1. After ἀγαπᾷ we should perhaps omit καί with [761], Vulgate, and Thebaic against [762][763][764][765] and Syriac.

[761] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[762] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[763] 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.
[764] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[765] 9th century. All three Epistles.

1. πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων. Every one that believeth: the construction is identical with that in 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:3-4; 1 John 4:2-3; 1 John 4:7, and in the second half of this verse. See first note on 1 John 3:3. The verb πιστεύω which occurs only three times in the rest of the Epistle, occurs six times in these first 13 verses. After the third verse the word ‘love’, which has been the keyword of the last two Chapter s, ceases to appear. With the first sentence comp. John 1:12.

The verse is a couple of syllogisms condensed into an irregular Sorites.

Every one who believes the Incarnation is a child of God.
Every child of God loves its Father.

*** Every believer in the Incarnation loves God.

Every believer in the Incarnation loves God.
Every one who loves God loves the children of God.

*** Every believer in the Incarnation loves the children of God.

To believe that Jesus is the Christ is to believe that One who was known as a man fulfilled a known and Divine commission; that He who was born and was crucified is the Anointed, the Messiah of Israel, the Saviour of the world. To believe this is to accept both the Old and the New Testaments; it is to believe that Jesus is what He claimed to be, One who is equal with the Father, and as such demands of every believer the absolute surrender of self to Him. Belief without love is, as S. Augustine remarks, the belief of a demon (James 2:19).

γεγέννηται. As R.V., is begotten, for the sake of uniformity in this verse and elsewhere. A good deal is lost if γεγέννηται, γεννήσαντα and γεγεννημένον are not translated alike. See on 1 John 5:18.

τὸν γεγεννημένον. Not Christ, but any believer, as the next verse shews. “Since God regenerates us by faith, He must be loved by us as a Father: and this love embraces all His children” (Calvin). Here again the verb may be either the indicative or the hortative subjunctive; and, as in 1 John 4:19, the indicative is preferable: ‘loveth’ rather than ‘let him love’.

This verse shews that 1 John 4:20 ought not to be interpreted to mean that through love of the invisible brother we ascend to the love of the invisible God. On the contrary the love of the Father is the source of love of His children. “That is the natural order; that, we may say it confidently, is the universal order” (Maurice).

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Old Testament