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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN
BY
Arno Clement Gaebelein
1861-1942

In the Public Domain


                         THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

                               Introduction

     This Epistle is not addressed to any one church nor does it mention,
like the other New Testament Epistles, the author of the document; it is
anonymous. We are not left in doubt who penned this Epistle in spite of its
anonymous character. There can be no question that the author of the fourth
Gospel is also the author of this Epistle. Its opening statement is linked
with the opening of the Gospel and throughout it is written in the thought
and language of the fourth Gospel. Inasmuch, then, as that Gospel is
indisputably the work of John the Apostle, this Epistle is also the work of
his inspired pen. "The internal testimony furnished by this Epistle to its
author being the same with the author of the fourth Gospel is, it may well
be thought, incontrovertible. To maintain a diversity of authorship would
betray the very perverseness and exaggeration of that school of criticism
which refuses to believe, be evidence never so strong" (Alford).

                            Historical Evidence

     While the internal testimony confirms conclusively the Johannine
authorship of the Epistle there is also a mass of historical evidence which
attributes the Epistle to the beloved disciple. The oldest testimony is
that of Polycarp, who was personally acquainted with the Apostle John. We
refer to the introduction of the Gospel of John where we give fuller
information on Polycarp and his testimony to the fourth Gospel. He makes,
in one of his writings, a direct reference to 1 John 4:3, in fact, he
quotes this verse almost verbatim. It is, therefore, a testimony to the
genuineness and the authorship of this Epistle. Irenaeus, the disciple of
Polycarp, frequently quotes the Epistle of John and states that it is
John's. Notable is the reference in his work against heresies as quoted by
Eusebius. He cites John 20:31 and connects it with 1 John 2:18 and 4:1-3
and 1 John 5:1. After these two witnesses, Polycarp, who knew John, and
Irenaeus, the disciple of Polycarp, every authority among the church
fathers mentions this Epistle as being the work of John the Apostle.

     It is not necessary to quote all these references--by Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Eusebius,
Jerome, and many others. We mention but one more of the ancient
testimonies, that which is found in the Muratorian fragment. This old and
very reliable source of the second century has in it the following
paragraph: "What wonder is it, then, that John brings forward each detail
with so much emphasis, even in this Epistle, saying of himself, "What we
have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and our hands have
handled, these things have we written to you. For so he professes that he
was not only an eye-witness, but a hearer, and, moreover, a historian of
all the wonderful works of the Lord in order.

     In harmony with this evidence is the testimony of the oldest fourth
century Greek manuscripts, which give the title of the Epistle as
"Joannou-A"--that is--"John 1." Its rejection by the gnostic Marcion is of
no importance, for he excluded from the Scriptures all the writings of the
Apostle because they deal a death-blow to his anti-Christian inventions.
Lucke, one of the great scholars of bygone days, states that the Gospel of
John and the Epistles of John are the genuine works of the apostle, and he
adds, "Incontestably, then, our Epistle must be numbered among those
canonical books which are most strongly upheld by ecclesiastical
tradition."

     It is, therefore, not necessary in face of such internal and external
evidences to state the  objections of destructive critics like Scaliger,
S.G. Lange, Bretschneider and the Tubingen school. As it is with other
portions of Scripture they have no case at all in attacking the authorship
of this Epistle.

                       When And Where It Was Written

     The Epistle itself gives no definite answer to these questions. Some
have attempted to fix the date as being before the destruction of Jerusalem
in the year 70 A.D. They base their assumption on chapter 2:18 and claim
that "the last time" means the closing days for Jerusalem, which is
incorrect. The term, "the last time," has in this Epistle the same meaning
as in 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Timothy 3:1, and therefore does not mean the last
days before the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. But it is clear that John
wrote the fourth Gospel record first and his Epistle was written after the
Gospel, so that the Epistle was written possibly about the year 90,
preceding the Revelation, which was written about the year 96.

     Irenaeus states that the Gospel was written by John in Ephesus; an
ancient tradition states that the Epistle was written from the same place.

                          To Whom Was It Written

     The fact that this Epistle starts, unlike the other Epistles, without
any address, introductory greeting or closing salutation, has led some to
call it a treatise and not an Epistle. But the personal address and appeal,
the style throughout fully sustains the epistolar character. Others, again,
have termed the Epistle a second part of the Gospel (Michaelis), while
others speak of it as an introduction to the Gospel. That the Epistle is
closely related to the Gospel is very true, but that does not necessitate a
closer external relationship.

     Dr. Bullinger, in the Companion Bible, suggests that this Epistle also
was originally addressed to believing Hebrews in the dispersion. This view
was held by others before him (Benson and others); but there is nothing
whatever in the Epistle to warrant such a conclusion. On account of a
remark by Augustinus on 1 John 3:2 that John wrote "to the Parthians many
commentators have adopted this view, which is, however, without any
foundation whatever. The Epistle was evidently not addressed to any one
church but to believers in a number of assemblies. John was acquainted with
these believers, who seemed to have been mostly Gentile converts. (See
Chapter 5:21). If the tradition is true that the Epistle was written in
Ephesus, it is not improbable that it was sent to the seven churches in the
province of Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia
and Laodicea, the churches to whom the Lord sent the messages a few years
later when John was in Patmos.

                        The Purpose of the Epistle

     The purpose of the Epistle is stated by the writer in two places;
"These things write we unto you that your joy may be full" (1:4). "These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God;
that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God" (5:13). According to the Gospel of John (chapter
20:31), this also is the purpose of the Gospel. He writes to those who
believe on the Son of God and who have that eternal life which was
manifested in the Lord Jesus, and which is imparted to all who believe on
the Son of God and which establishes fellowship with the Father and the
Son. The Epistle has been rightly called a family letter, that is,
believers are viewed as the family of God, hence the repeated use of the
word teknia, children. The Gospel of John was written on account of the
false teachings concerning the Person of Christ, which began in the second
half of the first century. (See Introduction to John's Gospel.)

     The Epistle of John is very outspoken against those errors touching
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrificial work. They
flourished later under the name of Gnosticism, Docetism, Montanism and
others. Marcion, a Gnostic leader, when Polycarp, the disciple of John met
him, was addressed by Polycarp with these words, "I know thee, thou
firstborn of Satan." While these evil doctrines and denials were not yet
fully developed in John's day, they existed and increased, hence the
warnings in chapter 2:18-25 and 4:1-6. What antichristianity is will be
learned from these passages. All the evil systems of today, which are
sweeping with increasing force through Christendom towards their divinely
appointed and revealed doom are exposed in this Epistle in their true
character. Christian Science, falsely so called; the liberal theology,
which denies that Christ is the virgin-born Son of God, the modern
religion, the destructive criticism and other systems and cults are all
branded by John as antichrists. These many antichrists are finally to be
merged into a personal antichrist, the man of sin. Our annotations will
enlarge upon all this.

                        The Message of the Epistle

     The Epistle has a deep spiritual message for the children of God. As
already stated, the Epistle, like the Gospel of John, witnesses to Christ
as the Son of God and the eternal life which He is Himself and which He
imparts to the believer. Thus the Epistle opens, "That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. (And the
life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto
you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us.) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also
may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ."

     The great truth which is developed by the Holy Spirit is not so much
the life which the believer has in Christ, that is, the eternal life
imparted unto him, but it is that life which is in the believer, and the
manifestation of that life, a manifestation of the same characteristics as
manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ in His blessed life. As born of God,
believers have God as their Father, they are children of God. God is light
and God is love and, therefore, those who are born of God, in whom there is
eternal life, must also manifest light and love, walk in righteousness and
in love. This is the message of the First Epistle of John. All the blessed
things which cluster around it we shall discover in our analysis and
annotations.


                 The Division of The First Epistle of John

     The divisions of the First Epistle of John have always been considered
a difficulty, so that leading expositors of the past have expressed the
belief that there is no contextual connection at all in the Epistle. Calvin
shares this belief as well as others. Bengel in his great work "The Gnomen"
maintained that there is a logical and contextual arrangement. He divided
the Epistle in three parts, naming them in Latin as follows: I.
Exordium--Introduction 1:1-4. II. Tractatio--Treatment and discussion
1:5-5:12. III. Conclusio--Conclusion 5:13-21. The Numerical Bible gives
also a three-fold division. I. God as Light and in the light and the light
in us: 1-2:11. II. Growth by the truth, which is nothing else but the light
manifested: 2:12-27. III. The manifestation of the children of God by the
fruit found: 2:28-5. This is a helpful arrangement. The Scofield Bible
gives two main divisions. I. The Family with the Father: 1-3:24. II. The
Family and the world: 4-5.

     We divide the Epistle into six sections as follows:

     I. THE LIFE MANIFESTED (1:1-4)
     II. LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND THE TESTS (1:5-2:17)
     III. ERROR AND TRUTH (2:18-27)
     IV. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE AS MANIFESTED BY THE CHILDREN OF GOD
         (2:28-3:18)
     V. HEREBY WE KNOW (3:19-5:13)
     VI. THE CONCLUSION (5:14-21)


                         Analysis and Annotations


                          I. THE LIFE MANIFESTED

                               CHAPTER 1:1-4

     The opening verses of this Epistle are very precious and are the key
to the whole Epistle. Three Scriptures speak of what was in the beginning.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). This
is the beginning of all things which God called into existence out of
nothing. "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God" (John 1:1). This takes us beyond the first verse of the
Bible. It reveals Him, by whom and for whom God created all things, in His
eternal existence with God and as God.

     The third Scripture is the first verse of John's Epistle. "That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, the Word of
life." This is a different beginning from the beginning in Genesis 1:1 and
John 1:1; it means the manifestation of the Son of God in incarnation among
men. He, who is the true God and the eternal life, the life and light, was
manifested as man here below. This truth is stated by John in his Gospel in
the fourteenth verse of the first chapter: "And the Word was made flesh and
tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only
Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." To this John refers in
the first statement of his Epistle. John and his fellow-disciples had
walked with Him and talked with Him.

     It must be noted that the apostle speaks of Him as "the Word of Life";
he does not say therefore "who was from the beginning" but, which was from
the beginning. First he mentions what they had heard; but one may hear a
person and not be near to that person. But they were closer to the Word of
Life, he writes, "which we have seen with our eyes"; yet one may have seen
a person without being close to that person; but they had more than a
passing vision "which we have contemplated" which is more than a mere
seeing, it denotes gazing with a purpose, with a desire and with
admiration. A statement of still greater nearness follows, "our hands have
handled"--John and the other disciples had known Him, the Word of Life,
intimately.

     "And the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,
and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and hath
been manifested unto us." He whom they heard, with whom they were in touch,
whom they knew and gazed upon is the eternal Life which was with the
Father. It is more than that He spoke of eternal Life and promised eternal
Life; He Himself is eternal Life. He was with the Father and came into the
world, to manifest what that life is. While He manifested the Father, as He
witnessed "whosoever seeth Me seeth the Father," He also displayed as man
what eternal life is in His blessed and perfect life He lived on earth. And
this eternal life is communicated to all who believe on the Son of God.
This life which was with the Father, manifested in the Lord Jesus on earth,
is the life which is in us. ("The life has been manifested. Therefore we
have no longer to seek for it, to grope after it in the darkness, to
explore at random the indefinite, or the obscurity of our own hearts, in
order to find it, to labor fruitlessly under the law, in order to obtain
it. We behold it: it is revealed, it is here, in Jesus Christ. He who
possesses Christ possesses that life.") To know then what life we possess
as believers, we must not look in ourselves, or to other believers, but to
Christ and the life He manifested on earth. As another has said, "When I
turn my eyes to Jesus, when I contemplate all His obedience, His purity,
His grace, His tenderness, His patience, His devotedness, His holiness, His
love, His entire freedom from all self seeking, I can say, that is my life.
It may be that it is obscured in me; but it is none the less true, that it
is my life."

     "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also
may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that
your joy may be full."

     What they had seen and heard they have declared unto others, to those
who also believe on Him, so that they too might share in the same
fellowship, the fellowship of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The life
which believers possess, the eternal life given through grace, the life He
manifested on earth and which is in us, fits us for fellowship with both
the Father and the Son. What such a fellowship demands and the tests of it
are developed subsequently. To have such fellowship, bestowed through
grace, is the blessed calling of all the saints of God. Such fellowship is
eternal life and there is nothing beyond that in heaven itself, while we
enjoy it here the fullness of it will be enjoyed in glory. But what is
fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ? It is but little
understood in its real meaning. Fellowship means having things in common.
The Father's delight is in Him who pleased Him so perfectly. For the
Father, His blessed Son is the One altogether lovely.

     Believers knowing the Son also find their delight in Him; He is for
our hearts the One altogether lovely. As we then delight ourselves in Him,
in His obedience, in what He is in love and devotion to the Father, we
share the same feelings and thoughts with the Father, which is fellowship
with the Father. Whenever the believer praises and thanks the Father for
His Son, tells the Father of his deep appreciation of Him, how he loves
Him, longs to be more like Him, walk even as He walked, then he is in
fellowship with the Father. And the Son has given to us the knowledge of
the Father. "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any
man the Father, save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him"
(Matt. 11:27). It is the Gospel of John where the blessed words of the Son
concerning the Father are recorded. He manifested unto His own the name of
the Father.

     In the five chapters in the Gospel of John, beginning with the
feet-washing and ending with the great intercessory prayer of our Lord
(13-17) the word "Father" occurs fifty times. It is in this part of the
Gospel the Son makes known the Father. Through the Son we have the
knowledge of the Father and the knowledge of the Father's love. His delight
was to glorify the Father in a life of devotion and obedience. And as the
believer delights Himself in the Father, honors Him and yields obedience to
Him, he has fellowship with the Son, has the same thing in common with the
Son. Fellowship with the Father and with the Son is therefore not a feeling
or some extraordinary experience.

     "All this flows, whether in the one or the other point of view, from
the Person of the Son. Herein our joy is full. What can we have more than
the Father and the Son? What more perfect happiness than community of
thoughts, feelings, joys and communion with the Father and the Son,
deriving all our joy from themselves? And if it seem difficult to believe,
let us remember that, in truth, it cannot be otherwise; for, in the life of
Christ, the Holy Ghost is the source of my thoughts, feelings, communion,
and He cannot give thoughts different from those of the Father and the Son.
They must be in their nature the same. To say that they are adoring
thoughts is in the very nature of things, and only makes them more
precious. To say that they are feeble and often hindered, while the Father
and the Son are divine and perfect, is, if true, to say the Father and the
Son are God, are divine, and we feeble creatures. That surely none will
deny. But if the blessed Spirit be the source, they must be the same as to
nature and fact.

     This is our Christian position then, here below in time, through the
knowledge of the Son of God; as the apostle says, "These things write we
unto you, that your joy may be full" (John N. Darby).

                   II. LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND THE TESTS

                             CHAPTERS 1:5-2:17

     1. God is light; walking in darkness and in light (1:5-7)
     2. What the light manifests (1:8-10)
     3. The advocacy of Christ to maintain the fellowship (2:1-2)
     4. The tests of fellowship (2:3-17)

     Chapter 1:5-7 The message they had heard of Him and which they
declared to others is, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Light, perfect, pure light is God's nature; He is absolutely holy, with no
darkness in Him at all. That God is light was manifested in the life of the
Lord Jesus, for He was and is holy. Fellowship with the Father and the Son
means, therefore, to have fellowship with light, and that excludes a walk
in darkness. "if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in
darkness we lie and do not the truth." If one professes to have fellowship
with God and walks in darkness, he lies, for darkness can have no
fellowship with light. "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin."

     But what is this walk in the light? It is not the same thing as
walking according to the light. It does not mean to live a perfect and
sinless life. Walking in the light is not the question of how we wait but
where we walk, and the place where the believer walks is the light. It
means to walk daily in His presence, with our will and conscience in the
light and presence of God, judging everything that does not answer to that
light. Whatever is not right is brought at once in His presence, exposed to
the light, confessed, judged and put away. Such is the walk in the light
which fellowship with God demands. The result of such a walk in the light
is mutual fellowship among believers, because each has the same nature of
God and the same Spirit, the same Christ as the object before the heart and
the same Father. It cannot be otherwise. Then there is another thing
stated, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Walking in the light shows us what we are and we cannot say that we have no
sin. But we have no consciousness of sin resting upon us before a holy God,
though we know that sin is in us, but we have the assurance of being
cleansed from it by His precious blood. Such is the blessed position of a
true Christian. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, walking in the
light as He is in the light, fellowship one with another and the cleansing
power of the blood.

     Verses 8-10. The light makes known that sin is in us. If the believer,
the child of God, says that he has no sin, the light contradicts him. If we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The
denial of sin within is a delusion. This evil teaching that the old Adamic
nature is eradicated in the believer is widespread in our day among
Holiness, Pentecostal and other sects. True spirituality is to confess
daily, walking in the light, that in our flesh there dwelleth no good
thing. And if sin is committed it needs confession. He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

     The light also manifests another evil, the claim of a sinless
perfection. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His
Word is not in us. Some have applied this verse to the unsaved; it has
nothing to do with the sinner, but relates to a true believer, who in
presumption makes the claim that he lives without sinning. And the reason
why children of God make such unscriptural claims is inattention to His
Word, for the Word makes manifest what sin is, and the Apostle says "If we
say that we have not sinned ... His word is not in us."

     Chapter 2:1-2. For the first time John uses the endearing term "my
little children", meaning the born ones of God, who are born into the
family of God by having believed on the Son of God. One might conclude,
inasmuch as belief in the eradication of the old nature and sinless
perfection is a delusion, that the child of God must sin. But, while sin is
within, and a sinless perfection is beyond our reach, it does not mean that
the believer should continue in sin. He had written these things that they
might not sin. But if any man sin a gracious provision has been made. Let
it be noticed that the application, as it is often done, to the sinner who
is outside, who knows not Christ at all, is totally wrong. It means the
little children, the members of the family of God. If any true child of God
sins we have an advocate with the Father (not God, it is the matter of the
family), Jesus Christ the righteous. The advocacy of Christ restores the
sinning believer to the communion with the Father and the Son which sin
interrupted. He does not wait till we come repenting and confessing, but in
the very moment we have sinned He exercises His blessed office as our
Advocate with the Father and His intercession produces in us repentance,
confession, and self-judgment. Thus we are maintained by Himself in the
fellowship into which the grace of God has called and brought us.

     When the believer sins it does not mean that he has lost his
salvation. Many a child of God has been harassed through ignorance, and
imagined that he committed the unpardonable sin. The sin of a believer does
not make him unsaved or lost, but it makes fellowship with the Father and
the Son impossible till the sin is judged and confessed. This is
accomplished by His advocacy.

     "The Lord Jesus as much lives to take up the failure of His own, as He
died to put away their sins by His blood. This, too, is founded on
propitiation; but there is besides the blessed fact that He is the
righteousness of the believer in the presence of God. His one expiatory
sacrifice avails in abiding value; His place is before God as our
righteousness; and there for the failing He carries on His living active
advocacy with the Father."

     Verses 3-17. John now writes of the characteristics of the life which
the believer has received, the eternal life and applies certain tests. The
profession of a Christian is that He knows God. But how do we know that we
know Him? The answer is, "If we keep His commandments." This is not
legality in the least which puts the believer back under the law. John
knows nothing of that. Obedience is the leading trait of the imparted life.
It is set on doing the will of God. Christ walked on earth in obedience;
His meat and drink was to do the will of Him that sent Him. Inasmuch as His
life is in us as believers, it must manifest itself in obedience to the
will of God. It is the same which we find in 1 Peter 1:2, sanctified, or
set apart, unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. It is not a sinless
obedience as it was in Him; while the believer has his heart set on obeying
the Lord and doing His will, he often fails and stumbles, but he continues
to aim at doing the will of God, for that is the nature of the new life.
"He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar and
the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the
love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him."

     One who professes to know God and does not manifest obedience is no
Christian at all, but he is a liar, and the truth in the knowledge of the
Lord is lacking in such a one. He is a mere professing Christian, one who
has the outward form of godliness but does not know the power of it,
because he has not the life in him, which is His life and in which he
delights to obey. The first great test of the reality of the divine life in
the believer is obedience.

     Then follows a second test: "He that saith he abideth in Him ought
himself also so to walk, even as He walked." In His prayer our Lord told
the Father, "They are not of the world even as I am not of the world"; and
again, "As Thou has sent me into the world so have I sent them into the
world" (John 17:16, 18). Believers are not of the world as He is not of the
world, because they are born again and have His life in them. They are in
Him, abiding in Him, and therefore they must walk as He walked, which does
not mean to be what He was, for He was without sin, but it is a walk after
His own pattern, the reproduction of His character and life through the
power of the Holy Spirit.

     In the next two verses we read of the old commandment and of the new
commandment (verses 7 and 8). The old commandment is explained, as the word
which they had heard from the beginning, that is, the same beginning as
mentioned in chapter 1:1, the manifestation of Christ on earth. But what is
the commandment of which he speaks next? It is something new now, for the
life which was in Him on earth is in believers now. Therefore, it is true
in Him and in us because the darkness is passing away and the true light
already shineth. Christ is life and light and as His life is in us we share
it in Him; this is that which is new. It was true of Him first, and now it
is true of us, too.

     This is followed by another test. "He that saith he is in the light,
and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now." The life must
manifest itself in love. Light and love go together; both are manifested in
Christ, He was light and love. If He is, therefore, in the believer, and he
possesses that life, and professes to be in the light, and with such a
profession hateth his brother, he shows thereby that he is in the darkness
until now. Love cannot be separated from that life and light which was in
Him and which is in us as believers. He that abideth in the light loveth
his brother and because he does there is no occasion of stumbling in him.
In him who loves there is neither darkness nor occasion of stumbling; in
him who does not love there is both darkness and stumbling. He who hates
his brother is a stumbling block to himself and stumbles against
everything. Not loving the brethren and manifesting hatred against them is
the sure sign of being in darkness and walking in darkness. Such are the
tests of Christian profession; light and love, obedience and loving the
brethren; where there is no life from God there is absence of love for the
brethren and a walk in darkness and not in the light. It seems that many in
John's day were in that deplorable condition, while today such is almost
universally the case.

     Verses 12-17 contain a message to those who are in the light, who
possess that life and in whom it is manifested in obedience and in love. He
addresses the fathers and the young men. Before he does this he mentions
that which all believers, even the most feeble, possess. "I write unto you
little children (the term of endearment which means the whole family of
God) because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." This is
blessedly true of every child of God, Each has "redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins." It is the thing which is settled for time
and eternity for all those who are in Christ.

     Then different grades are mentioned: fathers, young men and little
children. The meaning is in the spiritual sense, fathers in Christ, young
men in Christ and babes in Christ. The word "children" used in verses 13
and 18 is a different word from the one used in verse 12. In this chapter
in verses 1, 12 and 28 the little children are all the family of God, but
in verses 13 and 15 it means young converts.

     The maturity of the fathers consists in knowing Him that was from the
beginning, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual progress and maturity
is a deep knowledge and appreciation of Christ. The Apostle Paul
illustrates what real Christian maturity is. He had but one desire to know
Him; not I but Christ; Christ is all. The Fathers have Christ for their
fullest portion and walking in Him have learned the depths of His grace and
the glory of His person. They are occupied not with their experience but
with Himself It has been well said, "All true experience ends with
forgetting self and thinking of Christ." To know Him, to know Him still
better, to be entirely dependent on Him, to have none other but Him, never
losing sight of Him-- that is the highest attainment of a Christian.

     He speaks next of the young men, who have advanced in their Christian
life. They had gone forward in undaunted faith and courage and overcame the
difficulties; they overcame by faith the wicked one. The strength of the
new life, that is, Christ, was manifested in them in conflict. The "babes,"
comes next, the young converts, who have not much experience in conflict.
To them he writes, "Ye have known the Father." Every newborn babe in Christ
cries, enabled by the Spirit of adoption, "Abba, Father." To know God as
Father is the blessed birthright of every newborn soul.

     Once more he writes the same to the fathers. He can add nothing to it
for the highest attainment is to know Him, as the fathers know Him. But he
has more to say to the young men. He tells them that they are strong,
because the Word of God was abiding in them, which is the source of power
and strength of every believer and because the Word of God abided in them
they overcame the wicked one. Then follows the exhortation and warning not
to love the world, the world of which John speaks later, which lieth in the
wicked one."

     This world-system in every aspect, whether we call it the social
world, the political world, the commercial world, the scientific world, the
religious world--all is not of the Father. All its glory is not of the
Father. The love of the world is, therefore, inconsistent with the love of
the Father. The controlling principles in it are the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life. May we remember once more that our
Lord speaks concerning His own, "They are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world." Grace has taken us out of this old world, with its
corruption which is there by lust and has put us into another world, so to
speak, in which Christ is the center and the attraction. That new sphere is
our place. The only way to escape this world with its beguiling influences
is by separation from it. And that separation becomes real when we know
Him, as the fathers know him, and find our joy and our satisfaction in
Christ. "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever." But if this exhortation was needed
in John's day, how much more is it needed in our days, when, as never
before, the god of this age blinds the eyes of them that believe not, when
this world system, in its godless and seductive character, develops a power
and attraction unknown before, and when on all sides professing Christians
are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."


                           III. TRUTH AND ERROR

                              CHAPTER 2:18-27

     This section contains a warning which is addressed to the babes, the
little children, young believers. Truth and error, are contrasted. Seducers
were trying to lead them astray, for we read in verse 26: "These things
have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." He reminds them
that it is "the last time," a striking expression, for since it was written
centuries have come and gone, and what was true then is true now, that it
is the last time; only the Lord is still patiently waiting, not willing
that any should perish. Christ was manifested, the truth revealed in Him
and the world rejected Him and His truth. Satan became the god of this age,
with the mystery of iniquity working in it from the very beginning.
Antichristianity is not a new thing of our times; it was here from the very
beginning. John writes, "Even now there are many antichrists, whereby we
know it is the last time." And the last time has its "last days" which are
now upon us.

     Antichristianity is increasing on all sides till the Antichrist, the
man of sin, will be revealed (2 Thess. 2). An antichrist is not a vicious
lawbreaker, an out and out immoral man. An antichrist is one who rejects
Christ, who does not allow His claims; who denies that Jesus is the Son of
God. It is of great significance that John speaks of the antichrists in his
day as having gone out from among the professing body of Christians (verse
19). They were not true believers but only professed belief, they had left
the flock and gone into apostasy, "that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us."

     In verses 22 and 23 we have a picture of the antichrists of John's day
and a prophecy of antichristianity down to the end of the age when the
great opposer will appear in a person, the personal antichrist. "Who is a
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that
denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the
Father. He who confesseth the Son hath the Father also." Antichristianity
is the denial that Jesus is the Christ. It includes every denial of the
person of the Lord Jesus, the denial that He is the Son of God come into
the flesh, His virgin birth and that He was sent by the Father. Such
denials were prominent in John's lifetime. Gnosticism was troubling the
Church. They denied the Messiahship, and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Other systems were present in embryo, known later by the name of Arianism,
etc. Denying the Son they denied the Father also.

     These are important statements for our own days, the last days of the
present age. What began in the days when the Holy Spirit penned this
Epistle is now full-grown in the world. It is all about us in various forms
throughout the professing church, only with this difference, the apostates
in the beginning were more honest than the apostates in our times. They
were in the professing church and when they began their denials they went
out, separated themselves from the true Church.

     The apostates of today remain in the professing church and maintain
outwardly a Christian profession, so that it becomes the solemn duty of
true believers to separate themselves from these enemies of the cross of
Christ. They deny both the Jewish hope, which centers in the promises of
the Messiah, and the Christian hope, which is the Father and the Son. They
reject the truths of the Old and the New Testament. They speak of the God
of Abraham, who promised the seed to come from Abraham, as a tribal god.
They make common cause with the Jewish apostates in denying that there are
predictions concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament.

     We give but one illustration of this fact. Jews deny that the
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is a Messianic prophecy; the servant of
Jehovah is explained to mean the nation Israel and not the Christ of God.
This infidel view is held today by many preachers and teachers in various
evangelical denominations, in spite of the fact that the New Testament
tells us that it is Christ of whom Isaiah spoke. Rejecting Isaiah 7:14, the
prophecy concerning the virgin birth, they reject the virgin birth itself,
and brazenly utter the greatest blasphemy which human lips can utter, that
Christ was born like any other man. They speak of Him as a great leader and
teacher, as having divinity in Himself, in a degree higher than found in
the rest of the race. His absolute deity is not believed; that He is the
propitiation for sins is sneered at, that He will ever appear again in His
glorified humanity in a second visible and glorious manifestation is
ridiculed.

     Thus antichristianity is present with us in the camp of Christendom in
such a marked and universal way as unknown before. With denying Christ they
deny the Father. All that we have seen in this Epistle concerning Him, the
true God and the eternal life, fellowship with the Father and with His Son,
walking in the light, the advocacy of Christ and loving the brethren, is
denied by them. They speak of "love"; they speak of toleration and the
"Christ- spirit." But those who are the brethren, who contend for the faith
once and for all delivered unto the saints, who believe on the Son of God,
in His sacrificial work on the cross, are denounced by them, belittled and
branded as fanatics. And the end is not yet. Let them continue in their
evil ways under the guidance of the lying spirit of darkness and they may
yet stoop to actual persecution of those who constitute the body of Christ.
The conditions in Christendom today are the most solemn the true Church of
Jesus Christ has faced. The heading up in "the Antichrist" cannot be far
distant. As John writes these Christ-deniers, these blasphemers, who make
the Holy Son of God the offspring of--we dare not finish the sentence!
--may speak of "the Father," but they have not the Father, because only
those who confess the Son of God, Christ come in the flesh, have the
Father.

     John writes all this to the babes, young believers, warning them
against the lie. He useth the word "liar," for such the apostates are. In
using this word repeatedly, he reveals his character as "Boanerges"--the
son of thunder. Then he tells these babes how they may be guarded and kept.
He reminds them that they have the anointing of the Holy One, that is, the
Holy Spirit dwelling in their hearts and with Him they have the capacity to
know and judge all these things. If they follow His guidance in and through
the Word they would be kept in the truth and guarded from accepting the
lie.

     Let us again remember it is not the fathers, or the young men John
addresses, but the babes. Here is a strong argument against the teaching so
widespread among true believers, that the Holy Spirit is not given to a
believer in regeneration, but that the gift of the Spirit must be sought in
a definite experience after conversion. This is a serious error which opens
the door to the most subtle delusions as found in certain Holiness sects
and Pentecostalism. Verse 24 gives another instruction and exhortation. It
is the truth concerning Christ, which they had heard from the beginning,
which abiding in them will keep them. And besides "the  anointing which ye
have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach
you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." The
teachers in this instance who tried to seduce them (verse 26) were not
gifts of Christ to His body, but false teachers, who came with a lying
message. They did not need these teachers; the Holy Spirit was their
teacher and infallible guide, but never apart from the written Word. All
false teaching they were to repulse and fall back upon Him who guides in
all truth. They were safe against all error as they abided in that.


     IV. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE AS MANIFESTED BY THE CHILDREN OF GOD

                            CHAPTERS 2:28-3:18

     1. The children of God and their coming manifestation (2:28-3:3)
     2. Sin and the new nature (3:4-9)
     3. Righteousness and love (3:10-18)

     Chapters 2:28-3:3. The address to the babes in Christ ended with the
27th verse, and now once more he speaks of the teknia, the little children,
by which all believers are meant. The exhortation has been much
misunderstood. It does not mean that by abiding in Him the believer may
have confidence at His appearing. John speaks of himself and other servants
of Christ, who minister the gospel and the truth of God. He urges the
little children to abide in Him, "that when He shall appear we may have
confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." He wants them to
walk carefully, to be faithful in all things, so that John and the other
servants may not be left ashamed in that coming day. It is the same truth
which Paul mentions in 1 Thess. 2:19-20.

     Verse 29 mentions the test of righteousness. It is an acid test. "If
ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth
righteousness is born of Him." But the purpose of it is not to question the
reality of their salvation as born again, to make them doubt, but the test
is given so that they might be enabled to reject a spurious profession.
Before he proceeds with the truth expressed in this verse, he mentions the
fact that as born of God they are the children of God and what they shall
be.

     In verses 1 and 2 the word "sons of God" must be changed to "children
of God. "John never speaks of "sons of God" in his message. It is in the
writings of Paul the Holy Spirit speaks of believers as "sons and heirs."
But John unfolds the truth that believers are in the family of God by the
new birth, hence the use of the word "children" to denote the community of
nature as born of God. As children of God we are partakers of the divine
nature. It is the love of the Father which has bestowed this upon all who
believe. And most emphatically the Spirit of God assures us through the pen
of John, "Now we are the children of God." There can be no doubt about it,
it is our present and known position, because having believed on Him we are
born again and are in possession of eternal life.

     That which we shall be has not yet been manifested, but while it is
not yet manifested we, nevertheless, know what we shall be. But how do we
know? We know it because the Holy Spirit has revealed it in the Word of
God. "But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we
shall see Him as He is." This is our blessed assurance! To this God has
called us; it is "the hope of His calling" (Ephesians 1:18). It is that to
which we are predestined, to see Him as He is and then infinitely more than
that "to be like Him." We see Him now by faith in His Word and are changed
into the same image from glory to glory; when we shall see Him in that soon
coming day, when He comes for His saints, we shall see Him bodily and then
our bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Of all this the
world knows nothing. It knew Him not, knew not His life, nor His glory; it
does not know the life which is in the children of God and what glory
awaits them. And this hope is a purifying hope. We see that John speaks of
the blessed hope as Peter and James, addressing Jewish believers, do not.

     Verses 4-9. He makes a contrast between sin and the new nature and
shows the marks of one who abides in Christ and one who hath not seen Him
neither knows Him. "Every one that practiseth sin, practiseth lawlessness;
for sin is lawlessness, this is the correct rendering. The definition of
sin as "transgression of the law" is misleading and incorrect. Before there
ever was a law, sin was in the world (Romans 5:12, etc.); how then can sin
be the transgression of the law? It is not sins of which John speaks, but
sin, the evil nature of man. Here the apostle regards man as doing nothing
else but his own, natural will; he lives as a natural man. He acts
independently of God, and, as far as he is concerned, never does anything
but his own will. John is, therefore, not speaking. of positive overt acts,
but of the natural man's habitual bent and character, his life and nature.

     The sinner, then, sins, and in this merely shows in it his state and
the moral root of his nature as a sinner, which is lawlessness. But the
born one, the child of God, is in a different position. He knows that
Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that in Him there was no
sin. If one knows Him and abideth in Him, that one sinneth not. If the
believer sins it is because he has lost sight of Christ and does not act in
the new life imparted unto him. Another object usurps the place of Christ,
and then acting in self-will he is readily exposed to the wiles of the
devil using his old nature and the world to lead him astray. If a man lives
habitually in sin, according to his old nature, he hath not seen Him nor
known Him. A child of God may sin but he is no longer living in sin; if a
professing believer lives constantly in sin it is the evidence that he has
not known Him at all. There were such who tried to deceive them. Their
teaching was evidently a denial of holiness, that there was no need of
righteousness. But the demand is for righteousness, while those who
practise sin, live habitually in it, are of the devil. No true believer
lives thus, for he knows the One whose life he possesses was manifested
that He might destroy the works of the devil.

     "Whosoever is begotten of God doth not practise sin, because his seed
abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God." This
verse has puzzled many Christians, but it is quite simple. Every creature
lives according to its nature. The fish has the nature of a fish and lives
its nature in the water; a bird has its own nature and lives it in the air,
and not under the water as the fish. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh." Man has a fallen nature, the nature
of sin, and that nature can do nothing but sin. That is why He said, "Ye
must be born again." In the new birth the divine nature is imparted. This
nature is He Himself, Christ, the eternal life. Christ could not sin for He
is God, and God cannot sin. The new nature believers possess cannot sin,
for it is His nature. But why do new-born ones sin? Because the Christian
has two natures, the old nature and the new nature. The old nature is not
eradicated; a believer when he sins does so because he has given way to
that old nature, has acted in the flesh. But the new nature followed will
never lead to sin, for it is a holy nature, and for that nature it is
impossible to sin. Some have suggested out of ignorance that the
translation ought to be instead of cannot sin "ought not to sin," or
"should not sin." The Greek text does not permit such a translation,
anything different from "cannot sin" is an unscriptural paraphrase.

     Verses 10-18. The test as to the children of God and the children of
the devil follows in this section. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not
of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. The message from the
beginning, that is the same beginning as in chapter 1:1--is that we should
love one another. This was the commandment given by the Lord, "This is my
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
There is natural affection in the world, even in the animal creation. The
natural man also can make himself amiable and speak of love and toleration.
In fact an amiable character, a loving disposition through self-improvement
is urged and practised among the antichristian cults, such as New Thought,
Christian Science and the Liberalists, the advocates of the new theology.

     But the love of which John speaks is exclusively of God and unknown to
the natural heart of man. Yet all these antichrists go to the Epistle of
John and quote him to confirm their evil doctrine of "the brotherhood of
man and the universal fatherhood of God." John does not speak of loving man
as such, but loving the brethren, the other born ones in the family of God,
and that is a divine love. It is the great test of the divine nature, "We
know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren." The world not only knows nothing of that divine love, but the
world hates those who are born of God. "Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you." This fact is illustrated by Cain. He was of the devil. He
slew his brother because Cain's works were evil, he was an unbeliever, and
his brother's were righteous, Abel believed and that was counted to him for
righteousness. And so the world hates the brethren, the children of God on
the same ground and for the same reason. Then again he tests profession:
"He who loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer." Hating the brother is the evidence that the
professing Christian is in the state of death and linked with the murderer
from the beginning.

     The better rendering of verse 16 is, "Hereby we know love, because He
laid down His life for us." Such love must be manifested in practical ways
towards the brethren.

     "But 'we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren.' Not because we love certain of the brethren, let us
remember. We may love even the children of God for some other reason than
as His children. We may love them, perhaps in gratitude to them for
services that we may be receiving from them. Further than this, we may
mistake for brotherly love that which is merely self-love in a subtler
form. Men minister to our comfort, please us, and we think we love them;
and in the true child of God there may be yet, after all, as to much that
he counts love to the brethren, a similar mistake. A love to the children
of God, as such, must find its objects wherever these children are, however
little may be, so to speak, our gain from them; however, little they may
fit to our tastes. The true love of the children of God must be far other
than sociality, and cannot be sectarian. It is, as the Apostle says,
'without partiality, and without hypocrisy.' This does not, of course, deny
that there may be differences that still obtain. He in whom God is most
seen should naturally attract the heart of one who knows God according to
the apostle's reasoning here. It is God seen in men whom we recognize in
the love borne to them; but, then, God is in all His own, as the apostle is
everywhere arguing; and, therefore, there is nothing self contradictory in
what has been just said." -- F.W. Grant.


                             V. HEREBY WE KNOW

                            CHAPTERS 3:19-5:13

     1. Hereby we know that we are of the truth (3:19-24)
     2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God (4:1-4)
     3. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and of error (4:5-6)
     4. The Love manifested toward us (4:7-19)
     5. The final tests as to the possession of eternal life (4:20-5:13)


     Verses 19-24. If the love of God dwells in the heart of the child of
God it must be manifested in a practical way. Love must be expressed in
deed and in truth, which is the fruit of true faith. If the believer does
this he knows that he is of the truth. If it is lacking he is but an empty
professing believer. But if we know that we are of the truth, by bearing
such fruit of faith, we can assure our hearts before Him, and we can draw
nigh with confidence. As our hearts do not condemn us, knowing that we are
of the truth, we have confidence toward God and whatsoever we ask, we
receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight. Where there is not a good conscience and the
Holy Spirit is grieved real nearness to God and the effectual prayer which
availeth much are impossible. It is the same blessed truth our Lord spoke
in connection with the parable of the vine. "If ye abide in Me, and My
words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you
(John 15:7).

     But what is His commandment? Strange that some expositors have read
into it the Ten Commandments. The context answers the question: "And this
is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus
Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. And He that
keepeth His commandment dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know
that He abideth in us, by the Spirit He hath given to us."

     Chapter 4:1-4. The last sentence of the preceding chapter gives the
assurance that the believer has the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as
a true child of God without the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is the
proof that He Himself dwells in us. But how do we know that it is the
Spirit of God? How can a test be made? The sphere of the Spirit is the
territory in which the spirit of error and darkness operates and where the
liar from the beginning counterfeits. Many false prophets inspired by the
spirit of darkness had gone out into the world and the apostle gives a
warning not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits. The true test
is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.

     But this means more than a mere confession with the lips, it means to
own the person and lordship of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The demons know
how to confess Him and yet they are demons (Matthew 8:29). The spirit of
antichrist denies Him, does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh. This spirit which is not the Spirit of God manifests itself in the
most subtle forms. It is called "true Christian charity" in our days to
make common cause in what is called "social service" with those who do not
confess Christ, who do not own Him as Saviour and Lord. These many
antichrists speak of Him as man, they go so far as to call Christ a
manifestation of God in human form, but they deny that He is very God come
in the flesh.

     As stated before the most prominent form of it is today the denial of
His virgin birth. Anything which denies the full glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ which in any way detracts from His glory, is the spirit of
antichrist. About a hundred years ago a movement was in existence which
claimed to be another Pentecost, just as there are movements today which
claim the same unscriptural thing. The leader of that movement, Edward
Irving, put great stress upon the incarnation, that Jesus came in the
flesh. But after a while the demons which stood behind the movement brought
forth the horrible doctrine of the peccability of Christ, that He had a
corrupt nature like any other man. Such is the subtlety of Satan, the old
serpent. He always strikes at Christ and His glory.

     "The false prophets are certainly no fewer in number at the present
time than when the apostle spoke; yet, in general, we may say they assume
less divine authority. We have sunk down so far into the wisdom of the
world that man is credited with a place which God has lost. Inspiration is
the inspiration of genius, rather than of God. We are more and more getting
to lose the reality of the last, just as we are coming more and more to
believe in the former. We believe in brilliancy, in eloquence, in
intellect, in whatever you please in this way, but the assumption of
speaking in any direct way by the Spirit of God no more exists, for the
mass, except as one may say that the Spirit of God is as liberal as men
are, and speaks in very diverse fashion--in poets, philosophers, and all
the acknowledged leaders among men" (Numerical Bible).

     Verses 5-6. The fifth verse has a good description of these
antichrists and their following. These men, with their boasted learning and
scholarship, their great swelling words, called eloquence, their natural
amiability and cultured, courteous manners are of the world. They were
never born again. If they had ever seen themselves lost and undone, and
found in Christ their peace with God, they would yield complete obedience
to Him and not deny His glory. When they speak they speak of the world.
They speak of world conditions, and how they may be improved, of a better
human society. Quite true they are even religious, but what they speak is
not that which is of the Spirit, but what concerns the world system. The
crowds want to hear that for it pleases the flesh, and thus the devil
brings his audience to hear them. Such antichrists in cap and gown have
multiplied by the thousands; they are found in the leading pulpits of all
denominations.

     The test as to the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error is stated
in these words: "We are of God; He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is
not of God heareth us not. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and of
error." The test is the apostle's doctrine. The Epistles are the full
revelation of the doctrine of Christ, they contain the "many things" which
the Lord spoke of when on earth, and which should be revealed when the Holy
Spirit came. He has come and has made known the blessed things which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God has prepared for them
that love Him, but which are now revealed by His Spirit, the Spirit of
truth (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The spirit of error denies these doctrines.
In our day the enemy has invested a most subtle slogan, "Back to Christ."
It sounds well but behind it stands the father of lies. These men who speak
of going back to Christ charge our beloved brother Paul with having a
theological system of his own, which they claim Christ, on earth, never
taught. They reject the great redemption truths made known by the Lord
through the apostle to the Gentiles. Their cry "Back to Christ" is the
spirit of antichrist.

     Verses 7-19. These blessed words are addressed to the beloved, true
believers. The great center of this passage is "God is Love." Love is of
God. But how do we know that God is Love? Such an antichristian system as
"Christian Science" babbles about the love of God, but that which alone
expresses the love of God, and by which it is known that God is love, they
reject completely. The question, how do we know that God is love? is
answered in verses 9 and 10. "In this was manifested the love of God toward
us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Apart from
this there is no knowledge of the love of God. He who is born again knows
that love, for in believing it (John 3:16) he receives eternal life, and
that love was perfect in Him when we had no love for Him--not that we loved
God, but that He loved us. In His great love He has met every need.

     This love, the nature of God, is in those who are born again, Every
one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth
not God. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. If we
love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us."
Love therefore is the very essence of the new nature and must be manifested
towards all who are the objects of the love of God and are in the family of
God by having believed that love.

     "His presence, Himself, dwelling in us rises in the excellency of His
nature above all the barriers of circumstances, and attaches us to those
who are His. It is God in the power of His nature which is the source of
thought and feeling and diffuses itself among them in whom it is. One can
understand this. How is it that I love strangers from another land, persons
of different habits, whom I have never known, more intimately than members
of my own family after the flesh? How is it that I have thoughts in common,
objects infinitely loved in common, affections powerfully engaged, a
stronger bond with persons whom I have never seen, than with the otherwise
dear companions of my childhood? It is because there is in them and in me a
source of thoughts and affections which is not human. God is in it. God
dwells in us, What happiness! What a bond! Does He not communicate Himself
to the soul? Does He not render it conscious of His presence in love?
Assuredly, yes. And if He is thus in us, the blessed source of our
thoughts, can there be fear, or distance, or uncertainty, with regarding to
what He is? None at all. His love is perfect in us" (John N. Darby).

     His love is perfected in us by loving one another. Once more he uses
the phrase "Hereby we know." "Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He
in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." "The Love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the indwelling Spirit." He proceeds: "We have seen
and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in Him
and he in God." What wonderful words these are! Can there be anything
greater and more wonderful than dwelling in God and God dwelling in us! And
this is true of every believer. If we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, if we rest in His finished work as well, knowing the Father sent
Him to be the Saviour, and our Saviour therefore, then the Holy Spirit
dwells in us and as a result God dwelleth in us and we in God. There can be
no question about it for God says so.

     The enjoyment of it is a different matter. If it is not real to us and
if we do not enjoy it there is something which hinders it in ourselves. If
a great king should pay us a visit in our home and dwell there and we do
not recognize the fact of the honor and privilege bestowed upon us, and if
we do not trouble about it and show our appreciation of it, we would have
no enjoyment in such a visit. To have the reality of it and enjoy the
wonderful truth that God dwells in us and we in Him we must practise what
our Lord said in John 14:23, "If a man love Me he will keep My words, and
My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode in
Him." We must dwell in love, the very nature of God, and that love is
manifested towards Him and towards the brethren. Verses 12 and 16 make this
clear. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is
love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."

     Another important fact is stated in the verses which follow: "Herein
hath love been perfected with us, that we have boldness in the day of
judgment, because as He is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear has torment; and he
that feareth is not perfected in love." It has nothing to do with our love,
as some take it nor with seeking an experience of being "perfect in love."
It is His love which casteth out fear, believing that love and dwelling in
it. If we believe and know what God has made us in His infinite grace what
Christ is, that as He is so are we, how can we fear anything! The coming
day of judgment we await not only without any fear, but with boldness, for
the day will only bring the full display of what Christ is and what we are
in Him and with Him. The knowledge of His perfect love, the love which has
reached down to us and lifted us so high, casteth out all fear.

     ("It is a blessed love that Christ came into the world for such
sinners as we are. But then there is the day of judgment. When I think of
the love, I am all happy; but when I think of the day of judgment, my
conscience is not quite easy. Though the heart may have tasted the love,
the conscience not being quite clear, when I think of judgment I am not
quite happy. This is what is provided for here. 'As He is so are we in this
world.' The love was shown in visiting us when we were sinners; it is
enjoyed in communion: but it is completed in this, that I am in Christ, and
that Christ must condemn Himself in the day of judgment, if He condemns me,
because He is, so am I in the world, I am glorified before I get there. He
changes this vile body and makes it like to His glorious body. When I am
before the judgment seat, I am in this changed and glorified body; I am
like my judge" Synopsis of the Bible.)

     Verses 4:20-5:13. Once more brotherly love is applied as the test. "If
a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." God is in the
believer, he is the object of God's love, if therefore the brother is not
loved, but hated, it is an evidence that God does not dwell in such a heart
and again the beloved disciple brands such an one as a liar.

     "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and every
one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him."
This is very logical. Then he gives a counter test to show that it is
genuine. "By this we know, that we love the children of God, when we love
God and keep His commandments." If we love God and keep His commandments,
we can rest assured that we love the children of God also. If the soul goes
out to Him in love, and it is shown by unreserved fidelity to His will,
then love for those begotten of Him, the other members of the family of
God, will be the result. "For this is the love of God that we keep His
commandments, and His commandments are not grievous." It is a different
thing from the law which is called elsewhere a yoke which no one was able
to bear (Acts 15:10). Keeping His commandments means to be obedient to His
Word, being subject unto Him in all things, for love to God is the spirit
of obedience. But the children of God are in the world, though no longer of
it. There are hindrances all about in the world which knew Him not and
which know not the children of God. All in this world is opposition to God
and hinders true obedience. But that which is born of God overcometh the
world. Our faith is the victory which overcometh the world. What faith is
it? It is the faith which is occupied with the Son of God, which yields
obedience to Him, does His will. Such a faith is the victory that overcomes
the world and its attractions. This is stated in verse 5.

     "And He, the Son of God, even Jesus Christ, came by water and
blood-not by water only, but by water and blood." "And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth" (verse 6). How beautiful
is this passage and what divine perfection it reveals! Only John in his
Gospel gives the account of the opened side of our adorable Saviour and
that water and blood came forth out of the pierced side. "And he that saw
it (John) bare record and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith
true that ye might believe" (John 19:35). What the sinner needs is
cleansing, a cleansing morally and a cleansing from guilt. The water is for
cleansing, the blood telling of expiation cleanses from guilt. To make here
of the water, baptism, and of the blood, the Lord's Supper, is as false as
it is ridiculous. It is purification and propitiation as accomplished and
provided for in the death of Christ for the believer. As a result the Holy
Spirit is here on earth. Note the Apostle John does not put forward his own
testimony here as given in the above passage, but the Holy Spirit Himself
beareth witness to it. He is on earth for this purpose to bear witness to
Christ and the work of Christ. How awful the rejection of that witness
appears in the light of these words--that rejection which is so widespread
and pronounced in antichristian modernism!

     The seventh verse has no business in our Bibles. It must be stricken
out. It is an interpolation and all the historical evidences are against
it. The oldest manuscripts do not contain these words which we read in
verse 7. Leaving out this inserted verse we notice the connection which
exists between verse 6 and 8. "And there are three that bear witness on
earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one."
The Spirit is the abiding witness of accomplished redemption, and He dwells
in the believer.

     Verses 9-13 need no further detailed annotations. They are so plain
and simple that only one wilfully blind can misunderstand them. God's
witness is concerning His Son. The believer who believes on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself, that is, by the indwelling Spirit, and by the
salvation he possesses, the new nature, the eternal life. Any man who does
not believe God's witness concerning His Son hath made Him a liar. Think of
it, dear reader, the creature of the dust makes God, who cannot lie, a
liar! This is the heinous sin of the great religious world. The record we
have is, that God hath given to us eternal life, that this life is in His
Son, that if we have the Son we have life, if we have not the Son we have
not life. Verse 13 concludes the argument and teaching of the Epistle
concerning eternal life.


                              VI. CONCLUSION

                              CHAPTER 5:14-21

     The conclusion of this great Epistle mentions first the practical
confidence which a believer may have, the outcome of that relationship and
fellowship with the Father and His Son, which the doctrinal part so
blessedly unfolds. We can come in prayer to Him with boldness and whatever
we ask "according to His will He heareth us; and if we know that He heareth
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have
asked of Him." As a loving Father He listens to the cry of His children and
He answers if it is according to His will, and the child of God would not
have it differently, and desire anything to be granted him which is
contrary to the will of God. Our unanswered prayers we joyfully recognize
as being not according to His will. It is not true faith when fanatics,
like faith curists, say that God must do certain things. That is not faith
but presumption.

     But what is the sin unto death (verse 16)? God chastises the sinning
believer often through sickness. And the chastisement may lead to the
physical death of the child of God. Such was the case in Corinth (1
Corinth. 11:31). It is the same case as James 5:14, 15. If the sin is not
unto physical death as a chastisement, we can pray for the brother and he
will be restored. But there is a sin unto death. Ananias and Sapphira
committed such a sin. No prayer in such a case does avail anything. God in
His governmental dealings takes the offender away as to his life on earth.
It does not affect the salvation of the soul, as those teach who think that
one who has believed, has eternal life, and is a member of the family of
God, can be lost again.

     The conclusion of the Epistle consists in three statements that "we
know": "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but He that is
begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not." Sin
is the touch of the wicked one. If the believer guards himself, by living
in the fellowship with the Father and the Son, walking in the Light, the
wicked one cannot reach him; he lives according to his new nature and
sinneth not. "We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in the
wicked one." Hence God's children should be separated from the world. If a
believer is not he moves on the very territory of the wicked one and the
author of sin finds occasion to touch him and lead him to sin. "We know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."

     The final exhortation is "Little children (teknia--all God's
children), keep yourselves from idols. Amen." What is an idol? Anything and
everything that draws the affection and devotion of heart and soul from the
Lord Jesus Christ. May He, through the power of His Spirit, keep us all
from idols. And we shall be kept if we give in our hearts and lives the
preeminence to our Lord and walk in the light as He is in the light.

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