i. 5 - ii. 28. GOD IS LIGHT.
a. i. 5 - ii. 11. What Walking in the Light involves: the Condition and Conduct of the Believer.
Fellowship with God and with the Brethren (i. 5-7).
Consciousness and confession of sin [committed before forgiveness] (i. 8-10).
Obedience to God by Imitation of Christ (ii. 1-6).
Love of the Brethren (ii.7-11).
Thus far John has treated sin as a reality, and has exposed the fallacies by which its repugnance to the character of God is concealed, and its significance is vainly done away by a false philosophy. He now proceeds to show that the purpose of this Epistle is the prevention and the cure of sin.
1. "That ye may not sin." This implies that sin is not a necessity, that under the dispensation of grace the believer may be always victorious over temptation. We know that he is addressing those who profess to be Christians by the endearing style of address, "My little children" and also by the fact that God is spoken of as Father, which is in the New Testament a relationship purely spiritual and belonging only to those who have been born of the Spirit. It is as evident as the cloudless midday sun that John does not regard sin as a normal element of the Christian life. In aiming to produce complete and constant victory over sin he was not endeavoring to set forth an abnormal character. An un-sinning Christian was in his estimation neither an impossibility nor an anomaly. John was not visionary but sober in his endeavor to edify and purify the church. He plainly asserts that sinlessness is the aim of his teaching, and that this is not gained by efforts on the plane of natural ability, but by the grace of our Lord Jesus who sends the Paraclete to "cleanse from all unrighteousness." We call attention to the aorist tense, "may not sin," — that ye may not commit a single sin. Says Bishop Westcott, "The thought is of the single act, not of the state (present tense). The tense is decisive against the idea that the apostle is simply warning his disciples not to draw encouragement for license from the doctrine of forgiveness. His aim is to produce the completeness of the Christ-like life. (Verse 6.)" Says Alford, "That ye may not sin (at all) implies the absence not only of the habit, but of any single acts of sin. The aorist tense alone refutes the supposition that John is exhorting the unconverted."
"And if any man sin." Here again the tense indicates a single act into which the regenerate person may be suddenly carried against the real purpose and tenor of his life (i. 7), in contrast with a career or habitual state of sin. The possibility of a sinless Christian life is still implied. We call attention to the peculiar form of the protasis or conditional part of this sentence as contrasted with the apodosis or conclusion. It begins with the third person singular intimating the rarity of a sin in a company of normal believers, and also the fact that John shrank from saying "if we sin," thus seemingly identifying himself with sin. But he changes to the first person plural in the conclusion, "we have a Paraclete," because sinless believers need the constant intercessions of Jesus Christ to keep them victorious over every temptation, and to plead their cause against their accuser, the devil. The form of the sentence implies that the writer was not conscious of any single sin, much less of a state of sin; also it indicates that he and his saintly brethren had constant resort to the Paraclete above for effectual spiritual help.
"We have an Advocate." Greek, Paraclete (παράκλητος). This is the only text in which this term is applied to Christ, although it is implied in John xiv. 16, "he shall give you another Paraclete." The most common meaning in classic Greek is advocate. Jesus pleads our cause with the Father, and the Holy Spirit pleads the Father's cause with us. The priestly office of the Advocate was typified by the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. (Heb. vii. 25, ix. 11-24.) Augustine thus sets forth the legal aspect of the Advocate with the Father, "If a man sometimes in this life commits himself to an eloquent tongue and does not perish, will you perish if you commit yourself to the Logos, the Word?"
"With the Father." Greek "pros" (πρός), face to face with" Him, addressing Him with continued pleadings in that divine nature which still retains the humanity taken to itself on the earth. This is expressed by His name "Jesus Christ" combining His manhood and divinity as Saviour and King.
"The righteous." That quality needful to give the strongest efficacy to His advocacy of the weak and the erring, whom He wishes to save, not by setting aside the righteous law, but by magnifying it in His own human character and in His atoning death voluntarily endured for all in fellowship with Him through an obedient faith. This exaltation of the divine righteousness is a peculiarity of John. See i. 9, 1 29, iii. 7; compare, Rom. iii. 26. Bishop Westcott thinks that the manner of Christ's pleading "is a subject wholly beyond our present powers." It is certain that in His so-called high priestly prayer for His disciples in John xvii. are revealed the essence of His present plea, its spirit and arguments.
2. "He is the propitiation." The Greek pronoun "Himself" magnifies the efficacy of both His atonement and His intercession. Note the present tense, as denoting the propitiation as eternally existing, and not as past. See Rev. iv. 6, where Christ in heaven is the Lamb newly slain. His garments still retain their bloody hue. He is not called our propitiator, but our propitiation, to emphasize the fact that He does not use means outside of Himself, but is in His own person the propitiatory offering as well as the high priest. The Greek word for propitiation in the New Testament occurs only here and in the parallel text iv. 10. It is found more frequently in the Old Testament.
"For our sins." The atonement is efficacious unto eternal salvation, in the case of responsible moral agents, only on the condition of persevering faith.
"But also for the whole world." The atonement is objectively for all alike, extending as far as the need of it extends in time and place. The only limitation to its saving power is in human free agency. Hence the propitiation is in its subjective efficacy limited to those who accept it as their only plea. Hence John says it is not only for us who have appropriated it by faith, but also for all the sinners in the world on the same terms. The omission of the word "sins" before "of the whole world" has its parallel in Heb. vii. 27. It has not the least doctrinal significance, as some assert who teach that the atonement is limited to those who are unconditionally elected to eternal life.
3. "In this we perceive that we know Him." Every believer may know that he is saved, first, intuitively by the unction of the Holy Spirit, as in verses 20, 27, and secondly, inferentially from our consciousness of obedience. "If we are (continually) keeping His commandments." The words "In this" sometimes refer to what has been just said; sometimes, as in this case, these words point forward to the next utterance. Knowledge of God involves personal sympathy and aspiration after a perfect conformity to His moral character. "To know God as God is to be in vital fellowship with Him, to love Him, to fulfil that relation toward Him for which we are born." (Westcott.) Whether the object of knowledge expressed by the pronoun "Him" is the Son of God or the Father is unknown. It is no mean argument in proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ that an inspired apostle should confound his personality with that of the Father. It is quite evident that in John's conception Jesus Christ is the God-man, the revelation of God to men and possibly to all moral intelligences. As a general usage of John's epistles, "that one" refers to the Son of God, and "He himself' to the Father. It is in the Son that the Father is known. (John xiv. 9.)
"If we keep His commandments." The scrupulous observance of definite instructions, a cheerful service not of the letter but of the spirit, prompted not by fear of the law, but by love to the lawgiver. A frequent perusal of this Epistle is an effectual preventive of antinomian tendencies.
4. "He that saith." An individualizing statement of the contents of the comprehensive form before used, "If we say" (i. 9, 8, 10), and (Greek) used again in verse 5. These two forms, with two others, "if any one says" and "whosoever says," are interchangeable
"A liar." To be a liar is worse than to lie. The noun denotes a more permanent state of depravity than the verb. The statement is strengthened by adding "the truth is not in him." The whole character is manifestly false.
The Gnostic error here antagonized by John is this, that an intellectual knowledge of God, a philosophical theism, without obedience, is all that is required of Christians. Light can never be a substitute for love, even if it could exist independent of love.
5. "Whosoever keepeth his word." The Word of God is kept where it is not only remembered, but continually obeyed. This constancy is expressed here by the present tense. Here, as in i. 7, the importance of the possession of true godliness is urged as opposed to the mere semblance and profession of it. The whole revelation of God in Christ must be scrupulously regarded. The Word of God answers to the spirit and not to the letter, and thus binds up into unity His many commandments. For the full meaning of these words study John xiv. 21-24.
"The love of God is perfected." We are not sure of the meaning of this equivocal phrase, "the love of God," whether it is His love to us or our love toward Him. But when perfection is predicated of the love of God it seems to imply that it relates to our love toward God, since our love is capable of imperfection, while His is always perfect, and it seems to be a truism to assert its perfection, and a paradox to say that it is "perfected." It is true that our love is enkindled by His love as a spark dropped from the skies. God is said to give His love to us when by His Spirit He announces our adoption. (Gal. iv. 6.) Then love responsive to that of our great Benefactor springs up in our hearts as the first throb of spiritual life. In a sense it is God's love throbbing in our bosoms, because it is originated, or rather occasioned, by Him. But in an important sense it is human, because it is the activity of our spiritual susceptibilities unfolding according to the laws of mind, as gratitude toward a benefactor.
"In itself it is not a startling or revolting thought, that the love of God should dwell in us in its full measure and in its simple perfection." (Haupt) St. Paul teaches the doctrine of Christian perfection in various terms, such as 2 Cor. vii. 1, "perfecting holiness;" xiii. 8, "be perfect;" Rom. xiii. 10, "love is the fulfilling of the law;" Eph. iii. 19, "that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God;" iv. 13, "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;" Heb. vii. 25, "he is able to save unto the uttermost;" Heb. xiii. 20, 21, "Now the God of peace . . . make you perfect." See notes on 1 John iv. 12, 17, 18. In the Apostolic Fathers we find the following: "Those who in love were perfected" (aorist), Clemens Romanus 1 Cor. 50; and Doctrine of the Apostles, x. 5, "Remember, O Lord, thy church to perfect it in the love of Thee." It is a state of "absolute readiness to learn and to do God's will" (Westcott.) It is entered through heart-circumcision. "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (Deut. xxx. 6.) "The real and eternal life." (1 Tim. vi. 12, 19.) Perfect love is completed holiness which dwells in the sphere of love. (Eph. i. 4, iii. 17,19; 1 Them iii. 12, 13; 1 Tim. i. 5.)
"Hereby we know." Obedience is the infallible sign of the union of believers with God. 'By this we know" occurs very often in this Epistle (verse 3, ii. 3, iii. 16, 19, 24, iv. 2, 6, 13, v. 2), reminding us of the test tubes of a chemist used to ascertain the nature of the substances in his crucible. With so many easily applied practical tests it would be impossible for an earnest and honest person to misjudge his own character and to infer that he is a child of God when he is disobeying His commandments.
"We are in Him." A favorite expression in John's writings, denoting the union of the believer with God or with Christ, derived from Christ's metaphor of the vine and the branches. (John xv. 1-10.) More frequently it is "abiding in God," which expresses the personal determination and effort of trust See verses 24, 27, 28, iii. 6, 24, iv. 12, 13, 15, 16. Beware of the theory of the incorporation of the believer in the body of the glorified Jesus at his first act of saving faith to be forever afterward viewed by God as absolutely sinless and perfect in his standing in Christ, though in his state he is wallowing in the mire of the foulest sins. This imputed personal righteousness is antinomianism, which John Wesley defines as "the substitution of faith for holiness." Bengel calls attention to the near, nearer, nearest relation expressed in the progressive phrases in this section, "to know him," "to be in him," "to abide in him," "cognition," "communion," and "constancy."
6. "Ought." This expresses a special, personal obligation "to walk" after the pattern of Him who stands out as the one model seen in the faultless perfection of His humanity. This walk is in a narrow path, through obloquy, reproach, abandonment by opposing friends and unbelieving kindred, loss of reputation — "He made himself of no reputation" — humiliation, sacrifice, suffering, poverty, betrayal and crucifixion. We must count the cost and be prepared to be baptized with a baptism of manifold woes. While His feet were nailed to the cross they were walking in the way of love. This is the type of the Christian's life. There is no other road to heaven.
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