Bibbia annotata di A.C. Gaebelein
1 Giovanni 2:1-17
II. LUCE E OSCURE E LE PROVE
Capitolo S 1:5-2:17
1. Dio è luce; camminando nelle tenebre e nella luce ( 1 Giovanni 1:5 )
2. Ciò che la luce manifesta ( 1 Giovanni 1:8 )
3. La difesa di Cristo per mantenere la comunione ( 1 Giovanni 2:1 )
4. Le prove di comunione ( 1 Giovanni 2:3 )
Il messaggio che avevano sentito parlare di Lui e che hanno dichiarato agli altri è che Dio è luce e in Lui non c'è affatto oscurità. Luce, luce perfetta, pura è la natura di Dio; Egli è assolutamente santo, senza alcuna oscurità in Lui. Che Dio è luce si è manifestato nella vita del Signore Gesù, perché era ed è santo. La comunione con il Padre e il Figlio significa, quindi, avere comunione con la luce, e questo esclude un cammino nelle tenebre.
“se diciamo che abbiamo comunione con Lui e camminiamo nelle tenebre mentiamo e non facciamo la verità”. Se uno professa di avere comunione con Dio e cammina nelle tenebre, mente, perché le tenebre non possono avere comunione con la luce. “Ma se camminiamo nella luce come Lui è nella luce, abbiamo comunione gli uni con gli altri e il sangue di Gesù Cristo, suo Figlio, ci purifica da ogni peccato”.
Ma cos'è questa passeggiata nella luce? Non è la stessa cosa che camminare secondo la luce. Non significa vivere una vita perfetta e senza peccato. Camminare nella luce non è questione di come aspettiamo ma di dove camminiamo, e il luogo dove cammina il credente è la luce. Significa camminare quotidianamente alla Sua presenza, con la nostra volontà e coscienza nella luce e nella presenza di Dio, giudicando tutto ciò che non risponde a quella luce.
Tutto ciò che non è giusto viene subito portato alla Sua presenza, esposto alla luce, confessato, giudicato e deposto. Tale è il cammino nella luce che richiede la comunione con Dio. Il risultato di un tale cammino nella luce è la reciproca comunione tra i credenti, perché ciascuno ha la stessa natura di Dio e lo stesso Spirito, lo stesso Cristo come oggetto davanti al cuore e lo stesso Padre. Non può essere diversamente.
Poi c'è un'altra cosa affermata: "Il sangue di Gesù Cristo, suo Figlio, ci purifica da ogni peccato". Camminare nella luce ci mostra ciò che siamo e non possiamo dire di non avere peccato. Ma non abbiamo coscienza del peccato che riposa su di noi davanti a un Dio santo, anche se sappiamo che il peccato è in noi, ma abbiamo la certezza di essere purificati da esso mediante il Suo prezioso sangue. Tale è la posizione benedetta di un vero cristiano. Comunione con il Padre e con Suo Figlio, camminando nella luce come Egli è nella luce, comunione gli uni con gli altri e il potere purificatore del sangue.
La luce fa conoscere che il peccato è in noi. Se il credente, il figlio di Dio, dice che non ha peccato, la luce lo contraddice. Se diciamo di non avere peccato, inganniamo noi stessi e la verità non è in noi. La negazione del peccato interiore è un'illusione. Questo insegnamento malvagio che l'antica natura adamitica è sradicata nel credente è diffuso ai nostri giorni tra Santità, Pentecostali e altre sette. La vera spiritualità è confessare ogni giorno, camminando nella luce, che nella nostra carne non abita nulla di buono. E se il peccato è commesso, ha bisogno della confessione. È fedele e giusto per perdonarci i nostri peccati e purificarci da ogni iniquità.
La luce manifesta anche un altro male, la pretesa di una perfezione senza peccato. Se diciamo che non abbiamo peccato, lo facciamo bugiardo e la sua Parola non è in noi. Alcuni hanno applicato questo versetto ai non salvati; non ha nulla a che fare con il peccatore, ma si riferisce a un vero credente, che nella presunzione pretende di vivere senza peccare. E il motivo per cui i figli di Dio fanno tali affermazioni antiscritturali è la disattenzione alla Sua Parola, poiché la Parola rende manifesto che cos'è il peccato, e l'Apostolo dice: "Se diciamo che non abbiamo peccato... La sua parola non è in noi".
For the first time John uses the endearing term “my little children”, meaning the born ones of God, who are born into the family of God by having believed on the Son of God. One might conclude, inasmuch as belief in the eradication of the old nature and sinless perfection is a delusion, that the child of God must sin. But, while sin is within, and a sinless perfection is beyond our reach, it does not mean that the believer should continue in sin.
He had written these things that they might not sin. But if any man sin a gracious provision has been made. Let it be noticed that the application, as it is often done, to the sinner who is outside, who knows not Christ at all, is totally wrong. It means the little children, the members of the family of God. If any true child of God sins we have an advocate with the Father (not God, it is the matter of the family), Jesus Christ the righteous.
The advocacy of Christ restores the sinning believer to the communion with the Father and the Son which sin interrupted. He does not wait till we come repenting and confessing, but in the very moment we have sinned He exercises His blessed office as our Advocate with the Father and His intercession produces in us repentance, confession, and self-judgment. Thus we are maintained by Himself in the fellowship into which the grace of God has called and brought us.
When the believer sins it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. Many a child of God has been harassed through ignorance, and imagined that he committed the unpardonable sin. The sin of a believer does not make him unsaved or lost, but it makes fellowship with the Father and the Son impossible till the sin is judged and confessed. This is accomplished by His advocacy.
“The Lord Jesus as much lives to take up the failure of His own, as He died to put away their sins by His blood. This, too, is founded on propitiation; but there is besides the blessed fact that He is the righteousness of the believer in the presence of God. His one expiatory sacrifice avails in abiding value; His place is before God as our righteousness; and there for the failing He carries on His living active advocacy with the Father.”
John now writes of the characteristics of the life which the believer has received, the eternal life and applies certain tests. The profession of a Christian is that He knows God. But how do we know that we know Him? The answer is, “If we keep His commandments.” This is not legality in the least which puts the believer back under the law. John knows nothing of that. Obedience is the leading trait of the imparted life.
It is set on doing the will of God. Christ walked on earth in obedience; His meat and drink was to do the will of Him that sent Him. Inasmuch as His life is in us as believers, it must manifest itself in obedience to the will of God. It is the same which we find in 1 Pietro 1:2, sanctified, or set apart, unto the obedience of Jesus Christ.
It is not a sinless obedience as it was in Him; while the believer has his heart set on obeying the Lord and doing His will, he often fails and stumbles, but he continues to aim at doing the will of God, for that is the nature of the new life. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him.”
One who professes to know God and does not manifest obedience is no Christian at all, but he is a liar, and the truth in the knowledge of the Lord is lacking in such a one. He is a mere professing Christian, one who has the outward form of godliness but does not know the power of it, because he has not the life in him, which is His life and in which he delights to obey. The first great test of the reality of the divine life in the believer is obedience.
Then follows a second test: “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” In His prayer our Lord told the Father, “They are not of the world even as I am not of the world”; and again, “As Thou has sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world” (Giovanni 17:16; Giovanni 17:18).
Believers are not of the world as He is not of the world, because they are born again and have His life in them. They are in Him, abiding in Him, and therefore they must walk as He walked, which does not mean to be what He was, for He was without sin, but it is a walk after His own pattern, the reproduction of His character and life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the next two verses we read of the old commandment and of the new commandment (1 Giovanni 2:7). The old commandment is explained, as the word which they had heard from the beginning, that is, the same beginning as mentioned in 1 Giovanni 1:1, the manifestation of Christ on earth.
But what is the commandment of which he speaks next? It is something new now, for the life which was in Him on earth is in believers now. Therefore, it is true in Him and in us because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shineth. Christ is life and light and as His life is in us we share it in Him; this is that which is new. It was true of Him first, and now it is true of us, too.
This is followed by another test. “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now.” The life must manifest itself in love. Light and love go together; both are manifested in Christ, He was light and love. If He is, therefore, in the believer, and he possesses that life, and professes to be in the light, and with such a profession hateth his brother, he shows thereby that he is in the darkness until now.
Love cannot be separated from that life and light which was in Him and which is in us as believers. He that abideth in the light loveth his brother and because he does there is no occasion of stumbling in him. In him who loves there is neither darkness nor occasion of stumbling; in him who does not love there is both darkness and stumbling. He who hates his brother is a stumbling block to himself and stumbles against everything.
Not loving the brethren and manifesting hatred against them is the sure sign of being in darkness and walking in darkness. Such are the tests of Christian profession; light and love, obedience and loving the brethren; where there is no life from God there is absence of love for the brethren and a walk in darkness and not in the light. It seems that many in John's day were in that deplorable condition, while today such is almost universally the case.
contain a message to those who are in the light, who possess that life and in whom it is manifested in obedience and in love. He addresses the fathers and the young men. Before he does this he mentions that which all believers, even the most feeble, possess. “I write unto you little children (the term of endearment which means the whole family of God) because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.
” This is blessedly true of every child of God, Each has “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” It is the thing which is settled for time and eternity for all those who are in Christ.
Then different grades are mentioned: fathers, young men and little children. The meaning is in the spiritual sense, fathers in Christ, young men in Christ and babes in Christ. The word “children” used in 1 Giovanni 2:13 and 1 Giovanni 2:18 is a different word from the one used in 1 Giovanni 2:12.
In this chapter in 1 Giovanni 2:1; 1 Giovanni 2:12 and 1 Giovanni 2:28 the little children are all the family of God, but in 1 Giovanni 2:13 and 1 Giovanni 2:15 it means young converts.
The maturity of the fathers consists in knowing Him that was from the beginning, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual progress and maturity is a deep knowledge and appreciation of Christ. The Apostle Paul illustrates what real Christian maturity is. He had but one desire to know Him; not I but Christ; Christ is all. The Fathers have Christ for their fullest portion and walking in Him have learned the depths of His grace and the glory of His person.
They are occupied not with their experience but with Himself It has been well said, “All true experience ends with forgetting self and thinking of Christ.” To know Him, to know Him still better, to be entirely dependent on Him, to have none other but Him, never losing sight of Him-- that is the highest attainment of a Christian.
He speaks next of the young men, who have advanced in their Christian life. They had gone forward in undaunted faith and courage and overcame the difficulties; they overcame by faith the wicked one. The strength of the new life, that is, Christ, was manifested in them in conflict. The “babes,” comes next, the young converts, who have not much experience in conflict. To them he writes, “Ye have known the Father.” Every newborn babe in Christ cries, enabled by the Spirit of adoption, “Abba, Father.” To know God as Father is the blessed birthright of every newborn soul.
Once more he writes the same to the fathers. He can add nothing to it for the highest attainment is to know Him, as the fathers know Him. But he has more to say to the young men. He tells them that they are strong, because the Word of God was abiding in them, which is the source of power and strength of every believer and because the Word of God abided in them they overcame the wicked one. Then follows the exhortation and warning not to love the world, the world of which John speaks later, which lieth in the wicked one.”
This world-system in every aspect, whether we call it the social world, the political world, the commercial world, the scientific world, the religious world--all is not of the Father. All its glory is not of the Father. The love of the world is, therefore, inconsistent with the love of the Father. The controlling principles in it are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
May we remember once more that our Lord speaks concerning His own, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Grace has taken us out of this old world, with its corruption which is there by lust and has put us into another world, so to speak, in which Christ is the center and the attraction. That new sphere is our place. The only way to escape this world with its beguiling influences is by separation from it.
E quella separazione diventa reale quando lo conosciamo, come lo conoscono i padri, e troviamo la nostra gioia e la nostra soddisfazione in Cristo. “E il mondo passa, e la sua concupiscenza, ma chi fa la volontà di Dio rimane per sempre”. Ma se questa esortazione era necessaria ai tempi di Giovanni, quanto più è necessaria ai nostri giorni, quando, come mai prima, il dio di questa età acceca gli occhi di coloro che non credono, quando questo sistema mondiale, nella sua empia e seducente carattere, sviluppa un potere e un'attrazione prima sconosciuti, e quando da tutte le parti si professano cristiani "amanti del piacere più che amanti di Dio".