First John 2

In chapter 1 John began responding to the false teachers who denied the reality of the incarnation and who made exalted claims to spiritual fellowship with God not accompanied by a life of godliness. He dealt specifically with the issue of confession of sin. We must not seek to cover up our sin but through sincere admission of guilt before God seek cleansing through the blood of Christ. We saw the importance of repentance in the Christian life. It is not a one-time thing at conversion but a daily turning from sin to God through Christ. Now in 2:1-2 John concludes his exhortation to confess our sin and live a life of repentance by appealing to the fact that we have an Advocate in heaven, even Jesus Christ the righteous.

The propitiation for our sins (2:1-2)

2:1

"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin." What are "these things"? The inescapable fact of sin in the Christian life, and the constant necessity of repentance. Such an emphasis might be taken to imply that we need not worry about sin, that we can become complacent about it. "Oh well, we all sin – to err is human; so don't sweat it." No, John wants his readers to be concerned about sin, to take it seriously to strive against it. To counteract this attitude, John explains that he is writing these things so that you may NOT sin.

Notice his pastor's heart as he approaches his people: "My little children." He appeals to them as a spiritual father. His admonition comes from a heart that cares about their spiritual growth.

John then goes on to set forth in the next sentence one of the most profound theological statements in this epistle concerning the work of Christ as our Advocate and Propitiation: "And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Notice that he begins the sentence with an "and" not a "but." Teaching concerning our Advocate is calculated to give us encouragement to go to God and confess our sin. Such a life of taking sin seriously and continually repenting of it does not lead to turning God's grace into a license for sin but rather to greater holiness. Only those who know experientially the profound grace of God displayed in Christ who is our Advocate and Propitiation with the Father are in a position to grow in spiritually in their progressive sanctification. Those who strive for greater obedience apart from the knowledge of the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ are attempting to build a house without a foundation.

The word Advocate in Greek is Paraclete. It is the same word Jesus used in John 14-16

to describe the Holy Spirit's role as Comforter for the disciples after his ascension. John 14:16-18 "Another Paraclete" - implies that Jesus himself is the first Paraclete.

Now an advocate is a defense attorney someone who pleads your cause before the judge. Christ is our defense attorney who speaks to the Father on our behalf. He pleads for us by pointing to his own finished work of atonement.

I particularly love the expression, "we have an Advocate with the Father." We have an Advocate. Even before we are smitten with guilt and confess our sins we have an Advocate with the Father.

We have an Advocate with the Father. This is the same preposition used in 1:2 to refer to the eternal face-to-face fellowship between the Father and the Son. Could be translated "before" but that sounds too formal, too legal. It is best to leave it "with." Our Advocate is not an unknown entity or third party entering the majestic court of heaven from the outside. He is the Father's own Beloved Son, the one who is eternally in the Father's bosom.

Notice the last phrase, "Jesus Christ the righteous." What an Advocate this is! He not only has the advantage of being an insider from the beginning as the Judge's beloved Son, but he is also "righteous" in the sense that he has actually accomplished all righteousness on behalf of the elect.

The righteousness of Christ in view here is not merely his absolute moral perfection on account of his deity nor even his sinlessness as a man but specifically to the righteousness he accomplished. Paul refers to this as "the one act of righteousness" achieved by the merit of Christ as the Last Adam. It is the active obedience of Christ by which he fulfilled the requirements of the covenant of works.

2:2

It is important to observe the logic of John's transition from v. 1 to v. 2. In v. 1 he established that we have a righteous Advocate with the Father. John's argument is that since we have such an Advocate we need not despair when we sin but may take encouragement from this fact in order to go to the Father to confess our sins.

In v. 2 John now explains the legal basis or ground of our Advocate's intercession before the Father. "And he himself is the propitiation for our sins." Our Advocate does not plead for mere leniency as if he were simply appealing to God's mercy. No, our Advocate's intercession is effective before the bar of divine justice precisely because He is the propitiation for our sins

Propitiation is a key theological term in Scripture. OT background is the Heb. word kipper (as in Yom Kippur). When the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled upon the altar, atonement was accomplished. The translators of the LXX employed Greek word hilaskomai to translate kipper.

In Greek religion, this word was used in reference to the pagan conception of the gods as capricious deities who might be angry with mankind for any number of silly reasons. Famine, defeat in battle, and virtually any disaster was interpreted as the wrath of the gods usually because humans had neglected to offer the proper sacrifices. The Greeks would then offer sacrifices in order to appease the anger of the gods.

This word hilaskomai, in spite of its misleading pagan connotations, was used to translate kipper in the LXX and thus found its way into the Greek NT. But there are two major differences between NT usage and secular Greek usage:

First, God's wrath is not arbitrary or capricious but his utterly righteous judgment against sin - the wrath of God is not an emotional outburst but a product of the antithesis between sin and the searing intensity of God's holy nature. The pagan conception of the wrath of the gods was divorced from an ethical framework. The gods were viewed as all too human - petty, jealous, and selfish. In Scripture, God's wrath is defined always in relation to man's sin, man as the just object of divine displeasure and anger on account of rebellion against his Maker.

Second, the means by which God's wrath is averted is not a bribe, for in this case God himself provided the sacrifice. We must not imagine that the Son was a third party intervening between the sinner and an angry God reluctant to forgive. See 1 John 4:9-11.

"And not for ours only, but also for the whole world." This raises the question of the scope of the atonement. Arminians appeal to this text in order to prove their doctrine of universal atonement. But the Arminian interpretation fails exegetically and theologically. Exegetically, the contrast is not between believers and unbelievers, but between Jews and Gentiles (John 11:49-52; 10:16). The work of Christ is not restricted to Jews, Greeks, or any ethnic, social, or racial group but is offered to all mankind without distinction.

Theologically, the Arminian interpretation would imply that what Christ did on the cross was not to propitiate God's wrath for our sins but to make it possible for God to forgive us if we ask. The atonement can be made universal only at the expense of its efficacy (Spurgeon's illustration of the two bridges).

So in this passage the apostle has concluded his admonition to us to live a life of confession of sin and repentance. He has appealed to the present ministry as our Advocate at the right hand of God which continues even now.

Then, he explains why this Advocate is qualified to intercede for us. First, because he is Jesus Christ the righteous who fulfilled the Law on our behalf. Second, because he is the propitiation for our sins who satisfied God's just wrath.

Our Advocate has three unique qualities. First, he is "with the Father." Second, he is "righteous" - not simply to qualify him to be our Advocate but because his advocacy consists in the fact that he stands before God in our place as the righteous one on behalf of the unrighteous. Third, our Advocate is "the propitiation for our sins."

The new commandment (2:3-11)

In next paragraph, John now begins to set forth his famous tests. These are tests by which we can tell if we are indeed in Christ. Such testing is taught elsewhere in Scripture. See 2 Cor. 13:5. Two uses. Negative use - to reject false claims of piety. Positive use - to strengthen our assurance - see 2 Pet. 1:5-11.

Caution is needed, however. It is possible to be too rigorous in applying these tests, thus removing assurance from those who ought to have. It is possible to focus too much on yourself, your sanctification, thus losing sight of Christ - extraspective aspect of faith.

2:3

"By this" - forward looking

"We know that we know him." Difference between knowing and knowing that you know. Assurance of saving relationship with God is therefore not of the essence of faith

However, true faith contains the seed of assurance within it. For how can there be faith apart from the knowledge that Christ has purchased God's favor? There may be doubt as to whether I am the object of that favor but the fact that Christ has purchased that favor for his elect is always known by the believer, even in times of doubt.

"If we keep his commandments." The rest of the section (vv. 7-11) defines what these commandments are. It is the new commandment to love (John 15:10-13; 1 John 3:23-24) not primarily the 10 commandments.

At this point, however, John is merely establishing the principle that salvation produces fruit. Therefore where the fruit is present the salvation must be present as well. If there is no fruit, there has been no salvation.

"Keeping." Not focused exclusively on the obedient life. We also keep God's commands when we acknowledge the validity of the command even when we also acknowledge our failure to live up to it. There is great danger in sinning, but there is a far greater danger in sinning and attempting to excuse your sin by denying that it is a transgression of God's command. If you break God's commands, but you admit that you have failed to keep them, and you confess your sin and strive for great conformity to God's commands, that is a keeping of God's commands. Keeping - holding fast - not letting go.

2:4

The converse - the negative application. The contrast between the claim, "I have come to know him" and the reality, "I don't care about God's commands."

"A liar." You can lie with your actions just as much as with your mouth. Hypocrites are those who claim one thing and do another without acknowledging the difference. Titus 1:16.

2:5a

Notice shift from "keeping commands" to "keeping his word." Again, supports interpretation that commands = the love command. "His word" = the teaching of Jesus concerning the necessity of loving one another

"In him the love of God has truly been perfected." The term "perfect" occurs often in the NT and is confusing. Doesn't refer to sinless perfection as English might suggest. E.g., Phil. 3:12-16. Rather, it refers to "bringing something to maturity, to completion"

"The love of God" here could be either our love for God or God's love for us. I prefer to see a reference to both (see 4:15-19). The cycle is complete: God first loved us. We come to know that love through the preaching of the gospel. Conscious of such love, we in turn love God and our brethren. Thus, we return to the beginning

2:5b-6

"By this" - again, forward looking. This sets up the transition to the next section, on love

"In him" - note the Pauline language of union with Christ. The "him" here must be Christ, rather than God the Father, because verse 6 makes this clear. To "abide in him" echoes John 15.

"To walk in the same manner as he walked". NT does refer to Jesus as our moral example several times. Although emphasis is on his unrepeatable work on the cross for us, there is nevertheless a subordinate role for "the imitation of Christ." E.g., 1 Pet. 2:21. Also, John 13:1-15 – even better cross reference because both deal with new commandment of love (13:34).

Union with Christ has effects. If we are united to Christ, we will begin to be conformed to his image. Therefore, you can test the reality of your union with Christ by looking for the evidence of that union in your life.

The practical syllogism:

1. According to Scripture, all those who are united to Christ by faith manifest fruits of sanctification and good works
2. By the grace of God I see evidence in my life of the fruits of union with Christ, namely sanctification and good works
3. Conclusion: I may be assured that I am united to Christ

Having established the general principle, John now applies it specifically to the key issue of love.

2:7

"Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard."

"Not writing a new commandment." Parallel to Jesus saying, "Think not that I came to abolish …" before he even starts the abolishing. Don't get me wrong, John says, I'm going to speak of a new commandment, but it's not really new. It's actually old, since you have heard it from the beginning.

"From the beginning" refers to the beginning of the gospel in the ministry of Jesus. The love command goes all the way back to the teaching of Jesus. John is about to speak of "a new commandment" in v. 8, so he wants to be clear that it isn't new in a chronological sense as if he is now revealing it for the very first time in this epistle.

The new commandment is not explicitly stated here, but it is implied by the following verses. It is the command to love one another, that is, our brothers and sisters in Christ. But if we are in any doubt, we need only refer back to the teaching of Jesus, since John himself alludes to it ("which you have had from the beginning").

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

2:8

"On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining"

In what sense is this commandment new? It was revealed in the Old Covenant - Lev. 19:18. So what makes it new?

First, the new commandment is new in emphasis

The following has been taken from James Gidley, "Biblical Theology and the Session" (Ordained Servant October 2000).

A cursory reading of the Shorter Catechism may give the impression that 'love' is simply a convenient double heading to summarize the two tables of the law. If you really want insight into the nature of holiness, you must attend to the ten commandments. But this is not the way the OT presents these two love commandments. Such a viewpoint discounts the revolutionary advance that Jesus makes in ethics by subsuming the ten commandments under the two great commandments to love.

First of all, the second greatest commandment – the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself can hardly be said to be given prominence in the Old Testament. It certainly isn't given the same prominence that the first greatest commandment is given, the commandment to love the Lord with all your heart.

The command to love your neighbor as yourself occurs in Leviticus 19:18 buried in a conglomeration of moral commandments, civil ordinances of Israel, ceremonial laws, and regulations of ritual purity. Even in the midst of this miscellany of commandments, "Love your neighbor as yourself" does not appear as a major heading under which other duties are grouped. Rather it is introduced in a subordinate position.

But when we come to the New Testament, it is as though Jesus rescues this commandment from oblivion. He does so by combining it with the first great commandment 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.' We are so used to hearing the second great commandment to love your neighbor as yourself combined with the first, that we miss the astounding revolution that Jesus has introduced.

Recall the solemnity and emphasis with which the first great commandment is laid down in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. To this very day Jews regard the Shema as a summary of their entire religion. It is the clearly the very first commandment in importance within the Old Covenant ethic.

What Jesus does then is to take Lev. 19:18, lifting it from its obscurity buried in the mass of theocratic legislation, and then he attaches it to the Shema, the greatest commandment of Judaism. In effect it would be like taking an obscure rider to an appropriations bill and combining it with the Declaration of Independence.

Do you see how this juxtaposition changes the significance of both commands? Clearly, love for one's neighbor has been elevated from its lowly position in the Old Covenant legislation to a place of the highest honor in the New. But the great command to love the Lord with all one's heart, so central to the Old administration, also becomes imbued with eschatological significance and newness. Jesus is saying that the way to fulfill that command is by loving your neighbor. Or, as Paul says in Rom. 13:10, love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Is this not what the apostle John, faithfully expounding the teaching of his Lord, says in 1 John 4:20-21?

Second, the new commandment is new in quality

The Greek language has two different words for new: neos = young, chronologically recent; and kainos = new in quality – not old and worn out, but fresh and living. John uses kainos here. Rev. 21:1 - new creation is not chronologically new but a transformation and glorification of the original creation.

Thus it is new in an eschatological sense - it partakes of the new age: "the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining." This is the language of the two ages. The darkness is the present evil age. The true Light is the age to come. The present age is already corrupt and about to be destroyed. The eschatological light of the age to come is already beginning to dawn.

The church is a colony of heaven on earth. We are the heavenly nation, the heavenly race of the new humanity living on earth the life that we will live in heaven eternally. Already the light of the age to come is shining in the communal fellowship and love expressed by members of the church of Jesus Christ toward one another.

The love command belongs to the age to come. None of the other commands of the Law will be relevant in heaven. Only love will abide forever. Therefore, love is the highest expression of God's will. It is an eschatological intrusion of the life of heaven. This reinforces, BTW, the fact that this love is not indiscriminately applied but directed only to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Third, it is new in expression

"It is true in Him." True in the Johannine writings doesn't mean "opposite of false," but "real, actual." Jesus says, "I am the true bread from heaven" (not the corruptible manna the Israelites ate). He is "the true vine" (not the disobedient and unfruitful vine that Israel proved to be).Thus, truth in the writings of John pertains to the eschatological reality or fulfillment of the types and shadows of the Old Covenant.

The new commandment is true in Christ. It reaches its climactic and most substantial expression in Christ. All the commandments that came before were weak and beggarly in comparison with the solid substance found in Christ.

The truth, the reality of the love command is found in Christ, but specifically in the self-emptying humiliation of Christ who came not be served but to serve and give his life for his friends. See John 13:1, 12-15, 34; 15:12-13; 1 John 3:16.

"And in you." Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. Thus the Law, which found its final expression in the cross of Christ is being fulfilled not only in Christ but also in us. The love that we experience in the body of Christ as we share in the oneness of the fellowship of the Spirit in Christ is the fulfillment of the Law.

This is obviously incomplete and partial at the present time. The body of Christ is torn asunder into various denominations and sects. But in principle it is already a fact, since there is only one Head and one body joined to that Head by the Spirit. That which is already a reality in principle will one day be manifest in fact when Christ comes again and presents his bride to himself without spot or wrinkle or division. In heaven, the love of Christ expressed in the mutual love that Christ's members ought to have for one another, will finally be enjoyed eternally without even the slightest mar or defect.

2:9

"The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now." If you hate your brother, you demonstrate that you belong to this age rather than the age to come. The visible church only approximates the light of the coming age. There are tares within it who do not live a life of love.

2:10

"The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him." If we love our brothers, we can be assured that we are abiding in the Light of the coming age.

"There is no cause for stumbling in him." You can never go wrong if you follow the path of love. If you follow the easy path of self-preservation you will be sure to stumble. But if you lay down your life for the brethren putting the interests of others ahead of your own, forgiving those who sin against you, clothing yourself with humility and compassion, you will never stumble in the path of the Christian life.

You have heard the saying, "If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said to whom." The same applies to love. "If you live a life of love as Christ did, you don't have to worry about whether you are keeping the Law."

2:11

"But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." Hatred of one's brother in the context of 1 John is not defined as a feeling, but as an act of schism, of leaving the apostolic fellowship and forming a false church or cult.

Of course, this is not to say that all divisions in the church are guided by hatred and darkness. There have been times in church history when true believers were forced to separate from a corrupt church in order to follow the true teaching of the Word of God. Such divisions are not inherently schismatic if they are guided by an overriding concern for the integrity of the gospel as well as for the unity of the church

But the situation in 1 John is not one of these. It was the aberrant group of proto-gnostic teachers who separated from the apostolic fellowship to form a false church not rooted and grounded in Christ. Thus, John's exhortation here must be taken in context as a warning against divisions based on the flesh, on false doctrine, or divisions over issues not central to the gospel.

So in 2:3-11 we have the practical syllogism of love:

1. According to Scripture, all those who are united to Christ by faith manifest the fruit of their union with Christ by love for the brethren
2. By the grace of God I see evidence in my life of love for the brethren
3. Conclusion: I may be assured that I am united to Christ

New covenant blessings (2:12-14)

In the preceding section, John has bluntly refuted the exalted spiritual claims of the false teachers as nothing but self-deception, falsehood, and untruth. He then went on to develop certain tests of assurance. The primary criterion of true faith is that you keep God's commandments especially the new commandment of Jesus to love one another.

Now in this paragraph, John digresses briefly to assure his readers that his hard-hitting criticisms are not directed against them. He has been writing to them, not to shake their assurance, but because he is confident that their sins have in fact been forgiven, and that they do in fact know God the Father through Jesus Christ.

What is the meaning of these three terms: "children, fathers, young men"? There are two main views:

View one: these terms refer to three classes of Christians (Augustine). Children = those newborn in Christ, spiritual infants. Young men = more mature believers, strong and valiant in spiritual warfare and contending for the faith. Fathers = those who through long and deep Christian experience have come to be called spiritual fathers.

View two: these terms refer to two classes of Christians. Children = a generic reference to all believers. This conforms to John's usage elsewhere (e.g., 2:1). Fathers and young men would then subdivide the church into two groups based on spiritual maturity and leadership. Fathers = the mature elders in the church many of whom may have been 1st generation Christians. Young men = the younger generation of believers who are eager to fight the good fight of faith.

The second view is to be preferred, and is supported by the order in which the terms appear in the text: children (that is, fathers and young men). If three classes were in view, we would have expected: children, young men, fathers.

2:12

"Your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake." The phrase "for His name's sake" echoes the language of prayer - John 14:13-14; 16:23-28. It refers to the reception of a benefit on the basis of the merit of another. The petition is granted not for the sake of the petitioner but for the sake of Christ. Thus, "for His name's sake" could be translated, "on the basis of the merit of Christ."

The forensic forgiveness of the believer rests on Christ's merit not on anything that we have done or may do or on any quality found in us. Forgiveness of sins and judicial righteousness in God's sight are ours on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done for us. He performed all the works of the Law in our place. He fully satisfied God's holy wrath in our place on the cross of Calvary. Thus, God is faithful and just to forgive us. It is not an arbitrary act – or a random act of kindness. No, our being declared not guilty in his court is an action performed on the basis of his justice, God's just response to the merit of Christ, that is, his active and passive obedience.

2:13

"… fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning." Hebrew sense of "know." Not merely knowing certain facts about Him but an intimate, experiential knowledge that transforms one's life

What is the identity of "who has been from the beginning"? The second person of the Godhead (rather than God without any personal distinctions among the three persons) seems to be in view, since this language echoes that of 1 John 1:1.

"… young men, because you have overcome the Evil One." The Evil One = Satan. Overcoming is an important theme in John's other writings: see John 16:33; Rev. 3:21 (and each of the 7 churches of Asia Minor). Our victory over Satan is possible only by means of union with Christ who achieved the decisive victory through his death and resurrection in fulfillment of Gen. 3:15. Thus, the victory that overcomes the world is our faith (1 John 5:4-5).

"… children, because you know the Father." Comparison with the preceding verse (v. 12) shows that knowing the Father is related to the experience of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ's name. It is not that these two concepts are synonymous. Rather the knowledge of the Father is grounded in the forgiveness of sins through Christ. Hence, we see that this knowledge is again something quite deeper than an intellectual, conceptual knowledge. It is a knowledge of intimate fellowship. We know the Father as we cry out Abba, Father as we enjoy our sonship and forgiveness.

This is what Paul calls "the Spirit of Sonship" (Rom. 8:15). Not a spirit of bondage leading to fear but of love, but a spirit which disposes us to go to God as children to a father. This contrasts so clearly with the so-called knowledge of God that the false teachers claimed. This is not a speculative knowledge based on mystical insight. It is not a direct vision of God resulting in exalted, angelic experience. No, this is the knowledge of God that flows from the forgiveness of sins and the Spirit of adoption within us. To know God is to be know God as Father because of our forensic justification (Jer. 31:31-34).

2:14

There is nothing new in the first part. It merely repeats what was said about the fathers in v. 13.

"… young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the Evil One." Merely amplifies what was said in v. 13 about the young men. Their victory over the Evil One is based on their being made strong through the Word of God that abides in them. Strength against the Devil can only come from God's Word, specifically, the Word of the truth of the apostolic gospel. In the garden, Satan's point of attack was to question the veracity of God's self-authenticating Word. Jesus quoted the Scriptures when being tempted by Satan. Luther: "One little word shall fell him"

John is pointing out the characteristic blessings of the new age of the Spirit: the forgiveness of sins, the knowledge of God, victory over the powers of evil. These are the central promises of the new covenant. These new covenant blessings then become the basis for keeping the new commandment.

Love not the world (2:15-17)

Structure of the text

1. The command: love not the world (v. 15a)
2. Twofold ground for the command (vv. 15b-17) a) Contradictory loves - that of the world and that of the Father (vv. 15b-16) b) Contradictory eschatologies - that of the world and that of the believer (v. 17)

2:15

"Love not the world." What is the world? Fallen humanity, under the control of Satan, set in opposition to God.

Fallen humanity. Not referring here to the physical world, but to the world of mankind after the fall, in bondage to sin. No aspect of life is untouched by man's sin. Even the good things of life have been sucked into the vortex of man's rebellion against God and abused. Humanity as a whole - not as mere individuals in rebellion against God but man's opposition to God viewed as an organic whole. The sinfulness of human society as a whole, in all of the variety of expressions that sin takes, but ultimately conceived of in its corporate unity as a societal system in rebellion against God. The city of man - the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9).

Under the control of Satan. "The whole world lies in the power of the Evil One" (1 John 5:19). Satan is "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2), "the ruler of this world" (John 12:31).

Set in opposition to God. Satan's original deception of Adam and Eve in the garden has resulted in man's apostasy against his Creator and in man's being now in league with the Evil One and his grand scheme of replacing the kingdom of God with the kingdom of darkness.

"Nor the things in the world." It is difficult to avoid the reference here to inanimate objects, such as money and material possessions. Certainly these things are not sinful in and of themselves, but even the good things of this life can become a stumbling block and a source of idolatry if we set them above God.

Jesus and Paul both provide some helpful teaching on the Christian's attitude to material possessions:

Matt. 6:31-33 - its a matter of your ultimate priorities. Seek first the Kingdom!

1 Cor. 7:29-31 - its a matter of your attitude. Using but not possessing.

What does it mean to "love the world"? It means to have one's heart set on the world in order to derive satisfaction and enjoyment from it.

How does the prohibition against loving the world harmonize with John 3:16, which states that God loves the world? Two different kinds of love are in view. First, the holy love of redemption a compassion that desires the salvation of the rebel. Second, the sinful love of participation a selfish desire to join in the rebellion itself.

2:15b-16

"If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (v. 15b). The love of the Father could be either objective (our love for the Father) or subjective (the Father's love for us). This question arose also in v. 5. There we argued that both meanings are in view, based on 4:16-19. Love is absolute. By its very nature love of one object will expel all other loves

"The lust of the flesh." Due to the connotations that the words [lust]{.underline} and [flesh]{.underline} have in English, this phrase may seem to be focused on sexual lust, but in Greek the sexual connotation is not primary. Could be translated: "the cravings of sinful man." All sinful desires are included.

"The lust of the eyes." Man is easily tempted by the outward appearance rather than the inward reality. Eve thought the forbidden fruit was pleasing to the eye. Achan coveted the Babylonian garment: "When I saw … then I coveted" (Josh. 7:21). David was tempted to sin with Bathsheba because of what his eyes saw.

"The boastful pride of life." Pride in one's accomplishments or material possessions. It is ultimately a boast in oneself. God hates pride - for this was the original sin of the Devil (1 Tim. 3:6).

This third phrase, then, perfectly summarizes the essential problem with the world - it is indeed full of the lust of the flesh and of the eyes, and that is certainly one reason why the love of the world and the love of God are mutually incompatible. But what ultimately disqualifies the world as an object of our love is that the world is arrayed against God swelling with the pride of the Devil as it builds its diabolical Tower reaching to the heavens pretentiously seeking to oust God from his throne of majesty.

John has described the fundamental problem of the world: it is set in opposition to God through its lusts and its pride, and it is under the control of Satan. Thus it is impossible for the love of God and the love of the world to remain in us at the same time.

2:17

The second reason why we must not love the world is that the age to come has arrived and the present evil age is destined to perish. That whole system of the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, which John so eloquently exposed in v. 16 is headed for destruction – it is passing away never to be remembered, just as the sun melts away the morning mist.

"Is passing away." The present tense of the verb is significant. It is not an exclusively future cataclysmic event to take place at the parousia, for the dissolution and termination of the present age is even now in process.

In what sense is the present world passing away? First, evil bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction. It cannot last forever by its very nature. This view is supported by the reference to "flesh, eyes, life" in v. 16 -- things that are quite superficial and intrinsically evanescent. Second, the world is passing away because divine judgment has already been rendered against the world in the inaugurated eschatology of the death of Christ. This interpretation is supported by the near context - 1 John 2:8b.

"But he who does the will of God abides forever." Note how John breaks the parallelism. The world is passing away. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. We might have expected the second clause to read. But the new creation abides forever. Why does John break the parallelism? Because it reinforces the fact that "the world" in view is the world of fallen humanity in contrast with the redeemed community who do the will of God.

What is "the will of God"? Jesus used this phrase as a comprehensive term describing those who follow him in whole-hearted trust and devotion:

Mark 3:35: "For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."

John 7:17: "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself."

He who does the will of God, then, is the one who follows Jesus Christ. According to 1 John this involves two things: believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and loving your brother. Together they stand in stark contrast with unbelievers who reject Christ and his gospel and whose love is not the divine love that comes from the Father and reaches out in love to others who are born of God. But the self-absorbed love of the world which originates in the self and ends in the self.

"Abides forever." There are many Scriptural motivations for doing the will of God: thankfulness for our redemption; because our good works glorify God; the spiritual blessings attached to obedience such as greater joy in the Holy Spirit, greater assurance of salvation and more conscious enjoyment of our union with Christ. But this text provides another motivation for obedience that is often overlooked: the fact that we will abide forever. In other words, we want to do now the very thing that we will be doing eternally in heaven. In heaven we won't be thinking about anything but God. We will eternally adore and fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our life will be wrapped up in the mutual love and communion of the triune God. Since that is our eternal destiny how can we not want to live that destiny even now? To enjoy the firstfruits of heaven by the Spirit?

Note that it is not the doing of the will of God itself which causes us to abide forever, for that is attributable only to the meritorious work of Jesus Christ himself who accomplished the Father's will perfectly on our behalf. However, our doing of the will of God is one of the results of Christ's meritorious obedience. Because he fully obeyed the Father, God rewarded Jesus by giving him a people to be his very own, a people who will walk in the good works which Christ purchased for us to walk in. This brings great joy to Jesus when he sees his redeemed people becoming more and more like himself.

John would not need to exhort us to love not the world unless the temptation for believers to fall into the sin of loving the world were real. Nor would he need to marshal arguments against the sin of loving the world unless he wanted to urge us and dissuade us from that destructive course.

Why, then, must be avoid love of the world? First, because it is incompatible with our identity as those who are the objects of the Father's love and who therefore love the Father in return. Second, because it is incompatible with our identity as those who are destined for the unfading glory of eternity with God. The destiny of the world is destruction. The destiny of the believer is to abide forever with God.

1 John 2:15-17 demonstrates that love and eschatology are related, as Augustine observed in his book The City of God. There are two cities, defined by two loves …

The city of man - directed toward the love of self

The city of God - directed toward the love of God

The city of man is passing away, for love of self is inherently fading, ephemeral, and transient. Only the city of God, that is, the people of God who have been redeemed that they might do the will of God, will last forever.

Beware of Antichrists (2:18-25)

Two main interpretations of the Antichrist:

The dispensational interpretation. This is an exclusively futuristic interpretation. The Antichrist is world ruler who comes to power during the 7 year tribulation. He will rule over the revived Roman Empire in Europe. He will make a covenant with the Jews to restore the temple, but in the middle of the tribulation period he will break the covenant and turn against the Jews. People will receive a literal mark of 666 on their forehead or hand.

The preterist interpretation. The emperor Nero was the Antichrist, because the numerical value of his name in Hebrew = 666. There will be no future apostasy or crisis. It has all been fulfilled in AD 70 and destruction of the Old Covenant temple.

Neither extreme is biblical. Dispensationalists interpret prophecy too literally not allowing for figurative language in apocalyptic. Preterists have taken the initial fulfillment in AD 70 and made it the ultimate fulfillment thus allowing for postmillennial doctrine of a Golden Age.

The NT doctrine of the Antichrist avoids detailed speculation of dispensationalism with its complex schemes and charts. Yet it also contains some serious warnings about a great spiritual crisis at the end of the age, warnings that are difficult to reconcile with postmillennialism. Our text helps to dispel the confusion surrounding the doctrine of the Antichrist.

2:18-19

What is the timing of the Antichrist's appearance?

The Antichrist is coming, and yet many Antichrists have already appeared. We have here the paradox of the already and the not-yet. The already: the Antichrist is already in the world, not as a literal individual, but in the form of many false teachers propagating false gospels. The not-yet: a single individual, the Antichrist, will appear at the end of the age.

The issue of the timing of the Antichrist is also integrally related to the very nature of the Antichrist. The Antichrist is both a future individual and a spiritual principle opposed to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, i.e., false teaching that undermines the gospel, not just any doctrinal error.

John adds, "as you heard." The doctrine of the Antichrist was an important element of the apostolic teaching. It was not some esoteric eschatological scheme or a mere subject of lively debate. This teaching was delivered as part of the gospel message itself in order to warn the new believers of the dangers of false gospels.

John wasn't the only apostle who included the doctrine of the Antichrist in his core set of foundational teachings. Paul did as well – 2 Thess. 2:3-5; Acts 20:28-30. Indeed, the apostles received this teaching from Jesus himself who expressly warned his disciples against false prophets as a menace to be continually on guard against in the interval before his second coming. Jesus' teaching in Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24). Tribulation (Matt. 24:3-14) - false Christs (v. 5) and false prophets (v. 11). "But that is not yet the end" (v. 6). The gospel must first be preached throughout world (v. 14). Global fulfillment of great commission. The great tribulation (Matt. 24:15-31) - false Christs and false prophets (v. 24). This will occur immediately prior to the coming of Jesus Christ (v. 29).

So you see the already and the not-yet tension here. From the perspective of Jewish apocalyptic expectation, tribulation was a sign of the end (1 Tim. 4:1). Yet, Jesus says, there will also be an intensification of evil just prior to the end - the great tribulation (v. 21). This crisis at the end of the age. Jesus says, tribulation will characterize the entire church age, because ever since the ascension of Jesus we have been living in the last days.

One of the most difficult aspects of this tribulation is that the church will face serious internal threats from false teachers seeking to destroy her from within. Fighting false teachers, the resulting confusion and division, is not a sign of the failure of Christ's kingdom but rather it was exactly what Jesus said would happen. Satan's attempts to destroy the church from without by persecution and accompanied by an even more subtle attempt to destroy her from within by false teaching.

Notice that in v.10 they were once part of the visible church. They were not outsiders who mocked the Christian faith but professing Christians who taught a false gospel. Remember the distinction between the visible and the invisible church. They went out, thus demonstrating that they were not members of Christ's mystical body, the invisible church, but rather tares who for a time looked like wheat (2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 3-4).

A last desperate stand on the part of Christ's enemies is to be expected prior to the consummation. Both external persecution and internal heresy are signs that Satan knows his time is short they are signs that the last days have arrived and that Christ's victory over Satan is assured.

2:20-23

How can we recognize the Antichrist? By means of the anointing of the Spirit. The anointing here is not some special spiritual insight available only to the spiritually elite. It is nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers (John 16:13). Because we have the Spirit of Christ all believers, even the least of the sheep, are able to recognize false teachers. Jesus said that the sheep know the true Shepherd's voice. They don't listen to the voice of strangers.

To be more specific, John defines exactly what antichristian false doctrine is. John uses several phrases to explain:

Verse 22a. The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ Verse 22b. The one who denies the Father and the Son Verse 23. Whoever does not confess the Son 1 John 4:2-3. Any spirit (i.e., prophet) who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh 2 John 7. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh

We must take all of these verses together, especially the last two. The false teachers John was combating were not so crass as to deny Christ outright (which is what you might think if you read v. 22 in isolation). When you read all of these texts together the exact nature of their heresy begins to come into focus - they denied that Jesus was the Son of God who became man in order to accomplish salvation.

They apparently taught that Jesus was born and died a man, but that "the Christ" was a divine emanation who indwelled the human body of Jesus beginning with his baptism. The divine Christ-Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism but left him just prior to the cross. Thus, the heretics believed that Jesus and Christ may have been closely connected, but they would have denied the ontological equation, "Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of God." The word did not become flesh. The eternal life was not manifested and touched and handled and seen.

So how can we identify the spirit of the Antichrist today? The visible church today abounds with doctrinal errors of all degrees of magnitude, from the most severe denial of the deity of Christ among liberals, to minor doctrinal errors that do not endanger one's salvation. We must be careful, therefore, not to make every doctrinal difference among Bible-believing Christians a test of salvation or of orthodoxy.

Can those who practice believer's baptism be saved? Yes. Is the Bible-believing dispensationalist who trusts in Christ alone my brother in Christ? Yes. Is the Bible-believing Arminian a fellow believer? Yes. Is it possible for a Roman Catholic to trust in Christ alone for salvation and remain in the Catholic church? Yes. Will there by Eastern Orthodox Christians in heaven? Yes. We must not demand absolute theological precision. People can be intellectually confused on many doctrinal points even though their heart is trusting in Christ alone.

The gospel is the key – not your views on the sacraments, or the five points of Calvinism, or one's eschatological viewpoint. Anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as come in the flesh, who adheres to the apostolic faith summarized in the Apostles' Creed is saved and is going to heaven. No one places their trust in Jesus Christ alone has ever been condemned to hell. It's just not possible. The real dividing line between the lie and the truth, between the gospel of Christ and the false gospel of the Antichrist is the incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins.

Thus, any teacher, pastor, or theologian who denies the deity of Christ is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the reality of the incarnation is an antichrist. Anyone who denies that Jesus came into the world to save sinners by his substitutionary death is an antichrist.

2:24-25

How can we avoid being deceived by the Antichrist? All of this talk about the Antichrist can be unsettling and may create fear in your heart. "Will I be taken in by the deceptive wiles of the Antichrist? Is it possible that I might be so gullible as to be ensnared in false teaching?"

Aware of such doubts and fears, John pastorally reassures his flock. They need not be afraid of such things, if only they continue in the gospel that they had already received from the apostles. Let the gospel you heard from the beginning abide in you

"From the beginning" points to the apostolic origin of the gospel. For the original audience this meant holding fast to the apostolic traditions that they initially received and by which they were called into the fellowship of the church. For us it means holding fast to the Scripture that apostolic doctrine as found in the writings of the NT.

The promise of the Father is eternal life. You cannot lose eternal life. John wants to reassure his readers that they are safe and cannot be deceived by the Antichrists if they hold on to the gospel.

NOTE on "the last hour" (verse 18)

Four views:

First, John thought it was the last hour, that Jesus was going to return soon after he wrote this epistle, but he was simply mistaken. Obviously this view does not accord with the doctrine of inspiration. Besides, Jesus made it quite clear that no one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son of Man, so why would John be attempting here to predict the time of the second coming?

Second, it is "a last hour" not "the last hour" (in Greek the definite article is absent). In the history of Christendom there are many last hours and new beginnings. It refers to the crisis created by the rise of the heresy which denied the incarnation of Christ. This interpretation places too much weight on the absence of definite article in Greek. It is still legitimate to translate "the last hour." This is proven by the fact that the Antichrist is appealed to as evidence that the last hour has come since the Antichrist was one of the signs that would immediately precede the second coming (2 Thess. 2).

Third, John is referring to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the end of the Old Covenant order. But there is nothing in the surrounding context to support this view. While AD 70 is definitely an important event in Scripture spoken of in Daniel 9 and by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, it does not fit in the present context.

Fourth, the correct view is that this text is another example of the realized eschatology that pervades the NT. The Last Days were set in motion at the first coming of Jesus. See, for example, 1 Cor. 10:11: "Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." Heb. 1:1: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son."

Specifically, this "last hour" language was used by Jesus himself to refer to the eschatological nature of his death and resurrection and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost (John 2:4; 4:21, 23; 5:25, 28; 7:30; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 16:25, 32; 17:1). Thus "it is the last hour" does not express a fixed chronological statement concerning the actual nearness of the second coming, but expresses a theological perception concerning the eschatological nature of the first coming of Christ.

The second coming is merely the time when the full significance of what happened at the first coming is brought to light in its cosmic implications. Everything of importance has already occurred in the first coming. The covenant of works has been fulfilled by Christ's obedience. Sin has been judged. The dead have been raised. The new creation has begun. Nothing remains to be done, no prophecies need to be fulfilled between now and the parousia of Christ. Thus, in theological terms, it is the last hour and has been the last hour ever since Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Realized eschatology is therefore the key to dealing with all the texts in the NT that speak of the imminence of Christ's return.

We need to add, however, that realized eschatology must not be interpreted in a triumphalistic sense. In fact, the presence of the end means that the church's existence in the world is characterized by suffering prior to Christ's return. Spiritually, the new creation is already a reality. But in terms of our actual existence on earth we are groaning inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection.

The Anointing (2:26-29)

2:27

The word in Greek is chrisma. It is from the same root as the word Christ, which means the Anointed One. We have a chrisma from the Holy One. We are anointed with the same anointing as Christ's. This explains why John suddenly bring up the issue of Anointing right in the context of the Antichrist. It is a deliberate play on words. Our protection against the Anti-christos is that we possess the chrisma of the true christos. There are two spirits, two anointings, two christs. The spirit and the anointing of the Antichrist. And the Spirit and the anointing of Jesus the Christ.

"The anointing, which you received from Him." Our anointing is nothing less than a participation in the anointing of Christ. All Christians, then, have this anointing. It is not a special illumination given only to the spiritually advanced. All who belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ - Rom. 8:9. Jesus did not promise to send the Comforter only to a select few, but to all his disciples in order to lead all of his people into all truth.

"You have no need for anyone to teach you." Not saying that the church can survive without pastors and teachers, for that would contradict statements that John himself makes in 1 John concerning the necessity of the apostolic ministry (1:1-5; 4:5-6). And Paul taught that the risen Christ gave pastors and teachers to the church so that we would no longer be tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine.

You have to understand what John means by the word "teach." John is saying that when it comes to discerning the difference between the true and the false gospels all true Christians already possess the instinctive ability to recognize the false gospel when they hear it (see John 10).

"But as His anointing teaches you about all things …" The purpose of the anointing is to protect us from spiritual deception. It is the seal of the Holy Spirit. Those who are anointed are preserved from the subtle errors of the false teachers. To an unbeliever who does not have the Spirit of Christ these things may seem like fine points of doctrine, hair splitting. But to those of us who have been taught of God we instantly discern the difference between the false gospel and the true. This is what John is referring to when he says that the anointing teaches you about all things.

The Word and the Spirit. We have to avoid two extremes. On the one hand, it is not a mystical enlightenment that occurs outside of the ordinary means of the study of the Word of God. This is made clear in the context - verses 24-25. On the other hand, it is a supernatural gift of God whereby we are enabled to see the depth of our spiritual need and the fullness of Jesus Christ as the God-man to meet that need. The natural man does not receive the things of God for they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).

The key issue is a sense of our spiritual need. That is the thing that the Spirit must work in our hearts. The Spirit will convict the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. But we are not left in a state of mere conviction of sin. The Spirit also works faith in our hearts so that we might embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel.

The Word and the Spirit always work hand in hand. The Word without the Spirit will never be able to pierce through the darkness of our hearts to give us light. The Spirit without the Word cannot save either since the Spirit's function is not to convey new information but to give us the spiritual ability to apprehend Christ and to embrace him in faith.

2:28-29

If we continue in the apostolic gospel and are not deceived by the cunning trickery of the Antichrist in all of its forms, then we will not be ashamed when Jesus returns but will be prepared to meet him with confidence.

The word "confidence" is literally parresia, the same word used in Hebrews in reference to the privilege we have of coming boldly into the inner sanctuary through the blood of Jesus our great High Priest. When Jesus returns, believers will meet with him with boldness and confidence not because we are without sin, but because we know we have an advocate with the Father. But unbelievers will be shrink back in shame knowing that they stand condemned because they did not receive the true gospel.

John most likely has the false teachers and their followers in mind. They will be ashamed, because the one whose deity they had denied will now appear in divine glory to judge them. "Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him" (Rev. 1:7).

The reference to practicing righteousness in v. 29 must also be interpreted in light of the context. It is simply another way of saying that true believers cleave to the apostolic gospel are not deceived by the false gospel of the Antichrist, and so demonstrate that they are indeed born of him.

Let us be thankful that every child of God, even the least of the brethren, has been given the anointing of the Spirit to guide us into all truth and protect us from false teaching.

The doctrine of adoption (3:1-3)

We come now to a new section in 1 John, dealing with the doctrine of adoption or sonship. The connection with ch. 2 is as follows: the discussion of the false teachers as the antichrists is contrasted with the Christians in Asia Minor who have not left the church but remained the apostolic fellowship.

They, however, are different, because they have the anointing of the Spirit. This then is the natural opportunity to explain to them that they are not only anointed with the Spirit but they are also children of God.

3:1

The mention of being born of God in 2:29 prompts John to consider the wonder of our status as God's beloved children.

"How great a love" John expresses wonder and astonishment that God would bestow such an honor upon us. Reasons for such amazement: First, because we do not deserve such a great privilege. We were by nature "children of wrath" not children of God. Second, because the privilege itself is so lofty. To be a child of God places us in a relationship of intimacy and favor with God that is surpassed only by the relationship that Jesus has as God's eternal Son. The sonship of Jesus is from eternity. His sonship is ontological – that is, he is God's Son by nature. Our sonship, by contrast, is not from eternity but began when we were united to Christ by faith, not by nature but by grace. Nevertheless, in spite of these significant differences, to be called children of God is to be brought into a special position of favor and privilege with God. From a legal point of view, God loves us just as he loves his Son and wishes to bestow upon us the same favor and privilege that he bestowed on Christ.

The privilege of sonship in Scripture has three aspects. Or, there are three benefits of being sons of God:

First, intimacy - John 16:26-27; 17:23, 26. The Father's deep love for the Son and the Son's deep love for the Father is not something they alone share, but their love overflows to include the redeemed. We are brought into the very heart of God

Second, inheritance - Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:7; Rev. 21:7. The inheritance is the land, the new heavens and new earth. Jesus was the firstborn of all creation (i.e., the one with the right of primogeniture). We are also firstborn sons in him. We inherit "all things"

Third, image - Matt. 5:43-45; Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2. To be a son, is to be like one's father. Thus, we shall be like Christ, and because Christ is like his Father, "the exact representation of his nature" (Heb. 1:3), we shall also be made in the Father's image.

All three of these aspects originally belonged to Adam, "the son of God" (Luke 3:38), but are now restored only in Christ.

The false teachers have claimed to be the true children of God. How do we know if we who remain are really children of God?

The reference in v. 1 to the world not knowing us, that is, not acknowledging that we are really God's children, is to the false teachers who belong to the world. The world, that is unbelievers who reject Christ, do not acknowledge that we are children of God. But that is no surprise because they didn't acknowledge that Jesus was the Son of God either. Although they don't see our true identity in Christ as children of God, that is in fact who we are.

3:2

So John then goes on to say, "It has not yet appeared … " but when Christ appears it will be made clear. Our status as children of God is something that can be apprehended only by faith. Externally we may not look any different from the world, but what we are spiritually will be made evident when we are given glorified bodies at the appearing of Christ.

"Beloved, NOW we are the children of God." It isn't just a future hope but a present reality. Compare with Col. 3:1-4. The second coming of Christ will not be the time when we are made into the children of God, but when our status as God's children will be made public and visible.

The thing that will bring about this transformation is our direct vision of Jesus Christ himself. "We will be like him, because we will see him as he is" (cp. Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thess. 4:13-17).

3:3

"Everyone who has this hope in him." Not "this hope within himself" but "this hope fixed on Christ" (NAS). The return of Christ should be our only hope (Titus 2:11-13; 1 Peter 1:13). Our hope is not that things will improve in this present age but that Christ will come and transform bodily us into his image thus confirming that we are God's children.

Christians who thus fix their hope on the appearing of Christ and our being made like him at that moment will "purify themselves even as he is pure." It may sound strange to our ears to speak of "purifying ourselves" but John isn't denying that it is only the blood of Christ which purifies us (something he clearly taught in 1:7). John is merely saying that if our hope is the resurrection and the public manifestation of our sonship, then we ought to make every effort to live now as we will live then.

Once our bodies are transformed there will be no sin, only perfect purity. If that is our hope, the thing that we are longing for with all our hearts, then to be consistent we ought to be striving even now to see the evidence of our future moral purity (cp. 1 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 2:12).

It is a moral striving that flows from the assurance that we are now God's children and that our future resurrection will merely be the public unveiling of our status as God's beloved. This is very different from a moral striving in the hope that we will one day be good enough to obtain the future resurrection and the status of God's beloved.

Hope in the NT never means a speculative possibility but an assured eschatological reward. Our assured eschatological reward must be the basis of our moral striving not the result. If the arrow is striving 🡪 hope, that is works righteousness. But if the arrow is hope 🡪 striving, that is evangelical obedience.

"Just as he is pure." The purity of Christ is the standard and goal of our purity. When our bodies are raised we will be perfectly and totally conformed to Christ in his ethical uprightness, moral purity, and total consecration to God. And so we will forever be with the Lord.

Does John teach perfectionism? (3:4-10)

In vv. 1-3 John urged moral purity on the basis of the eschatological hope of Christ's second coming when we will see him and be made like him in moral perfection forever. Now in vv. 4-10 he urges it on the basis of the purpose of Christ's first coming, which was to destroy the works of the Devil specifically his works of rebellion.

Structure of 3:4-10. The passage is divided into two sections, which repeat the same basic argument (vv. 4-6; vv. 7-9):

Introduction of the theme of practicing sin/righteousness - vv. 4, 7

The purpose of Christ's first coming is stated - vv. 5, 8

The logical conclusion from the above is drawn - vv. 6, 9

Verse 10 is a concluding statement wrapping up both segments

3:4

Lawlessness in Greek in anomia. It can also be translated rebellion, which is more suitable to the context with its focus on the devil's own sin (v. 8). The problem with the devil wasn't that he broke the ten commandments but that he rebelled against God and sought to place himself in a position of autonomy rather than submitting himself to God and seeking God's glory.

Does this verse provide a definition of sin? No, the focus of the verse is not to give an abstract definition of what sin is, but to highlight the fact that sin is rebellion. John isn't saying that sin is defined as any violation of the law of God but that the nature of sin at its very core and essence is rebellion against the authority and claims of God over our lives.

When we sin we must repent but repentance isn't simply admitting that what we did was wrong in a general way. We must also admit that it was wrong, because we have sinned against God himself. Every time we engage in sinful behavior we are pitting our will against the will of Jesus Christ for our lives. This dimension of sin as a personal affront to Christ is ultimately the most important and it is the one that must break our hearts in godly sorrow.

3:5

"Jesus Christ appeared for this purpose: to take away sins." The entire purpose of the incarnation was to deal with sin. Recall that one of the key theological errors of the heretics is that they denied the reality of the incarnation. It is for this reason that John emphasizes it again here, although not merely in abstract theological terms but to draw out the ethical implications of the incarnation.

"To take away sins." This refers back to the scapegoat on the day of atonement upon whose head all the sins of Israel were placed when the high priest confessed their corporate guilt. The scapegoat then carried the sins of the people away into the wilderness, far from the camp where God dwelled in the midst of his people.

When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, John said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

"And in him there is no sin." The sinlessness of Jesus was necessary in order that he might be the sin-bearer. If he were not without sin he would have to bear his own sins and would not have been able to take our place as our substitute.

Another aspect of this statement is made clear in light of the context of verse 4. If sin is rebellion and there is no sin in Christ then there is no rebellion in him either. Jesus was perfectly righteous in both the positive and negative sense. Negatively, he was morally pure, without sin. Positively, he was not rebellious, in other words, he fully submitted to God in every way.

The submissive spirit of Christ can be seen in many ways. He submitted to being sent by God into the world. He submitted by becoming a man for us. He submitted to the law and its curse. He submitted to the shameful death of the cross, saying "Not my will by thy will be done." Thus this verse points us to both the active and passive aspects of Christ's obedience. Passive - his role as the sin-bearer. Active - his submission to God in all things.

3:6

"No one who abides in him sins" (cp. verse 9). This verse is a notorious theological chestnut. John seems to teach sinless perfection. However, it is clear that this cannot be the case, since John has already rejected this claim (1:8-10), and he reminds us of the provision Christians have when they sin (2:1).

So what is John referring to in this passage? Various attempted solutions:

First, the occasional vs. habitual sin interpretation. Although believers do occasionally sin, they cannot sin habitually (the present tense of the verb "to sin" is thought to support this interpretation). This view is pastorally impossible, since it would consign Christians who struggle with habitual sins to the status of being lost. It places too much theological weight on a grammatical fine point.

Second, the tension of the already and the not-yet. 3:6-9 describes the absolute perfection of our status as those in Christ – we are without sin (the already); whereas 1:8-10 describes the actual realities of sin in the Christian life (the not-yet). John says in 2:1 that he writes this so that we will not sin … but, if anyone does sin, there is provision for sin through Christ.

Third, the sin that John is referring to in 3:6-9 which believers cannot commit is the sin of apostasy. This third interpretation is the one I favor. It interprets the Greek word anomia in verse 4 as rebellion, not lawlessness (as we said).

This interpretation is confirmed by the following considerations from the context:

• Verse 8 defines sin as the sin of the Devil himself, which was rebellion. Notice how John contrasts the devil's rebellion with the obedience of Christ in the previous verse (v. 7): Jesus is righteous, because he perfectly submitted himself to the will of his Father. The devil rejected God's authority and rebelled in apostasy.

• Anomia is the ultimate iniquity of that will characterize the end-time, and which finds expression in the Antichrist principle, namely, total opposition to Christ's gospel. The preceding context deals with the Antichrist. The verses immediately following deal with the Cain-Abel incident, which takes us back to Gen. 3:15 and the conflict between the two seeds.

• The apostasy interpretation is strongly supported by comparison with 1 John 5:16-21, especially verse 18 which uses the same language ("no one who is born of God sins"). See notes below.

3:7-8a

We come now to the second cycle (vv. 7-9)

"Little children, make sure no one deceives you." The pastoral tenderness of John's exhortation suggests that the readers of his epistle were in a very real danger of being deceived by the false teachers. It would seem that there is also a subtle reference here to Adam and Eve's falling into deception when they listened to the lies of the serpent, who as the agent of the devil succeeded in seducing our first parents to join him in his scheme of rebellion against God.

"The one who practices righteousness is righteous … the one who practices sin is of the devil." The false teachers were acting as the tools of the devil himself; they were the devil's instruments to attempt to deceive the sheep and cause them to turn aside from the gospel.

The heretics appear to have taught that a person could be righteous without practicing righteousness. This is suggested by the emphasis on the word "practice" in these verses. In the context of our discussion about the sin of apostasy it would appear that terms sin and righteousness are being used as catchwords for apostasy and its opposite, namely, continuing in the truth of the apostolic gospel, along with the moral implications of that, in particular, love for our fellow brothers in Christ.

It is not enough for someone to claim that they are righteous; they must demonstrate it by their actions as they live in accordance with Christ, becoming like him. A person who makes these lofty claims of righteousness but who actually practices rebellion and commits the sin of apostasy has demonstrated where their true allegiance lies. They demonstrate a devilish nature and are therefore of the devil. The one who practices righteousness is righteous even as Jesus is righteous; the one who practices sin is rebellious even as the devil is rebellious.

"The devil sinned from the beginning." The apostasy of Satan is not described but presupposed in Genesis 3. However, Isaiah 14:12-15 does give us some additional insight. Satan is called "the star of the morning" or Lucifer, because of his great glory as originally created. He was a glorious angel of light who reflected the glory and light of God himself. But in his pride he attempted to ascend to the heights of God's throne and to usurp God's sole authority and majesty as the only uncreated Lord of glory. As a result he was cast out of heaven and many other fallen angels with him.

3:8b

Compare with v. 5. The Son of God appeared to take away our sins. Another way of putting this is to say that he appeared to destroy the works of the devil. It was Adam's task in the garden to execute God's just judgment against the serpent in the garden, but he missed his opportunity and instead allowed himself to be taken in by the serpent's wiles. Christ as the Last Adam has come in the fulness of time to finally destroy the works of the devil that have resulted in such devastation for mankind.

What are the works of the devil? His own apostasy is of course included, but more specifically, I think this term refers to his seduction of humanity to follow him in his apostasy. Christ destroyed the works of the devil by canceling Satan's rebellion with his own perfect obedience and by redeeming the elect from the power and guilt of sin.

Another work of the devil is that by means of sin Satan holds the power of death. Therefore, another work of the devil that Jesus destroyed is death - Hebrews 2:14-15. Jesus destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through his resurrection from the dead.

3:9

Logical implication of the above. If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, then those who are born of God will demonstrate it by not practicing the devil's apostasy and rebellion. Specifically John is referring to the rebellion of rejecting the apostolic gospel and leaving the fellowship of the apostolic church (which is an act that negates the law of love).

"Because God's seed abides in him." The seed of God is a reference to the new birth mentioned in the first part of the verse. The metaphor here is as follows: just as a human father begets a child by means of the seed of his loins, so the heavenly Father has begotten us by means of his own divine seed.

The idea is that if we are born of God, the very nature of God has been implanted within us. We are fundamentally different people now in Christ. We are not of the devil - we do not possess his rebellious nature. Rather we have been made partakers of the divine nature which cannot be suppressed.

Ultimately the seed of God is the Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers. True believers can grieve the Holy Spirit, fall into many temptations and sins, and may even for a time appear to be apostate. But if they are regenerate, they can never ultimately die in a state of rebellion and unbelief. The Spirit who dwells within us will never let us go on in our sin but will always bring the elect back to Christ. The wandering sheep may for a time look like a goat, but if it is a true sheep redeemed by Christ's blood the Good Shepherd will go out and bring him back.

This is what John means by the last phrase: "he cannot sin, because he is born of God." A child of God cannot ultimately be apostate. It simply cannot happen, for he is born of God, has God's divine seed within him, he has been permanently and irrevocably changed.

When you sin you are denying who you really are. Remember that you are born of God and that means you have been reborn and given the divine nature from God himself. Do not continue in sin as if you were nothing more than a son of Adam. Repent, turn away from sin, and act in accordance with your true nature.

3:10

This verse simply summarizes and repeats what has already been said. One new thought, however, is introduced at the end, namely, the fact that practicing righteousness includes love for one's fellow Christians in the church.

This is a direct assault on the heretics whose schismatic behavior in departing from the church demonstrated that they had no love for the brethren. Thus John is convinced that the heretics have demonstrated for all to see the truth of their character as children of the devil. It is obvious, John says. You can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil by their actions. Actions speak louder than words. Claims to a superior knowledge of God and intimacy with God are empty unless backed up with one's life.

Again, as we have said, John is not intending to teach sinless perfection but to encourage the believers who remain in the church that they, not the heretics, are the true children of God and that this is clearly evident by the fact that they practice righteousness and love the brethren.

Since Christ has defeated Satan and destroyed his works, why would you want to continue living in sin and rebellion? You are not a child of the devil. You are a child of Christ the King. Therefore live as a child of the King and renounce the works of his defeated foe!

Love, the evidence of life (3:11-18)

1 John has a very simple message which is summarized succinctly in 3:23. This verse covers the two main points that John belabors throughout this epistle: the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the necessity of love for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Both points must be understood in light of the context of the false teachers who had left the apostolic fellowship and had rejected the true teaching concerning Christ.

First, John emphasizes the necessity of right belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God in contrast with the false confession of Christ by the false teachers. Because they denied the reality of the incarnation of the Son of God they confessed a different Christ. The could not affirm that the man Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

Second, John emphasizes the necessity of love for the brethren in contrast with the false teachers who had committed the sin of schism by separating themselves from the true church of Jesus Christ in order to form their own sect. The sin of schism flowed from their doctrinal error. But it was more than that: the sin of schism was a rending of the body of Christ and thus a rejection of the most cardinal commandment of Jesus himself - to love one another.

These two issues – belief in Christ and love for the brethren – are inseparably intertwined in John's theology. You cannot have one without the other. If you claim to believe in Christ it is an empty claim unless backed up by visible expressions of love for the brethren.

By the same token, if you love one another, that is evidence that your faith in Jesus Christ is genuine faith. Thus, the fact that the false teachers left the church in such a manner as to undercut Jesus' new commandment of love demonstrates quite clearly the total bankruptcy and invalidity of their profession of faith in Christ.

However, John's purpose isn't only to undercut the claims of the false teachers. As a wise and loving pastor John is fully aware of the need to also encourage and assure those who remain in the church that their faith is genuine. They need to be built up in their faith, not torn down with doubt. John's repeated attacks on the false faith of the heretics is not intended to call the faith of Jesus' little lambs into question.

Thus John spends an equal amount of time explaining to his sheep that they may have assurance that their faith is real if they accept the apostolic witness by confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, and if they manifest the necessary fruit of that confession – namely, love for the brethren.

This paragraph (3:11-18) is the second time that John addresses the issue of love. The first time was in 2:7-11, where he spoke of love as the new commandment of Jesus.

Structure of the passage

1. Verse 11 - thesis statement: the command to love is integral to the gospel
2. Verses 12-15 - it so integral, that love is the evidence of spiritual life; lack of love is the evidence of spiritual death
3. Verses 16-18 - So, then, what does it mean to love?

3:11

Thesis statement: the command to love is integral to the gospel. Compare 2:7, 24.

"from the beginning" refers to the teaching of Jesus. The original message of the Gospel which was conveyed by Jesus to the apostles and from the apostles to the first generation of Christians. The new commandment of love goes all the way back to Jesus himself - John 13:34. It is not an ethical implication of the gospel worked out logically by the apostles but an integral part of the gospel itself.

Why is this? Because the new commandment is grounded in the sacrificial self-giving of Jesus himself. Thus the message of the cross and the command of love are inseparable. Love is essential to the gospel. Doctrine and ethics are inseparable. Sound ethics flows from sound doctrine.

3:12

Love is so integral to the gospel, that love is the evidence of spiritual life; lack of love is the evidence of spiritual death.

However, John now reaches even farther back than the ministry of Jesus to the very dawn of time itself. The story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4). This episode is an outworking of the gospel promise in Gen. 3:15. God has created enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

This enmity is characterized by the hatred that the reprobate line has for the godly seed who worship God in true faith and submit to his revealed will. Cain offered the wrong sacrifice. We can presume that God had revealed his will to mankind after the fall that he desires to be approached with blood sacrifice on account of man's sinful condition.

Cain's hatred of his brother Abel is contrasted with the love that we should have for our brothers in Christ. By the same token, Cain's hatred of his brother is a paradigm for the false teachers' schismatic behavior which is really nothing less than murderous hatred.

"And for what reason …?" Because of the antithesis between Cain's wicked deeds and Abel's righteous deeds. What were Cain's wicked deeds? The heinous sin of pride. He thought he could approach a holy God with the sacrifice from the vegetable kingdom – the product of his own sweat. Abel's deeds, on the other hand, were righteous because he came in humility before God submitting to the appointed way of access to God's presence by means of the subsitutionary sacrifice not by his own works.

In sum, it was envy and resentment that provoked Cain to murder. He resented Abel's faith which made Abel's sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God. He resented the fact that God rejected his offering, an offering that he had labored so hard to produce with his own hands.

3:13

Cain's envy and murderous hatred of the true seed is a paradigm for the world, which continues to manifest the same quality that was displayed so vividly in Cain. More specifically, the world here is being applied to the false teachers who have committed the heinous sin of schism and departed from their fellowship over their heretical doctrines.

Don't be surprised by all of this! It isn't some new or unexpected thing. It goes all the way back to the beginning when Cain slew his brother because of Abel's righteousness (1 Peter 4:12-14). Don't let the pain and trial caused by this church split to alarm you and upset you. Take it all in stride, knowing that it is part of the cosmic conflict of the ages. All true servants of God must suffer the hatred and envy of the spite-filled sons of the evil one. It is exactly what you would expect from the world who hates the community of Christ's followers, because they resent your righteousness.

John takes the painful departure of the false teachers and turns it into a sign assuring the genuine believers who remain that they are NOT of the seed of the serpent but of the seed of the woman, they are the children of God.

3:14-15

Love is so integral to the gospel its presence or absence is evidence of whether you really believe in the gospel.

Verse 14a: If we love the brethren, that is evidence that we have passed out of death into life.

Verse 14b-15: If we do not love our brethren, that is evidence that we do not possess eternal life.

John now draws upon the image of Cain killing his brother and connects the presence or absence of love with the presence or absence of life. To love is to have eternal life. To hate is to abide in spiritual death.

Spiritual life cannot be hidden. It always manifests itself in good deeds, especially in love. The authentic followers of Jesus Christ, those who have passed from death to life, are characterized by a deep desire for fellowship with other Christians.

Christian fellowship is a two-way street. We both give and receive mutual encouragement as we share our faith with one another. A true Christian cannot stand to be alone. He craves fellowship with those who love Jesus Christ.

John thus reminds us of the importance of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together (Heb. 10:25). If we are born again, we naturally delight to worship together with fellow believers, to say the creed together, to pray and sing hymns together, to receive the sacrament of communion together, to talk with one another about spiritual topics, to care for one another and bear each other's burdens.

3:16-18

So, then, what does it mean to love? Having shown that love is the evidence of life, John now explains what love is. The essence of love is self-sacrifice modeled after the sacrificial self-giving of Jesus himself. Hate is negative; it seeks the other person's harm. Love is positive; it seeks the other person's good. This is the ultimate contrast: Cain's hatred, leading to murder, in antithetical contrast with Christ's love, leading to his self-sacrifice.

All this talk of love can sound theoretical. So John gets very specific by giving us an example of what this self-sacrificial love is like.

C. S. Lewis said it well: "It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital H than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular."

Love is the willingness to surrender that which is valuable to me in order to enrich the life of another. God's love is not theoretical or abstract. He revealed his love very concretely when he gave up his only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins.

"… how does the love of God abide in him?" But this divine love, all loves excelling, should not merely be looked back upon as a historical example for us to follow. If we have entrusted ourselves to Jesus Christ and have been united to him by his Spirit, then the love of God as manifested in the cross ought to abide in us. The love of God acting through his Son is not an event of the past but a living and creative force dwelling within us and acting through us, in the present.

"Let us not love with word or with tongue …" Love is far more than a sentimental feeling. It is not enough to say that you love. Love must be manifested in our actions.

This passage is about the contrast between hatred and love. Hatred characterizes the world, whose prototype is Cain. Hatred originated in the devil himself and is being reproduced in his offspring, resulting in the persecution and murder of the children of God.

Love, on the other hand, characterizes the church, whose prototype is Jesus Christ. Love originated in God himself, who provided the ultimate revelation of his love in the sacrifice of his only Son for our redemption. And that divine love is being reproduced in God's offspring, the elect, who evidence their possession of the divine life by laying down their lives for the brethren even as Jesus Christ did for us.

The problem of the condemning conscience (3:19-24)

The scene is a courtroom, and there are three actors in the court. It is a kind of trial, with our heart or conscience as the accuser, ourselves as the defendant, and God himself as the presiding Judge. The conscience stands in the position of a subordinate judge. God created us with an inbuilt judge that either condemns or approves of our deeds. The conscience is divine in a sense, because it speaks on behalf of God and his claims. When the conscience accuses us, it feels much as if God himself were accusing us.

But even though our conscience is divine, it is not infallible. A guilty conscience may accurately reflect objective guilt before God or it may reflect false guilt. For example, if a child was repeated punished from infancy every time he sneezed, he would probably grow up thinking that it is a sin to sneeze. Thus our conscience is malleable. It can be trained to accurately reflect God's judgment and it can be trained to make distorted judgments and to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The Bible speaks of the latter when it refers to men who have seared their conscience as with a hot iron.

John's readers are apparently dealing with the problem of a conscience that wrongly accuses them of sin. The reason for this seems to be that they have been terribly shaken by the departure of the false teachers. Who is right with God? Maybe those who departed are in the right and we who remain are not true children of God. They seem to have an impressive spirituality and piety - remember their claims "to know God."

John tells them they can know they are of the truth by the evidence of their love for one another, thus quieting the nagging inner voice that would call the reality of their confession of Christ into question and falsely accuse them of being hypocrites.

"We will know by this that we are of the truth" refers back to verse 18 - concrete expressions of love for the brethren.

"for God is greater than our heart and knows all things." The disciples of John in the churches of Asia Minor need to be reminded that they are not alone with their conscience. The courtroom is not only a two-person dialogue: the accuser vs. the defendant. There is a third party involved here – it is none other than God himself, the great all-knowing, all-seeing Judge.

John is appealing here to the frequent Scriptural theme that God is the searcher of the hearts and motives of men

1 Chronicles 28:9 "The LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts"

Jeremiah 17:10 "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds"

1 Corinthians 4:5 "When the Lord comes he will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts"

This knowledge is both a terror and a comfort. Here John applies it to the comfort of his sheep. Their condemning conscience cannot ultimately accuse them and win its case before the tribunal of God. For whatever the accuser may say, God is the final Arbiter and Judge. He will dispense justice righteously and will overrule the conscience in their case.

What comfort and encouragement it is to know that God will judge our hearts. Even we cannot judge ourselves rightly. But the all-seeing, all-knowing God will bring out the inner motives of our hearts. He will recognize the sincerity of our faith in his Son.

Our heart is anxious, looking for internal, subjective evidence of our relationship with God. We cannot ultimately find peace in anything inside of ourselves. Let us simply rest in the knowledge that God knows all things, especially our heart.

3:21-22

The blessedness of a clear conscience. "We have confidence before God." Refers to confidence to approach God in prayer. The term "confidence" is literally "freedom of speech." It is the same term used in Hebrews. If our conscience does not accuse us, we can come boldly to the throne of grace.

Paul speaks of the objective side: Boldness of access to God through Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:12). John here speaks of the subjective side of such boldness. Our conscience having been quieted, we may now step forth to make our requests known to God.

"Whatever we ask we receive from Him." The promise of prayer repeated many times in Scripture. E.g., Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Jesus commands us to have faith in God, to ask in faith, believing that we will receive what we ask for in prayer. He solemnly grants us the most incredible assurance that if we pray the prayer of faith, he will give us our desires.

How can this be? Because all prayer is, "Thy will be done." If our wills are attuned to the will of God we will ask only that which God has willed to begin with. The problem is created only because we think that Jesus is promising to answer all our earthly desires. In reality Jesus is exhorting us to pray for heavenly benefits of an increase in our faith and love and especially for the advancement of Christ's kingdom through the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

"Because we keep his commandments …" There is an implicit condition. Such obedience is evidence that our will is in harmony with the will of God. Our prayers will be heard if we are living obediently to his commands. If we are living in rebellion against God, we have no assurance that God will hear us.

3:23-24

Divine provisions for the condemning conscience. God condescends to our anxious hearts by giving us two things: his commandment (v. 23-24a), and his Spirit (v. 24b).

First, God has given us his commandment (vv. 23-24a). Note the singular "commandment." These not two separate commandments but one commandment. If we keep this commandment we can have assurance that we abide in God and God abides in us (v. 24a). For no one who believes in Jesus and loves his brother can be a child of the devil.

It seems strange, doesn't it, that God would give us a commandment to aid us in our assurance. But it isn't strange when you consider what the commandment is that he has given us. This commandment is not burdensome. It is not one that we cannot keep.

There is another point that I see in the text. The twofold commandment of faith in Christ and love for the brethren is a commandment that defines the very essence of a credible profession of faith in Christ.

"Believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ." In Scripture, the name of God refers to God's self-revelation through his Word. Therefore Calvin correctly states that the name of Christ refers to preaching. Faith embraces Christ as he is set forth in the gospel.

Obviously faith is essential, but love for the brethren is also necessary, because a person who claims to be believe in Christ and yet who has no interest in being part of the fellowship of the visible body of Christ does not have a credible profession of faith in Christ.

The elders of the church have the responsibility of evaluating your profession of faith. Thus membership in the visible church is really what John has in view here. In effect, he is saying to his flock, If you believe in the Jesus who has been proclaimed to you by the apostles, and if you possess love for the brethren in the sense that, unlike the false teachers, you have a high regard for the visible church since you remain in the fellowship of the body of Christ, then you may have assurance that you are not hypocrites but true children of God.

Those who struggle with assurance often make the mistake of supposing that their membership in the church is meaningless. After, aren't the churches filled with hypocrites and unbelievers? So why should my being a member in good standing mean anything? But if you are a member of a church that exercises biblical church discipline it is no small thing to be in good standing. To not be excluded from communion, to be one who is invited by the church, and through the church, by Christ himself, to partake of the body and the blood, the holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace. The keys of the kingdom have been entrusted to the ministers and elders of Christ's church. They have exercised those keys. They have evaluated your profession of faith and they continually do so through their pastoral oversight of you. They see your confession of faith in Jesus. They see your love for the brethren as evidenced by the fact that you regularly assemble with God's people.

Fulfillment of the twofold commandment of faith and love is recognizable - it is concrete, tangible, empirical. No, the judgment of the church is not infallible. But the judgment of the church is not meaningless either. Therefore let the judgment of Christ's ordained servants be to you as the voice of Christ himself speaking peace to your soul.

Second, God has given us the Holy Spirit as confirmation (v. 24b). The first gift of God providing assurance is the external, objective gift of the church. The second gift is the corresponding Spirit within us who confirms to our conscience that we do indeed believe in Jesus Christ and that we do indeed love the brethren. The Spirit reassures us that our belief and our love are real, thus providing additional confirmation that we are in Christ.

By giving us his commandment and his Spirit, God demonstrates that he is indeed greater than our heart. You cannot arrive at assurance on your own, just you and your Bible and God. You need the church and the Spirit, and the two work together in harmony.

The call to spiritual discernment (4:1-6)

4:1

In the first century church, the gift of prophecy was operative unlike today. The pages of the NT bear witness to the prevalence of inspired prophets in the apostolic age (Acts 11:28; 13:1; 21:10; 1 Cor. 12-14). This unique gift of prophecy was not intended to be perpetual in the church for these prophets served, alongside the apostles, in a foundation-laying role (Eph. 2:20; 3:5). One key part of the foundation was the completion of the NT canon the production of the authoritative, inspired constitutional documents for the new covenant church. This was understood to be the production of Scripture (Romans 16:25-26). Ministers and teachers of the church today are successors of the apostles. Their labors are judged by their conformity to the apostolic foundation already laid (1 Cor. 3:10-15).

Nevertheless, for the first 60 or so years of the church from the death of Jesus to the completion of the NT canon (ca. 90) Christian prophecy was a well-known institution. However, this institution was not without its challenges. Just as in the OT, there were false prophets in the NT age as well. 2 Peter 2:1: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves." There was also an unnamed woman in Thyatira who claimed to be a prophetess (Rev. 2:20). She led many astray by teaching them to commit spiritual adultery (that is, participation in the emperor cult). John calls her Jezebel to unmask her true nature.

How, then were the early Christian congregations to be protected from false prophets? The NT explains that all prophetic utterances were not to be received uncritically, but all utterances were to be tested:

1 Corinthians 14:29 "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment."

1 Corinthians 12:10 "… and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits"

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good."

1 John 4:1 "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

What was the standard of such testing and evaluation? Romans 12:6: "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the analogy of the faith" (not "according to the proportion of his faith").

Our text tonight adds another test: In addition to the doctrinal content of the utterance itself, the prophet himself must have an orthodox confession of faith in Jesus Christ. He must profess that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh.

Too many Christians today accept the teaching they hear uncritically. Although the gift of prophecy itself has been withdrawn from the life of the church in the post-apostolic age, it is nevertheless just as imperative today that Christians test the spirits.

Not every teacher who has a large following and a charismatic personality is from God. You say, "But there is obviously some spiritual quality in this man. Look at the people who flock to his ministry! Look at his powerful preaching, the many people whose lives are being changed."

Be careful. Yes, there is obviously a spiritual force at work here. But is it the Spirit of God? Behind every prophet is a spirit animating and giving power to his teaching. But that spirit may be another spirit. Satan often clothes himself as an angel of light a minister of righteousness. 2 Cor. 11:13-15: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

How can you tell the difference? The key issue is their attitude toward Jesus Christ. As always, the question of Jesus to his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" is the decisive test. This is not the sole test, of course. Jesus also taught, "By their fruits you shall know them." And John himself in this Epistle makes the same argument when he speaks of righteousness and love as another litmus test (1 John 3:10). The doctrinal test cannot stand alone and must be applied in connection with the ethical test. This is because there are some false teachers who have the right profession concerning Christ but whose lives demonstrate that they are not true servants of Jesus Christ. They have the form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. But even though the doctrinal test may not always be sufficient, it is certain that any teacher who confesses a false Christ is a false teacher.

4:2-3

After giving the initial call to discernment in v. 1 John now proceeds to define the doctrinal test. A proper confession concerning Jesus.

Translation problem: NAS, NIV, NKJ: "That Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." This translation doesn't take into account the precise nature of the heresy that John is combating. A more accurate translation would be: "That Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh."

The false teachers were docetists. That is, they denied that the flesh of Jesus was useful or important. Jesus was a mere man. The Christ was a divine spirit-being who indwelled the man Jesus temporarily and used him as a garment in order to teach the disciples. But when Jesus was crucified, the Christ departed from Jesus so that the Son of God himself was not corrupted by death.

The statement then affirms that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh. The man Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was born and who died and rose again, this man is nothing less than the Christ come in the flesh.

What a brief and succinct doctrinal statement, and yet one which is really quite profound. Note that this doctrinal statement implies both the deity and the humanity of Christ. First, the humanity of Christ ("come in the flesh"). Second, the deity of Christ ("come in the flesh").

In addition, the statement goes beyond a simple affirmation of the two natures of Christ and carries with it certain implications regarding soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. Salvation is not a gnostic enlightenment divorced from the flesh of Christ and his historic mission of obedience to the point of death. Salvation was accomplished in the flesh.

Romans 8:3 "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh."

Colossians 1:22 "He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death"

1 Peter 2:24 "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."

4:4-6

"He who is in you" refers to God dwelling in us by his Spirit (3:24), and thus upon the role of the Spirit in applying the test. Cp. "You have an Anointing" (2:20).

There is a sharp antithesis between those who have the Spirit and those who do not, between those who are of God and those who are of the world. John now reminds us that we are capable of applying the doctrinal test because we have the presence of Christ himself by his Spirit dwelling within us.

The Spirit does several things in helping us to apply the doctrinal test. First, he illumines our minds to understand the truths of the Gospel, "the mystery of godliness" that God was manifested in the flesh. Second, he gives us an internal sense of delight in those truths so that we are confident that our feet are firmly planted in the truth. Third, he strengthens our resolve in maintaining the truths of the gospel against all external opposition and internal self-doubt.

Love perfected in us (4:7-21)

This is the third time now that John exhorts us to love one another. William Tyndale said, "John singeth his old song again." Each time, however, John adds increasing levels of harmonic depth to his song:

Chapter 2:3-11 - we should love another because this is the content of the new commandment, and because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Chapter 3:11-23 - we should love one another because love is the evidence of spiritual life. He who hates is like Cain who killed his brother and therefore hatred is evidence of spiritual death. But he who loves is like Christ who gave his life for us and therefore love is evidence of spiritual life.

Chapter 4:7—5:2 - we should love one another because God is love, and therefore when we love one another. God's love is perfected in us.

This third section on love is best summarized in the words, "Love perfected in us," because the word "perfected" or "perfect" occurs 4 times in this paragraph: vv. 12, 17, 18 (2x).

However, the English translation "perfected" is misleading. The Greek word is teleioo. Unlike the English word "perfected," the Greek term does not connote the absolute absence of any defect whoever small - an unattainable or theoretical state of sinlessness. Instead teleioo focuses on the idea of bringing something to completion. It is used frequently in contexts having to do with something reaching its goal and coming to full expression.

The best way to explain this is by looking at an example where the word is used in a different context: 1 Cor. 13:8-12. You see that the contrast is between the partial knowledge of this present age and the perfect knowledge of the age to come, the immature thinking of the child and the maturity of the adult.

Thus, when John in our text speaks of God's love being perfected in us, he does not mean that we love as perfectly or as sinlessly as God, but that our learning to love one another is the completion of a love that began when God first loved us.

This section, then, is the culmination of John's reflection on love. He urges us to practice brotherly love because God's love for us must not remain an affection within the divine heart but must progressively work itself out and be manifested in those whom he loves.

The theme of love being perfected or completed in us is best seen in our text by taking two verses and putting them together: verses 11 and 19. Our love for one another is merely the outworking and manifestation of God's love for us. Love begins with God himself. He took the initiative when he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. But having received God's love by faith we now have an obligation to love one another in return.

Love is like a divine fluid that God has poured out into our hearts. We have been filled to the brim but the love keeps flowing, and is now overflowing to others. Therefore, when we love one another we are merely sharing God's love for us. It is not a different kind of love. It is no less divine merely because it comes through earthen vessels.

Structure

1. Vv. 7-8: the love command stated: positively and negatively
2. Vv. 9-12: God's love was manifested to us (the sending of the Son)
3. Vv. 13-16: God's love was initiated in us (the giving of the Spirit)
4. Vv. 17-19: God's love is completed among us (the casting out of fear)
5. Vv. 20-21: the love command restated: negatively and positively

4:7-8

The concept of being begotten of God is crucial to the development of John's argument that God's love is perfected in us when we love one another. The argument is simple: God is love. If we are begotten of God, then we should be like him. Therefore, we must be filled with love as well.

"God is love." This must not be interpreted as an abstract statement concerning God's nature or being. We can never know God's being in and of itself. We can only know God's being by means of God's activity. Thus, God is love means that there has never been a time when the three persons of the Godhead did not relate to one another in a perfect communion of mutual and reciprocal love (John 17:24-26).

Since we have been born of God, we have been made sons of God, and thus we are enjoying the same love that the Father has for the Son from eternity. As sons, and as objects of the Father's affection, we are therefore to be like the Father, and therefore we are to love as he loves. If you do not love, you demonstrate that your nature is not God-like and that you do not know God.

4:9-12

Having laid down the basic premise, John now shows us step-by-step how it is that the eternal love of God was manifested to us and how it is then being wrought within us.

First, John begins with the manifestation of God's love in the sending of his Son to be our Savior. God took the initiative, not man. It is not our love that is primary but God's. Our love is but a response to his love for us. The sending of the Son is the concrete, historical revelation of God's love for us. It was a revelation of love, because it was the ultimate act of divine sacrifice. The cost to God was infinite, for two reasons:

First, God gave us his only begotten Son (v. 9). The NIV translates this verse "his one and only Son," but this misses the mark. This translation makes it sound as if the cost would not have been as great if God had had other sons. But the term monogenes is used (e.g., Heb. 11:17) not to refer to the fact that it is an only son but to demonstrate the love that the father has for the one who is his offspring begotten of him and therefore like him. God gave that which was precious to him the most precious thing imaginable. He gave that which was his – his not merely in the sense of a possession, but his in the sense of an image. The Father loves his Son, because his Son is the exact representation of his nature (Heb. 1:3), the very image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The Father did not merely give us a gift. In giving his only begotten Son, he gave us himself.

Second, God sent him to be the propitiation for our sins (v. 10). The incarnation of the Son of God was not an end in itself. The incarnation was for the purpose of the atonement. The Father sent the Son to be the propitiation for our sins. "Propitiation" is a sacrifice that satisfies the infinite wrath of God. Christ's sufferings on the cross were not accepted by the Father in our place as if he paid the punishment we deserved thus removing the obstacles preventing God from forgiving our sins. They were a full and exact satisfaction of the claims of God's justice. This is called the satisfaction theory of the atonement as opposed to the acceptation theory. It has been criticized by many on the grounds that the forgiveness of sins would no longer be an act of divine mercy and grace. But this objection misses the all-important point that the mercy and grace of God are seen in the fact that he set Christ forth as our Substitute

The love of God therefore begins in the historical manifestation of the sending of the Son into the world to provide full atonement for our sins. We would not have known God's love were it not for the cross. In the cross we see it tangibly before our very eyes.

Because our minds and hearts have been darkened by sin we are prone not to believe God's love even if it were told to us a thousand times. But when we look up and behold the Lamb of God bearing away our sins in his own body on the tree we know that the Father loves us.

4:12

The love that is perfected in us is God's own love. This is a staggering thought. God's love, which originates in himself, and which was manifested in his the death of his Son, is brought to full expression, is reproduced within us, when we love one another.

4:13-16

So God's love has not only been manifested in history, it has also been initiated within us by the giving of the Spirit. It is not enough that the love of God be revealed objectively in the historical event of the death of Christ. That love must be poured out in our hearts by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit who gives us eyes to see the cross for what it is. The apostles have borne witness (v. 14), and we have believed their witness and confess that Jesus is the Son of God by the power of the Spirit who wrought faith in our hearts.

The question here is assurance: Yes, God manifested his love to us objectively in the giving of his Son. But how do I know if this objective revelation of divine love is being perfected within me subjectively?

John says, here is how we know: We know that we live in God and God lives in us because he has given us of his Spirit. And we know he has given us of his Spirit because we see the evidence of the Spirit's effectual working in us, namely, in our confession of faith in Christ.

Notice that John connects this confession of faith in Christ back to the whole issue of love when he says, "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us," that is, the love as revealed in Jesus Christ.

So first, the love of God was revealed objectively to us. Now, the love of God is being initiated within us by the Spirit's working faith in our hearts, a faith that looks to Jesus as the revelation of God's love for us.

But still that love must be completed …

4:17-21

Translation of v. 17: "In this, love is perfected among us (so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment) because as he is, so also are we in this world."

The already and the not-yet: "in the day of judgment" (not yet), and "in this world" (already). We are already in this world as Christ is, that is, we are like Christ in his glorified state (cp. 1 John 3:1-2). Therefore, there is no need for fear at the prospect of the judgment for we will have confidence, or boldness. The only way that God's love can finally reach its full expression in our relationships with one another is if each one of us is fully assured of ours justification in Christ. If we have any fear of punishment we cannot have the completion of love within us.

Note that he speaks of love being completed "among us." He does not say "in us" because he is talking about our relationships in the body.

In vv. 20-21, John restates the love command both negatively (v. 20) and positively (v. 21).

John thus completes the process. The revelation of love in the cross 🡪 The initiation of love by the Spirit working faith in us 🡪 The completion of love among us by the expulsion of fear.

Overcoming the world (5:1-5)

For the sake of clarity, let's strip John's argument down to its bare essentials by highlighting the key verses.

1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (v. 1)
2. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world (v. 4)
3. Therefore, who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (v. 5)

The argument then is focused on answering the question in verse 5, "Who is the one who overcomes the world?" Answer: the one who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came by water and by blood.

Now why would this question be so vitally important to the Christians living in Asia Minor under John's pastoral ministry?

Well, remember that the context of 1 John is a spiritual and doctrinal conflict between the false teachers who had departed and the disciples who remained within the Johannine community - the authentic, apostolic fellowship. When the false teachers departed from the apostolic fellowship they did so in a manner that had the effect of raising deep doubts in the minds of the disciples who remained concerning their spiritual status.

Although we do not have firsthand information, when we read between the lines we get the impression that when the false teachers departed they did so with a bitter, divisive, and partisan spirit. They claimed to have the light, and they judged the Johannine Christians as in the darkness. They claimed to be the sons of God, and the Johannine Christians were the sons of the devil.

In this judgmental spirit the false teachers separated themselves from the Johannine fellowship in a schismatic and disruptive manner that left the remaining disciples demoralized and lacking the assurance that they were indeed God's children. "Perhaps those other teachers were right after all? How do we know if we really are the sons of God? Maybe it is they, not we, who possess the truth?" they may have thought.

John therefore is a wise pastor and he addresses these self-critical doubts by encouraging them that they do indeed possess the truth that by faith they, not the false teachers, are the spiritual victors in this conflict.

The terms victory and overcome are crucial to this whole passage. They occur 4x in vv. 4-5. In Greek they noun "victory" and the verb "to overcome" are related (nike - nikao). Thus a better translation of v. 4 would be: "This is the conquering power that has conquered the world - our faith."

"Conquering" seems to be a favorite Johannine term because he also uses it in his gospel and in the book of Revelation.

John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

Revelation 2:7 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God."

Revelation 5:5 "And one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals."

Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death."

These texts are crucial for a proper understanding of 1 John 5 because they establish the proper theological framework for understanding the nature of this overcoming.

1. The victory of the saints over the world and the Devil is grounded in the victory of Christ, decisively achieved through his cross
2. The victory of the saints, like the victory of Christ, is a paradoxical victory achieved by means of apparent defeat
3. The victory of the saints is therefore not an earthly exercise of power in this age but persevering in faith in spite of persecution and opposition

In other words, the saints defeat Satan by participating in the very sufferings of Christ himself. As we persevere in our confession of faith in Jesus Christ, and as we suffer as a result of that confession, leading in many cases to death itself, we are by this very persevering faith victorious over the enemy.

How would the enemy be victorious? Only if his opposition and threats caused us to give up our confession of faith in Christ. Therefore, if we hold fast the testimony of Jesus we come off victorious even though outwardly in the eyes of man we appear to be defeated.

"The patient endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev. 13:10)

"The perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12)

"The tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus" (1:9)

1 John 5 teaches the same paradoxical view of spiritual victory. The false teachers have split the church. Perhaps we may speculate that they took a large number of disciples with them, leaving a struggling band of stragglers behind. Outwardly you may feel that you have been defeated. But spiritually you have proven yourself to be the victors in this conflict by virtue of your persevering faith in Jesus. You didn't give in to their blandishments. You weren't taken in by their metaphysical gnostic speculations. You persisted in holding on to the only Savior from sin, even Jesus the Son of God who came by water and by blood.

5:1-3

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." This statement is very important theologically. It implies that no one can exercise faith in Christ unless he or she has first been born of God. Regeneration is the cause of faith. We do not become born again by making a so-called "decision for Christ." Faith is a gift of sovereign grace as Paul clearly teaches in Eph. 2:8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

How could it be otherwise? As those who were dead in trespasses and sins who were living under the sway of the powers of darkness and spending all our energy fulfilling our sinful desires, how could we have believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ unless God had first made us alive together with Christ and given us a new heart, and renewed our wills to embrace Jesus as he is offered to us in the gospel?

So the first premise in John's argument is that faith itself is a gift of God a result of the new birth. Now that is significant because it means that the very fact that you confess Jesus Christ is a sign that you are different. Something has changed that sets you apart from the rest of the world. Your faith is evidence that you have been begotten of God. You have been reborn spiritually.

Oh how we belittle faith and consider it to be of no account! When in reality it is a most precious and rare jewel. Faith is the result of a divine miracle, the miracle of the new birth. Let us look at our faith as something a most precious God-given quality.

But you object, "Many people in the visible church profess faith in Christ – but we know that many of them are tares whose profession is not genuine." John does not deny this. Indeed, the false teachers at one time had been a part of the church and therefore presumably their profession had at one time been credible. What, then, distinguishes the faith of the disciples from the unbelief of the false teachers? Well, John has labored at length to give a comprehensive answer to this question in the preceding chapters, but in our text he simply refers back to what he has said: orthodoxy (Jesus is the Christ) and love (the new commandment).

So the first step in the argument is that if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, a belief that is proven to be genuine by its orthodoxy and the fruits of love, then you may be assured that you are born of God.

5:4

"Whatever is born of God overcomes the world." The Greek word "whatever" is a neuter participle and this seems to be important. John does not say, "whoever" but "whatever." Why? Because your victory over the world doesn't depend on any quality found in you. The new birth itself is what conquers the world, not your ability to conquer. It is not the person but the divine nature itself that conquers.

Surely, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. That is an indisputable fact. Nothing that is the offspring of God could ever conceivably be defeated by the world. The divine cannot be defeated by the demonic. So you see how John is arguing you into submission. You cannot escape the steel trap logic of his argument. You believe in Christ, but that belief is not the result of your own will but a supernatural product of your having been begotten of God. But that which has been begotten of God cannot, by its very nature as the offspring of God, be overcome by the world. Well, then, if you believe in Christ, you are supernaturally victorious, in spite of all outward evidence to the contrary.

5:5

Therefore, who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Notice that the confession that "Jesus is the Son of God" is fully equivalent to the confession in v. 1 that "Jesus is the Christ." Indeed, as Peter confessed, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

The water and the blood (5:6-9)

Verses 6-8 expand on what this confession entails in relation to the work of Christ - by water and by blood. There are several possible interpretations of the water and the blood:

1. The two sacraments (Luther and Calvin)
2. The spear thrust (John 19:34-35)
3. The baptism and the death of Jesus (Tertullian)

The water here refers to the baptism of Jesus at which point he was declared to be the Son of God and anointed with the Spirit as the Christ in order to accomplish salvation by means of his death. The baptism of Jesus was his Messianic commission.

The blood refers to the death of Jesus, when the Messianic commission of Jesus reached its fulfillment, for it was at the cross that the obedience of Jesus to the Father was completed in both the active and passive aspects.

John's point is that there can be no separation between Jesus and the Christ.

Irenaeus versus Cerinthus

"In Asia Minor a certain Cerinthus taught that the world was not made by the Supreme God but by a power that is quite separate and distinct from that Power which is above all."

Comment: the physical creation cannot be associated with the Supreme God because the physical creation is evil and eternally opposed to the divine nature.

"He taught that Jesus was not born of a virgin, for that seemed impossible to him; rather Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph conceived like other men."

Comment: there can be no real incarnation, if the physical flesh is inherently evil.

"Jesus is thought to have outdistanced all others in righteousness, prudence, and wisdom; and after his baptism, the Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler."

Comment: When John affirms the equation, "Jesus is the Christ," he is pinpointing this very error which separated Jesus and the Christ, making the Christ a spiritual being who indwelled the flesh of Jesus only temporarily but not in the sense of a genuine incarnation.

"Then Jesus proclaimed the unknown Father and performed miracles. In the end, however, the Christ withdrew again from Jesus, and Jesus suffered and rose again, while the Christ remained impassible (unable to suffer), inasmuch as he was a spiritual being."

Comment: the Christ came by water only but not by water and by blood.

To be saved means to become a partaker of the Spirit, the Christ, but this occurs only by means of enlightenment, because the redemptive work of Christ on the cross has nothing to do with it.

In addition to denying the separation between Jesus and the Christ, John also rejects the separation of the Spirit and the cross. The Spirit is given and enjoyed only by means of the cross (John 7:37-39).

That Spirit who was the reward purchased by Christ on account of his obedience unto death testifies not to a Cerinthian Jesus whose death was of no more significance than a pin prick but to the Johannine Jesus who was God in the flesh shedding his blood to save our souls from hell.

The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost is an objective testimony to the reality of Christ's incarnation. For if the Christ departed from Jesus before his death, then the death and resurrection of Christ have absolutely no saving significance. But the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost demonstrates that the death and resurrection of Christ were absolutely essential for our salvation and procured for us the gift of the Holy Spirit on the basis of Christ's meritorious obedience.

5:9

The testimony of God concerning his Son refers back to vv. 6-8 - the water, the blood, and the Spirit. The whole triune Godhead was acting in the baptism of Jesus, in the death of Jesus, and at the ascension of Jesus and pouring out of his Spirit at Pentecost.

This is possible not only because of the deity of Christ but because of emperichoresis by which the acts of one person of the Godhead are the acts of all three. Examples of emperichoresis: the Father and the Son (John 10:38; 14:10-11); the Son and the Spirit (John 14:16, 26). Who sends Spirit? The Father (John 14:26) and the Son (John 15:26).

God the Father is the one who is testifying to our faith by means of the testimony of the water and the blood and by means of the testimony of the Spirit.

Interestingly, the Son is the object of both the Father's and the Spirit's witness. The Son does not testify to himself. He is testified unto by the Father and the Spirit

Baptism: Father and Spirit are present (John 1:29-34) Death: Father and Spirit are present (John 12:27-28; 19:34-35) Pentecost: Father and Spirit are present (John 7:37-39; 14:26)

Objective aspect of all three witnesses as historical evidences: Baptism, Death, Pentecost. Why resurrection omitted? Because it is logically included in the Baptism and Pentecost.

Subjective aspect of all three as confirming faith.

Baptism: Jesus stepped forward and took my place in the Jordan.

Death: As my substitute, he bore my guilt and God's wrath.

Pentecost: The confirmation of the completion of his work and its acceptance by God the Father, was the gift of the Spirit.

The term "witness" brings to mind evangelistic witness to the lost and such a meaning is common in the gospel of John, but in 1 John the witness or testimony is for us, the people of God, that we might have assurance.

We must allow the testimony of God to his Son and the testimony of the Spirit to the Son's finished work to have its full sway in our hearts, producing confirmation, certainty, full assurance. "We receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater." Cp. Hebrews 6:13-18.

In effect, there are three witnesses, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses everything might be confirmed.

Life in the Son (5:10-21)

5:10-12

The purpose of the testimony is to evoke and strengthen faith in Christ. To accept the testimony of God (v. 9) and to believe in the Son of God (v. 10) are virtually synonymous expressions.

Verse 10 deals with the contrast between belief and unbelief. "In himself" = in his heart by the Spirit. "Made him out to be a liar" = apostasy, rejection of God. John makes a stark contrast here between faith and unbelief in order to prevent us from taking the pious middle ground of uncertainty. You either believe the gospel or you reject God as a liar.

When did God give us eternal life? When he gave us his Son, who is Eternal Life (v. 20; 1:2). Jesus is the objective Life-giver

Eternal life is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and nowhere else. It is impossible to have eternal life apart from Jesus Christ. The exclusive message of the gospel is a scandal in today's pluralistic culture. But it has always been that way (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).

5:13

This confirms the present aspect of eternal life, for how can we possess eternal life and not know that we possess it?

Isn't it presumptuous to have full, infallible assurance of salvation? This is the Roman Catholic doctrine: assurance is dangerous because it removes the only motivation for godliness. So God only gives assurance to a select few who are extraordinarily pious and "able to handle it" without abusing it.

But the NT clearly teaches that infallible assurance is the norm in the Christian life, not the exception (Rom. 4:21; Col. 2:2; Heb. 10:22).

Westminster Confession 18:1-2 teaches that there are three grounds of assurance:

1. The objective promises of the gospel
2. The fruits of faith
3. The inner testimony of the Spirit

All three grounds of assurance are taught in 1 John:

1. The promises - 2:23-25; 5:11-13
2. The fruit of faith - love for the brethren - 2:3; 3:14
3. The confirmation produced by the inner testimony - 2:20; 4:13

These three must be taken together. A three-fold cord is not easily broken. Combination of faith and love - 3:23-24; 4:15-16 ("Faith expressing itself through love"). When these two means of assurance are working together, then the Spirit bears witness with our spirit to confirm that this faith and love are indeed the result of God's grace operating in our lives (cp. 5:1).

5:14-15

Assurance of eternal life (v. 13) applied to confidence in prayer. Cp. John 11:41-42; 17:1-5. Jesus' confidence of being heard by his Father. Christ's confidence is the basis of our confidence before God. This is the reason we must always make our requests to God "in the name of Jesus Christ," never in our own name.

Confidence in Greek is parresia. It has two related meanings, both of which are applicable in prayer. First, "plain, open, or frank speech." E.g., Mark 8:32: "Jesus was stating the matter (about his impending death) plainly." When we pray, we can speak freely and openly to our heavenly Father about our wants, desires, needs, and concerns. We can give honest expression to our feelings.

Second, it also has the connotation of "boldness, confidence." E.g., Hebrews 4:16: "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." When we pray, we need not fear that our heavenly Father will despise us, or scoff at our requests. He "hears us."

What do we do with the seemingly unconditional promise in v. 15? Has God indeed guaranteed to give us whatever we ask? Passages like this must be read in light of the rest of the teaching of Scripture concerning prayer.

James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."

1 John 5:14 "And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

This is why the Lord's prayer is so helpful because it directs us to those things which are according to God's will. But there are many other prayers that we do not know what God's will is: the salvation of a family member, recovery from a life-threatening illness, to find employment. In these cases, we cannot pray with the certainty that God will give us what we have requested. We must always add, "if it be your will."

Prayer is not a demand that God do x, y, or z. It is a humble petition on the part of God's servants that God would do so and so because, from our vantage point, it appears that this would bring glory to God.

God does not disregard the desires of his servants. He wants us to be involved in his kingdom plan as God's fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:9). 1 Peter 3:12: "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer." God informed Abraham of his plan to destroy Sodom (Gen. 18). "I will not from Abraham what I am about to do," thus prompting Abraham to intercede on behalf of righteous Lot and his family.

Prayer is not a farce. It is wrong to think, "Whatever happens, it's already been decreed, there is no use praying about it." Philippians 1:19: "for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."

So we should pray with confidence that our heavenly Father is a good and gracious Father whose ears are attentive to the prayer of the righteous and who wishes to bless his servants when they pray for that which will glorify him.

Often God seems distant, as if he has forgotten about us and doesn't care about us. The Psalms are full of laments expressing this feeling. E.g., Psalm 27:9: "Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior." Such times of seeming abandonment by God are his providential discipline in our lives to force us to get down on our knees and seek his aid.

Often when things are going well in our lives our prayer life seems to wither away and we lose that sense of constant dependence upon God's fatherly care and supply of all our needs. Trials and tribulations are an opportunity to pray and renew our fellowship with God.

5:16-17

John now applies the encouragement to pray to a specific type of prayer - intercessory prayer for those who having fallen into sin. This is the beginning of John's conclusion and the argument flows nicely from this point to the end.

We need to remind ourselves of the context. The false teachers have been purveying a false gospel and a false Christ, and therefore they themselves are called Antichrists. The false Christ they have been preaching is not the eternal Son of God who became flesh. He did not die on the cross to be the propitiation for our sins and he is therefore not our divine-human Savior. These false teachers have created a schism in the church and this has shaken the faith of many of the disciples. Indeed, we can assume that some of them have been deceived by the heretics and led away into error. Others may not have been deceived completely but the stability of their faith has been replaced by doubt and possibly they have even forsaken the assembly of the church in corporate worship.

John therefore encourages the believers who remain and who are strong in their faith to pray for the sheep that may be in this state of indecision and spiritual warfare. He wants to clarify, however, that he is not asking them to pray for those who are clearly apostate, who have renounced the apostolic faith altogether. Thus, the sin that leads to death is the denial of that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh to die for our sins.

This is the meaning of the distinction between the sin that leads to death and the sin that does not lead to death. It is not, as the Roman Catholic church teaches, a distinction between mortal and venial sins. Grace is like the water in the bathtub. Some sins are less serious. They are like poking holes in the side of the bathtub. Other sins, mortal sins, are damnable. If you commit adultery or murder, for example, it's like pulling the plug and letting all the grace drain out. This whole scheme is connected with the idea of purgatory. If you die in a state of mortal sin, without having done penance, you go straight to hell. But if you die in a state of venial sin, as the vast majority of Catholics do, then you must go to purgatory to pay off the extra guilt. None of these ideas are anywhere implied in our text. Roman Catholic theologians have simply read their whole system of grace and sin and purgatory into the text and twisted it to support their erroneous theology.

The sin that leads to death is the sin of apostasy. Apostasy is more than willful rejection of the gospel. It is willful rejection of the gospel on the part of someone who had formerly confessed faith in Christ and had become a member of the body of Christ.

Even then, we can still pray for the salvation of apostates in the same way that we pray for the salvation of all men. Notice that John does not forbid that we pray for apostates. He simply states that we cannot have the assurance from God that such a prayer will be answered. For, as Hebrews teaches, repentance and restoration are not easy to come by for those who have once been enlightened, but who have trampled the Son of God under their feet and have despised the blood of the covenant. Yet repentance is not absolutely impossible, as 2 Timothy 2:24-26 teaches: "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition [like Hymenaeus and Philetus], if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will."

This is very different from those who are living in unrepentant sin or who have become temporarily entangled in a false church. Jude 20-23: "But you, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire."

What is meant by "God will give him life." It could refer to a renewed infusion of divine grace that leads to repentance. It is more likely, however, that John is speaking eschatologically. God will give the promised resurrection life to sinning Christians who repent.

The prayer that John envisions here is not the prayers of individual Christians praying for fellow Christians who are in sin. It is the corporate prayer of the church interceding on behalf of its own members who are on the fringes of the congregation or who have been disciplined or left the church.

We should always pray for one another, but it is even more important that the church lift up the erring, the sinning, and the wandering sheep to the throne of grace, praying for their restoration to the fellowship of the church and their ultimate entrance into eternal life at the end.

5:17

"All unrighteousness is sin." This is simply meant to correct a possible misunderstanding. In making the distinction between the sin of apostasy that leads to death and sins that do not, John is not denying the reality of sin.

We must never assume that the ordinary sins of believers, sins that fall short of the heinous crime of apostasy and covenant-breaking, are somehow unimportant in the sight of God or not really reckoned as sin. John preached against this type of thinking in ch. 1 where he rejected the idea that Christians are without sin and where he exhorted us to confess our sin and to be cleansed in Christ's blood.

5:18-19

Having spoken of the possibility of apostasy the most heinous sin that leads to death John now wants to reassure his hearers that they are not apostates, that indeed, they are protected from apostasy by union with Christ.

No one who has been born of God sins, that is, can commit the sin leading to death. On the contrary, the new birth comes by means of union with the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Since we are united to the One who was eternally begotten of God, we are given an eternal and unforfeitable new life in him.

The One who is begotten of God = Jesus Christ. He is the one who keeps us and preserves us so that no one can snatch us out of his hand. In that secure place we are totally shielded from the Evil One. Satan may rage against us outwardly and seek to destroy us with fire and sword. He may rage against us inwardly by shooting his fiery arrows of the Law at our conscience. But all he can do is rage. He cannot break through and steal. Indeed, he cannot even touch us, John says. Thus, while the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One (v. 19) we are of God, begotten of God through God's eternal Son.

5:20-21

A marvelous summary of the whole epistle. Both verses must be taken together, otherwise v. 21 seems like a rather odd way to conclude the epistle. The contrast between the true God and the idols. The true God has been revealed in Jesus Christ, his Son who came in the flesh and died on the cross to save us from sin. The idols are a false God revealed in a false Christ who neither came in the flesh nor truly died upon the cross.

Let us be on guard against idols, that is, against false Gods and false christs. John 17:3: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." We must be on guard, because many Antichrists have gone out into the world posing as messengers of the true faith. Let us not be deceived by any gospel, or any teaching, which would take us away from our simple whole-hearted devotion to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who became man in these last days and accomplished our salvation not in some ethereal spiritual realm of ideas but in space and time, outside the city gates of Jerusalem 2000 years ago (cp. 1 John 1:1-4).