Commentary on 1 John

1:1 The prologue of 1 Jn. is a conscious allusion to and clarification of that of Jn. 1. Consider the following links:

In the beginning was the word	What was from the beginning
The word was with God	The eternal life which was with [Gk. in the presence of] God
In [the word] was life	The word of life
The life was the light of men	God is light
The light shines in darkness	In Him there is no darkness at all
The word became flesh	This life was revealed
And dwelt amongst us
and was manifested to us
We beheld his glory	What we looked at
Of his fullness we have all received	The fellowship which we have is with
Through Jesus Christ	the Father and with his son
The only Son of God	Jesus Christ

You will note that the parallel for "the word" of Jn. 1 is 'the life' in 1 Jn. 1, the life which Jesus lived, the type of life which is lived by the Father in Heaven. That word was made flesh (Jn. 1:14) in the sense that this life was revealed to us in the life and death of Jesus. So the word becoming flesh has nothing to do with a pre-existent Jesus physically coming down from Heaven and being born of Mary. It could well be that the evident links between the prologue to John's Gospel and the prologue to his epistle are because he is correcting a misunderstanding that had arisen about the prologue to his Gospel. 1 Jn. 1:2 spells it out clearly- it was the impersonal "eternal life" which was "with the Father", and it was this which "became flesh" in a form that had been personally touched and handled by John in the personal body of the Lord Jesus. And perhaps it is in the context of incipient trinitarianism that John warns that those who deny that Jesus was "in the flesh" are actually antiChrist.

John begins his first letter with an elaborate prologue. Raymond Brown comments: "Many commentators observe that a Prologue is an extraordinary beginning for an epistle since it violates all the standards of letter format". This 'violation' appears typical of how Scripture so often appears to 'violate' contemporary usages of language. [Raymond Brown, The Epistles of John (Garden City: Doubleday, 1982) p. 176].

The perfect unity within the Lord Jesus, between the person He portrayed and who He really was, is reflected in much New Testament language concerning Him. Thus "life" in 1 Jn. 1:1,2 is personified as Jesus; He was the life (Jn. 11:25; 14:6; 1 Jn. 5:20). The person whom people knew, saw and touched in first century Palestine was the essence of the eternal life, the life God lives, and the life we by grace will eternally live. He wasn't acting human; He was human, genuinely human, and yet that human life which He lived was the ultimate and inner life of the Spirit.

1:2 It was so hard for the Jewish mind to conceive that a man walking down a dusty Galilee street was the awesome God of Sinai manifested in flesh. And it's hard for us too. This is why the whole struggle over the trinity has come about; people just can’t find the faith to believe that a real man could have been the just as real perfect Son of God. It’s our same struggle when we come to consider the cross; that a body hanging there, covered with blood, spittle, dirt and flies, an image as palatable as a hunk of meat hanging in a butcher’s shop... was and is the salvation of the world, the real and ultimate way of escape for us from the guilt of our iniquity. The life the Lord Jesus lived was 'the sort of life that was in the Father's presence' (1 Jn. 1:2 Gk.). The sort of life God Almighty lives, the feelings and thoughts He has, were the life and feelings and thoughts and words and deeds of the man Jesus. This has to be reflected upon deeply before we grasp the huge import which this has. That a Man who walked home each day along the same dusty streets of Nazareth was in fact living the sort of life that was and is the life of God in Heaven.

John calls Jesus “the eternal life” (1 Jn. 1:2). The life that He lived was the quality of life which we will eternally live in the Kingdom. The personality of Jesus was the living quintessence of all that He preached- as it should be with the living witness which our lives make. To preach “Christ” was and is therefore to preach “the things concerning the Kingdom of God”, because that Kingdom will be all about the manifestation of the man Christ Jesus (Acts 8:5 cp. 12). So, Jesus was “the word” in the sense that He epitomised the Gospel. This is why James 1:18 says that we are born again by the word of the Gospel, and 1 Pet. 1:23 says that the word who begets is the Lord Jesus.

1:2,3- see on Mt. 28:10.

1:3- see on Jn. 3:32; Jn. 20:18; Acts 4:20.

The Lord Jesus is called "the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1 Jn. 1:3 RV). In this lies the importance of a Christ-centred life and mind; He is the definition of eternal life. This is what eternity will be like, John is saying: life lived as Christ lived and lives. "This is life eternal: that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ" (Jn. 17:3). Notice that eternal life isn't defined in terms of sitting under a fig tree in a perfect climate watching the animals living happily together (although we are invited to believe that by God's grace this will be our experience). It is the life of Christ our Lord; and that's why one of His titles is “the life, the eternal life". He shewed us what eternal life will be about, and invites us to begin that experience, however imperfectly, even now (cp. Hos. 6:3 RV). And it is in this sense alone that "we may know that we have (now) eternal life" (1 Jn. 5:13).

John exalts in the fact they touched and saw “the word of life"; the Lord Jesus personally was and is the voice of God’s word. When John writes that “that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (1 Jn. 1:3), he doesn’t mean to say that he is simply giving a transcript of the Lord’s spoken words. He is telling men about the person of Jesus, the man he personally knew, and in doing this he was declaring God’s word to them. If the very being of the Lord Jesus was the expression of God’s word, it is little to be marvelled at that the cross, being as it is the crystallisation of all He was and is, should be in an even more intense sense the voice of God to us. And the same process of the word becoming flesh must be seen in us too.

There are different levels of fellowship; as we actually know from our own experience. There are some we are 'in fellowship' with whom we don't feel so close to as others. John says that he wanted to declare to them the depths of the understanding of Christ, “that ye also may have fellowship with us" (1 Jn. 1:3), even though they were already technically 'in fellowship'. And so it is with our communal life. A close binding together in the depths and heights of the Lord Jesus leads to ever higher experiences of fellowship. It may be that there are even different levels of fellowship between men and God. Thus God’s original intention was that His presence in the Angel should go up to Canaan in the midst of Israel; but because of their weakness, He went in front of them, somewhat separate from them (Ex. 33:2,3). Likewise the glory of God progressively distanced itself from the temple and people of God in Ezekiel’s time.

1:4 It's interesting to compare the Gospel of John with his epistles. Clearly, he saw himself as manifesting to his brethren what the Lord Jesus had manifested to him. John records how the Lord had said: "I have said this to you... that your joy may be fulfilled" (Jn. 15:11), but he then says of himself that "We are writing these things so that your joy may be fulfilled" (1 Jn. 1:4 RV). He saw himself as the face and mouth of Jesus to his brethren; and so are all of us who are in Christ.

Note how John repeats his Lord’s use of the term “little children”; and how He appropriates the Lord’s phrase “that your joy may be complete” (Jn. 16:24; 17:13) to the way he spoke (1 Jn. 1:4). These are just a tiny fraction of the examples possible. We are to speak, think and feel as He did; to be as He was and is; to be brethren in Him.

1:5 There is a negative attached to all truths; if something is true, then therefore other things or ways of life are not true. There are several Bible passages which bring out this dualism.

"God is light	and in Him there is no darkness" (1 Jn. 1:5)
"God is faithful	and there is no unrighteousness in him" (Dt. 32:4)
"God is righteous	and there is no unrighteousness in him" (Ps. 92:16)

It is therefore quite valid to understand that a set of true doctrines by their very nature give rise to a set of untrue ones, to be rejected. But more personally relevant for each one of us, each truth we perceive leads to not only things we should do, but things we should not.

1:6 John writes of doing the Truth (Jn. 3:20,21; 1 Jn. 1:6)- the true doctrines can't exist purely in the abstract, they must be lived. In this sense Jesus was "the Truth" in His life example as well as in His doctrinal teaching. Jude says that we build up ourselves on the foundation / basis of our most holy faith- the doctrinal faith of the Gospel. Titus was told to shew himself "a pattern of good works" through "in doctrine shewing uncorruptness" (Tit. 2:7).

1:7 The blood of Jesus cleanses us, in the present tense, from all our sins; the Lord Jesus loves us and frees us from our sins by His blood (1 Jn. 1:7; Rev. 1:5). The cross is ongoing.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 Jn. 1:7,8). To refuse a brother fellowship is to imply that he is in the darkness, and that the blood of Jesus Christ is not cleansing him from sin.

1:9 I submit that repentance needs to be verbalized- it must be “confessed” (1 Jn. 1:9), which implies a verbal or written statement of the issues. It’s like praying or Bible reading out loud; it makes our minds think not quite so fast. We need to get to grips with all the aspects of our sin. We must face it, in all the ugliness of what we have done.

1:10 Our experience of life, the way God works through our failures, almost overruling even (it seems to me) the kinds of sins we commit and their outcome, is all intended to bring us to an increasing realization of our own sinfulness. The more God's word abides in us, the more we will know our sinfulness (1 Jn. 1:10). Thus Paul speaks as if when Corinth are more obedient, he will reveal further to them the extent of their weakness (2 Cor. 10:6). On a racial level, it could be argued that over history, God has progressively revealed the sinfulness of man to him. Thus the early records of Israel's history in Egypt and in the wilderness contain very little direct criticism of them. But the prophets reveal that they were corrupt even then, taking the idols of Egypt with them through the Red Sea (Ez. 20). But then in the New Testament, Stephen brings together several such prophetic mentions, combining them to produce a stunning description of Israel's ecclesial apostasy, which culminated in their rejection of the Son of God.

To just have an attitude that we haven't sinned, is read by God as stating that He is a liar (1 Jn. 1:10)- even though we would never dream of saying this. And similar examples could be multiplied.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar (1 Jn. 1:10); if we don’t believe Him, we likewise “make him a liar”, we slander or falsely accuse Him (1 Jn. 5:10). We may recoil at this language. But it is so – to deny our sinfulness, to disbelieve what God says about it, is to slander God.

2:1 There is a theme in all the NT passages concerning prayer and mediation. It is that they speak largely in the context of prayer for forgiveness and salvation (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 7:25; 1 Jn. 2:1). This is what we really ought to be praying for. The passages concerning Christ as our mediator are all in the context of Him asking for our forgiveness, as the High Priest sought Israel's forgiveness on the day of Atonement.

He was there the propitiation for our sins, and yet He is that now, each time we sin (1 Jn. 2:1; 4:10). The cross is ongoing, in essence.

2:2- see on 2 Cor. 5:19.

The simple fact is that the Lord Jesus died as the antitype of the guilt offering. He died to take away guilt… and he or she who truly believes that has no need to transfer or discharge their guilt in these ways. The guilt of our iniquity was laid upon the Lord Jesus upon the cross, He there was the expiation of our sins (1 Jn. 2:2)… we don’t have to vainly try to transfer it onto anyone else, or use any other way of dealing with that guilt, e.g. through repressing it deep within ourselves.

2:3 “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 Jn. 2:3). What pleases God? We read the Bible daily and learn there what pleases Him. Do we do at least some things that please God? Surely we know that we do. But I don’t think he meant ‘If you do enough works, then you can be assured of salvation’. Works and keeping commandments can’t earn us a place in the Kingdom; we will be there by sheer grace alone. Such a view would be contrary to the very basic spirit of the Gospel of grace. I think John had some specific commandments in mind: “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on [Gk ‘into’] the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (1 Jn. 3:23). We believe into the Name of Jesus when we are baptized into His Name. We “love one another” by keeping the agape, the love feast, the breaking of bread, with one another. If we refuse to break bread with any of our brethren, then we cannot have a good conscience. I am not saying that simply being baptized and breaking bread can save anyone. But if our self-examination reveals that we believe in what those two basic commands of the Christian life really imply, then we can have a good conscience, knowing we have kept His commandments, and are thus assured of ‘being there’. The Kingdom has been promised to us. We ask for it to come, that we might be there. And we must act as if our prayers have been answered, even though physically they haven’t been. And so all joy and peace will come through believing. We will feel the truth of 1 Pet. 1:9, that we are “receiving the end of [our] faith, even the salvation of your souls…”; and of Col. 1:13, that we have been delivered from the power of darkness, and been in prospect “translated into the kingdom”.

2:6- see on Mt. 14:29.

John speaks of Jesus as “that one” in the Greek text of 1 Jn. 2:6; 3:5,7,16; 4:17. I.H. Marshall comments: “Christians were so used to talking about Jesus that ‘that One’ was a self-evident term”. Too often I hear fellow believers talking about their faith in terms of “I believe that… I do not believe that…”. Maybe I’m being hypercritical, but surely it ought to be a case of believing in the things of the personal Jesus, rather than ‘believing that…’. For example. I believe in Jesus returning to the earth, rather than ‘I believe that Jesus will return’. It’s so absolutely vital to see and believe in the Lord Jesus as a person, rather than merely a set of doctrine / teaching about Him.

2:8- see on 1 Jn. 3:18.

2:9 There is fair emphasis that the rejected saints will be cast into darkness (Mt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; Jude 13). Yet darkness is a common symbol of the world (Eph. 5:11; 6:12; Col. 1:13; 1 Thess. 5:5; 1 Pet. 2:9). And those amongst us who won't love their brother are already in darkness, self-condemned even before the day arrives (1 Jn. 2:9,11).

2:11 If we hate our brother, we are blind; we lack true sight, we lack true understanding of the word (1 Jn. 2:9-11), we have gone back to the blindness. A healed blind man who wilfully returns to his blindness is a tragic picture indeed.

2:14 It is possible that 1 John 2:14 has reference to the Jewish Satan or “wicked one” trying to especially subvert young converts, both in years and spiritual maturity, just as it had tried to subvert the disciples during Christ’s ministry: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”.

2:15 If we are the seed of the woman, we will be in constant, aggressive conflict with the seed of the snake; the world, structured as it is around the "Lusts" of human nature. Is this Biblically compatible with preaching a social gospel? In Christ we will have peace; but in the world, we will have tribulation, even as Christ did. Our pity for the world, the good deeds we should do to all men, must not lead us to love the world. For if we do that, it is impossible for us to love the Father (1 Jn. 2:15). The 'devil' refers both to our own internal lusts, and the world at large. The world is in our hearts, in this sense (Ecc. 3:11). Thus "the world" is paralleled with "the lust thereof" (1 Jn. 2:17). As there is a most pronounced conflict within our own beings between flesh and spirit, so there will be between us and the world. We are not to agape this world, to love with the love of Christian brethren. The agape we have for our brethren is something very special, and must not be shared with the world; if we do so, the love of the Father is not in us, because we are declaring the world to be the ecclesia (1 Jn. 2:15). It cannot therefore be true that we ought to show the same kind of love to the world as we show to our brethren. See on Jn. 3:16.

2:16 That Adam is indeed set up in Scripture as ‘everyman’ is apparent on almost every page of the Bible through the allusions back to him. Thus Jezebel’s provocation of Ahab to sin is presented in the same terms as that of Adam and Eve; Israel “like Adam have transgressed the covenant” (Hos. 6:7). John speaks of how we are tempted by “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 Jn. 2:16), alluding to the very things which were Adam and Eve’s temptation in Eden. Paul sensed that as the serpent deceived Eve by his subtilty, so the minds of the Corinthian Christians were being deceived by false reasoning (2 Cor. 11:3 = Gen. 3:13). The sinner chooses or accepts the words of the “tongue of the subtle” (Job 15:5 – the same word is used about the serpent in Gen. 3:1). The frequent command: “You shall not covet” (Ex. 20:17 etc.) uses the same Hebrew word translated “desire” when we read of how Eve “desired” the fruit (Gen. 3:6); yet Israel “desired” the wrong fruit (Is. 1:29). In all these allusions [and they exist in almost every chapter of the Bible] we are being shown how human sin is a repetition in essence of that of our first parents. The insistent emphasis is that we should rise above and not be like them.

2:19- see on Mk. 14:68; Lk. 22:31; Jude 19.

2:20 We read in 1 Jn. 2:20,27 that we have each been anointed. The idea of anointing was to signal the initiation of someone. I'd therefore be inclined to see 1 Jn. 2:20,27 as alluding to baptism; when we become in Christ, in the anointed, then as 2 Cor. 1:21 says, we too are anointed in a sense. We're given a specific mission and purpose. "The anointing that you received" would therefore refer to our commissioning at baptism. It seems to imply a one time act of being anointed / commissioned / inaugurated for service. Baptism isn't therefore merely an initiation into a community; it's a specific commissioning for active service, in ways which are unique to us. We do well to bring this point out to those we prepare for baptism. The words for 'anointing' are unique to 1 John but they occur in the LXX to describe the anointing / initiation of the priests, and of the tabernacle / dwelling place of God (e.g. Ex. 29:7; 35:14,28). John sees us as the dwelling place / tabernacle of the Father. There is some historical evidence that candidates for baptism in the early church were anointed with oil. References- uninspired of course, just for historical interest- are Tertullian, De Baptismo, 7.1,2; and various references in the 'Didascalia', the Acts of Judas Thomas, and the Pseudo-Clementine epistles. It could be that in the house ecclesias to whom John was writing, there was already this practice in place, and the initial readers would've understood this clearly. Paul, writing to a different audience, uses a different figure when he speaks of being "sealed with that holy spirit of promise". We are after all baptized into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So the anointing which we've received would in my view refer back to our baptism. It was the initiation of us into service, just as the priests and tabernacle parts were anointed. The question we much each sort out is, what are our specific talents, our gifts, the potential uses for which the Father and Son intend us, the paths of service they potentially mapped out for us and initiated us for at our immersions?

2:22 If we deny Christ, we deny that Jesus is the Christ (1 Jn. 2:22); and yet we deny Jesus is the Christ if we don't preach Him (Mt. 10:33). It follows that if we really believe that Jesus was not just Jesus of Nazareth but the Christ of God, therefore we won't deny Him but will preach Him. This is why there is connection between confessing Jesus as Christ and preaching Him (Jn. 9:22; Acts 18:5; Phil. 2:11).

2:22-24 1 Jn. strongly links belief in Christ as the Son of God with a life of true love. They had heard from “the beginning" of their contact with the Gospel that Christ was the Son of God; and yet also the need to love one another. The “message" which they had heard from the beginning was that Christ was the Son of God (1 Jn. 2:24); and yet it was also that we should love one another (1 Jn. 3:11). This is why in the context of teaching the need for love, John warns against false teaching regarding the nature of Christ as Son of God (1 Jn. 2:22,23; 4:1-4; 2 Jn. 7-11). “The word... from the beginning" was the ‘logos’ of Christ (Jn. 1:1-3); and yet in John’s maturer thought in his letters, the word from the beginning was that we should love each other (1 Jn. 2:7; 3:11). This is the essence of belief in Christ: love for each other. “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another" (3:23). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him" [i.e. your brother]. “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us... whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him" (4:12,15). But why is there this link between love, and belief in Jesus of Nazareth being the begotten Son of God? Theologically, it could be said that if we accept Him as God’s Son, then we must likewise accept all God’s other sons, begotten as they are by His Spirit. But practically, are we not being taught to see the pure wonder of the way in which Almighty God had a Son and gave that Son, so freely and so painfully, for us...? The pure wonder of God having a Son of our nature, a child and then a man who showed us the essence of God displayed in human flesh and temptation; and then giving Him to us... If we see this, we will naturally show love to our brethren. So it isn’t just a case of thinking yes, we believe Christ was Son of God, not God the Son- and period. No. There’s infinitely more to it than this. This faith and understanding can tear down every barrier between men, and provide the inspiration for a life of true, self-sacrificial love. The true wonder of it all simply must be meditated upon. That God’s very own son should begin so small, as an ovum, “a single fertilized egg barely visible to the naked eye, an egg that would divide and redivide until a fetus took shape, enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager".

2:23- see on Mt. 10:32.

2:24 The Lord speaks of us abiding in His word (Jn. 8:31) and yet also of His word abiding in us, and us abiding in Him (Jn. 15:7). I suggest this refers in the first instance to the new Christian converts reciting over and over in their minds the Gospel accounts. In all situations they were to have the ‘word of Jesus’ hovering in their minds. To abide in Christ was and is to have His words abiding in us. Paul’s evident familiarity with the Lord’s words is an example of how one of our brethren lived this out in practice. We have to ask how frequently in the daily grind the words of the Master come to mind, how close they are to the surface in our subconscious… for this is the essence of Christianity. It’s not so much a question of consciously memorizing His words, but so loving Him that quite naturally His words are never far from our consciousness, and frequently come out in our thinking and words. No wonder it seems the early church made new converts memorize the Gospels. Perhaps 1 Jn. 2:24 has this in mind, when we read that what the John’s community of converts had heard from the beginning [i.e. the words of the Gospel of John?] was to abide in them, so that they in this manner would abide in Jesus. And perhaps too 1 Jn. 3:9 has similar reference- the seed of God [the Gospel- of John- which the converts had first heard] must abide in the convert, so that he or she doesn’t [continue in] sin. The continual meditation upon the Lord’s words as we have them in the Gospels will have the same effect upon us. This is the real way to overcome sin and to achieve genuine spiritual mindedness, to know the mind of Christ; in this way the Lord Jesus abides in us by His Spirit (1 Jn. 3:24). Abiding in the word of Christ, His words abiding in us, abiding in love, abiding in the Father and Son (1 Jn. 4:16) are all parallel ideas.

2:28- see on Lk. 6:46.

After the rejected start to perceive the reality of rejection, there will be an ashamed slinking away from the judgment (1 Jn. 2:28 Gk.). It would appear that the wicked will argue back in protest against their rejection at the judgment ("When saw we thee?... Thou art an hard man"), and will desperately try to find acceptance. All this has to be reconciled with the silent dejection and grim acceptance of the 'goats'. 1 Jn. 2:28 speaks of them as being "ashamed from before him at his coming", the Greek suggesting the idea of slinking away in shame, after the pattern of Israel being carried away into captivity (2 Kings 17:6,11,23,33- Heb. 'to denude, make naked'). Another foretaste of this was in the way the condemned world of Noah’s time [the flood was a clear type of the final judgment] were to ‘pine away / languish’ (Gen. 6:17; 7:21- AV “die”). The wicked will melt away from the Lord's presence (Ps. 68:2). Rejected Israel are described as being "ashamed away" (Joel 1:12)- the same idea. This is the idea behind Heb. 12:15 RVmg: "…man that falleth back from the grace of God". What they did in this life in slinking away from the reality of pure grace will be what is worked out in their condemnation experience. Note that Jesus Himself will be likewise ashamed of His unworthy followers (Lk. 9:26); there will be a mutuality in the natural distancing between the two parties. This is the scene of Rev. 16:15- the rejected being made naked in shame. This slinking back in shame will fulfil the prophecies of Is. 1:24,29 and Jer. 2:35,36, which speak of the rejected being made ashamed, becoming ashamed, of their idols. They will be made ashamed by the judgment process. Thus we have the picture of them initially arguing with Jesus, growing less and less forcible, giving way to a pleading with tears for a change of mind, finally followed by a silent slinking away in shame. There seems a certain similarity between this and how the combined Gospel records imply that men initially mocked Jesus on the cross, and then eventually slipped away in silence (Heb. 6:6). Adam attempted to hide from God's presence, the Hebrew implying 'to drawn oneself back'. Judas went away (Gk. he retired away) to try to hang himself, once he knew his condemnation (Mt. 27:3-5). See on Mt. 27:5.

Speechlessness is a characteristic of the rejected (Mt. 22:12); the brothers slunk away from Joseph's physical presence (Gen. 45:4), as the rejected will (1 Jn. 2:28 Gk.). This all suggests that those accepted at the judgment seat will go through all the emotions of the rejected; they will realize that rejection is what they deserve. Those who judge (condemn) themselves now in their self-examination will not be condemned then.

1 Jn. 2:28 speaks of our being able to have "confidence" at the day of judgment; but the Greek parresia means literally 'a saying of all'. This free telling of all will be when we list our sins to the Lord; and yet, in the greatest paradox, this will be our confidence before Him. That 'freedom of speech' in His presence will be the sign that we are accepted; and yet the freedom of speech begins with our free confession to Him of our unworthiness.

2:29 Note how 1 Jn. 2:29 and 1 Jn. 4:7 parallel love and justice; and this parallel is to be found in the Old Testament, not least in the concept of hesed, God's covenant love. His justice involves His love. And His love is the love of grace and salvation.

3:2 “When he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2 RV). Jesus was manifested upon the cross, and ‘seeing’ / perceiving Him there leads to a transformed life. And yet He will be manifested / appear [AV] at the Lord’s return; and through seeing Him as He truly is, we will be transformed into an existence like Him. Yes, our natures will be changed in a twinkling of an eye. But have you ever asked how this will happen, putting meaning into words? John says that it will be through our ‘seeing’ of Jesus in that actual and new way which we will then. Seeing Him as He is will mean that our very natures are changed; and this is exactly what is going on now in a moral sense as we see the essence of Him manifested in the cross. In this sense His death was a foretaste of His second coming. There in the cross was the judgment of this world, just as there will be at His return. And in our response to Him there we have a preview of how it will be to come before Him at the final judgment. As I reconstruct in my own mind His death, His demeanour there, His spirit which He breathed towards us as He bowed His head, the overwhelming impression I have is one of love and passion to save us. And I am persuaded that thus it will be as we stand before Him soon.

The idea of not being able to "see" God must be understood in the context of how John uses the word "see". It carries not only the idea of physical vision, but also of believing and understanding. If we can't love our brother, another human being who on some level we can comprehend; who then can we love God, who in this life we cannot comprehend? Yet John mentions in the same context that ultimately, we will see God (1 Jn. 3:2). Perhaps the implication is that seeing God in our brother and loving him, having a relationship with him, is the prelude to seeing God Himself and relating with Him eternally.

3:3 Everyone who has this hope will therefore purify himself in anticipation of its realization, and in appreciation of his current separation from the things of the present order (1 Jn. 3:3).

3:5- see on Mk. 15:20.

“He was manifested, that he might put sins away" (1 Jn. 3:5) could suggest that in His atoning death, ‘He’ was manifested. There God set forth Jesus in His blood, for all to see and respond to (Rom. 3:25 Gk.). There the real essence of Jesus was publicly shown forth. And there we come to know what love is (1 Jn. 3:16).

3:6 John stresses how he had 'seen' the Lord's crucifixion (Jn. 19:35), and he later says that anyone who has truly 'seen' Jesus will not commit sin (1 Jn. 3:6). Holding the vision of Him there as He was, really 'seeing' and perceiving Him, will hold us back from sinning. This is the power of the cross.

3:8 “To this end was the son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8). This does not simply mean that Jesus destroyed sin on the cross. He was manifested there in such a way that the believer who sees Him there, who reconstructs Golgotha’s awful scene, cannot be passive. A spirit of living and dying as He did was breathed out to us, and remains with us. There has to be a change, a radical transformation, in the person who comes into contact with the spirit of life and death which there is in Jesus. The love of God is manifested within us, in our lives, as a result of the gift of Christ on the cross (1 Jn. 4:9). Because “he laid down his life for us… we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?” (1 Jn. 3:16,17 RV). Responding to the death of Jesus, perceiving the meaning of the cross, the love of God as it was and is there… this brings forth a love and generosity of spirit in practice. It was in this sense that Jesus in practice destroyed the power of sin through His cross. It was something practical, not a mere theological transaction whereby an angry God was appeased by spilt blood.

3:9- see on 1 Jn. 2:24.

3:13- see on Jn. 5:28.

1 Jn. 3:13 (cp. Jn. 7:7; 15:8) teaches that the world will hate Christ's brethren. But in this very context, John warns about some brethren who hate their brethren, and who thereby abide in darkness (1 Jn. 3:15; 4:20). John's simple logic is evident: if you hate your brother, you're in the world, you've put yourself into darkness, you've condemned yourself. The place of the rejected believers is in the ranks of the world- nowhere else.

3:14 1 Jn. 3:14 states that “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”. But this is John taking his converts further in appreciating something he had earlier preached to them in his Gospel: “He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life” (Jn. 5:24). To hear the word of Christ and believe the Gospel of God must issue, if it is valid and credible, in something practical- loving our brethren. It is only John who records the Lord speaking of “my word” [logos]. To hear Christ’s word or logos is not merely to believe that the Bible was written by Divine inspiration, or to intellectually assent to doctrinal truth; it is to discern Him, to know Him as a person in truth [which will involve correct doctrinal perception, of course]. And this simply has to lead to loving the brethren. This is the real result of knowing Christ.

3:15- see on Mt. 5:22.

“Eternal life" should be read as referring more to the quality of that life, rather than its eternal duration being the fundamental construct behind our conception of the Kingdom. This is how the phrase "eternal life" seems to be used in John's letters (1 Jn.1:1-3; 2:24,25; 3:15; 5:11,13). We must not be like the rich young man who desperately asked: "What must I do that I may have eternal life?", as if he saw having eternal life as the ultimate possession to get under his own belt. Notice how our Lord's reply described 'having eternal life' as 'entering into life', 'having treasure in heaven', 'entering the Kingdom of God', rather than personally possessing eternal life (Mt.19:16-23).

3:16 The same must which led Him to His passion (see on Mk. 14:49; Lk. 2:49) is the very same compulsion which “behoves" us to preach that passion which we have witnessed and benefited from. In His ministry, He had taught that we must be born again, and in the same discourse spoke of how He must be lifted up in crucifixion (Jn. 3:7,14). His cross, His will to die in the way He did, must be our inspiration. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I Jn. 3:16). We must carry the cross if we are to know His salvation. Yet we can be caught up in the spirit of a world which seeks obsessively to save its life rather than give up life. Through popping pills, exercise, healthy living...we can seek to extend our days. We use insurance to seek to cushion us against the harder knocks of life. We seek our lives to be as free as possible from hard work. And none of these things is wrong in themselves. It is quite right that we should make use of these things in the Lord’s service. But we can be caught up in the spirit of life and thinking of which they are part, and this is the danger. For the spirit and desire that gave rise to them is that which is exactly the opposite of the sense of must which the Lord possessed. He knew that He must suffer, He must crucify His flesh. And so must we. This is a solemn and eternal compulsion. Yet we live in a world which believes that we must not suffer anything negative, and we must seek to save our lives rather than give them out for others.

If we are to show the love of God to the world, this will primarily (but not exclusively) be in terms of our spiritual help towards them, rather than a social gospel. Our response to God's love in Christ will also be expressed by laying down our lives "for the brethren". The next verse helps define this as material, practical help (1 Jn. 3:16,17).

3:18 The result of a good conscience is love- and love isn't inactive (1 Tim. 1:4,5); actions are a proof that we have a good conscience (1 Jn. 3:18-22). Having the cleansed conscience of sins compels us to be obedient to Governments (Rom. 13:5); thus Paul served God with his good conscience (2 Tim. 1:3). A good way of life and a good conscience are bracketed together in 1 Pet. 3:16.

The commandment to love, as Christ loved us, is made new "as it is made true" (1 Jn. 2:8) both in the person of Jesus, and in all who are truly in Him. This means that the principles we receive in theory are to become 'truth' in us as they were in the Lord; they are to become applied in the very person and fabric of our beings, and not remain merely part of our shadow selves. It is truth that makes us pure (1 Pet. 1:22,23), good deeds are produced by truth (1 Jn. 3:18). No amount of correct theory can make us pure; surely the reference is to the life of transparency to God, of 'truth' in the sense that there is no divide between our inner convictions and our actual lives. Then will come true in us the connection which John perceives between truth and love (1 Jn. 3:19).

3:19 Paul appears to justify speaking about the judgment seat by saying "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord (the terror of the thought of rejection), we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God" (2 Cor. 5:11). This is to say 'A healthy fear of judgment can persuade men to a better way of life- but by our complete openness to God, through self examination, we can know ourselves to be personally unworthy, but justified through Christ; and so we don't need to think of rejection in the same way as faithless men do'. We will go through a process of ‘persuading’ our own hearts before the judgment presence of Jesus in the last day; and we should likewise persuade ourselves of His grace and justice now (1 Jn. 3:19 Gk.).

The extent to which we are intended to be Christ-centred is reflected in how John speaks of Him as “the truth”. Indeed, He appears to refer to the Name of Jesus with the same sensitivity with which a Jew would refer to the Name of God. John seems to use aletheia, ‘the truth’, as a kind of periphrasis for “Jesus”; en aletheia, in the truth, appears to match Paul’s en kyrio [‘in the Lord’] or en christo [‘in Christ’]. John refers to missionaries being sent out “for the sake of the name”, when the other records say that they were sent out in the name of Jesus. The exalted Name of Jesus was therefore, to John, ‘the truth’; the person of Jesus, which the Name encapsulates, is to be the deciding, central truth in the life of the believer.

3:20 The children of God and of the devil are manifest now by their behaviour; so that the future 'manifesting' of them into the children and angels of the devil and those of God is only a re-statement of the division they have already made in this life by their behaviour (1 Jn. 3:20).

3:21- see on Lk. 6:46.

3:23- see on Jn. 17:11.

If we "believe the name of… Jesus Christ", then we will love one another (1 Jn. 3:23 RVmg.). To believe the name and to love each other are "his commandment" - singular. They are one and the same thing. This is how direct is the link between truly believing in the name of Jesus, and loving each other. One cannot truly believe in Him, in all that He was, all that He stood and died for, and all that He is… and not articulate this in some form of love for the brotherhood.

3:24- see on 1 Jn. 2:24.

4:1 There were other tests of these prophets- if they didn’t accept that Jesus was Lord, they didn’t have the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). If they held false teaching about whether Jesus came in the flesh, and walked in hatred of the other Christians, they also were to be rejected (1 Jn. 4:1-10). When Paul says that God and the Holy Spirit witness to the truth of what he is writing, he is presumably referring to how those with the gift of discerning spirits had tested and approved what he was saying (Rom. 1:9; 9:1 cp. 2 Cor. 11:31; Gal. 1:20; 1 Tim. 2:7). What all this means is that as soon as a genuine New Testament prophet gave a prophecy, it was immediately recognized as such, because all these methods of ‘testing the spirit’ had been followed. This, by the way, explains the very ‘dogmatic’ and self-assured tone of some of the writers. They insist that their commands have God’s authority (1 Thess. 4:2; 2 Thess. 2:15), and therefore must be obeyed (2 Thess. 3:14). They can insist that what they are saying is actually the will and command of the Lord (1 Cor. 14:37); and their inspired preaching was “of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:13). These claims would have come over as arrogant and baseless- unless there had indeed been the process of confirmation of their words explained above. The writers can ask for their letters to be read at the gatherings of the early church- which initially would have been based around the synagogue practice of reading from the Old Testament Scriptures. Their writings were clearly accepted on a par with those writings- as soon as they were issued (1 Thess. 5:27; Col. 4:16; Rev. 1:3). The testings of the various claims to Holy Spirit inspiration are to be found in Gal. 1, 1 Cor. 14 etc. But the letters of John, written at the end of the New Testament period, have the most warnings about the need to test the various claims of Holy Spirit inspiration- understandably, as John was writing towards the end of the period when inspired writings were being given (1 Jn. 4:2,3; 5:6; 2 Jn. 7). See on 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Tim. 5:18.

4:1,2,6 seem to refer to two ‘spirits’, of truth and error, which could possibly refer to Angels. The “spirit of truth” in Jn. 16:13 can be seen as an allusion to the Holy Spirit- Angel which led Israel in the wilderness (see Is. 63:10). The implication could be that if there is a spirit-Angel of truth, there is also one of error. See on Ez. 14:9.

4:3- see on Jn. 12:42.

4:4 John makes such a fuss about believing that Jesus came in the flesh because he wants his brethren to have the same Spirit that was in Jesus dwelling in their flesh (1 Jn. 4:2,4). He wants them to see that being human, being in the flesh, is no barrier for God to dwell in. As Jesus was in the world, so are we to be in the world (1 Jn. 4:17 Gk.). This is why it's so important to understand that the Lord Jesus was genuinely human.

4:8- see on Jn. 3:3.

To experience God is to know Him. So often the prophets speak of ‘knowing God’ as meaning ‘to experience God’. Because God is love, to love is to know God (1 Jn. 4:8). Quite simply, how deeply we have loved [and I am speaking of ‘love’ in its Biblical sense] is how deeply we have known God- and vice versa. And that love is worked out in the very earthliness and worldliness of human life in practice.

4:10 John seems to purposefully make the point that the Lord was sent [as a one time act in the past] “to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10). In His blood covered body, He was the place of propitiation, the blood-sprinkled mercy seat. And yet: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: for He is [right now, each time we sin] the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 2:1,2). In obtaining forgiveness for us He in some way goes through again the essence of His sacrifice. It is too simplistic to say that we repent, and God forgives. He does, but only on the basis of Christ’s atoning act that must come ever before Him in the granting of forgiveness. The Mosaic offerings of blood “before Yahweh" all pointed forward to this fact. Awful as His actual physical sufferings were 2000 years ago, we should not separate them from the work He came to do- of obtaining our redemption. He worked this work in His life, on the cross, and continues it until this day. The daily morning and evening sacrifice had to be of a first year lamb without blemish- the identical specification for the Passover lamb. His death on the cross at Passover was the same as His daily life of sacrifice.

4:11 We have the witness within ourselves; for the witness is the word and life of Christ, His eternal life, which lives in us (1 Jn. 4:10,11). The Lord Jesus didn’t witness to His word by giving out bits of paper or teaching a catechism; He was, in person, the constant exhibition of the word He witnessed to. And with us too. I’m not saying don’t write books, give out literature, speak words from platforms... but the more essential witness to men is that of our lives, that witness which wells up from the word and life of Christ within us. The way God’s word is made flesh can be seen in Hosea. His going and marrying a worthless woman is prefaced with the statement that this was the beginning of the word of the Lord (Hos. 1:2). The command to go and marry her was not so much “the word of the Lord" to Israel as his marriage and example of true love to his wife. Hosea’s example in his marriage was the word of the Lord to Israel. He made the word flesh. The Lord did this to perfection, and yet like Hosea we in principle must do the same.

4:15 There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. For example, we dwell in God (Ps. 90:1), and He dwells in us (1 Cor. 3:16). Thus “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:15,16). We work out our salvation, and God in response works in us both to will and to work (Phil. 2:12,13 RV).

4:16- see on 1 Jn. 2:24.

The fact the Lord Jesus didn't pre-exist as a person needs some meditation. The kind of thoughts that come to us as we stand alone at night, gazing into the sky. It seems evident that there must have been some kind of previous creation(s), e.g. for the creation of the Angels. God existed from infinity, and yet only 2,000 years ago did He have His only and His begotten Son. And that Son was a human being in order to save humans- only a few million of us (if that), who lived in a 6,000 year time span. In the specter of infinite time and space, this is wondrous. That the Only Son of God should die for a very few of us here, we who crawled on the surface of this tiny planet for such a fleeting moment of time. He died so that God could work out our salvation; and the love of God for us is likened to a young man marrying a virgin (Is. 62:5). Almighty God, who existed from eternity, is likened to a first timer, with all the intensity and joyful expectation and lack of disillusion. And more than this. The Jesus who didn't pre-exist but was like me, died for me, in the shameful way that He did. Our hearts and minds, with all their powers, are in the boundless prospect lost. His pure love for us, His condescension, should mean that we also ought to reach out into the lives of all men, never thinking they are beneath us or too insignificant or distant from us. No wonder 1 Jn. 4:15,16 describes believing that Jesus is the Son of God as believing the love that God has to us.

4:17 - see on 1 Cor. 15:10; 1 Jn. 4:4.

There is a major theme in the NT: that we are living the life of Christ, and thereby His life becomes ours. In this sense we have and live the eternal life. “As he is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn. 4:17); we will be persecuted as He was persecuted (Jn. 15:20); we fellowship His sufferings, being made conformable to the image of His death, and thereby will fellowship His glory (1 Pet. 4:13; Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 1:7). Paul had this idea ever before him: “It is now my joy to suffer for you; for the sake of Christ’s body, the church, I am completing what still remains for Christ to suffer in my own person” (Col. 1:24 REB).

In the grace of Christ, we can have a certain "boldness" in prayer (Heb. 4:16); but we will have "boldness in the day of judgment" (1 Jn. 4:17) in the sense that the attitude we have in prayer now and the experience of the Lord we know now will be that we have in the day of judgment. If He is no more than a black box in our brain we call 'God' or 'Jesus', if for all our Christianity we haven't known Him, so it will be then as we face Him.

4:18 Murderers often reveal that their psychological motivation was not merely hatred, but often fear- fear of what that person might do, or who they might show them up to be. Fear, therefore, is at the root of all lack of love and respect for our brethren. We fear the poor image of ourselves which they reveal by their actions or examples; and so slander and hatred of them in the heart [Biblical murder] develops. If only we can cast away this kind of fear, then love will take its place; for perfect love comes when fear has been cast out (1 Jn. 4:18).The Greek for 'drive out' is that used in Mt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30 to describe how the wicked are driven out into darkness at the last day. If we now in this life can cast out or condemn our own fear of rejection, then we will not live in fear... because fear has, or is, its own condemnation (1 Jn. 4:18 Gk.). If we are still consumed by fear, in whatever way, in this life- then this, according to John's logic, appears to be a sign that we will not be accepted in the last day. Fear as a purely nervous reaction is not what he is speaking of. Rather is it the crippling moral fear of which we have spoken.

We are saved by grace, already, we are elevated to the heights of heavenly places on account of being in Christ. A perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn. 4:16,18), fear is associated with bondage rather than the freedom of sonship which we enjoy (Rom. 8:15). Yet all this can in no way erase the very clear teaching of many other passages: that we ought to fear God, really fear Him. What's the resolution of all this? It may be that ideally, we are called to live a life without any fear in the sense of phobos- in the same way as we are asked to be perfect, even as God is (Mt. 5:48). Yet the reality is that we are not perfect. And perhaps in a similar way, we are invited to live a life without phobos, but in reality, it is necessary to have it if we truly realize our weak position. We ought to be able to say with confidence that should Christ come now, we will by grace continue to be in His Kingdom. Yet in the same way as we always assume a future, so we inevitably look ahead to the possibility of our future apostasy; as we grow spiritually, there is an altogether finer appreciation of the purity of God's righteousness. The risk of rejection, the sense of the future we may miss, and the faint grasp of the gap between God's righteousness and our present moral achievement, will inevitably provoke a sense of fear in every serious believer. And yet fearing God, unlike fear on a human level, is a motivating and creative fear. Our fear of and yet confidence with God is a strange synthesis.

Psychologists suggest that there is something within the human psyche that needs to fear, that wants to fear. Just look at the huge success of terror stories, movies, images, Stephen King novels; and the way that the media realizes that their global audience laps up fear and sensationalism about terror. One common thread throughout all the pagan forerunners of the ‘personal Satan’ idea is that the pagan concepts all involved the generation of fear and terror. True Christianity aims to “cast out” such fear through its revelation of the ultimate love of God (1 Jn. 4:18). So many control systems have played upon fear of the Devil – to bring children into subdued obedience, flocks into submission to pastors, etc. It’s now high time to realize that this is not how the true God works. “For fear has torment” (1 Jn. 4:18), and this is exactly what true understanding of the cross of Christ saves us from. God isn’t a psychological manipulator, and He doesn’t coax us into submission through fear. And yet it could be said that humanity is increasingly addicted to fear. People may mock fearing a Loch Ness monster, werewolves, funny sounds at night... but they still buy in big time to fearing a personal Devil. There’s something in us that wants to fear something; that just loves the popular idea of a personal Satan. This is why it’s hard to budge this mentality.

4:20 Our attitude to others is simply so eternally important. John’s writings are characterized by seeing everything in terms of dualism, black and white, good and evil. He describes those who do not love their brethren as having not seen God, as not being a child of God. Martin Hengel has observed: “How one behaves towards a Christian brother at one’s own front door is the deciding factor over faith and unbelief, life or death, light and darkness”.

John perceptively foresaw that a man might say that he loves God, and yet hate his brother (1 Jn. 4:20). He demonstrates with piercing logic that hating our brother means that we hate our God. But it is so easy to adopt the position of the man whom John sets up. We can even think that our love of God is articulated in a hating of our brother, for the sake of God’s Truth. It is relatively easy to love God, apparently, anyway. But it’s hard to love all our brethren. And yet this means that a true unfeigned love of God is not quite so natural and easy as we think. 1 Jn. 5:1-3 make it clear that it is axiomatic within loving God that we love all His children. If we don’t love them, we don’t love Him. So if we think that loving God is easy, think again. Think who He really is, of the inclusive and saving and seeking grace which is so central to His character, and the imperative which there is within it to be like Him.

Biblically, it's impossible to have a relationship with God without relating with His children. This point is hammered home by John, writing as he was to ecclesias riven with factionism and accusation. The result of believing that Christ laid down His life for us, is that we lay down our lives for our brethren (3:16). All believers are the children of God. If we love God, we will love His children (5:1,2). God and His children, the believers, are inseparable. And yet within our human nature is the tendency to try to make a distinction between them. John was fully aware of this: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also" (4:20,21). Loving our brother is therefore the litmus test as to whether we are “of God", whether we have "passed from death unto life" (3:10,14). It is simply impossible to claim to love God but politely disregard His children. It's not that we must love God and also our brother. If we love God we will love our brother, by loving our brother we love God. These things are axiomatic. The intimacy this implies between the Father and His sons is so deep. As those "in Christ", all that is true of the Son of God, Jesus our Lord, becomes true of us. We share His relationship with the Father.

4:21- see on Lk. 10:28.

5:1 - see on Jn. 3:3; 8:42.

5:4 The Devil is a deceiver, he has a fake Kingdom of God [see on Lk. 11:18]; the antiChrist appears as a false Christ. If we think that the antiChrist is the real Christ, that those who teach false doctrine about Christ are part of the body of Christ, then we have been deceived; we have been taken in by the appearance of righteousness. Sometimes, Satan or the Devil is used as a personification of the world, or a human political system, e.g. the Roman empire in the book of Revelation. This is because the world or human empires are structured around the thinking of the flesh, the real Satan. Thus overcoming the world is parallel to overcoming the devil (1 Jn. 5:4 cp. 2:13,14); "the whole world is under the control of the evil one", the Devil (1 Jn. 5:19 NIV). The lust of the flesh and eyes (the Biblical devil) are "all that is in the world" (1 Jn. 2:16). Thus our own private Satan, the lusts of our dark side, are somehow in league with the world around us. The world has been set in our heart (Ecc. 3:11).

John uses the neuter rather than the male gender to describe all believers (1 Jn. 5:4). Most contemporary writers would likely have used the male gender here. The New Testament is in fact sensitive to the gender issue.

5:5 John writes that he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God will be thus empowered to overcome the world (1 Jn. 5:5). It’s unusual for the Lord of glory to be referred to merely as “Jesus” by the apostles. Perhaps what John is saying is that if we perceive how the real, human Jesus, the man from Nazareth, was so much more than that, He was Son of God- we too will find strength from the fact of His humanity to overcome the world. Thus later John writes that to confess Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh, to acknowledge His true humanity, is related to walking after His commandments (2 Jn. 6,7). See on 2 Jn. 9.

5:6 1 Jn. 5:6 says that Jesus came" [past tense] in water and blood [His baptism and crucifixion?], but He still testifies by three things-His Spirit [making alive the believer], the water [baptism cleansing us] and the blood [atoning for our sins]. The choice of 'three' things doesn't refer to a trinity- rather is it the principle of Dt. 19:15, requiring two or three witnesses. And note how inanimate things are spoken of as giving witness (Gen. 31:45-48; Dt. 31:28)- the three that bear witness don’t refer necessarily to three persons, as the trinity wrongly states. Those things which He enabled, witnessed through us today, provide the witness to the fact that He 'came' in the past.

The witness of the Lord and of His disciple were one and the same. The witness on earth was a reflection of that in Heaven (1 Jn. 5:6,7).

5:8- see on Rev. 1:2.

Beholding the cross and the water and blood that flowed from it, John struggled with the inadequacy of human language: “He that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true" (Jn. 19:35). Years later he described himself, in allusion to this, as he “who bare record [in the past tense] of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:2). He had earlier commented that the Spirit, water and blood of the cross bore witness (1 Jn. 5:8). John seems to be saying that the Lord’s final death which he had witnessed was the word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ. And as he had been a faithful witness to this, so now he would be of that further revelation he had now seen in the Apocalypse.

5:9 This experience of an acceptive mutuality between God and man is surely at the very core of our spirituality; it should be part of an inner spiritual shell that nothing, nothing can shake: aggression from our brethren, disillusion with other Christians, persecution from the world, painful personal relationships... Israel were to give their hand to God, and His hand in turn would give them a heart to follow Him further (2 Chron. 30:8 cp. 12 A.V.mg.). "This is the witness of God... He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself... the (i.e. this) witness of God is greater" than that of men (1 Jn. 5:9,10). The ultimate proof that the Truth is the Truth is not in the witness of men- be they archaeologists, scientists, good friends or who. The real witness of God is deep in yourself. "Taste and see, that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8) is the most powerful appeal. John is using a legal word for "witness”. There is, of course, something intentionally contradictory here. For a witness must be independent of yourself. You can't really be a valid witness to yourself. But the Lord said that He was a witness of Himself, and this witness was valid (Jn. 8:14-18). We, too, John is saying, can be a valid witness to ourselves that our faith is genuine. Our personal experience of the Lord Jesus is valid. Paul proves the resurrection of Jesus by saying that "he has risen indeed" exactly because he (Paul) has seen the risen Lord (1 Cor. 15). This is the kind of 'evidence' we tend to fight shy of. But our personal experience of the Lord Jesus is a valid prop to our faith, according to the passages considered.

5:10- see on 1 Jn. 1:10.

We each have the witness of the Lord's resurrection in ourselves (1 Jn. 5:10). But in a witness in a courtroom isn’t expectedd to argue the case, prove the truth or press for a verdict; but rather to simply report what actually happened in their experience. This is where I personally see little point in ‘apologetics’- trying to prove there is a God or that the Bible is true. These are matters of faith in the end. We are called not to apologize for God but rather to be witnesses from ourselves of the work of the Father and Son.

If we are real witnesses, testifiers to the reality of the Lord's death and resurrection, we must therefore, by the very nature of our experience, be witnesses of these things to the world. The resurrection is the witness that God has given of His Son. Whoever believes that witness, will have within themselves the witness- they will be witnesses to God's witness (1 Jn. 5:10 Gk.).

The witness of the Gospel is within ourselves (1 Jn. 5:10) in the sense that it is our Christ-like life which is the essential witness to Him. Hence Peter says that a woman can win her husband to Christ “without the word”, i.e. without formal, conscious preaching. Paul parallels his preaching with God ‘revealing’ Jesus through him (Gal. 1:9).

The souls under the altar cry out (Rev. 6:10). But those men and women of Heb. 11 are then described in Heb. 12:1 as themselves "witnesses". Who they were is their witness, the testimony which is given of them in the court of Heaven and upon which God's judgment is decided. We have the witness in ourselves (1 Jn. 5:10), and yet it is a witness which is in fact God's witness / record to us (this is the context of 1 Jn. 5:6-11). The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we really are the Sons of God (Rom. 8:16). In this sense Paul's conscience bore him witness in the Holy Spirit, i.e. his testimony was that of the Spirit (Rom. 9:1). The rejected are witnesses against themselves (Is. 44:9; Mt. 23:31).

We labour and strive in the preaching of the Gospel “because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men” (1 Tim. 4:10 RV). The certainty of our hope is the basis of our witness. “The witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life…he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself” (1 Jn. 5:10,11 RV). We will witness from a sense welling up within us, that we have in prospect been given eternal life. If we have ourselves believed that the good news of the Gospel really is good news, we will inevitably share that message. Good news can’t be kept to oneself. News of engagement, marriage, child birth… is spread somehow and yet urgently by those affected by the events. Even the most retiring of people can find a way to communicate the good news of their first child or grandchild. Sometimes I find my e-mail clogged up with big attachments of baby photos- from people I scarcely know! But their sense of good news compelled them to make contact with me. And so it will be with us in the round of encounters and conversations which make up our daily lives. We will get the word out, somehow. We will break barriers and boundaries in order to engage people in conversation about the one thing that really and essentially matters to us. And, believe me, passively, beneath the show of casual indifference, people are interested. And Bill Hybels claims from surveys that “about 25% of the adults in the US would go to church if a friend would just invite them”.

Not believing in God and not believing in His word of the Gospel are paralleled in 1 Jn. 5:10. God is His word. The word “is” God in that God is so identified with His word. David parallels trusting in God and trusting in His word (Ps. 56:3,4).

5:13- see on Mt. 16:16; Jn. 20:31; 1 Jn. 1:3.

We must go on further than just being baptized into Christ. John wrote unto them that had believed into the name of the Son of God (a reference to baptism into His Name), "that ye may believe into the name of the Son of God" (1 Jn. 5:13). He wanted them to go further; to live out in practice what they had done in status and theory by baptism into Christ.

5:14- see on Mt. 18:19; Jn. 15:27.

“These things have I written unto you... that ye may know that ye have eternal life... and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us" (1 Jn. 5:13,14). Answered prayer is the confidence that we have eternal life. Answered prayer means that our joy will be full (Jn. 16:24).

The confidence- Eph. 3:12 uses the same word about our "boldness" in access to God in prayer through Christ. The same Greek word is used about our "boldness" in the day of judgment (2:28; 4:17). Our attitude to God in prayer now reflects our general attitude toward Him (3:21; Heb. 10:35). We cannot clothe ourselves in some special spirituality when we come before Him in prayer nor at the day of judgment; who we are in our hearts with Him now is who we are in prayer and who we will be at the last day. We come "boldly [s.w.] before the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16)- both before God now, and before Him at the last day. Each time we pray to Him, we have a foretaste of the judgment experience- if only we will take prayer seriously enough to perceive it. The word is used about the generally "bold" attitude we can have in witnessing before men in this life; for if we can be bold before the holiest of all, the very judgment presence of God, we can be bold before men right now in our preaching (Phil. 1:20; 2 Cor. 3:12; Acts 2:29; 4:13,31; 28:31), just as the word is used about the "boldness" of the Lord's own preaching which is the pattern for ours (Jn. 7:26; 11:14; 16:29; 18:20). For as He is and was, so are we to be in this world (4:17). But these are ideals; even Paul had to ask others to pray that he might preach as "boldly" as he ought to (Eph. 6:19). The reality of the judgment seat will likely be somewhat different, with many staggered in unbelief by the Lord's positive recital of all our good deeds.

God answers prayer as a result of the fact that we believe and as a token that we are acceptable before Him (1 Jn. 5:14 etc.). But there are examples of where God answers the prayers of those who don't believe with a full faith, and even of those who later will be condemned (Zacharias; the believers praying for Peter's release; Mt. 7;21-23). The relationship between faith and answered prayer is not so simple as it appears in some passages. God is working with us at a higher level than simply responding to our words as a token of His acceptance of our faith.

5:16 It is of course true that in some ways, we are ultimately responsible for our own salvation; our brethren can’t really help us, if we wilfully chose to rebel against our calling. And yet there is reason to think that up to a certain point, our prayers and pastoral concern for our brethren can save them, whereas without our effort they would not be saved. Reflect on 1 Jn. 5:16: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask [in prayer], and he [God] shall give him [the prayerful brother] life [eternal life, in the Johannine context] for them that sin not unto death”. This seems to be a fair paraphrase. If it isn’t, what does this passage mean? James 5:15,20 say the same: “...the prayer of faith (uttered by faithful friends) shall save the sick (struck down with sickness as a result of his sin, which seems to have happened in the first century, cp. 1 Cor. 11:30; Acts 5:5)... and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed... he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”. Behold the power of freewill effort for others: For the sake of our prayers, in some cases sins of others can be forgiven when otherwise they wouldn’t be. For the sake of our conversion of our erring brethren, they can be saved from eternal death and have their sins covered. The Lord’s prayer says as much- we ask God to forgive us our sins; not ‘me my sins’. Likewise only once Israel had passed a certain level of sinfulness was Jeremiah told to cease prayer for them (Jer. 7:16 cp. 11:14). Until that point, God seems to have been willing to read Jeremiah’s prayer for them as their prayer (his “cry” was seen as theirs). And Ez. 14:14,18 imply the same- Noah, Daniel and Job could have delivered Israel up to a certain point, but they were so hardened in sin at Ezekiel’s time that even those men wouldn’t have saved a nation which otherwise, for a lower level of sin as it were, they could otherwise have saved. If we have any grain of love in us, we will likewise dedicate ourselves to fervent prayer for our brethren, seeing it does have effect and validity within certain boundaries.

5:20 William Barclay (New Testament Words) has a very interesting section on the word aionios. He cites examples in contemporary literature where it is used not of indefinite continuance, but simply of that which is beyond time. "To attach eternity to the created was impossible. So He (God) made time as a moving image of eternity... the essence of the word aionios is that it is the word of the eternal order as contrasted with the order of this world... the word can be properly applied to no one other than God... the life of God". This helps us understand how 'eternal punishment' is not in fact punishment of unending continuance. And yet eternal punishment is set as the antithesis to eternal life (Mt. 25:46); this itself shows that "eternal" is not to be understood as unending continuance. For the wicked will not be punished for ever- they will die and cease existing. The Lord Jesus is eternal life (1 Jn. 5:20); this alone points us to see "eternal life" as more a description, a quality of life, rather than indefinite continuance. Those who "seek for glory, and honour, and immortality" are granted eternal life, as though "eternal life" comprehends all these things for which they seek (Rom. 2:7).