternal, essential, personal Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, John 1:1,14. It is Jesus Christ, called the “Word,” because in Him, God has revealed Himself, has made Himself and His entire counsel of salvation known to men. He is the “Word of Life,” because He, as the true God, has the fulness of true, everlasting life in Himself, because He is the Source and Fountain of all true life, and because He gives eternal life to all those that come to Him in truth. Of Him St. John says that He was from the beginning; He did not come into existence at the beginning, at the creation of the world, at the period when time first began to be reckoned, but He was, He already existed: He is from eternity. The eternal Son of God became man, for John says that he heard Him, that his own ears received the doctrine of life from His lips; that he saw Him with his own eyes. Yea, more: he had opportunity enough to gaze upon this wonderful God-man, to inspect Him closely, to note everything that He did; his hands even touched and handled Him, because he was the beloved disciple, and the evening of the Passover meal in the upper room was undoubtedly not the only time when he leaned on the breast of Jesus.

John has still more to say of the incarnation and its purpose: And the Life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and declare to you the eternal Life, the very one which was with the Father and was manifested to us. The Life, He who is the Life, the embodiment of all true life, was manifested, revealed, to men. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, John 1:14. John purposely speaks of their seeing as having taken place for a long time. They were with the Lord long enough to know that they were not dealing with a phantom, but with the personal revelation of the second person of the Godhead. They had every reason, John and his fellow-apostles, to be so certain of their declaration and of their witness. They saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father. They knew that Jesus Christ was the true God and eternal Life. As such, as the eternal embodiment and source of all true spiritual life, as Him who was with the Father from eternity and was made flesh, was manifested to us, lived among men, God and Man in one person, John had proclaimed Him and was proclaiming Him.

The apostle also states the purpose of this emphatic proclamation: What we have seen and heard we declare also to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. John and the other disciples made that the work of their entire life, to preach the wonderful Gospel-message, to tell the wondrous story of Jesus and His work of redemption, in order that other people also might learn to know Christ, to believe in Him, and thus to enter into the most intimate spiritual fellowship with the apostles and with all true believers. By faith all believers on earth, regardless of race and social position, are united in the communion of saints, in the Christian Church. This fellowship, moreover, involves still more: But our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. By faith the Christians are not only united in an association holding the same tenets and held together by the same profession, but they thereby become members of the body of Christ and enter into intimate relationship with God the Father Himself. For as the eternal Father of Jesus Christ, His Father also after the incarnation, as He Himself repeatedly testified, He is also our Father by virtue of the redemption of Christ. The Savior has removed all cause of enmity by bearing both our sins and their guilt and atoning for them with His blood, thereby reconciling God the Father to us. Thus we are all children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is a wonderful, a glorious relationship in which we stand. No wonder the apostle is constrained to add: And this we are writing that your joy may be complete. This assurance of the sonship of God, of the fact that all causes for apprehension and fear have been removed, will ever have the same effect upon the Christians, namely, that of making their joy in faith complete and perfect, of causing them to rest their salvation in Christ and their heavenly Father without the slightest hesitation or doubt, of imparting to them that inexpressible happiness of faith which no man can take from the believers, which they retain in the very midst of misery and tribulation. That is John’s introduction to his letter, a remarkable example of the comforting quality of the Gospel-message.

Walking in the light, cleansed by Christ’s blood:

The apostle now launches forth in his letter proper, developing, first of all, his topic that God is Light: And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light and that darkness is in Him in no way. St. John desires to make an announcement, a declaration, to deliver a message. It is not a message or philosophy which he has thought out himself; he is not offering the result of any research of his own. What he writes, what he proclaims, is the truth of Christ, of God; he is a messenger of Christ, a minister of salvation, as every true pastor is intended to be. God is Light, and darkness — in Him there is none. Light is purity, holiness; He is the Source of all true knowledge, wisdom, happiness, and holiness. There is no darkness, no ignorance, no imperfection, no misery, no sinfulness in Him. As light is the symbol of purity, goodness, and perfection, so, on the other hand, darkness symbolizes ignorance, sinfulness, misery, corruption.

Upon this fact the apostle bases a conclusion regarding the conduct and life of the Christians: If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we are liars and are not practising the truth. That we have fellowship with God as our heavenly Father by faith the apostle had just stated. But if we now, who profess to be Christians and thus to be united with God in the most intimate union, live and behave ourselves as though we were still in darkness, if we are addicted to sin, if we in any way serve sin and corruption, then our entire life is a lie. We may be self-deceived, under circumstances, but the lie is there nevertheless. We are then not doing, practising, the truth, which demands that we live a pure and holy life, according to the will of our heavenly Father. To walk and live in sins while professing to be children of God is to brand ourselves as liars and hypocrites.

St. John describes the conduct of the Christians as it should be: But if we walk in the light as Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We are a light in the Lord through faith, and therefore it behooves us to walk as the children of light, Ephesians 5:8. God, our heavenly Father, is in the light, His entire essence is holiness, everything that He does is pure and holy. Of this nature we partake by faith, and our conduct should give evidence of the faith that has made us children of the light and enables us to walk as the children of light, according to God’s good pleasure and will. If thus we live a holy and righteous life, deriving continual light, power, and life from Him, then there will be two happy consequences of such behavior. In the first place, we have the assurance that we have fellowship with one another: we are closely connected with our heavenly Father by faith; we are united with the holy apostles and with the Christians of all times by the bond of this same faith. Just as an unholy, sinful life, a conduct of sin and shame, excludes the perpetrator from all communion with the saints of God and with God Himself, so a righteous and holy life, lived by the power of God through faith, binds us ever more closely to the Lord and to one another. At the same time we are also assured that the blood of Jesus, our Savior, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin. In spite of the weaknesses and imperfections of this earthly life, in spite of the many accusations and temptations on the part of the devil and the children of this world, we have forgiveness of sins. Jesus, the true Man, our Brother according to the flesh, but at the same time the Son of God, the eternal God Himself, has shed His blood for us once, yet His sacrifice has eternal validity and power by virtue of that mysterious, wonderful personal union of the two natures. Always, every day, without ceasing, we have forgiveness of sins, we are righteous and just and holy before God through the blood of Jesus Christ, which is always effective; in the case of every sin we have forgiveness, which is always and ever again offered and transmitted to us in the Word and in the Sacrament and accepted by us in faith.

Sin and its forgiveness:

What St. John here discusses is the heresy of perfectionism, the idea which is held by many people to this day, namely, that they can attain to such a perfect state in this world that they are completely free from sin in their own persons, “in an uninterrupted obedience.” To these the apostle says: If we say that sin we do not have, ourselves we deceive, and the truth, not is it in us. The very position of the words expresses the horror which John must have felt at the mere suggestion of such blasphemy. There is no such thing as perfect sanctification in our own persons in this life, making the forgiveness of sins superfluous so far as we are concerned. If any one should hold this foolish notion and even confess it, he is deceiving himself, he is leading himself astray, he is leaving the eternal truth as revealed in the Word of God. He is denying the truth that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that there is none that doeth good, no, not one. He has left the truth that we sinners are justified before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. Thus the truth will no longer be in such a person, he is lost in the blindness of self-righteousness, he has lost the fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ, his Savior.

But, on the other hand: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, that He forgives the sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. That is the custom which the Christians have, to bring their transgressions before their heavenly Father in contrition and repentance, to confess them all without excuse or attempt at mitigation. We can do that so freely because we know that God is reconciled to us through the blood of His Son. He forgives us our sins for the sake of Christ, He cleanses us from all our imperfections and unrighteousnesses, from the sins which still cling to us and make us laggards in the fulfilment of God’s will. This He can do because the righteousness of Christ is there in sufficient quantity to outweigh all our trespasses; His expiation is great enough to cover all our sins. What is more, in doing this, our heavenly Father is proving Himself faithful to His promises, Hebrews 10:23. And He is just; having accepted the redemption of Christ, His perfect reconciliation, it would be an act of unrighteousness and injustice on His part to break His promise ratified by the blood of Jesus. If Christ were still in the grave, then our hope were vain; but with the risen Christ exalted to the right hand of God we are courageous and defiant in faith.

The apostle again lifts his finger in warning to check the pride and self-righteousness of our hearts: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word, not is it in us. If any person that is at all acquainted with the Word of God is so blind and perverse as to deny his own sinfulness, he is stifling the voice of his conscience, he is setting aside the entire Word of the Gospel, he is rejecting the entire experience of mankind. Thus he makes God a liar; for the entire content of His Word may be given in the two words, sin and grace; and he most assuredly has not the faintest conception of the truth of God as it is contained in His revealed Word. Let every Christian, therefore, guard against such a delusion with all vigilance, and to that end make the study of God’s Word a daily practise. Then his own sin, but above all the greatness of God’s mercy, will be revealed to him with ever greater emphasis.

Summary

The apostle gives a brief summary of the doctrine concerning the person and the office of Christ, showing at the same time that God is Light and that we should walk in this light, recognizing and acknowledging our sins, but also the forgiveness of God through the blood of Christ.

Verses 1-29

Christ’s propitiation and its influence upon the life of the Christians

Christ our Advocate and Propitiation:

If there is any form of admonition which ought to make a deep impression, it is this form of affectionate and personal appeal which is here used by the apostle: My little children, this I am writing to you that you may not sin. This is the apostle’s favorite form of address, that of an affectionate father to children whom he tenderly loves. He reminds them of the necessity of showing their new spiritual nature in resisting sin. He has already told them that their fellowship with Christ and God prevented their serving sin. He has given them the blessed comfort that God forgives the sins which come upon them unawares, as it were. The result must be, of course, that Christians desist from sinning, that they do not permit sin to rule them, as Luther writes, that they refuse to be willing servants of sin, Romans 6:12,14.

It is a statement with a world of comfort which the apostle adds: And if some one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just One; and He is the Propitiation for our sins, but not for ours alone, rather also for those of the whole world. If some one does sin, if, in spite of all his vigilance, it happens that he stumbles and falls, then it is not God’s will that he should remain in his unfortunate condition and despair. He should remember, rather, that Jesus Christ, who in Himself is absolutely righteous and just, without a single sin, stain, or blemish, who also fulfilled the Law of God perfectly in our stead, is our Advocate, our Intercessor with the Father. He died for our offenses, but was raised again for our justification. He is at the right hand of God, He is making intercession for us, Romans 8:34. He can point to His perfect atonement, which has been earned for all men and is imputed to all believers. Jesus can truly be the Champion of our cause, because He is the Propitiation for our sins. “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 for our acquittal.” ^■954 . He suffered the full penalty for the sins of the whole world. He Himself is the Propitiation, being both High Priest and Sacrifice. That one point cannot be emphasized too often or too strongly, namely, that the redemption of Christ was made for the whole world, for every single person that ever lived or is living to-day, that it is there without our merit and even without our faith, the latter being only the hand which accepts the salvation as it lies ready for all men. That is the great art of faith, to cling to Christ in the midst of temptation and sin, knowing that His satisfaction covers every conceivable case and was not confined to any individual case or class of people. He is my Advocate, my Intercessor, my Redeemer.

Keeping Christ’s commandments:

Faith in Christ the Savior confirms, establishes, the fellowship which we have with Him and our heavenly Father. The result is a living knowledge of Christ: And in this we may find out that we know Him, if we keep His commands. A mere cold, external knowledge about God, a mere head knowledge of His essence and properties, is not true faith and will bring no fruit. A genuine conception of God is that which acknowledges God and trusts in Him as the heavenly Father reconciled to us in Christ and loving us for His sake. If we live in accordance with the commands of this heavenly Father, if we do what His holy will desires of us, then we may take this fact as evidence that we possess the proper knowledge of God. Our life as Christians is the mark of our fellowship with God.

Hypocrites, therefore, and believers in name only should beware: He that says, “I know him,” and does not keep His commands, is a liar, and in this person the truth is not. God wants a genuine keeping of His will, He abhors sham and hypocrisy. A mere outward profession of faith, a mere crying, “Lord, Lord,” may make the desired impression upon men, especially since genuine good works may be imitated. God examines the condition of the works very closely; He knows the motive which prompts every word and deed of every person. The hypocrite may deceive others, but he cannot really deceive himself, and his efforts to deceive God are vain and foolish. The hypocrite, the mere head- and mouth-Christian, is a liar, he does not really know what truth is; he has gotten away so far from honest Christianity that all his pretended efforts avail him nothing.

Of the true, honest Christian St. John writes: But whoever keeps His Word, in this person the love of God is truly completed; in this we know that we are in Him. Out of the knowledge of God in faith there flows the true love of God. This love finds its expression in this, that the Christian keeps the Word of God, that we do what we know to be His will, that we refrain from everything that is contrary to His will. If this is our attitude, if this is brought out in our entire conduct, in our whole life, then our love toward God is really perfected, gives a proper, live account of itself, presents unmistakable proof of the right condition of our heart. A real Christian life is the mark of fellowship with God, it shows that our life is bound up with Him, that we obtain all our strength from Him.

It follows, then, as St. John puts it: He that says he abides in Him is also under obligation to conduct himself just as He conducted Himself. The fellowship with God into which we enter by faith is not a matter of a few hours or days, but is a living, permanent power in the life of the Christian. The Christian wants to remain in fellowship with God, of whose wonderful influence he has had a taste. For this reason he takes the life and conduct of Christ as his example and tries with all the power granted him by faith to follow in His steps. Christ’s life is the pattern, the model; ours must at least be close imitations of His exemplary mode of living and conducting Himself. Thus the entire Christian life is obedience to God’s command. This obedience results from true fellowship with God and is its mark and evidence. And all is based upon the certainty of the forgiveness of sins.

Abiding in the light:

The chief factor in the life of believers is love toward the brethren, and therefore the apostle devotes a special paragraph to its discussion: Beloved, not a new commandment do I write to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the Word which you heard. As the apostle of love John addresses his readers in the affectionate manner which gives token of his love. It is not a new, novel, strange, unheard-of commandment that he is writing about, such as would set them all a-wondering as to his motive in speaking to them in this manner. It was an old precept, one which they had heard from the beginning of their Christian life. He was, in other words, expounding to them the Word of God as they had heard it always, from all their teachers; for all the apostles and their assistants preached the same truth.

In spite of the fact, however, that it was the old, old truth which he was proclaiming, he could nevertheless write: Again, a new commandment I am writing to you, what is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is even now shining. The truth does not change, it remains the same always. But the apostle says that, from another angle, from another point of view, his doctrine and the special precept which he has in mind is a new commandment. The form in which he is presenting it, the vehemence with which he is insisting upon it, gives it a tang of novelty, arouses new interest for it. The precept is contained in the revelation of Jesus Christ, has been fulfilled in Him, and is proved in the experience of believers. Christ truly loved His brethren and thereby left us an example of true brotherly love. In Him there was never any darkness in this respect or in any other. But in the case of us Christians also it is true that the former darkness of sin and selfishness is passing away, and the true light from God is shining, is illuminating us. Our hearts have been enlightened by the beauty and the power of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and in this power we are beginning to renew the image of God in our hearts. And although the shadows are still frequent by reason of our sinful nature, we know that they will be fully and finally driven away when the sun of eternal life will arise upon us.

The apostle here inserts a serious warning: He that says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in darkness until now. He that loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in it; but he that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. The distinction which the apostle makes is very clear. If a person professes to be a Christian, men have a right to expect a corresponding conduct from him, one which agrees with the will and character of Christ, one which is conspicuous for its show of brotherly love. If brotherly love, therefore, is absent, if there is evidence of hatred, it shows that such a person, in spite of all his protestations, is still in darkness; he is not yet truly converted, faith and hope have no place in his heart. Where a person has and shows real brotherly love, not the cheap imitation which is so often hailed as the genuine thing in our days, such a person is and remains in the light of God’s grace, with faith and love in his heart. Being in the light, he is not in danger of stumbling into pitfalls which the guile of the devil and of evil persons may place for him, such as participation in false charity of our days, especially that practised by the many antichristian societies. The Lord cannot bear pretense, deceit, hypocrisy. If any person has hatred toward his brother in his heart, his entire life, all that he does and undertakes, is in the darkness of unbelief and of a false charity. He may attempt to do what genuine Christians are doing, but because the light of faith has not arisen in his heart, because the eyes of his understanding are not yet enlightened, because he has no judgment in spiritual matters, therefore all his efforts are futile, they lead him nowhere so far as real Christianity is concerned, they have no worth in the sight of God so far as true sanctification is demanded. What a powerful appeal to all Christians to strive for purity of brotherly love on the basis of justifying and sanctifying faith!

An appeal to young and old:

The apostle is about to insert an earnest warning against the temptations and perils of the love of the world. It is by way of introduction to this warning that he reminds the Christians of various ages of their station and the duty which they owe themselves: I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. It is the affectionate tone and address of the spiritual father addressing such as were united with him in the fellowship of Christian love. His appeal rests upon their having been made partakers of God’s most wonderful gift, the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ’s name. It is because Christ obtained a perfect satisfaction for the sins of all mankind, because He took upon Himself both their guilt and their penalty and reconciled God to the whole world, that we are united with the Father in that wonderful mystical union which makes it self-evident for us to walk in the ways of His will.

St. John now distinguishes between the various classes of Christians to whom he is writing: I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who was from the beginning; I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Wicked One. To the fathers, to the older Christians, John is addressing himself, because they have learned to know and to put their trust in Him who was from the beginning, namely, in the eternal Son of God, because their faith rests in Him as their Lord and Savior. To the younger Christians he says that he is making this appeal to them because they have already renounced and overcome the Evil One, the devil, with all his temptations to evil. Though the battle is still continuing, the believers always have the advantage over the wiles and tricks of Satan, they are able effectually to check all his advances.

This point is so important that the apostle varies his appeal: I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father; I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning; I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the Evil One. Here also the word children is to indicate the intimate relationship which obtained between the readers of this letter and the writer, but still more between the Christians and their heavenly Father. For he writes that they have known the Father, they have learned to believe that He is their Father for the sake of Christ, they are united with Him by such fellowship of faith. The fathers, the older Christians, should never forget that they have the proper understanding of the person and office of Christ, as of the eternal Son of God who came into this world to become the Savior of all mankind. And the younger men, whose victorious fight against the devil the apostle has just mentioned, are never to lose sight of the fact that their strength is not from themselves, but is imparted to them by the Word of God. It is through the Gospel that the Holy Ghost gives us the power to withstand all the attacks of the devil and to remain victorious unto the end. Thus St. John reminds us of the blessings which we enjoy in our station as Christians, of the glory which is ours in this relationship to God, in order to work and confirm in us the unwavering resolution to be true to Christ and not let any one take our crown.

Warning against the love of the world:

On the fact that he is dealing with believers who have a large experience of the mercy of the Father and of the grace of Christ, the apostle bases his warning appeal: Do not love the world nor the things that are in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It is true, on the one hand, that we should make all men, regardless of their attitude toward the Gospel, the object of our merciful and benevolent regard, Galatians 6:9-10. Above all, we should try to bring them all the wonderful news of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, Matthew 28:19-20. But an entirely different matter is that of fraternizing with them while the unbelievers persist in rejecting the Word of God and in remaining in their spiritual darkness and condemnation. In this sense we cannot and should not love the world, the unbelievers. We should shun and detest the things in which the unbelievers find their enjoyment, with which they are exclusively concerned — the avaricious love of money, the pleasures of sin, particularly transgressions of the Sixth Commandment, ambition for honor before men, business schemes and practises which are at variance with the law of love. If a person professes to be a Christian and yet seeks the company of the world, of the children of the world, and takes part in the sinful pleasures, pastimes, and practises in which they indulge, he thereby convicts himself as not being a genuine disciple of the Lord, and shows that the love toward God, his heavenly Father, is not living in his heart. For how can a person be united with the enemies of God in the bonds of a true friendship? Where love for the world and its ways begins, there begins also the hatred of God. Where love of the world gains the ascendency, there is nothing but spiritual death.

How this condition is brought about the apostle explains: For everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the proud ostentation of life, not are they of the Father, but they are of the world. That is the entire imagination, the sole object of the children of this world: the lust of the flesh, the desire to have and enjoy that which pleases their corrupt nature, the evil inclination of their hearts, whether this be in eating and drinking or in sensual delights; the lust of the eyes, when people seek to gratify the sensuality of their hearts by such sights as are intended to satisfy this desire, as in impure, lewd pictures and filthy theatrical exhibitions; the pride, the braggart boasting, the conspicuous ostentation of this life, when people make it a point to show off their wealth, very often ill-gotten gains. All these things are not in agreement with the new spiritual mind which should be found in the believers, in the children of God; they do not come from above, from the Father of Lights, but from below, from the kingdom of darkness. Those sins are the sphere in which the children of the world live and move, and from which the believers should always be far removed.

With warning emphasis the apostle therefore adds: And the world passes away and its lust; but he that does the will of God remains to eternity. This world with all its sinful lusts and desires is passing away; the sentence of condemnation has been spoken, and the final destruction is inevitable. The thought is not only that the world and all its so-called pleasures are transient, but also that they are corrupt and subject to eternal damnation. Only he that does the will of God, that walks and conducts himself always in conformity with the will of the heavenly Father, whose fellowship with the Lord expresses itself in a behavior which always meets with His approval, only he will obtain eternal life, for only he will have given that evidence in love which proves the presence of faith in the heart. Thus we Christians must never forget that our faith will bear the fruit of a Christian conduct, of true brotherly love, and of denial of the world and its lusts.

A warning against antichristian teaching:

With all its seriousness, this warning is couched in affectionate terms: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have appeared; whence we know that it is the last hour. The apostle opens also this paragraph with a reminder of our fellowship with God, of our sonship toward God. The last period of the world was ushered in with the coming of the Savior in the flesh, and St. John, in using the terminology of God, fitly calls this period the last hour, for it is a short, a very brief time until the Lord will return in glory to judge the quick and the dead. It is the period of the world’s existence in which, as St. Paul had taught and the Christians had heard from all their teachers, the great Antichrist was to make his appearance, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7. And even as the mystery of iniquity was already at work, preparing the way for the rise of the one great Antichrist, the Pope of Rome, so the Christians of those days saw, and were brought into contact with, many small antichrists, many false teachers whose doctrines were at variance with the eternal truths of the Gospel. All these factors were, even to the Christians of the early Church, signs of the end. Note: The great Antichrist has been revealed as such by the work of Martin Luther, whence we have evidence that we are living in the last days of the world. This impression, moreover, is made an absolute certainty when we contemplate the number of small antichrists, minor false teachers, that are denying the truth of Scriptures and thus aiding the Pope in his destruction of souls.

Of the antichristian teachers St. John says: Out from us they went, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but in order that it might be shown that they are not all of us. There are numerous passages to show that the most dangerous enemies and opponents of the Christian congregations in the early days were those men that were members and then apostatized from the truth, going astray from the sound doctrine which they had been taught, whereupon they promptly attempted to lead others, too, away with them into error. Of course, they could not remain members under such circumstances, they were excommunicated, they had to leave; in a majority of cases they probably went of their own accord. In any event, their becoming manifest as enemies of the Lord by their leaving the congregation made the great contrast between them and the true Christians apparent. Mark: Also in our days there are a great many antichrists, false believers, false teachers in the very midst of Christendom, within the ranks of those that profess to be members of the Christian Church. And in many places the outward organization of the Church is so badly degenerated that these antichristian forces are at work practically without hindrance, as just at present the exponents of social Christianity. Our duty is to expose such antichrists by means of the Word of God, and to keep ourselves strictly uncontaminated with their vile activity.

This is possible for us, since the apostle writes: And you have received the anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. This is an expression of confidence in the Christians which may well serve as an encouragement to them not to be led astray. They have received the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit, through faith they are the anointed of the Lord, Christians in the literal sense of the word. This same faith also gives to all believers not merely an outward knowledge, a mere understanding of the mind, but a true inward certainty of the divine and saving truth, based upon the Word of the Gospel. That is the advantage which every Christian has over against the powers of darkness that are trying to overwhelm him.

Antichristian characteristics and the Christian’s attitude:

St. John here writes in almost an apologetic manner, both to avoid a misunderstanding and to urge the Christians forward in knowledge: Not have I written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is connected with the truth. The complete and careful instruction which the apostle was here giving was not intended to convey to them any mistrust on his part, as though they had not yet come to the proper knowledge of the truth. They had learned what all Christians should know with regard to the divine and saving doctrines. He knew that the truth of God’s Word was the force which governed and controlled their lives. Truth has nothing in common with lying, with falsehood. Therefore all true Christians are well able to recognize, to detect, all teaching and living that is not in agreement with the truth. This knowledge they should utilize in keeping falsehood from gaining a foothold in their midst.

In one respect particularly the Christians must use all vigilance: Who is a liar if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son. Even in those days certain false teachers very carefully distinguished between Jesus and the Christ, saying that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary, and that the Christ was a supernatural power which was given Him at His baptism, which, however, forsook Him again when He suffered and died. Similar doctrines are being held by false teachers in our days. St. John, therefore, firmly maintains that the human and the divine nature were united in the person of Jesus Christ, and calls every one, in an expression which certainly is not lacking in force and clearness, a liar, if he denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior, the only-begotten Son of God, who was made man in the fulness of time. He that denies this truth thereby reveals his antichristian character, rejects all that God has revealed for our salvation, and denies all true knowledge of God. For he that denies the Son also denies the Father and can claim no fellowship with the Father.

This the apostle repeats with emphasis: Every one that denies the Son has also not the Father; he that confesses the Son has also the Father. To deny the Son as the Christ, as the Savior of the world, just as He revealed Himself in Scriptures, is to reject the Father as well, for the two persons are inseparably united; the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son, John 14:10. On the other hand, every person that confesses Jesus as He is revealed to us in the Scriptures, as the eternal Son of the eternal Father, as Jesus the Christ, has the Father, has fellowship with the Father, is united with the Father through the bond of true faith.

It follows from this discussion, so far as all true Christians are involved: So far as you are concerned, what you have heard from the beginning, let it remain in you; if that remains in you which you heard from the beginning, you, on your part, will remain in the Son and in the Father. To make his appeal emphatic, the apostle places the pronoun ahead: You at least; at any rate, so far as you are concerned, cling firmly to that which you heard from the beginning, let that Gospel-truth remain in you which you were taught at the time of your conversion. At that time they had accepted the truth concerning the person and office of Christ. This certainty was to continue a power in their hearts and in their lives. And if the unadulterated Gospel, as they had heard it from the mouths of the apostles, would remain the one basis of their faith, then they, on their part, would be sure to remain in the true fellowship with the Son and with the Father. As the Father and the Son entered into our hearts by faith in the Word, so they will remain in us by that same faith. If we but continue in His Word, then our discipleship will remain certain, then He will abide in us, John 15:1-6.

Then, also, we have the further certainty: And this is the promise which He Himself promised to us, eternal life. This is a promise which Jesus made time and again in the days of His flesh, that those that believe on Him should have everlasting life, John 3:15-16,36; John 5:24; John 6:40,47,54. If we keep that faith in the Father and in the Son, as in those that worked our salvation for us and in us, then He, as a reward of mercy, will take us up to the eternal home, to the blessings of salvation, to the bliss of heaven. Even though we are not yet enjoying the delights of this life with God, we are nevertheless possessors of its glory and bliss, and we know that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him until that day, Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 1:12. What a powerful incentive to faithfulness!

Abiding in Christ:

The entire discussion as it had been carried on by the apostle in the last paragraphs had been in the interest of his readers: These things I wrote to you concerning those that lead you into error. That was his solicitude; he knew that there were men always on the lookout to lead souls astray from the truth in Christ, and therefore he lifted up his voice in such solemn warning. For in spite of all the scorn that is affected by the false teachers as they sneer about orthodoxy, we know that every one who forsakes the Word of the Gospel concerning Christ, the Son of God, will not remain in the fellowship of God and cannot inherit eternal life.

As for the Christians, the apostle expresses his confidence: And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him remains in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; rather, as His anointing teaches you about everything, and it is true and is no lie; and even as it taught you, abide in Him. The believers whom St. John addresses have received and experienced the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit. This anointing was not a mere temporary experience, whose effects might soon have worn off. By virtue of it, as it was applied to them in the Word of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit exerted His power in them. It was but necessary for them to follow His leading in the Word. This anointing, this enlightening work of the Spirit in the Word gave them all the information which they needed in any situation in life, and thus, in just that form it was true, without the slightest bit of falsehood or lying. Therefore they should heed the teaching of the Gospel at all times, in all circumstances, and thus abide in Him, in their Savior Jesus Christ. To genuine believers the mere suggestion that Christ should not be considered the eternal Son of God, the Savior of the world, is so blasphemous that they turn from its very breath with loathing and disgust. Jesus Christ is the everlasting foundation of our faith.

This being true, the appeal of the apostle strikes us with full force: And now, little children, abide in Him, in order that, when He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. St. John has enumerated every reason which ought to induce us to cling with all our heart to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His urgent admonition, therefore, comes as the climax of the chapter. To abide in Him, firm, steadfast, unwavering: that is our glorious privilege. Moreover, it is a necessity, for although the manifestation of the Lord on the last day is certain, the time of His coming is not known. By remaining steadfastly in His Word and faith unto the end we acquire that boldness, fearlessness, confidence which will cause us to hail His coming with all joy. There will be no hanging of our heads in shame if we have followed the apostle’s injunction, but we shall look up, lifting up our heads with joy, since our salvation is certain. His coming will be the signal for the culmination of our redemption.

And another point must not be overlooked by the Christians: If you know that He is just, you understand also that every one who practises righteousness is born of Him. The coming of the Lord to Judgment reminds the Christians of His justice, of His righteousness. With this thought in mind, the Christian will not foolishly depend upon the mercy of God and in the mean time lead a life as it suits his old evil nature. Because he knows Christ to be righteous and just, therefore he will arrange his entire life so as to be found in works of righteousness. That is the certain result of the righteousness of faith, namely, righteousness of life. Being born of Him, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Word, a believer is bound to be engaged in thinking and speaking and doing that which pleases the Lord. These facts cannot be taught too often or learned too well ^■955 .

Summary

In discussing Christ’s propitiation and its influence upon the life of the believers, the apostle shows what the keeping of His commandments includes, namely, abiding in the light of His power; he appeals to all classes among the Christians in warning against the love of the world and of antichristian doctrines and practises; in concluding, he once more shows the need of abiding in Christ.

Verses 1-24

The glory, privileges, and obligations of sonship

The beauty of the sonship of God:

It was righteousness in life and conduct which the apostle had been urging. He now introduces another motive for such conduct: See how great a love the Father has given to us that we should be called the sons of God, and are. The Christians should behold and see, they should use the eyes of both body and mind, they should concentrate their attention upon that miracle, upon that mystery, that we should be honored with the name of children of God. To have been taken out of the state of wrath and damnation and to have been placed into such intimate fellowship with God as to have been born anew through the power of His Spirit in the Word, that is the experience which we have had. Children of God, that is what we are by faith in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3:26, sons of God, led by the Spirit of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, Romans 8:14,17. The image of God, lost by the Fall, is being renewed in us once more, Christ Himself is being formed in us, Galatians 4:19. What unspeakable, immeasurable majesty is ours! With this assurance in our hearts we can well bear what the apostle tells us: For this reason the world does not know us, because it does not know Him. The children of this world will not know, will not acknowledge us, will consider us beneath their notice, because we are the children of God, with all that this relation implies. The world did not know, did not acknowledge God as the Lord, did not accept Him in faith, and therefore it cannot possibly enter into friendly relations with us, His children; the unbelievers refuse to acknowledge the new, spiritual, divine character which the Christians show.

For our comfort, however, the apostle repeats and amplifies his statement: Beloved, now are we the children of God, and not yet has it been manifested what we shall be; we know that, when it shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. By nature we were the children of wrath and of Satan, but now, by our conversion, we have become and are children of God. Of that fact we are assured in so many passages of Scriptures that there can be no doubt in our minds. This confidence is not shaken either by the statement that it has not yet been manifested what we shall be. Although we have the certainty of our sonship even now and enjoy many of its blessings, yet the full glory of our future state has not yet been revealed to us. But when that revelation will take place, on the day when Christ will appear to us in the fulness of His glory, then we shall be like God the Lord, as nearly like Him as it is possible for creatures to become; then the image of God will be restored in us in the perfection of its beauty; then we shall be holy and righteous before Him. No longer shall we then view Him through a glass, darkly, but we shall see God face to face, as He is, in all the inexpressible beauty of His holiness and love. This seeing of God will, at the same time, be the means by which the image of God in us will ever again be renewed and kept in the fulness of its glory. That is the certain hope of the believers, a confidence which cannot fail.

It is self-evident, then, for a Christian: And every one that has this hope resting upon Him will purify himself, just as He is pure. Every one without exception that clings to this hope of the final glorious revelation, every one that rests his confidence in God, as the Author and Finisher of his salvation, will find it self-evident that he separates and cleanses himself from all defilements and carnal allurements, from everything that is an abomination in the sight of God. We have the example of Christ before our eyes always, as one who was perfectly pure and holy. It is impossible for Christians that have such hope in their hearts any longer to serve sin. This hope nourishes and strengthens the new life which was created in us in regeneration unto the genuine righteousness of life.

To abide in Him means not to sin:

Here the apostle shows that deliberate, malicious sinning is incompatible with the new life of the Christians: Every one that commits sin commits also lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. That the apostle makes a distinction between sins of malice and those of weakness, such as come upon a person unawares, is seen from 1 John 2:1. Of the former he speaks in this passage. Every one that is in the habit of committing sins thereby places himself in lasting opposition to the Law of God. He commits lawlessness, he deliberately does the opposite of that which the holy will of God demands of all men; he performs what God hates, what He has threatened to punish with temporal death and eternal damnation.

Now it is true, in general, with regard to the sins of all men: And you know that He was manifested to bear our sins, and sin is not in Him. This is the gist of the Gospel-message, the great truth with which all believers are familiar. Christ was manifested, He came into the world, He appeared in the fulness of time in order to bear and take away our sins, to atone for all the sins of all mankind, to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice of propitiation for all time. The handwriting which was against us has been completely wiped out through the salvation of Christ. His sacrifice had such infinite worth because in Him there is no sin; He is the innocent Lamb of God, His blood, as that of the holy Son of God, is the complete price of ransom for all the guilt that was heaped up before the just God.

From this fundamental fact it follows: Every one that remains in Him does not sin; every one that sins has not seen Him nor known Him. Our knowledge of the salvation of Christ is a living knowledge, a living faith. It is through this faith that we have fellowship with Christ, that we are and remain in Christ. In this union the Christian as such does not sin, he refuses to serve sin, he keeps his heart, mind, and thoughts away from sinful things, he will not yield his members to be servants of unrighteousness, Romans 6:1-14. On the other hand, every one that persists in sin, in lawlessness, in opposition to God’s holy will thereby gives evidence that he has not seen nor known Christ by faith. If a person is in any way a willing servant of sin and still tries to persuade himself and others that he is a Christian, he is merely deceiving himself. Note: These words of the apostle do not state, as the so-called perfectionists claim, that a Christian here on earth will reach a stage in which he, in his own person, is sinless. Because we still have our sinful nature to contend with, therefore we Christians are prone to stumble and even to fall. It is according to the new man that we are pure in the sight of God, for the sake of Christ’s righteousness; it is according to our regenerated self that we do not commit sin and keep all our members in subjection unto holiness. But our carnal self, the old Adam, transgresses the will of God in countless instances, thus imposing upon us the duty to wage incessant warfare against it, as St. Paul has so clearly pictured it, Romans 7:14-24.

Doing righteousness:

So much depends upon the genuineness of Christian conduct that the apostle warns against every form of deceit: Little children, let no one deceive you: he that practises righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; he that commits sin is of the devil, for from the beginning the devil sins. This clear statement is intended to remove all misunderstandings and prevent every form of deception. The righteous disposition of the heart, the Christian character as it is molded by faith, is bound to express itself in righteous conduct. Christ the Lord is the type, the example, the pattern of righteousness, of a life of perfect holiness. A spiritual child of God will have His character, a disciple of Christ will follow the Master. On the other hand, a person that deliberately commits sin, that is a servant of sin, thereby shows himself an apt pupil, a very child of the devil, a workshop of Satan, for he works in the children of disobedience, uses them as his tools for committing every form of trespass, Ephesians 2:2; John 8:44. For the devil sins from the beginning. The very first sin which is recorded was caused by him, since he had even before that rebelled against God; and he has, from that time, induced men to sin, made them his slaves, the servants of unrighteousness and damnation. It is a terrible picture which the apostle paints, one from which a Christian may well turn with shuddering.

All the greater, then, is the comfort in the next words: For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. This glorious object was achieved as one of the aims of Christ’s salvation. He was manifested, He came into the world. He assumed true humanity, in order that as our Substitute He might altogether dissolve and thus destroy every work by which the devil exerted his power, loose the bonds of sin in which men were held captive, take away the power and influence of the devil by which he tried to drag us down forever into his kingdom, deliver us from his sovereignty by virtue of which all the unconverted perform the works of darkness.

And there is another glorious truth: Every one that is born of God does not commit sin, for His offspring remain in Him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. The birth out of God takes place through the Gospel and through the power of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel. When this regeneration, this new birth, has been achieved, then it is true that such a child of God, according to the new, divine nature which he has in himself, cannot sin, cannot be forced back into the slavery of sin. It is natural for the children, the offspring, of God to remain in Him, and thus to do only that which is pleasing to Him. Moreover, the seed of the Word of God, which wrought regeneration in the Christian in the first place, continues in him, has its home in his heart, makes his heart fruitful in all good works. The new birth in God is the reason why such a person cannot sin; for by becoming a servant of sin, he would be guilty of deeds which would deny and destroy the new birth. Thus the attitude of every person with regard to sin and righteousness reveals his offspring: In this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil: every one that does not practise righteousness is not of God, and he that does not love his brother. Every one that does not make righteousness his goal, does not strive after perfection with all the power at his command, does not make the will of God the sphere of his activity, thereby offers unmistakable evidence of not being born of God, of still being a child of the devil — a terrible condition!

And the same test may be applied with regard to the practise of brotherly love: For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. The apostle reverts to this topic time and again. To him brotherly love is the very essence and substance of the Christian life. The tree is known by its fruit, and the faith of the Christian must be revealed in love. That, according to the Word of God, according to the last instructions of Jesus, is the outstanding trait and characteristic of the believer: he must show his appreciation of the wonderful blessings of Christ of which he has become a partaker in his love toward his fellow-Christians and toward all men. The very antithesis of such unselfish love is shown in the example of Cain: Not like Cain, who was of the Evil One and slew his brother; and for what reason slew he him? Because his works were wicked, but those of his brother just. Cain, the first murderer, received the inspiration for his evil deed from the devil himself, who is a murderer from the beginning, John 8:44. Having rejected that which was good, he became a servant of selfishness and sin. At the same time, he was jealous of the pure character of his brother Abel, just as the unbelievers in our days resent the fact that the Christians refuse to join them in their blasphemy of God and in their various transgressions of the holy will of God, 1 Peter 4:4. That was the reason why he slew his brother, because he could not bear the comparison in favor of Abel, because it angered him that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice rather than his own.

True brotherly love:

The apostle, first of all, makes a general application of the thought which was included in the last sentence: And do not wonder, brethren, if the world hates you. What the righteous Abel experienced in the first days of the world’s history is the lot of all the righteous since his time. So it must not be a matter of surprise to us if we incur the hatred and must bear the enmity of the children of the world. John 15:18-19; John 17:14; Matthew 10:16. Although the Christians are offering to the unbelievers the most wonderful blessings which were ever brought to this earth, although their one aim is to do good to all men, yet the unregenerate persistently resent the refusal of the Christians to join them in their transgressions. But this is not to be marveled at, because we are dealing with the world, with the children of unbelief, with such as willingly become identified with the trespass of Cain. Because the unbelievers prefer their life of sin and unbelief, which will finally land them in everlasting destruction, they cannot but hate the Christians.

The contrast, therefore, will remain: On our part, we know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren; he that does not love his brother remains in death. The distinction between unbelievers and believers, between world and Church, is clear and will remain till the end of time. So far as we are concerned, we have the knowledge, we are sure, that we have left our former state of spiritual death and have passed over to the true life in and with God. Our hearts that were formerly dead in sins are now turned to God in faith and love. We know that we have forgiveness of sins, and thus we have the willingness and the power to do that which pleases God. It was not a case of our choosing to embrace the truth, but of God’s choosing us and drawing us to Himself in the fulness of His mercy and grace. Of this we have evidence in the fact that we love the brethren. If we had not been converted through the power of God, it would be impossible for us to love the brethren. No unregenerated person is able to feel and to give evidence of real, genuine love. But the absence of this love is a sure sign that such a person is still lying in the death of sins. Moreover, he will remain in this spiritual death as long as he continues in his uncharitable attitude. In a case of this kind all external worship, all pretense at prayer, all churchgoing, all conversing of God and things divine, will avail nothing whatever: he that has no true love and gives no evidence of true love will remain in death until the Spirit of God works spiritual life in him.

The apostle repeats the same truth from the positive side: Every one that hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. In the phraseology of St. John, “not to love” and “to hate” are evidently synonyms; there is no neutral ground. That is the condition of natural man after the Fall: he has no true love for his neighbor in his heart, but only hatred, since being indifferent in the sight of God is identical with hating. Natural man is selfish and loves only himself. And therefore he is, in the judgment of God, a murderer, a homicide; for God judges the disposition of the heart. This is one of the strongest passages in Scriptures to throw the responsibility, also for sins of desire, of the heart, on the sinner. And all such men, all that are guilty of hatred, of the lack of proper love for their brother, have not the eternal life, that spiritual life which is begun in conversion and lasts beyond the grave, abiding in them. They belong in the kingdom of the devil, the murderer from the beginning. That is the terrible, the fearful lot of those that do not love their brethren. What an earnest warning to Christians not to let the love for their brethren leave their hearts, since the new spiritual life cannot remain in their hearts under such circumstances!

The apostle now gives a description and example of genuine brotherly love: In this have we known love, that He has laid down His life for us; and we should lay down our lives for the brethren. This is the one perfect example and type of love for all times. We Christians have realized and know what love is and means, wherein true love consists, how it expresses itself, in the example of Christ. For He, out of free love and merciful favor, laid down His life for us; He suffered the death which we had earned by our sins. His own holy life He laid down as the ransom, as the price, thus giving up the greatest, the most precious of earth’s gifts in order to deliver us. As one that was cursed of God, as a criminal in the sight of men He gave up His life. This example of love, than which there can be none more perfect, we Christians have before our eyes always. It teaches us the great lesson and obligation to love our brethren to such a degree as also to be willing to lay down our lives for them, if it will be for their benefit, to their advantage. Naturally this greatest sacrifice includes all the smaller services which we are called upon to perform for the brethren, the Christians ever forgetting, denying themselves in order to help and be of service to others.

Diametrically opposed to such unselfishness is the conduct which the apostle describes: But whoever has a living in this world and sees his brother have need and shuts up his mercies from him, how does the love of God remain in him? If we are under obligations to give up the highest and most precious gift of life for the sake of our brother, the smaller sacrifices, the minor evidences of love, will certainly offer no difficulties. If a person has a comfortable living in this world, if he possesses enough of this world’s goods for his own support and that of his family, those dependent upon him, he should really have incentive enough to share willingly with those in need. If such a one, however, sees his brother, his neighbor, in want, lacking the actual necessities of life, if he becomes a witness of his sorry plight, and yet closes up his heart before him, turns from him in the hardness of his heart, surely the conclusion is justified that he has lost the love and the faith which he might have possessed at one time. In such a case the Lord will also turn from him, will withdraw His love from the heartless wretch, since the love which the Lord demanded of him is no longer in evidence in his conduct and life. He has fallen back into spiritual death.

St. John, therefore, admonishes: Little children, let us not love with word or with the tongue, but in deed and in truth. Talk is cheap, as St. James shows, James 2:15-16, but it does not provide warm clothing or nourishing food. The mere expression of good will, unless backed up by real deeds, by acts which will provide the assistance for which the need is shown to exist, is worthless, a hollow sound. In some cases, indeed, it may be forgetfulness on the part of the Christians when they fail to provide for needs which are shown to exist, but in others there is danger of damnable hypocrisy, that covetousness and love of money hinder the professed Christian from showing concrete proof of the brotherly love of which he should give evidence. This admonition is certainly timely in these latter days of the dying out of true love, Matthew 24:12 ^■956 .

The reassurance of the Spirit:

This paragraph contains comfort of a singular kind, since it reassures the believer against himself: In this we shall know that we are out of the truth, and reassure our hearts before Him, that, if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. A believer naturally wants nothing to do with hypocrisy; he wants to be, rather, a child of the truth, a follower of the truth, also in the matter of brotherly love. The love shown to the brethren is in itself an evidence, a proof, of the new spiritual life in the heart of the believers. As the Christian, however, grows in sanctification, he will often find that his heart is dissatisfied with the progress made, and therefore proceeds to accuse him of lack of love. It is true, of course, that, as in all matters pertaining to the righteousness of life, so also in the matter of brotherly love, we are far from perfection. And yet we can reassure ourselves before the tribunal, in spite of the condemnation of our heart. For God is a greater, a more reliable Judge than our heart, and He has given us the definite assurance in His Word that all our shortcomings in the matter of perfect righteousness will be made up through the perfect righteousness of our Savior, as it was imputed to us by faith. He who knows all things also knows that, in spite of our faults and weaknesses, we are His children by faith in Christ Jesus, and that our imperfections are not due to our lack of spiritual willingness or to hypocrisy. Thus we may defend ourselves against the condemnations of our own heart.

The result is, as the apostle puts it: Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive from Him, since we keep His commandments and do what is best before Him. If we reach that stage in our spiritual life where the reassurance of the Word of God has quieted the accusations of our heart and we rely, without any self-confidence, in His promises, then we are filled with boldness, with childlike confidence toward God; we may then freely approach Him, as dear children go to their dear father. In this confidence we also lay our needs before our heavenly Father, trusting that He will give us what He thinks best. Our trust is never put to shame, for we shall receive from Him what we desire in prayer. For we are God’s children, reconciled to Him by the blood of His Son; we have His full forgiveness for all our daily sins and shortcomings, and we keep His commandments and strive, although in great weakness, to do only such things as please Him in every way. With this relation obtaining between Him and us, we are happy, though not perfect Christians. We know, of course, that all our efforts do not earn for us an answer to our prayers, but we also have the assurance that God is well pleased with us, His children, for the sake of the great and merciful love which He bears toward us, and will give us the strength for which we ask.

And this strength is truly needed for the keeping of His great commandment: And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, as He has given us a commandment. That is the first and supreme command and will of God, that we poor sinners confidently believe in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, His Son; that we rely without wavering upon the atonement which was made through His blood, and that we show this faith of our hearts in fervent love toward one another, just as He Himself commanded us to do, John 13:34; John 15:12. Out of the faith which God desires, which He commands, which He gives and works, the true love toward our brethren will flow so naturally that the keeping of God’s commandments will follow as a matter of course.

The apostle, therefore, concludes: And he that keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him; and herein we know that He abides in us, from the Spirit whom He has given us. St. John once more emphasizes the glorious fruit of the fellowship which obtains by faith between the Father and Christ, on the one hand, and the believers, on the other. Keeping the Lord’s commandments and loving the brethren is a fruit of faith and an evidence of the presence of the Savior in the believer’s heart. This evidence is so sure, so reliable, because the Holy Ghost, whom He has given us, is working brotherly love in our hearts. Brotherly love could not be present if the Savior were not living in our hearts; and the Savior would never have made our hearts His abode if it had not been for the power of the Spirit. But this combination of circumstances is so strong that it drives away all doubt and fear and fills our hearts with the calm confidence of faith.

Summary

The apostle speaks at length of the glory, the privileges, and the obligations of the sonship of God, showing wherein this beauty consists, explaining that true fellowship with God implies overcoming sin and doing righteousness, and stating that the reassurance of the Spirit overcomes the very condemnation of our own heart.

Verses 1-21

The attitude of Christians toward false teachers and toward one another

The false prophets:

Having emphasized the righteousness of life and the need of brotherly love, the apostle now takes up the matter of antichristian seduction once more: Beloved, not every spirit believe, but examine the spirits whether they are of God, for many false prophets are gone out into the world. The words “prophets” and “spirits” are here used as synonyms, both of them signifying preachers. Prophets are preachers. Good prophets are preachers through whom the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, teaches and preaches, whether it be by direct inspiration, as in the Old Testament, or whether it be by the teaching of the pure Gospel, as in the case of all true ministers to-day. In that sense they are spirits. But the Christians are here warned to use all care, to be on the lookout in ceaseless vigilance; for unfortunately not every man that claims to be a true prophet is able to present such credentials as the Word of God demands in such a case. These men, who presume upon the rights and duties of true Christian ministers, go out into the world, they display a remarkable missionary activity, they make the most strenuous attempts to gain adherents for their false tenets. Therefore Christians, as they value their soul’s salvation, must examine, test, such spirits and their doctrines, whether they are of God. The mere pretense, the name, the glamour must not hold their attention. It surely does not pay even to listen to the spirits of darkness. Note: The very fact that false prophets come to the houses without invitation and try to insinuate themselves into the good graces of some member of the household, brands these men as outlaws in the Christian Church. They should be turned away without a hearing.

The apostle shows wherein the test of the spirits, of the preachers, consists: In this you recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that of Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he is coming, and he is even now in the world. The Christians must look for evidences of the Spirit of God, for a proof that He is present in the work of the men that profess to be guided by His wisdom. One of the fundamental facts of Christianity is the doctrine that Jesus Christ came into the world, became flesh. That is the touchstone which enables the believers to distinguish between true and false teachers. For in this doctrine is included the confession that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who, according to the promise given by God, became man, and by His vicarious suffering and death, and by His victorious resurrection and ascension merited our righteousness and salvation. He that accepts and confesses these truths unequivocally, with all that they imply, may be considered a preacher from God. But every professed teacher in the Church or outside of the Church that denies the incarnation of the eternal Son of God; that denies that Jesus Christ is our only righteousness and salvation; every one that teaches that we, in order to be saved, should not trust in Christ and in His merits alone, but also in our own works: such a man is not of God. Such a one can be put down at once as having the spirit of Antichrist in him, for even in those early days of the Church this spirit, which has now reached its culmination in popery and all the related sects, was rearing its head. Truly, the antichristian spirit whose working was noticeable even at the end of the first century has made rapid strides forward, and all true Christians cannot be cautioned too strongly against his insidious power.

The distinction between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error:

The spirit which the apostle has above called the spirit of Antichrist is here identified with the spirit of this world, with the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2. This is shown by the contrast: You are of God, little children, and you have conquered them, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. The believers belong to God, they are the children of God, having been born again out of the water of Baptism and the Spirit. Therefore they not only have the knowledge necessary to examine and test the spirits, but they also have the ability, the power to withstand their allurements, to conquer them. All antichristian temptation is powerless against the strength of God that lives in the believers. For though Satan, the prince of darkness and the father of lies, is in the false teachers, lives in them, actuates them, yet God, who lives in us, who is our Strength and our Refuge, is greater and stronger than the devil with all his evil angels.

The apostle adds another reason for carefully examining the claims and for guarding against the evil influence of the false teachers: They are of the world, therefore they talk as of the world, and the world listens to them. No matter what their pretense and their glamour, the false teachers belong to the world, they have the world’s manner and mind. This is shown also in their talking, in their teaching and preaching, for its substance is not divine and leading to godliness, but it is inspired by the world, by its manner of thinking and acting. False teachers usually have messages that tickle the itching ears of their hearers. The children of the world will gladly hear them, the world receives their doctrines with enthusiasm. It is an almost unfailing criterion: if a certain preacher is widely advertised and acclaimed as a prophet for our times, he has probably managed to accommodate the old Scriptural language to some of his own philosophy in denying the fundamentals of the Bible. Witness the so-called Christianity of the social gospel.

Of himself and of his coworkers John writes, by way of contrast: We are of God; he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us; in this you can recognize the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. The apostles were not only converted Christians, true believers, but they were also messengers, ambassadors of God. Thus all true preachers, whose call is from God, are messengers of God, no matter how lowly they may be in the sight of the world. True Christians show their knowledge of God, their faith in Him, by listening to these messengers, by yielding due obedience to the Gospel-message which they bring. They are thereby distinguished from those that know nothing of regeneration and want to know nothing of the Gospel of salvation. The attitude of men toward the true preachers of the Gospel is a reliable indication of their own spiritual state, whether they are still governed by the spirit of error, of falsehood and deceit, or whether they have opened their hearts to the Spirit of Truth and have come to faith.

The greatness of God’s love:

This paragraph is one of the most beautiful and, at the same time, one of the most powerful passages in the entire New Testament. It opens with an affectionate appeal: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. For the third time in this letter St. John is constrained to speak of brotherly love, to plead with all Christians to show that love which was given into their hearts by faith. Such love is a creature of God, it is a reflection of the love of God in the hearts of those that have learned to know His love. It is a part of the new divine disposition and conduct which characterizes the believers. It is a proof of the new birth by the power of God through the Gospel; it is an outgrowth, a fruit, of faith, of the saving knowledge of God. On the other hand: He that does not love does not know God. Where there is no love toward the brethren in the conduct and life of a person, this is a sure and certain sign that he has not yet come to know God as he should, that there is no saving knowledge, no faith toward God in his heart.

That this is true St. John brings out in an uncontrollable burst of ecstasy: For God is Love: herein was manifested the love of God in us, that His only-begotten Son God sent into the world that we might live through Him. The test which St. John suggests is so definite, because it is impossible to know God, to be united with Him in true faith, and yet not to have love in the heart. For God is Himself Love: He is the personification, the embodiment, the source of love. How can any one be born out of this love, receive a new spiritual nature from this love, be fully acquainted with its divine power, and yet not be inspired with love toward the brethren? For the love of God was manifested, was revealed, appeared to us and in us in such a wonderful way that the very angels were moved to the depths of their being. His only-begotten Son, than whom there was no being in heaven and earth in whom He felt greater pleasure, with whom He was united in a more intimate union, this beloved Son God sent down from heaven, from the abode of everlasting bliss, into this world, this vale of sin and corruption and death, in order that we, lost and condemned sinners that we are in ourselves, might have life, true, spiritual, eternal life, through Him and in Him. There is no message in all the universe more comforting, there is no passage in all literature more powerful than this simple statement of God’s love in Jesus Christ, His Son.

And it is a gift of God’s free love and mercy that John is speaking of: In this lies love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as propitiation for our sins. Here all merit, all boasting on the part of man is excluded, for this singular example of love is not to be found on the part of men, as though we, of our reason and strength, might have felt love for Him and longed to be united with Him. The very opposite is true. While we were yet sinners, while we were enemies of God, Romans 5:8, God loved us, and it was His love alone which prompted Him to send His only Son into the world to be a propitiation for all our sins, to offer up Himself in vicarious satisfaction for the transgression of all mankind. A perfect atonement has been made, a perfect redemption has been gained for all, and all the blessings of this salvation are ready to be received by faith, we, the believers, having become partakers of them all through the power of God in the Word.

Dwelling in God and in His love:

The love which God showed to us in Christ is the eternal type and pattern of perfect love. For that reason St. John asks us to become imitators of it: Beloved, if thus God loved us, we also ought to love one another. If thus, if so greatly, with such a wonderful love God loved us, if we have received the benefit of His unmerited favor in such rich measure, then it cannot fail, His love must inspire us, we must feel the obligation of passing on some of His love to the brethren, at least by way of reflection. We should never cease to learn from Him what pure, unselfish love really consists in, and how it becomes and remains active, an element that propels the Christian forward and to whose leadership he joyfully yields all his powers.

The apostle brings forward another argument: God, no man has ever seen Him; — if we love one another, God remains in us and His love is complete in us. That no man, no human being, has ever seen God face to face was stated by God Himself, Exodus 33:20, and by John, John 1:18. This is a bliss which is being reserved for eternal life. But although we cannot see Him, yet we have evidence of His presence in us, by the brotherly love which we feel in our hearts. For it would be impossible for us to have this love and to give practical proof of its presence in us, if it were not for the fact that God has chosen us for His abode and that His love, which wrought the new spiritual life in us, has come to perfection in us, has made its home in our hearts.

All this is not a mere conjecture on our part: In this we recognize that we remain in Him and He in us, because of His Spirit He has given us. If it had not been for this fact, that God imparted to us of His Spirit, gave us some of His life and power, thus enabling us also to feel true brotherly love toward one another, then we could not be sure of our state as Christians. But our confidence rests upon the work of the Spirit in the Word; in this way we have gained the knowledge that we remain in God and God in us. The brotherly love which we feel is a strong bit of evidence for the fact that God has made His abode in us and that we have communication and fellowship with God. Thus we are recompensed, at least to some extent, for the fact that we cannot see God as long as we are in the flesh.

At the same time we have another source of encouragement: And we have beheld and do testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. St. John was not passing on to his readers what he had gotten merely by hearsay. He and his fellow-apostles had had abundant opportunity to behold the work of Christ in His ministry from every angle, to satisfy themselves as to the identity of Jesus of Nazareth and as to His work for the world. They beheld His glory, a glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, John 1:14. They all confessed as their heart’s conviction that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, Matthew 16:17. John knew that there could be no mistake, that his testimony could not be questioned: Jesus of Nazareth was and is truly the Savior of the whole world, there is not one sinner excepted from His gracious salvation.

And another truth John wants to emphasize: Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God is in him and he in God. It is necessary that the believers join in the confession of John, that they accept his testimony concerning Christ without doubt. This fact, that the despised Jesus, who died the death of a common criminal on the cross, is nevertheless the true, eternal Son of God, is the basis of Christian faith. No Christian can be sure of his salvation unless these facts are known to him. But where this belief is firmly established in the heart of a man, there that wonderful fellowship obtains whose glory John is continually setting forth, there God makes His abode in the heart, there the believer is in God, united with his heavenly Father by the bonds of such a perfect union as is unknown anywhere else. The apostle and all Christians are such people, for it is of them that John writes: And we have recognized and believed the love which God has in us. This glorious knowledge and certainty came to us by faith in Christ Jesus. We have realized, at least to some extent, what that love means which God has shown us in our Redeemer. Note: This love is a matter of experience, and yet also of belief, for it is so great and wonderful that it is impossible for any man fully to comprehend how much it comprises. We must keep on believing until we enter into that state where we shall see Him face to face and know Him even as we are known.

Perfection in brotherly love:

Love is the theme of practically the entire letter, but it stands out with peculiar force in this paragraph. John again holds before our eyes the strongest motive of brotherly love: God is Love, and he that remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. Love, nothing but immeasurable, incomprehensible love: that is the essence of God. This love was shown us in His Son, in the redemption by which He delivered us from everlasting damnation. In this love we must remain by placing our full confidence upon it in faith, by making it the only basis of our righteousness before God, of our salvation. If this faith is found in our hearts, then God will also enter into them and make them His temple, where he lives and rules with the fulness of His love. What a blessed fellowship of love with God!

The beauty of the love of God in us has a further splendid result: In this is the love perfected in us, that we have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because just as He is, we also are in this world. If we have actually embraced the love of God by faith, then this love will work in us day after day, always gaining in power and fervency, always giving greater strength to our faith. Thus the final result will be that, when the Day of Judgment comes, all fear will be removed from our hearts and we shall calmly and cheerfully appear before the Throne of Judgment. We have such cheerful confidence because we rely altogether upon the love of God in Christ Jesus. Cp. Romans 8:35-39. This trust is strengthened also by the fact that even as Christ is, so also we, His disciples, are in this world. As Christ now, as our exalted Champion, is in His glory, at the right hand of God, so we, too, are with Him in spirit, even though, according to our body, we are still in this vale of sorrows. By faith we are partakers of the glory, the life, the salvation which Christ has earned for us. Our citizenship is in heaven. The Day of Judgment means for us only the entrance into our eternal inheritance.

The thought that true faith is invariably followed by cheerful trust and confidence is repeated by the apostle: Fear is not in love; rather, perfect love casts out fear, since fear deals with punishment; but he that is in fear is not perfected in love. St. John had stated above that the believers will appear before the judgment-seat of the Lord with boldness. This is here substantiated. Fear, slavish fear and dread of punishment, is never connected with love. Every Christian that knows in faith that God loves him has no dread of wrath and damnation, since he knows that all his sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. Thus the love of God, as it becomes perfect in our hearts, casts out all such slavish dread, since it proves to us that we no longer have any punishment to fear. The punishment has been borne, and therefore fear simply cannot exist any longer. It is true, of course, that we shall not reach this state of perfect confidence, of an entire absence of fear, as long as we dwell in this mortal frame. But the last vestige of the old fear of the Law will be removed from our hearts on the great day of the Lord’s return. Then we shall be perfect and without the slightest flaw in our love, enjoying the boundless love of God without the slightest twinge or qualm of conscience.

The admonition of John at this point comes with peculiar force: Let us show love because He first loved us. We, who have experienced the great love of God, who are remaining in His love, cannot but feel the obligation to return love for love, love toward all men. This feeling is prompted all the more in us because He first loved us, because His wonderful love in Christ conquered our unwilling hearts and changed us from enemies to friends. The more complete and perfect the love of God is in our hearts, the more cheerfully our faith takes hold on it, the stronger and more fervent will be our love toward God, Psalm 73:25-26.

But the apostle finds it necessary also to include a warning: If any one says, “I love God,” and he hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that does not love his brother, whom he sees, cannot love God, whom he does not see. The apostle here speaks in the same way as in 1 John 3:14-15, and has in mind especially such as are Christians in name only or have left the fervor of their first love. There is many a person that piously protests love for the brethren. But his entire behavior indicates that he is altogether indifferent toward their welfare, both temporal and spiritual. Such a person is frankly given the name liar. And John substantiates his apparently harsh criticism by arguing from the smaller to the larger. It is a comparatively easy matter to love people whom we see. If we therefore do not love or are indifferent toward some one whom we ought to love, namely, all our brethren, then all our pious protestations regarding our love toward God are vain, and we are deceiving ourselves.

The main reason why love toward God cannot exist without love toward the brethren is given in the words: And this command have we from Him, that he who loves God should love also his brother. This is a clear command of our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:37-40. The one commandment cannot be without the other, for the Law of God is a unit, His will is only one. To transgress the precept regarding brotherly love is to transgress the commandment to love God. He that does not show brotherly love cannot say that he loves God, for he is transgressing the commandment of God. Thus true love toward God and the right love toward the brethren is closely connected, and our obligation is clear ^■957 .

Summary

The apostle depicts the attitude of the Christians toward false teachers and toward one another by characterizing the false prophets and distinguishing between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error, showing the wonderful greatness of God’s love, and insisting upon perfection in brotherly love.

Verses 1-12

The power, testimony, and substance of faith

The wonderful power of faith:

The apostle here virtually returns to the topic with which he opened his letter, showing that faith is the source of all Christian life: Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loves Him who brought [him] forth loves also him that was brought forth by Him. That is the great test of Christianity, a man’s attitude toward Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:42. If he believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the eternal Son of God and the Savior of the world, then there is unmistakable evidence that he is born of God, regenerated, that he has received the new spiritual life. Such a person will love God, his heavenly Father, in a twofold sense, as a matter of fact. Just as self-evident, however, ought to be his love for all others that have been begotten of God, for all other children of God, who by virtue of their regeneration are his spiritual brethren. That is a necessary consequence of the new spiritual life: love toward God and toward the brethren.

This love of the Christians is a living power: By this we find out that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. Love toward God is not a matter of sentimental feelings and consists still less in the sanctimonious talk that it is our duty to love the heavenly Father. There must be concrete evidence, also for our own satisfaction, namely, keeping of God’s commandments, living in accordance with His holy will. True children of God cannot but show their sonship in this manner. With this is most intimately connected, moreover, the love toward the brethren. This is also not a matter of specious, pious talk, but of acting toward the brethren at all times as the will of the heavenly Father desires it.

Since the knowledge of our sonship toward God is so important in our lives, the apostle repeats: For this is the love to God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. That is the essence of true love toward God, that His children find their greatest delight in fulfilling His commandments, in performing and practising everything that pleases Him, and therefore also in loving our brethren in deed and in truth. And such conduct on our part we do not consider a grievous, bothersome burden, for love feels no loads. Faith in God, love toward God brings strength from God; and “through His love and His strength all His commandments are not only easy and light, but pleasant and delightful” (Clarke).

This fact, that to a Christian the commandments of God are not burdensome, is now explained more fully: Everything that is born of God conquers the world; and this is the victory which conquers the world, our faith. The apostle uses the very strongest expression that he can find to indicate that his statement is a universal principle, that it applies to every Christian without exception. Wherever the new birth has taken place, wherever faith has been planed in the heart, there this wonderful power exists, there the believer is able to conquer the world, all the forces in this world that are opposed to the spiritual life in him, the entire kingdom of sin and evil ^■958 . This conquest, this overcoming of the world, is a continuous process; that is the work in which the regenerate are always engaged. Not in their own power, indeed, do they battle with the forces of darkness, but in and by the faith which God kindled in them in conversion. Without this faith the professed believers would be lost, no matter what prodigies of cleverness and wisdom they may be otherwise. But with this faith they are victors even in advance, for they become partakers of the victory which their Champion, Jesus Christ, won over the kingdom of darkness. He overcame sin, death, and hell, and therefore these enemies are powerless against the faith which clings to the Savior and His victory.

This faith is, of course, not a matter of the imagination: Who is he that conquers the world but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? There are many things in our days which are labeled faith that have nothing in common with saving, justifying faith, opinions which deny the redemption of Christ and fatuously rely upon the eventual recognition of the innate goodness of man by God. There is only one true faith, namely, this knowledge and conviction, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, that God Himself was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, that He is gracious and merciful to us for the sake of Christ. This only is faith, this conviction only has that almighty power of which St. John speaks; everything else is vain imagination. As the entire Christian life is a fruit of justifying, saving faith, so also the ceaseless conquest of evil with all its power.

The testimony of God:

St. John here shows that the foundation of our faith is absolutely firm and certain, since it rests upon the powerful testimony of God Himself: This is He that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in water alone, but in water and in blood; and the Spirit is He that testifies, because the Spirit is the Truth. Here the two principal events in the life of Jesus are set before our eyes, namely, His baptism, by which He entered upon His public ministry, and His suffering and death, through which He crowned His work of redemption. These two events prove with special force that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. He accepted the baptism intended for sinners and thereby declared His willingness to make full satisfaction for the sins of the world. He shed His blood and gave His life into death for the reconciliation of the world. And it was not only His first willingness to undertake the work of salvation which counted, but the shedding of His blood, His suffering and death. Of these facts the Spirit of God in the Gospel bears witness, testifying without ceasing that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. That is the special work of the Holy Ghost, to testify regarding the truth, to teach the truth, since He Himself is the Truth, the eternally faithful God. Thus the testimony of the Spirit glorifies Christ in the hearts of the believers.

The text continues: For three there are that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one ^■959 . This is the great mystery of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, the eternal Word, and the Holy Ghost, three in persons, one in essence. These three in one testify in behalf of Jesus that He is the Christ, the Savior of the world. And with their testimony agrees that of three witnesses on earth: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three concur in one. Here on earth the Holy Ghost is the chief witness. As He led the disciples of Christ into all truth and inspired them to write the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, so He still works faith in our hearts through the Word of the Gospel, He still teaches us the value of the other witnesses for Christ’s redemption, of His baptism and of His suffering and death. Thus we have unmistakable and incontrovertible evidence for the fact that Jesus, our Savior, really completed the work of redemption, gained a perfect atonement for the whole world. Thus the three witnesses have only one object, namely, to point to Christ, to testify to the salvation which we have in Him.

The essence of faith:

Here the apostle shows with what confidence we should accept the testimony of the Gospel: If the witness of men we receive, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God which He has witnessed concerning His Son. Here we again have an argument from the smaller to the greater. It is the custom among men to accept the witness of other men, unless there is good reason for suspecting trickery. The witness of God, therefore, must be infinitely more certain and credible, by as much as God is higher than any mere man. The Gospel is the testimony of God Himself concerning the salvation which was earned by His Son Jesus Christ. In holding before our eyes the fact of Christ’s baptism and of the shedding of His blood in His great Passion, the Holy Ghost, being Himself true God, gives us evidence that cannot be gainsaid that Christ redeemed the world, all men, from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Faith is essentially the acceptance and application of this fact: He that believes on the Son of God has this witness in himself; he that does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son. Every one that believes in the Son of God has the trust, the conviction, the confidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God and the Savior of the world, and that this salvation applies to the believer himself. The Holy Spirit, who lives in the heart of the believer, assures him of this fact, seals this fact in his heart through the Word of the Gospel. Just as sure as the Holy Spirit is the Truth and cannot lie, just that surely we may accept the message of our redemption through Christ. The unbelievers, on the other hand, are not only foolish, but also blasphemous, for in refusing to believe the testimony of God in the Gospel concerning His Son and the redemption through His blood, they declare God to be a liar by treating His historic testimony as unworthy of belief ^■960 .

John gives a summary of God’s witness: And this is the witness, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. That is the testimony of the Gospel; that is the wonderful news which we find on every page of the apostle’s letter; that is the message which all the apostles proclaimed, that God has given us eternal life, that this life is a free gift of His grace and mercy. For there is nothing in us that should merit such a reward; the only reason why God has given it, why He is holding it out to all men, is His divine love in Christ Jesus; for it is in His Son that we have this eternal life, if we place our entire trust in Him, if we rely on His perfect atonement in life and in death.

Therefore the apostle adds: He that has the Son has life; he that has not the Son of God does not have life. We Christians, having received the message of salvation, having had it imparted to us through the Word and the Sacraments, place our trust in Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, our Redeemer. By this token we have eternal life as a definite possession. Its actual enjoyment, the bliss of seeing God face to face, is still a matter of the future, but there can be no question as to our being the possessors of the gift of eternal life. The testimony of the Gospel is too certain, too definite to admit of doubt. He who foolishly rejects the Son of God, who is also his Savior, thereby rejects eternal life and deliberately chooses everlasting death and damnation. The unbeliever has only himself to blame if he is given over to that lot which he himself preferred.

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Verses 13-21

A concluding summary

The trust of the Christians:

The letter is finished, and the apostle now speaks his closing words, summarizing the principal points which he made in the body of the epistle: These things I wrote you in order that you might know that you have eternal life, since you believe in the name of the Son of God. The apostle is referring to everything that he wrote in this letter. His entire discussion had the aim and object of confirming the readers who have centered their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as their Savior, in the knowledge that they thereby were the possessors of eternal life. Faith has nothing in common with doubt and uncertainty, it is not a matter of personal opinion and feeling; it is glorious, certain knowledge based upon the Word of the Gospel. We know that we have eternal life through faith because the Scripture tells us so.

And this faith has another effect in us: And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. The prayers of the believers, the real prayers, are always heard, they never return unanswered. This cheerful assurance, this frank boldness, we hold. We enter into the very presence of the Lord with the calm certainty that our petitions will be heard as we make them in faith, in firm reliance upon the sonship which was given to us in Christ. It is self-evident that we, as children of God, will ask only such things as are in accordance with the will of our heavenly Father. In other words, we leave the answering of our prayers in His hands, knowing that His wisdom and mercy always find a way to give us what is best for us, regardless of the form in which we clothe our petitions. Note that His promise is not to grant all that we ask, but to hearken to our prayers: He answers in His own way.

This assurance should influence our entire attitude toward God: And if we know that He hearkens to whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we asked of Him. God always listens to the prayers of His children, reading their content even better than they intend it. We are sure of obtaining our requests, that which we are in need of, probably not always as our petition was worded, but always as it was best for us, and as we should have offered our prayer had we been wiser. Prayer is not a dictation to God to do thus and so, but a statement of our needs as we see them. And it is our heavenly Father who gives us more than our short-sightedness permitted us to know. If we have reached this point in our Christian knowledge, then our relation toward our heavenly Father will be unclouded by any lack of trust in Him.

The obligations of divine sonship:

Having given the assurance that every true prayer of a Christian is heard by God, the apostle now specifies one form of prayer, that of intercession: If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall pray, and to him will be given life, to them that do not sin unto death; — there is a sin to death, I do not say that he should pray concerning that. Our brethren are always in need of our most earnest intercession, but what they need most of all is that they be kept from sin. And should one of them fall into sin, transgressing some command of the Lord in such a way as to fall from grace, as to lose his hold on Christ for the time being, then we should not turn from him in disgust and self-righteousness, but earnestly admonish him and also pray with all fervor that God may turn him back from the error of his way. If we thus follow the will of God, we, on our part, will do our share in giving back to such fallen brethren or sisters that life which had for the time being slipped out of their grasp. Only one sin there is where prayer is futile and foolish, namely, the sin of wilful rejection of the accepted truth of salvation, the sin against the Holy Ghost. This sin will only very seldom be identified with certainty, but when this is the case, intercession may as well cease, for this sin, by its peculiar nature, precludes forgiveness. Cp. Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10; Hebrews 6:4,6.

At the same time we should remember: All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not unto death. Whenever our life does not measure up to the holy will of God, whenever we transgress His commandments, no matter whether the trespass seem ever so slight and insignificant in the eyes of men, yet such unrighteousness is sin. The apostle therefore sounds this warning: Resist the beginnings. Even the smallest failing must not be taken lightly, lest the habit of sinning grow on us and we finally become guilty of that one terrible blasphemy which is unto death, eternal death and damnation. Through the grace and power of God let us make the time between transgressions longer and longer, and let us arise from every fall with a firm trust in His mercy.

Lest we brood over our sins without aim, the apostle writes: We know that every one that is born of God does not sin; but he that has been born of God observes Him, and the Evil One does not touch him. Cp. 1 John 3:9. So far as our new spiritual nature is concerned which we have received by virtue of our regeneration, we Christians do not sin; we do not, according to the new man, commit any sin, we do not serve sin. Instead of that, all true children of God keep a watchful eye on Him, they observe His holy will very carefully. This attitude is the best form of defense against the attacks of the devil, who finds it impossible to make a successful attack under such circumstances. Even if he does succeed in placing a poisoned arrow and causing a Christian to fall, the latter will arise with undaunted spirit and hurry back to the true fellowship with God.

In addition to the security which we enjoy through the guardianship of Christ we have that of God’s embrace and fellowship: We know that we are of God, and the entire world is lying in evil. We Christians are of God, born of God, regenerated through His power in the Gospel. We are God’s dear children and mean to keep this relation toward Him, though the entire world, the great mass of unbelievers and enemies of God, is lying in wickedness and sin, is full of enmity toward God. We are secure under the protecting power of God as a child is in its mother’s arms.

And a final assurance and guarantee is ours: But we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may get to know the True One; and we are in the True One, in His Son, Jesus Christ. If a thousand doubts should assail us with regard to our salvation, the certainty of our entering into the joy everlasting with our Savior, this knowledge will sustain us. The eternal Son of God was made flesh, and His incarnation is not only an overwhelming demonstration of God’s interest in us and His concern for our soul’s salvation, but He has also wrought in us the understanding of faith. Through His merciful power we know the true God as the God of all grace. The fellowship in which we stand with God and with Jesus Christ, His Son, is not a matter of our imagination, but it is a certainty which no man nor any other enemy can take from us. We are not trusting in a mere man, whose most serious attempt at gaining salvation for the world would have resulted in miserable failure, but: This Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal Life. He, our Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, true man, is at the same time true God with the Father; and He is Himself eternal Life, the Life which came into this world to bring the world life and in whom we have perfect, glorious, unending life.

With a final affectionate appeal the apostle closes his letter: Little children, guard yourselves from the idols. His readers, with many of whom he was connected by the bonds of the closest affection, knew Jesus Christ as the true God, as the one Savior in whom they were sure of eternal life. To Him, therefore, they should cleave, and not accept the antichristian substitutes which the false teachers were trying to introduce. While they should watch for dangers from without, they should be just as assiduously on their guard for perils from false brethren. It was not a matter to be taken lightly, since it involved their soul’s salvation. Thus we also, in these last hours of the world, must be vigilant and sober to reject all antichristian errors and to keep ourselves unspotted for the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ, our Savior ^■961 .

Summary

The apostle discusses the power, the testimony, and the substance of faith, and concludes with a summary showing the certainty of the Christian’s trust, the obligation of his sonship, and the deity of Jesus Christ, his Savior.