TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
COMMENTARY 1 JOHN, CH. 4
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
King James Bible
Testing the Spirits
1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of error.
Love Comes from God
7Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us. 20If 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? 21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
INTRODUCTION
The mention of faith in 1John 3:23 had reminded the Apostle John of the danger of intellectual and moral error. After the last paragraph, the mention of God’s Spirit gave him a form to clothe the discussion of truth and falsehood in its human manifestations. By “spirits,1-3,” he means those tendencies towards good and evil (here especially about thought and opinion) which may be considered as coming from the supreme power of God, on the one hand, and from the low power of the devil, on the other. Into the question of what these influences are, whether, like the Holy Spirit, they are personal or not, he does not say. Where one quality, or opinion, shows itself in different individuals, he identifies it and calls it a spirit. Religious fervor might take a form quite antagonistic to the actual will and law of God. There was simply one standard to measure all claims on their religious allegiance: a confession that Christ Jesus was the Word. All that objected to that plain fact, and the loyalty implied by it, belonged to the Spirit of Antichrist. His hearers, however, if he understood them rightly, need not fear. By their adherence to the truth, God was in them. In Him, they had conquered the spirits of the world and had only to claim their victory. The false teachers might be known and should be condemned by the world in their method and message and popularity with what was opposed to God. The Apostles and those who taught with them could confidently before God put forward the grand claim that theirs was the Spirit that came from Him because they had not deviated from the truth as presented by Jesus.
Commentary
1. Beloved, believe not every Spirit, but try the spirits1-3 whether they are of God: because many false prophets1-1 are gone out into the world1-2.
Beloved1-4, believe not every spirit
Do not confide in everyone who professes to be under the influences of the Holy Spirit. Compare Matthew 24:4-5. The true and the false teachers of religion alike claimed to be under the influence of the Spirit of God, and all such pretensions needed to be examined. It was not to be admitted because anyone could claim to have been sent from God. Every such claim should be subjected to the proper examination before it was conceded. All pretensions to divine inspiration or to being authorized teachers of religion were to be examined by the proper tests because many false and delusive teachers fabricated such claims in the world.
But try the spirits whether they are of God
There were those in the early Christian church who had the gift of “discerning spirits” (see 1 Corinthians 12:10), but it is not certain that the apostle refers here to any such supernatural power. As he addresses this command to Christians in general, it is more probable that he refers to doing this by comparing the doctrines they professed to hold with what was revealed and by the fruits of their doctrines in their lives. If they taught what God had taught in his Word, and if their lives corresponded with his requirements, and if their doctrines agreed with what had been taught by those who were admitted to be true apostles (1 John 4:6), they were to receive them as what they professed to be. If not, they were to reject them and regard them as impostors. It may be remarked that it is just as proper and as necessary now to examine the claims of all who profess to be teachers of religion as it was then. In a matter so momentous as religion, and where there is so much at stake, it is essential that all pretensions of this kind should be subjected to a rigid examination. No one should be received as a religious teacher without the most unmistakable evidence that he has come by the will of God, nor unless he teaches the very truth which God has revealed. (See Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11).
Because many false prophets are gone out into the world
The word prophet is often used in the New Testament to denote religious instructors or preachers (See Romans 12:6). Compare the notes at (2 Peter 2:1). Such false teachers abounded in the times referred to here (1 John 2:18). The meaning is that many had gone out into the world pretending to be faithful teachers of religion but who taught dangerous doctrines, and it was their duty to be on their guard against them, for they had the very spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:3).
2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God
Every spirit Of a teacher that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Many commentators interpreted this clause as follows: “Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ, who is come in the flesh, is of God: that is, that confesseth him to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and that both with heart and voice, sincerely believing him to be such, and behaving to him and confessing him as such, though this might expose them to the loss of all things, even of their property, liberty, and lives.” This pledge must be acknowledged to be a perfectly Scriptural and very proper mark of trial, proving those in whom it was found to be possessed of the Spirit of God and Christ. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, though the original words might bear this rendering, they much more favor the sense given them in our translation, signifying, literally and precisely, that confesseth Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh. This clause imparts two things: 1st, That Jesus is the Christ, whose coming was foretold by the Jewish prophets, in opposition to the unbelieving Jews; a truth which those who confessed, whether in Judea or the Gentile countries, exposed themselves to the danger of having their goods spoiled, and their bodies imprisoned, if not also tortured and put to death. So that those who voluntarily made this confession have shown that they preferred Christ and his gospel to all other things whatever. The clause says that this tremendous notable, the Messiah, the Son of God, had come in the flesh, and had a real human nature, in opposition to a sect which arose very early in the Christian Church, called the Docetæ, who would disagree that Christ had a natural body and that he really suffered, died, and rose again. This sect, said the apostle John, seems to have been in his eye throughout this Epistle. Hence, in the very beginning of it, he speaks of seeing, hearing, and handling Christ; and here, to the fundamental article of Jesus’s being the Messiah, he adds, that he came in the flesh; with which doctrine his atoning for sin by the sacrifice of himself, and his rising from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep, were closely and necessarily connected, and therefore the acknowledgment of it was a point of the most significant importance.
The Socinians2-1 indeed contend that to confess Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh, means to confess that he was a mere man: and from this, they infer that he had no existence before his mother conceived him. In proof of their interpretation of the clause, they cite Hebrews 2:14, where the writer says he partook of our flesh and blood. Now, though it may be true that these words impart nothing more than that Christ was a man, like other men, John’s words, hath come in the flesh, have a more extensive meaning. For, as Bishop Horsley observes, the sense of a proposition ariseth, not from the meaning of a single word contained in it, but from the union of the whole into one sentence, especially if that union suggests any circumstance by which the sense of the proposition is modified. This is the case of the clause, hath come in the flesh; words which, while they specify the manner of his coming, imply that he might have come differently if he pleased. Accordingly, the apostle had used the verb to come in that sense (1 John 5:6). “This is he who came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by the water and the blood.” For his meaning is that Jesus came proven to be the Christ by water and blood jointly, although he might have come confirmed by either of these separately, and that Jesus existed as the Christ before he came attested by the water and the blood. Thus the clause, hath come in the flesh, implies that he might have come in another manner than in the flesh, namely, in the form of God, as mentioned in Philippians 2:6-7. It implies that he existed before he came in the flesh and chose to come in that manner rather than in any other; consequently, he is more than a mere man.
3And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist
The apostle added this to render more detestable the deceptions which lead us away from Christ. We have already said that the doctrine regarding the kingdom of Antichrist was well known; so that the faithful had been warned about the future scattering of the Church in order that they might exercise watchfulness. Understandably then, they feared the name (Antichrist) as something base and ominous. The apostle says now that all those who depreciated Christ were members of that kingdom.
And he says that the spirit of Antichrist would come and that it was already in the world but in a different sense. He means that it was already in the world because it carried out its heinousness in secret. As, however, the truth of God had not as yet been undermined by false and bogus doctrines, as superstition had not as yet prevailed in corrupting the worship of God, as the world had not as yet deceitfully departed from Christ, as tyranny, opposed to the kingdom of Christ, had not as yet openly exalted itself, he therefore says, that it would come.
4. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them4-1: because greater is he that is in you (the Holy Spirit), than he that is in the world.
Ye are of God — Ye are under the influence of the Divine Spirit, and have overcome them4-1-your testimony, proceeding from the Spirit of Christ, has invalidated theirs which has proceeded from the influence of Satan; for greater is the Holy Spirit, which is in you, than the spirit which is in the world (i.e., “the prince of this world,” the devil).
5. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them5-1.
They are of the world
This is another in a series of tests by which evil teachers could be recognized and rejected. Significantly, in the early church, there were persons supernaturally endowed with the ability to “discern spirits,” that is, the ability to know which were of God and which were not (1 Corinthians 12:10); but it appears that John had the succeeding ages in mind here, a period when all who might have had that apostolic gift no longer lived. Other tests already stressed in the earlier verses of the chapter were: (1) the test of confessing that Jesus was the Christ who came in the flesh; (2) the test of whether or not they were indwelt by the Father (1 John 4:4); and (3) the test of their life-style. The false teachers were worldly, concerned chiefly with material and temporal things, living in pride and flashiness, being “of the world.” These tests are still valid.
And the world heareth them
This is not surprising. “These false teachers speak from the same principle, wisdom, and spirit of the world; and, of consequence, the world approvingly hears them.” In our own times, the false teacher speaks the wisdom of the world, reasons from the worldly frame of reference, quotes its philosophers, heeds its authorities, accommodates to its theology, all the while neglecting to declare forcefully the precious teachings of the apostles of Christ as revealed in the New Testament.
6. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we6-1 the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of error.
We are of God (see v. 4)
When the apostles had given clear proofs of a divine mission, by numerous and beneficial miracles which they performed; by the exercise of various spiritual gifts, and by imparting spiritual gifts and miraculous powers to others; when their lives were so holy, their labors so unbiased, their sufferings so great and numerous, their doctrine so excellent, and their proofs of a divine mission so many and evident,—they might justly say, we are of God: He that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth us not.
7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
John resumes the main theme (1 John 2:29).
Love, the sum of righteousness, is the test of our being born of God. Love flows from a sense of God’s love for us: compare 1 John 4:9; 1 John 3:16, which 1 John 3:16-resumes; and 1 John 4:13; 1 John 3:24, which similarly 1 John 3:24- resumes. At the same time, 1 John 3:24- : is connected with the immediately preceding context, 1 John 3:24- describs Christ’s incarnation, the great proof of God’s love (1 John 4:10).
Beloved—an address appropriate to his subject, “love.”
love—All love is from God as its fountain: God manifests in the flesh, especially that embodiment of love. The Father also is love (1 John 4:10- :). The Holy Ghost sheds love as its first fruit abroad in the heart.
Knoweth God—spiritually, experimentally, and habitually.
8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
The absence of love shows that a person does not have intimate fellowship with God. It does not necessarily show that he was never born of God. Because God is light, those who abide in Him walk in His light (1 John 1:5; 1 John 1:7). Because God is righteous those, who abide in Him practice righteousness (1 John 2:29). Just so, God is love, and those who abide in Him manifest His loving character. God is also light (1 John 1:5), spirit (John 4:24), and fire (Hebrews 12:29). These are all metaphors that emphasize certain characteristics of God.
“All His activity is loving. If He creates, He creates in love; if He rules, He rules in love; if He judges, He judges in love. All that He does is the expression of His nature, is-to love.”
“‘God is love’ is rightly recognized as one of the high peaks of divine revelation in this Epistle. Logically the statement stands parallel with’ God is light’ (1 John 1:5) and’ God is spirit’ (John 4:24) as one of the three great Johannine expression of the nature of God. . . .’ God is spirit’ describes his metaphysical nature, while’ God is light’ and’ God is love’ deal with his character, especially as he has revealed himself to men.”
“The absence of the article (God is the love) indicates that love is not simply a quality which God possesses, but love is that which he is by his very nature. Further, because God is love, love which he shows is occasioned by himself only and not by any external cause. The Word God is preceded by an article, which means that the statement is not reversible; it cannot read,’ Love is God.’”
“John does not say that love is God, but only that God is love.”
9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Of the reality of God’s love, the apostle John had no doubt; neither need we have any, though some do doubt it, thinking that God’s justice and hatred of sin interfere with His love. However, justice does not interfere with love in God. Justice and love are compatible in man and much more so in God. The cross of Christ reveals and establishes the harmony between righteousness and mercy. There, justice gets its own, and love has its way, and God is a ‘just God and a Saviour,’ and ‘grace reigns through righteousness. Christ’s cross is not the cause but the consequence of God’s love. The text asserts God’s love before He sent Christ; affirms Christ’s mission to be the manifestation of God’s love. There need be no doubt, then, as to the fact that God loves us, has loved us. Nevertheless, more than this, the text not only implies that God is loving and loves us but asserts that He is love. Love is the sum and harmony of all His attributes, His essence.
I. The Manifestation of God’s Love. God’s love is manifested in creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all in redemption.
(a) God sent His Son. He did not merely allow or consent to His coming. He sent His Son, gave Him His commission and authority.
(b) God sent His only-begotten Son. He whom God sent as a gift of love was no less than His only-begotten Son. Then God’s love is as great as the divine glory of His Son. God sends no servant, no archangel, but His equal and co-eternal Son Who, as His only-begotten, and sharing that nature which is love, could best manifest God’s love.
(c) God sent His Son into the world. The Son’s destination, His being sent into a fallen and sinful world, a world disordered and corrupt, a world which, during thousands of years, had not grown better but worse, manifested God’s love. Christ’s personal history and experience in the world manifested how great was the love of God which sent Him to such a world and such treatment in it.
(d) God sent His Son that we might live through Him. The purpose of Christ’s mission, involving His death as a sacrifice for sin, His giving His life to redeem ours, manifested God’s love. They for whom He sent His Son were sinners, guilty, helpless, unloving.
II. Some Thoughts which Emerge.
(1) Here is the spring and motive of love for God and the love for man, which is its evidence.
(2) If God has given His only-begotten Son for our life, with Him, also He shall freely give us all things.
(3) How precious is the soul of man! It is the subject of God’s love, and Christ was sent to give it true life.
(4) We must become sons of God, born sons if we are to manifest His love.
(5) To reject God’s love thus manifested must be the greatest sin and misery, and it is self-inflicted misery caused by wilful sin.
10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation10-110-1 for our sins.
Herein is love,
The love of God, free love, love that cannot be matched: herein it is manifested, as before; this is clear evidence of it, an undoubted proof, and puts it out of all question:
not that we loved God:
The love of God preceded the love of his people; it existed when theirs did not; when they were without love for him, and enemies in their minds; treated him with wicked works, and their love did not procure even enmity itself, and therefore; but on the contrary, their love for him is caused by his love for them; hence his love, and a continuance in it, do not depend on theirs; nor does it vary according to theirs; wherefore there is good reason to believe it will continue, and never be removed, and this shows the sovereignty and freeness of the love of God, and that it is surprising and matchless:
However, he loved us; that is, God; and so the Syriac version reads, “but that God himself loved us.” The Vulgate Latin version adds, first, as in 1 John 4:19; the illustration of this love follows:
and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation10-1 for our sins: this is the resulting end to that mentioned in 1 John 4:9; for, in order that sinful men may possess everlasting life and happiness, it is necessary that their sins be atoned for and forgiven, which is what is meant by Christ being a propitiation for them so that the justice of God is satisfied. And peace and righteousness, or love and justice, should be reconciled together; and kiss each other. All obstructions must be removed out of the way of the enjoyment of life, which are brought in by sin; and that the wrath of God, which sin deserves, be averted or appeased, for it is the cause of our sense of apprehension of it. The love of God’s people is everlasting and is unchangeable, is never altered, or never changes from love to wrath, or from wrath to love; nor is the love of God obtained by the sacrifice of Christ, which is the effect of his love for us. The way is now open for displaying his love and the application of its effects in a way consistent with the law and justice of God. This phrase is expressive of the great love of Christ for his people and his substitutionary death in their place.
11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
We are often exhorted in the scriptures to receive Christ as our example in forgiveness and love. Furthermore, we are to love as He loved and forgive as He forgave. “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). What should be my amount of forgiveness?
God’s forgiveness for me. Jesus said, “Love one another even as I have loved you.” Now that is a pretty big order. Nevertheless, that is what God requires of us, and that is what God’s Spirit will do in us as we are filled, and I can know that it is the Spirit of God because of the love that He has given to me. So herein is love, not my love for God, but God’s love for me in sending His Son to take my sins and to die for my guilt in order that God’s righteousness might be propitiated and He can receive me in fellowship. If God so loved us, then we ought to love one another.
Jesus presented a parable on forgiveness of this certain man who had a servant that owed him sixteen million dollars. Therefore he called him in, and he said, “Your note is due; pay me what you owe me.” Moreover, he said, “Oh, I do not have it yet. I need some more time. Could you give me some more time?” Moreover, he said, “Awe, that is all right. Forget it. I will forgive your debt.” He went out and got a fellow servant that owed him sixteen bucks and said, “Hey, you promised to pay. Now time’s up. Pay me what you owe me.”
Furthermore, the other servant said, “Oh, I don’t have it right now, but if you will give me a few days I’ll get it for you.” “No, you’ve had enough time,” and he had him thrown in debtor’s prison. And the Lord of that servant heard of what he had done and he called him in and he said, “Hey, how much did you owe me?” “Sixteen million bucks.” “Didn’t I forgive the debt?” “Yeah, boy, I really appreciate that.” “How is it then that I hear that you had a fellow servant thrown in jail for a sixteen-dollar debt?” “Well, he owed it to me.”
Jesus is using the ludicrous amounts to illustrate how much God has forgiven me. God has forgiven me the whole debt of my sin, yet someone has done me some wrong, and I will tell you this, I will not forget it. Moreover, I will get even the first chance I get; I hold this against my brother because he has slighted me or God says to me, “How much did I forgive you?” “Oh, a lot, Lord. A load.” “Well, how is it then that you are holding a small debt against your brother because of this little offense against you?” Love as He loved, forgive as He forgave; that is the lesson that we learn. IF GOD SO LOVED US, THEN WE OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
12. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
No man hath seen God at any time. The same thing is said by the Evangelist John (John 1:18); but here it is observed from a different point of view, and upon another account; there it signifies that no man has seen and looked into the intimations and proposes of God, and been able to discover and declare the magnitude of his mind and will, his love and grace, and that which is there ascribed to the Son of God.
However, here the sense is that God is invisible and incomprehensible in his being and perfections in contrast to mere men. There is no coming to him, and seeing of him, and familiarly conversing with him. There is no loving him as he is in himself, and ought to be loved, as one friend sees, converses with, and loves another, and finds his love increased by sight and conversation. Then we ought to love the saints and people of God, who are visible, may be seen, come to, and conversed with, (See 1 John 4:20); for this clause stands among the arguments and reasons for brotherly love:
if we love one another God dwelleth in us; not as he does in his Son, by the union of their natures; nor as in heaven, by the displays of his glory; nor as in the whole world, by his omnipresence and power; but by his Spirit, and the communications of his love, and by his gracious presence and communion, which he indulges the saints with; for such who love one another, as they appear to, have the Spirit of God, of which that grace is a fruit, so they are by the Spirit built up a fit habitation for God, and by which Spirit he dwells in them; and such may expect the presence of God, for they who live in peace, the God of love and peace shall be with them.
and his love is perfected in us; not that love of God, with which he loves his people; for that admits of no degrees, and is not more or less in itself, or in his heart; but is always invariably and unchangeably the same, and is whole, complete, and perfect in his own breast, as it was from all eternity; and does not pass by degrees, or gradually rise from a love of benevolence to a love of complacency and delight, or increase as our love for him does and to one another, on which it has no dependence: nor is this love perfected in the saints in this life; that is to say, they have not perfect knowledge and enjoyment of it; nor have they all the effects of it bestowed upon them, and applied unto them; the perfection of it, in this sense, will be in heaven: but the love with which God is loved is here designed; and it is called his, because he is both the object and the author of it; and this is no effect as to degrees; yea, sometimes, instead of abounding and increasing, it goes back, it is left, and waxes cold; and it will not have its completion till the saints come to heaven, and then it will be in its complete perfection and glory, when faith and hope shall be no more: but the sense is, that this grace of love is sincere and hearty, and without dissimulation; it is unfeigned love; and it is in deed and in truth, and not in Word and in tongue only; and this appears to be so, by the love which is shown to the brethren, the children of God; so that love for God in the saints is perfected by love for the brethren, just in such sense as faith is made perfect by works (James 2:22), that is, is made to appear to be genuine, right, and authentic.
13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
In case you may wonder how you could know that God abides in you and that you abide in Him, John gives another safeguard. You actually can know that by the fact that God “has given us of His Spirit.” Because He has given you “of His Spirit,” you now already have a part in the same sphere of fellowship that you soon will enjoy in the house of the Father. ”Of His Spirit” implies that the fullness of the enjoyment is still to come in the house of the Father. The Spirit has been given to you because only the Spirit knows what is in God (1 Corinthians 2:11). You know the truth-that you are in God, and He is in you-not from yourself or another person, but God’s Spirit. Through the Spirit, you share with God what is His.
14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
If no man has seen God, yet the apostles have seen the blessed Son whom the Father sent. Notice in these two verses the vital manifestation of God as a Trinity, the gift of the Spirit, the sending of the Son, by the Father. Incredible indeed the Father’s love so expressed in the sending of His Son to be Himself the Savior of the world! Jacob sent Joseph out of the vale of Hebron to visit his brethren, but the history issued in his becoming “the Savior of the world,” a most beautiful type of that of which our verse speaks (Genesis 37:14; Genesis 41:41; Genesis 41:57). This is love, pure love on the part of God, but that love must be received if it is to be of benefit to us.
15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
With two great things, this discourse is interwoven, mentioned 1 John 3:23, faith in the Messiah, and the love of one another, as being the principal antidotes against the poisonous insinuations of the apostates.
The Divinity of Christ a Test Doctrine.
“Jesus is the Son of God.” Compare 1 John 4:2, which demands the confession that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,” or took upon Himself a genuine human body. However, this comparison brings to mind a distinction not always recognized. Belief in the humanity of Christ is demanded as a condition of being a Christian, but no such absolute demand is made about belief in Christ’s Divinity. What is said about that is that it is essential to the higher Christian life. It belongs to the higher experiences; the man who can see in Christ, the Son of God, enters into the more advanced privileges; God dwelleth in him, and he in God. When this distinction is set before us, we remember that our Lord’s disciples had Him first in a human fellowship, accepted His leadership, and believed in Him as the Messiah-man Christ Jesus. It even appears that they very slowly grew into the idea of His Divine Sonship. Peter was manifestly in advance of them all with his confession. However, none of them entered into the higher life of relations with Christ until they fully grasped the truth of the Divine Sonship. To be saved, men must believe in the human Savior, in Christ “come in the flesh.” To be sanctified, to attain a higher life, men must believe that “Jesus is the Son of God.” So the test of the regenerate life was—and perhaps, if we stated things correctly, we should see that it still is—believing that Christ is “come in the flesh.” Furthermore, the test of Christian attainment is the sign of the cultured soul-power that can grip the truth, that “Jesus is the Son of God.”
16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
THAT “God is love” is a truth about which there can be no doubt.
The proper enhancement to be made of this truth is also apparent: if he is love, we should love him, trust in him, serve him, submit to him. However, one improvement of this subject does not readily occur to the mind: If God is love, we should imitate and be like him. Now this, though less evident than the other deductions, is the point on which John principally dwells: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: FOR God is love (See vs. 7, 8.).” He pursues the same line of reasoning in the words before us, showing that our conformity to God, in this great instance of love, will be the measure of our nearness to him and of our confidence before him.
The apostle, having said that “God is love,” adds, “As he is, so are we in this world.” We cannot be like the Supreme Being (Christ) in our nature, but in his actions, we may. We must therefore observe, the operations of God’s love.
I). His benevolence is universal, extending to all, whether friends or enemies, whether known or unknown: he has learned to “bless those who curse him, to do good to them that hate him, and to pray for those who despitefully use him and persecute him.” In his beneficence, too, so far as his circumstances will admit it, he is unbounded.
A) Such is the believer, while present in this world: he is actuated by love, even as Almighty God is; so far, at least, as he is under the influence of divine grace.
B) The believer's love varies in its exercise, as the love of Jehovah himself varies according to the circumstances or qualities of the object beloved.
C. There is a mutual in-dwelling between him and God; “he dwelling in God,” by faith and love; and “God dwelling in him,” by the abiding influence of his good Spirit.
1). “God dwells in him.” Frequently, God promises his believing people his presence, as in his temple of old: “What agreement,” says he, “hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (See 2 Corinthians 6:16.).”
2). “He dwells in God.” In a word, let your striving be, not only to be godly, but God-like; “holy as he is holy;” and “perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” God-like people can be like God in their final divine condition; “holy as he is holy;” and “perfect as He is perfect, which is only possible because God is in him, and he is in the perfect God.
18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
The thought is quite general: “where love is, there is no fear,” especially the fear of God, and we are not to understand the love of God, but at the same time, this general thought is indeed expressed here about our relationship with God. It is quite mistaken to explain here, with the likes of Calvin, Calovius, Flacius, Spener, etc., “what the love of God” means “to us,” but it is also incorrect to understand the meaning to be brotherly love.
“Fear is not in love,” that is; it is not an element in love; it is something utterly foreign to it, which only exists outside of it. It is confirmed and expanded: love not only has no fear in it, but it does not even endure it; where it enters, there must fear completely vanish.
19. We love him, because he first loved us.
God loved us before we loved him (John 3:16). Our love is in response to his love for us. We love indicative, not subjunctive (let us love) of the same form. There is no object expressed here. In case love for God and so for one another should be thought to be a product of our nature, the apostle reminds us that God’s love for us preceded our love for him. Our love for him and our love for the brethren is a gift of his grace shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I am what I am, have what I have, and do what I do by the grace of God.
Looking back, this verse shows the possibility that our love here once more absolute, or without an object, our ‘perfect love’ may become supreme: the argument of ‘because’ is almost equal to ‘even as,’ which is, however, not said. However, the words look forward to the next verse, and that looks back to the first of the three points in 1 John 4:12, which has been in dout during the interim.
20. 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?
“If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” All the words here point, as we have seen before, to an utterly bogus Christianity, which knows nothing of the revelation of the unseen God in His Son: the first phrase and the last are used only of such false religion, the ‘hating’ of 1 John 2:9 became ‘not loving’ in 1 John 3:10; they are united as synonymous in this passage alone.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. There are two condensed arguments here. First, recalling 1 John 4:10, that the invisible God perfects His love in us by the Spirit through our brotherly love. It is simply a vital repetition: the invisible fountain of love abides in us and has its perfect operation in our love for its visible objects, embracing all our fellow-regenerate believers (1 John 5:1). However, we have always noted that John’s repetitions include something more. Here, something is added that the former passage did not contain: the inverted argument from the easier demonstration of love to objects before our eyes. Some copies read, ‘How can he?’ which would be only a more vivid form of the argument: not ‘how or in what way can he love the unseen save as visible objects represent him?’ for it is the glory of religion that God can be loved in Himself; but ‘it may be merely inferred that he who, supposed to be regenerate, loves not the first and most obvious claimants of his charity, cannot be a lover of the supreme source of all love.’ He proves himself to be unregenerate. The more general truth that worthwhile charity is in no case dependent upon seeing its object is not involved here, nor must the apostle’s simple apostrophe be embarrassed by the consideration of it.
21. And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
With the three points of 1 John 3:12 having been discussed, a new subject begins. That is the principle of love given by “Him,” that is, Christ, whose name needs not be mentioned, as the second part of the theme of 1 John 3:23: “And thy neighbor as thyself is the primitive commandment; but the next verse answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?’ as our Lord does, by inverting the order.
GENERAL NOTES
(1-1) Prophets, in the New Testament, preach rather than predict. (Comp. 1Corinthians 14:1-4; 1Corinthians 14:24; Ephesians 4:11.)
(1-2) Are gone out into the world, either “from us,” or else “have appeared in order to give their message.” (Comp. John 6:14; John 16:28; John 18:37.)
(1-3) Every Spirit that confesseth not.—Socrates, the historian, viz mention a curious old reading., “every spirit that destroyeth” (or, dissolveth) “Jesus Christ.” It is, however, evidently a gloss, written against the Gnostics, which crept into the text. It is clear that this verse presupposes an evangelistic presentation of Christ before refusal to confess His historical person could be made. (Comp. 1John 2:18.)
(1-4) Beloved, refers to a close and dear friend.
(2-1) Socinians were an adherent of a 16th and 17th-century theological movement professing belief in God and adherence to the Christian Scriptures but denying the divinity of Christ and consequently denying the Trinity.
(4-1) Them—i.e., the antichrists, the false prophets, the spirits that are not of God. (Comp. 1John 2:13-14.)
(5-1) Hearing them.—This implies listening with attention and pleasure.
(6-1) Hereby know we6-1—1John 4:2-3, but regarded from a different perspective: attention to false innovators or faithful adherence to the Jesus Christ of history.
(6-2) We are of God—The first side of the antithesis repeated, after St. John’s manner, with a difference, we being substituted for ye, and meaning “the Apostles and those who taught with them.” In condemnation of Cerinthus and other opponents, to assert the genuine truth and divine authority of the apostolic gospel. There could be no spiritual pride in this; it was a conscientious obligation. God spoke in them, and their loyalty for bade alike disclaimer and accommodation. (Comp. John 18:37.) When heretics said, “Christ ought to have said this or that,” the Apostles had only to reply, “But He did not say
(10-1) Propitiation: the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone(6 b.) Comp. 1Corinthians 12:3. The real humanity of the Saviour is the truth here specially emphasized something: the act of propitiating: APPEASEMENT.
