1 John 2:17

παράγεται. Is passing away; as in 1 John 2:8 : the process is now going on. We owe the verb ‘pass away’ here to Coverdale: it is a great improvement on Tyndale’s ‘vanisheth away’. Comp. ‘The fashion of this world is passing away’ (1 Corinthians 7:31), where the same verb is used, and where the active in a neuter sense (παράγει) is equivalent to the middle here and in 1 John 2:8.

ἡ ἐπιθ. αὐτοῦ. Not the lust for the world, but the lust which it exhibits, the sinful tendencies mentioned in 1 John 2:16. The world is passing away with all its evil ways. How foolish, therefore, to fix one’s affections on what not only cannot endure but is already in process of dissolution! ‘The lust thereof’ = ‘all that is in the world.’ Codex [569] omits αὐτοῦ, and is supported in this by some other authorities.

[569] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.

τὸ θέλημα τ. Θεοῦ. This is the exact opposite of πᾶν τὸ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ. The one sums up all the tendencies to good in the universe, the other all the tendencies to evil. We see once more how S. John in giving us the antithesis of a previous idea expands it and makes it fructify. He says that the world and all its will and ways are on the wane: but as the opposite of this he says, not merely that God and His will and ways abide, but that ‘he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.’ This implies that he who follows the ways of the world will not abide for ever. Again he speaks of the love of the world and the love of the Father; but as the opposite of the man who loves the world he says not ‘he that loveth the Father,’ but ‘he that doeth the will of the Father.’ This implies that true love involves obedience. Thus we have a double antithesis. On the one hand we have the world and the man who loves it and follows its ways: they both pass away. On the other hand we have God and the man who loves Him and does His will: they both abide for ever. Instead of the goods of this life (βίος) in which the world would allow him to vaunt for a moment, he who doeth the will of God has that eternal life (ζωή) in which the true Christian has fellowship with God. In this far higher sense what was ignorantly said of S. John himself becomes literally true of every believer: ‘That disciple shall not die.’ Heracleon, the earliest commentator on S. John that is known to us (c. A.D. 170), says of the devil μὴ ἔχειν θέλημα, ἀλλ ̓ ἐπιθυμίας. Εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα is literally ‘unto the age’, i.e. ‘unto the age to come’, the kingdom of heaven. He who does God’s will shall abide until the kingdom of God comes and be a member of it. The latter fact, though not stated, is obviously implied. It would be a punishment and not a blessing to be allowed, like Moses, to see the kingdom but not enter it. The followers of the world share the death of the world: the children of God share His eternal life. Augustine adds at the close of this verse sicut et ipse manet in aeternum. Other Latin authorities have quomodo et Deus manet (or manebit) in aeternum. Another case of Western interpolation. Cyprian quotes the passage four times, always with this addition in some form or other. See Appendix G.

Here probably we should make a pause in reading the Epistle. What follows is closely connected with what precedes and is suggested by it: but there is, nevertheless, a new departure which is made with much solemnity.