60 - 1Jn 4:9
Ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν, οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν Θεὸν, ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν. That love, which God is in His inmost essence, has now become manifest, and that through the mission of His Son. But the proposition is not here laid down in this wide generality. Certainly it is true that herein the love of God has been demonstrated in its broadest comprehensiveness (compare Joh 3:16, οὗτοςἠγάπησενὁΘεὸςκ.τ.λ. [“God so loved, etc.”]), so that it might have been said that ἡἀγάπη [“the love”], this very perfect love itself, was first manifested in the Son; but when we mark that the conclusion is, ἵνα ζήσωμεν δι᾽ αὐτοῦ [“so that we may live through him”], and that it runs in the beginning ἐφανερώθηἡἀγάπηἐνἡμῖν [“the love was manifested in us”], we feel that both these circumscribe the comprehensiveness of the statement above: it is not that all the love of God generally was manifested in the sending of His Son; but the apostle would say that His love towardsus was in this way approved. In order to obtain a more distinct idea, we must determine whether ἐνἡμῖν [“in us”] belongs to ἀγάπη [“love”] or to ἐφανερώθη [“made known”], and how it is more particularly to be understood. The former might require the article before ἐνἡμῖν[“in us”]; but that is not an absolute argument against it, for, though we find no instance in our apostle, yet we have one in Col 1:4 of its absence in a similar or parallel case, ἡἀγάπηὑμῶνἐνΧριστῷἸησοῦ [“your love in Christ Jesus”]. But since this construction must under any circumstances be harsher than the reference to ἐφανερώθη [“made known”], we must needs prefer this latter.
But, this granted, even then the ἐνἡμῖν[“in us”] may be variously understood. The most obvious interpretation would be that of “among us;” but this is opposed by the form of the resumed thought in 1Jn 4:16, where it is ἡἀγάπηἣνἔχειὁΘεὸςἐνἡμῖν[“the love which God has in us”]. If this were to be translated “among us,” the whole phrase might easily be reduced to mean the love which God finds existing among us, that is, our love to Him. But this is rendered impossible by the preceding πεπιστεύκαμεν [“we have believed”]; for my love to God can be no object of faith to me. Therefore it must be that ἡἀγάπηἣνἔχειὁΘεὸς [“the love which God has”], 1Jn 4:16, defines the love which God has or feels; and ἐν [“in”] can by no means be translated “among.” But then, as ἐνἡμῖν[“in us”] in 1Jn 4:16 and in 1Jn 4:9 stand or fall together, we cannot admit the interpretation “among” in our present verse also. It may be added that throughout the entire context ἐν [“in”] never occurs in any other than its proper meaning of “in.” What this apostle meant to express by the phrase ἐφανερώθηἡἀγάπηἐνἡμῖν [“the love was manifested in us”] may be best illustrated by comparing a similar Pauline passage. The ἐφανερώθαιἐνἡμῖν [“the love was manifested in us”], that is, must be understood precisely in the same sense as St. Paul’s ἀποκαλύπτετειν ἐνἐμοὶ[“to reveal in me”], Gal 1:16. This is something different from the simple ἀποκαλύπτετεινμοι [“to reveal to me”]. St. Paul would make it emphatic that not only Jesus Christ had been revealed to him, and that he himself had been the receiver of the revelation, but that the revealed Christ had become an element of his own being and life. The expression presupposes a change which had passed within the apostle’s own nature, a renewal of his being; without this we can form no conception of an ἀποκαλύπτετειν Ἰησοῦν ἐναὐτῷ [“to reveal Jesus in him”]. And here also the ἐφανερώθηἡἀγάπητοῦΘεοῦ ἐνἡμῖν [“the love of God was manifested in us”] implies much more than if the ending of it had been ἡμῖν[“us”] simply. It means to say that not only had the love of God become known to us through the mission of His Son, but that in virtue of that mission it had fixed a permanent dwelling-place in us. The matter is so simple, both in phrase and meaning, that we could hardly wish it more so: if I say ὁΧριστόςἐφανερώθηἐντῷκόσμῳ [“Christ was manifested in the world”], I define the world as His dwelling; if I say ἐφανερώθηἐνἡμῖν [“was manifested in us”], we ourselves then become His dwelling. Similarly, when it is said that ἡἀγάπητοῦΘεοῦ ἐφανερώθη ἐνἡμῖν [“the love of God was manifested in us”], we ourselves are the sphere in which the love of God has pitched its visible tent. The love of God, of which the verse preceding spoke, has become manifest, has been clearly made known to us; and that—for here is the second point connected with the former—in such a manner that it has made for itself a dwelling-place in us. The correctness of this interpretation must be confirmed abundantly when it is shown how in that mission of the Son here spoken of this dwelling of love in us or that ἐφανερώθηἐνἡμῖν [“was manifested in us”] is verified. Let us look more closely at the declaration of the apostle. The revelation of the divine love of which St. John speaks did not consist in the fact that the Son was manifested, that He as ἀπαύγασμα τοῦ πατρός [“the radiance of the Father”], in whom we see the Father, has through His life of love also made known the Father’s love; nor will St. John make it emphatic, that the mission of the Son, or more strictly the Son sent, shows us in His person the divine love: that love is manifested in the mission of the Son. The former thought is true, indeed, but is not here impressed. That God sends τὸνυἱὸναὑτοῦ [“his Son”]. Him in whom He beholds Himself, who possesses the whole fulness of His own divine essence, yea, τὸνυἱὸντὸνμονογενῆ [“the only begotten Son”]. Him who alone has this place in deity,—sent Him, ἀπέσταλκεν [“he sent”], so that He has not that Son for Himself, for Himself loves Him not nor will enjoy Him, but sent Him to enter into the living agitation, the sinful agitation, of the human world, εἰςτὸνκόσμον [“into the world”], that human world which deserved not love but wrath,—this is the act of love which has brought the divine nature of love in God to full development, in which it ἐφανερώθη [“was manifested”]. And now for the ἐνἡμῖν [“in us”]. All other acts of God in history and nature manifest also His love, though not in the same degree as this; but when we discern in these the tokens of love, our knowledge is, so to speak, at second hand: of all this we might say only ἡἀγάπητοῦΘεοῦφανεροῦταιἐντῷκόσμῳἡμῖν [“the love of God is manifested to the world in us”]. But it is otherwise in the mission of the Son. This had for its purpose and result, ἵνα ζήσωμεν δι᾽ αὐτοῦ [“so that we may live through him”],—that is, we ourselves are to be transformed by it, the divine life is to be implanted in us, and thus most assuredly the love of God is to be manifested in us because we are to be ourselves drawn into the fulness oi this divine nature of love. In this, as we have seen, consisted the love of God generally, that He refers not His whole being to Himself, but to others, and in such a manner that He communicates it to others; He not only works with its energy for the world, but commits it into our own very being. And under both aspects His nature of love has been most perfectly revealed in the mission of His Son: by it He has surrendered the whole fulness of His divine nature, all that He has; and so surrendered it that He communicates it to us as a free gift; it is not merely a power working for us and in us, but the power energizing within us has become part of our own personality. Only when the Christ for us is really the Christ in us, do we exhaust the meaning of the word Θεὸςἀγάπη [“God is love”].