ii. 29-v. 12. GOD IS LOVE.
c. ii. 29-iii. 24.The Evidence of Sonship: Deeds of Righteousness before God.
- The Children of God and the Children of the Devil (ii. 29-iii. 12).
- Love and Hate: Life and Death (iii. 13-24).
13. "Marvel not . . . if the world hate you." In the order of the original the word "hate" is accentuated. That there should be hatred of holiness instead of admiring love would awaken astonishment in all unfallen beings. This hatred of goodness shows the depth of the world's depravity. The "if" does not intimate a doubt, but rather it announces an existing fact. Hatred is the characteristic of the world. The connection of thought is that terrible as Cain's history is, it is a syllabus of the history of the world, a conspectus of its follies and crimes.
"Brethren." This endearing title is used nowhere else in this Epistle. In ii. 7 the R. V. has "beloved." 'Brethren" expresses equality; "children," dependence.; and "little ones, " subordination, immaturity and prospective growth.
14. "We know." The stress in the Greek is upon the pronoun "we." This knowledge is experimental and intuitive under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual sensibilities feel the chill of the dead world — dead because of the absence of love divine, the principle of spiritual life. True Christians know that they have passed out of this deadly chill into the warmth and sunshine of the new life. The verb is in the present tense. The new sphere of being begins this side of the grave, as well as the knowledge that we have entered into it.
"Death . . . life." There are but two spheres, death and life. There is no middle condition. All men are spiritually dead or spiritually alive. The dead will remain dead until they actively pass out of death by laying hold of Christ, the resurrection and the life. In probation the dead have the gracious ability to hear the voice of the Son of God, and "they that hear (obey) shall live." Persevering obedience is life everlasting. All power in the sinner to move Godward is of grace through the atonement, and this power is bestowed upon all. (Luke xxiv. 47; Acts xvii. 30.) The other terms used by John which admit of no middle term are the truth and a lie, light and darkness, believing and unbelief, or disobedience, children of God and children of the devil, love of the world and love of God, denying Christ and confessing Him. This use of mutually exclusive terms John learned from his Master, who declared that all who heard His words would build an the rock or on the sand, and would arise from their graves unto the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of damnation, and be separated into only two classes, the sheep and the goats, and receive one of two sentences, eternal life or eternal punishment. The destiny of the entire human family is represented by the wheat gathered into the garner and the tares thrust into the furnace, the good fish cast into vessels and the bad cast away, the wise virgins admitted to the feast and the foolish inexorably shut out.
"The brethren." We know because we love. The heart is the organ of a more excellent knowledge than the intellect. Says Pascal, "The things of this world must be known in order to be loved, but the things of God must be loved in order to be known." "It is significant that the first title given to the body of believers after the ascension is 'the brethren' (Acts i. 15, R. V.); and from this time onwards it occurs in all the groups of apostolic writings." (Westcott.) Because of the many infirmities which obscure the glory of brotherly love Augustine says, "It flourishes as yet in the winter; the root is vigorous, but its branches are dry. It is the inner pith which flourishes — within are the leaves and the fruit, but they await the summer."
"Abideth in death." John assumes that Christian love and spiritual life are convertible terms, the absence of one proves the non-existence of the other. An ancient writer pertinently inquires, "If he who loves not abides in death, in what kind of a death does he who hates abide?" John has just emphasized the hatred of the world toward the Christian brotherhood.
15. "Every one that hateth." Irrespective of his Christian profession hatred of his brother in Christ in essentially murder, according to Christ's definition in Matt. v. 22, the R. V. omitting "without cause." Bede intimates that this crime evidently lurks not only in him who pursues his brother with a sword, but also in him who pursues him with hatred.
"Eternal life . . . abiding." This implies what is often expressed, that eternal life begins in the present life of the persevering believer. (John v. 24, vi. 40, 47, 54; 1 John v. 11, 12.) These texts, proving the unbroken continuity of eternal life, broken by nothing except wilful sin, afford a convincing answer to the doctrine of unconsciousness of the dead, for to have life is to have conscious well-being or happiness and not mere existence.
16. "We know love." The Greek word is ἀγάπη (agape), love founded on the perception of excellent qualities. This word belongs to the Bible exclusively. It was invented for use in Revelation because the other Greek words had been degraded and polluted. Eros was so completely debased as to be expressive of the foulest lust; and φιλία (philia), the love of kindred and of marriage, had become too much tainted to express the holy and disinterested love of God for his Son, and of both for men created in the divine image. Love is evinced by self-denial. Love sacrifices itself to its object, while lust sacrifices its object to itself.
"Laid down his life." This phrase in the New Testament is found only in John's writings. See John x. 11, 15, 17, xiii. 37, 38, xv. 13. It may have been derived from the custom of laying down the price of purchased goods, or for the ransom of a captive. (Matt. xx. 28.) Another aspect of the voluntary surrender of life is that it was necessary in order to become conditionally the life of the world. (John vi. 51.) The life of the God-man could be appropriated by faith and become eternal in the believer only after death had set it free.
"Our lives for the brethren." If by this means we can save them. This does not imply the possibility of one man's making an atonement for another, but rather the duty of interposing in his behalf even at the risk of losing his own life. When a promising convert in whom John felt a deep interest backslid and at last joined a band of robbers, there is a credible tradition that John mounted a horse and went to the mountains to find and reclaim the young apostate, and tearfully and successfully entreated him, saying, "Could you be saved in no other way I would willingly undergo thy death as Jesus Christ underwent ours; in behalf of thee will I give my life." The argument seems to require that so great, a sacrifice as life itself, if needful to save anybody, whether a brother in Christ, a Jew, or a pagan, is required of those who follow the example of Him who died for us "while we were yet sinners." But since this is a test of our love which lies out of the way of common experience, John suggests a more practicable test in the next verse, the distribution of our money and goods for the relief of the needy brother.
17. "But whoso hath the world's goods." Smaller sacrifices than that of the life will be often required. How do we endure this every-day test in a world made poor by sin?
"Shutteth up his compassion." A. V., "bowels." The ancients, who located the various mental activities in different bodily organs, ascribed pity to the bowels. Wherever it is thus figuratively used the R. V. has the mental affection instead of the physical organ as in Luke i. 78; 2 Cor. vi. 12, vii. 15; Phil. i. 8, ii. 1; Col. iii. 12; Philemon 7, 12, 20. To shut up the bowels is to tighten the purse strings against a fellow Christian in undoubted need of food, raiment, shelter or passage money to the distant home. This does not require indiscriminate giving to all those strangers known as tramps who, with narcotic or alcoholic breath, profess to be members of the same religious denomination with yourself. Says Wesley on Matt. v. 42, "Give and lend to any so far (but no farther, for God never contradicts Himself) as is consistent with thy engagements to thy creditors, thy family, and the household of faith."
Hence St. John's test of a true Christian is sometimes quite complicated and difficult of application, and it may in some instances sorely distress a highly sensitive Christian. For the relief of such the twentieth verse was written.
18. "Neither with the tongue," which is here marked by the article as the special instrument of hypocritical love. Love "in word" may be genuine, but too weak to prompt to self-sacrificing acts.
19. "Hereby shall we know." The future tense implies a condition soon to be expressed in the next verse.
"That we are of the truth." That we have appropriated Christ who is the truth, the reality in contrast with all illusions; the antitype answering to all the Old Testament types, the substance as opposed to all shadows; the Life standing over against all kinds of deaths, whether physical or spiritual. To be of the truth is the same as to be a child of God, which is a concrete statement of the identical fact.
"And shall assure our hearts." We shall persuade our hearts is the Greek, in the sense of "still and tranquillize their fears and misgivings."
20. "Whereinsoever our hearts condemn us" because we are in fellowship with God, and that fact assures us of His sovereign mercy, as implied in the words, "because God is greater ... .. The context requires that God's supreme sovereignty over the whole man should be regarded under the aspect of love, as exercised for the calming of human doubts. The supposition that 'greater' means more searching and authoritative than the heart is at variance with the tenor of the passage and also with the natural sense of 'greater.'" (Bishop Westcott.) The perplexities which arise in a sensitive Christian conscience in the matter of administering to the necessities of saints have already been spoken of in our note on verse 17. Says Jelf,
"A Christian heart burdened with a sense of its own unworthiness forms an unfavorable opinion of the state of the soul and pronounces against its salvation. If we are conscious of practically loving the brethren, we can adduce this as evidence of the contrary, and give the heart ground to change its opinion, and to reassure itself. Any one who has had experience of the doubts and fears which spring up in a believer's heart from time to time, of whether he is or is not in a state of condemnation, will feel the need and the efficacy of this test of faith and means of assurance."This exegesis proceeds upon the supposition that a morbid or unenlightened conscience may erroneously condemn itself in some sophistical or false reasoning respecting some question, especially in withholding alms from a doubtful applicant professing to be a Christian. Under such circumstances the accusing conscience may find relief in the thought that God, who in His greatness reads the secrets of the heart, sees that the intention of that heart is to love God supremely and his fellowman as himself. "According to the explanation given, we are supposed to have in the consciousness of brotherly love the means whereby we may allay the reproaches of our conscience. The expression 'because God is greater' must, as containing matter of consolation, exhibit not the greater strictness of God, but His greater tenderness." (Haupt.) It is true that the gentleness of God is not in all cases regarded as a valid ground of consolation, but it is such when we consider the divine omniscience scanning the motives of those weakened and errant yet true Christians who have mistakenly made themselves worse than they really are.
21. "Beloved." An appropriate form of address where brotherly love is the special topic, and the fears, doubts and questionings of Christians anxious to ascertain their true standing before God's law are under consideration.
"Condemn us not." This does not result from insensibility to the guilt of sin and a light estimate of its heinousness, nor does it imply sinlessness, a term strictly applicable to no man on whom forgiven sin has left its scar in the form of crippled moral powers. But it does include conscious pardon and a sense of sonship to God through "the Spirit of the adoption crying in the heart, Abba, Father," imparting peace and assurance.
"We have boldness," as in iv. 17; Acts iv. 13, 29, 31; Eph. iii. 12; Phil. i. 20; 1 Tim. iii. 13; Heb. x. 19. The Greek is a word composed of two, "all" and "say" express all your wants without reserve. "Toward God." The thought is of the freedom of a dutiful son in his approach to his loving father, and not of the reluctance of the accused to appear before his judge.
22. So closely connected is this verse with the twenty-first that only a comma should separate them, as in Westcott and Hort, Alford and others. We would call attention to the fact that this verse is not a description of saving faith, but rather the faith of assurance. A penitent sinner seeking forgiveness cannot exercise a faith which is stimulated by reflecting on a previous obedient life, for he comes confessing that he is ungodly unto Him "who justifieth the ungodly." (Rom. iv. 5.)
"Whatsoever we ask we receive." Both verbs are in the present tense, denoting what is continuous and habitual in the actual present experience of believers. Without exception every prayer is answered and every request is granted. Says Augustine, "Let us note a difference between God's answers. For we find certain persons not answered according to their wish are answered in a way which promotes their best good, and others answered as they desire are not answered according to their best good."
"Because we keep His commandments." "Obedience is not alleged as the ground, but as the assurance, of the fulfilment. The answer to prayer is given not as a reward for meritorious action, but because the prayer itself rightly understood coincides with God's will. Comp. John viii. 29, xi. 42. The sole object of the believer is to do thoroughly the part which has been assigned to him; his petitions are directed to this end and so are necessarily granted. Comp. John xv. 7." (Bishop Westcott.) This is only another way of saying, "We know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God and do His will, him He heareth." (John ix. 31.) Jesus Christ testifies to the same truth, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John xv. 7.) Believers who are in perfect accord with God's will, will ask only for what is in His will, and this they will infallibly receive. God answers all the real prayer that is offered, and is waiting for more. In explaining the apparent theological difficulty in this verse that good works are the meritorious ground on which favorable answers to prayer are given, Dean Alford says, "Out of Christ there are no good works at all; entrance into Christ is not won nor merited by them. In Christ, every work done of faith is good and pleasing to God. The doing of such works is the working of the life of Christ in us; they are its sign, they are its fruits. Whatever is attributed to them as an efficient cause is attributed not to us, but to Him whose fruits they are."
"Things pleasing." A fragment of the gospel descriptive of Christ's perfect accord with His Father. "Because the things pleasing to Him I always do," is quoted by John as descriptive of the actual life of believers while in this world. It is true that 'always' is not expressed, but it is implied in continuous tense, 'we are doing."'
23. "And this is His commandment." Note the singular. This summary of all God's previous commands, supreme love to God, appears in this last restatement of His law in the form of the obligation to believe on the name of His adorable Son, and love to our neighbor as to ourselves is found in these words, "and love one another."
This last statement of God's law made for all the coming ages magnifies faith, the first place in this Epistle in which it is mentioned. Here we have a complete answer to those contradictory and shallow people who insist that if we do what is about right it does not matter what we believe. Rather it is necessary to believe in order to do what is right.
"On the name of His Son." The name stands for the whole personality, His life, miracles, discourses, death, resurrection, ascension and gift of the Paraclete. True faith lays hold of Him as the only Saviour, casting away every other plea. "The full title, 'His Son, Jesus Christ,' is a compressed creed, the whole sum of the manifold revelations gathered up together so as to form one supreme revelation." (Westcott.)
24. In this verse we have a general return to the keynote of the Epistle, abide in me, just as the former part of the Epistle, ii. 28, concluded. Brotherly love is the most conspicuous example and proof of two inseparable facts, obedience to God and abiding in Him. Abiding in God is not a quiescent and passive state. It is a strenuous and continuous effort, first to ascertain God's commands and then to do them Such a person abides in God. This mutual abiding shows the strength of the Christian's fortress and the wealth of his privilege. The Omnipotent dwells in the believer, and the believer dwells in the Gibraltar of God's strength. Says Bede, "Let God be a house for thee and thou shalt be a house for God; abide in God and let God abide in thee." This mutual indwelling is by the Holy Spirit. The believer is conscious of His incoming as the witness of adoption, and in single experiences or crises in the spiritual life, such as a sudden and perfect release from some old bondage, and most notably in the act of entire sanctification and in that perfect love of which this act is the gateway. This assures the advanced Christian beyond a doubt of God's delightful fellowship. "By the Spirit which He gave us." This is the first mention of the Spirit in the Epistle. It is remarkable that the adjective "Holy" joined to Spirit never is found in John's Epistles nor in Revelation. The time when the Spirit was given was not limited to pentecost. Every one may by faith claim a personal pentecost, as marked in individual experience as the day of pentecost was in the history of the apostolic church.
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