1 John 3:1. BEHOLD! as an exclamation, and thus standing alone, occurs only here. It is the tranquil expression of adoring wonder. WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER HAS BESTOWED UPON US: this expression also is peculiar. It is the kind of love that is meant, not its greatness, nor its unmerited goodnes... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle now introduces a new order of thought, governed by the idea of regeneration as the gift of life in Christ to individual man. He first (down to chap. 1 John 3:3) dilates on its glory as a birth of God; as the design of His love; as including both the privileges and the reality of sonship;... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:2. BELOVED, NOW ARE WE CHILDREN OF GOD. This new address is appropriate to the sharers in common of the love of God, The affirmation that follows, repeating the solemn ‘children of God,' is most emphatic: ‘we possess this sacred privilege, though the world acknowledge us not; nor look we fo... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:3. AND EVERY ONE THAT HATH THIS HOPE SET ON HIM PURIFIETH HIMSELF, EVEN AS HE IS PURE. That the ‘calling' and the ‘being,' the privilege and the reality, may be hereafter eternally one and indistinguishable, the children of God must in this life become like the Son in His purity: the Divine... [ Continue Reading ]
In the former part of the section the thought of the Son of God predominates; in the latter, the thought of the author of evil. The same truth is then referred to the indwelling of the Spirit. And the whole is closed by a summary assertion of the contrariety between the children of God and the child... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:5-7. AND IN HIM IS NO SIN. WHOSOEVER ABIDETH IN HIM SINNETH NOT: WHOSOEVER SINNETH HATH NOT SEEN HIM, NEITHER KNOWETH HIM. MY LITTLE CHILDREN, LET NO MAN LEAD YOU ASTRAY: HE THAT DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RIGHTEOUS, EVEN AS HE IS RIGHTEOUS. Here first enters the apostle's high testimony to the... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:8-9. HE THAT DOETH SIN IS OF THE DEVIL; FOR THE DEVIL SINNETH FROM THE BEGINNING. TO THIS END WAS THE SON OF GOD MANIFESTED, THAT HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL. This passage is, taken altogether, unparalleled in Scripture: as deep in its mystery as it is clear in its expression. A... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:10. IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL: WHOSOEVER DOETH NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HA THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER. Three things are observable here. First, this conclusion of the whole matter shows that the apostle's predominant aim has bee... [ Continue Reading ]
_The relation of regeneration to brotherly love._ 1 John 3:11. FOR THIS IS THE MESSAGE WHICH YE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, THAT WE SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER. There is deep emphasis on the word ‘message,' which seems here, as in the first utterance concerning the God of light, to introduce a fundamenta... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:13-15. Cain becomes ‘the world,' and Abel ‘you;' the emphasis resting on these two words. 1 John 3:14. There is no exhortation in this. Faithful to the thought of the great message, the apostle says: WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE PASSED OUT OF DEATH INTO LIFE. Here the transition is regarded as per... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:16-18. Nothing in the whole Epistle is more impressive or more affecting than the point of juncture in the following words. Against the hate and the murder is set the supreme example of self-sacrificing love. But behind this there is the transition from the principle that the life of sonshi... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE PRIVILEGE OF CONFIDENCE._ 1 John 3:19. Hereby: this looks back, taking up the word ‘truth,' according to the well-known habit of the writer in beginning a new theme. But he deepens the meaning of the word: as everywhere, the particle ‘of points to a source, the streams of which flow into the so... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:23. AND THIS IS HIS COMMANDMENT: the one commandment which, as it contains all others, is especially the unity of faith and love. In this Epistle the sum of faith is in the name of Jesus, and the sum of duty is love. It is the Father's will t HAT WE SHOULD BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF HIS SON JES... [ Continue Reading ]
The ruling idea of the third part is Faith in the Spirit's testimony concerning the Son of God incarnate. The close of chap. 3 introduces the theme by the first explicit mention of faith and the Spirit. In chap. 1 John 4:1-6 the two opposite confessions, resulting from two opposite hearings of two o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 3:24. AND HE THAT KEEPETH HIS COMMANDMENTS the commandments are plural again, and the obedience is individual ABIDETH IN HIM, AND HE IN HIM. The mutual indwelling is here and in chap. 1 John 4:12 introduced: in the earlier portion it was ‘we in him' chiefly, as it will be again at the close.... [ Continue Reading ]