1Jn 5:4
Ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον. καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. The reason which makes the law of God become easy is given in 1Jn 5:4a. The commandments are hard only through a certain opposition which thwarts them and hinders their being obeyed. This depends upon the power of the world, the κόσμος[“world”]. The world, as the kingdom of darkness, pervaded through and through with powers of evil (compare on 1Jn 2:15), has evermore the tendency to act in opposition to the divine will; and inasmuch as all that is earthly has in and for itself this tendency, so all obedience towards God must be wrested, so to speak, out of the power of the world. The manifold temptations which issue from the ἐπιθυμία [“lust”] and the ἀλαζονεία [“arrogance”]; that dependence on the visible which is inborn in all men; the sins also which predominate at any period and throw their influence on all things accordingly, an influence purely of this earth: all these are the issues and outgoings of the κόσμος[“world”]; which is by us to be renounced and vanquished. But what is the power which shall gain the abiding victory in a war like this, which shall in fact permanently conquer (present νικᾷ [“he conquers”])? What is the might that is equal to this? πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ [“everyone born of God”]. This phrase in the neuter, after the manner of St. John in some other applications where persons are really meant (compare Joh 3:16; John 6:37, John 17:2), is, however, not to be at once regarded as identical with πάντεςοἱγεγεννημένοι [“all those who have been born”]. The distinction makes itself easily felt on consideration: this latter phrase would make the person prominent; such and such men, so furnished, conquer; but St. John’s expression places in the foreground the power by which they conquer, the divine cause, working in the personality, which carries away the victory. The divine energy, the power of light, wherever it truly works (πᾶν [“all”]), does without exception (νικᾷ [“he conquers”]) win the cause and triumph over the world as the seat of all darkness. Now, because this victory is so absolutely a thing of necessity, therefore the divine commandments which require and enforce this victory cannot be grievous.
What power is there that can successfully oppose the world, which is the sphere of the transitory (compare 1Jn 2:17, ὁκόσμοςπαράγεται [“the world is passing away”]) because it is the sphere of the visible (compare 2Co 4:18, τὰγὰρβλεπόμεναπρόσκαιρα,τὰδὲμὴβλεπόμενααἰώνια [“for the things seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal”]), save that power the nature of which is, according to Heb 11:1, to have commerce with the invisible (οὐβλεπόμενα [“things not seen”]), that is, the virtue of faith? The three clauses, 1Jn 5:4a, 1Jn 5:4b, 1Jn 5:5, are so related to each other that this victorious energy is in each case brought into clearer definition. First, we have it in general that this victory depends upon regeneration; then, more distinctly, it is so far as the divine birth evokes faith; finally, in 1Jn 5:5, that this faith is, more particularly viewed, a faith in Jesus as the Son of God. In the words νίκη νικήσασα [“the victory that has conqured”], two elements of thought are combined,—that is to say, while the perfectfnνικήσασα[V-AAP-NSF] [“has conqured”] leads us to think of the armour and stress of the combat that wins the fight, νίκη [“victory”] gives simply the result of the contest. There is no need to explain away one in order to make the other clearer: both should have their full expression. In believing itself, the world is already virtually overcome; and faith has ever vanquished from the beginning, being the armour or the means to which victory is always attached. On the other hand, faith is also the victory itself, for it is the result of the conflict: through believing I vanquish the world, and win for myself as a prize the same faith; so that it can now, as the result, unfold without fatal opposition all its force. But inasmuch as faith involves in itself, germinally, a victory over the world, its development takes place in actual life through a series of crises or stages; it becomes gradually manifest in all its character. Even as Christ Himself had already conquered and slain the world and its prince, while yet this victory has to be brought out into external manifestation gradually in the history of the kingdom of God, and through that history, which is no other than the more and more perfect dying out of Satan’s power and the more and more nearly approaching death-struggle of Satan himself: so also is our faith, as reflecting the whole work of its Lord in itself, essentially and in germ the completed victory, while yet this victory must find its external and full expression only through a series of stages and processes. The γεγεννήσθαιἐκτοῦΘεοῦ [“having been born of God”]—that is, the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in us—is the principle of the victory, faith; as the union and conjunction of our own I with this Divine Spirit, this principle becomes energetic and effectual in individual acts.
Note tn[[Actually νικήσασα [nikēsasa] is an Aorist Active Participle of νικάω [nikaō], “conqure,” “overcome.” If it were a Perfect Active Participle here, it would read νινικηκότες [nikēkotes]. The primary consideration of the tense of the verb in biblical (koiné) Greek is not time, but rather the “kind of action” the verb portrays. The Aorist tense points to an action that has happened—as a simple “punctiliar” occurance—without making specific reference to progress or result. The Perfect tense, on the other hand, points to a completed action with continuing results. That said, the Aorist tense here supports Haupt’s argument just as well as the Perfect tense would have. It is merely a grammatical error on Haupt’s part—for which he may be excused— and not a theological point.]]
