08. The Father and His Little Children

JOHN'S EPISTLES. CONDITION OF THOSE TO WHOM THE FIRST EPISTLE WAS SENT. "KNOWLEDGE." OPINIONS AS TO THE PERSON OF THE REDEEMER. THE EPISTLE ITSELF. THE "ELECT LADY" AND THE SECOND EPISTLE. GAIUS AND THE THIRD EPISTLE.


THREE Epistles are attributed to the Apostle John; the first a general Epistle, the other two addressed to private friends. These two private letters were not received as apostolic in the early church without opposition. Some denied their apostolic origin; others doubted it; but on the whole, the preponderating judgment was that they were the production of John; and accordingly they took their place among the sacred writings of the New Covenant. All three letters belong to the period of his old age. They present a most wonderful combination of simplicity and moral intenseness, and are marvellously fitted to enkindle and sustain the longing after holiness.

The FIRST EPISTLE (for essentially it is an epistle, though it has neither introductory greeting nor benediction at the close) as it comes into our hands, is loosened from all personal and local associations. The Apostle does not name himself. He does not specify to whom or on what occasion he writes. Were I to form a conjecture where not only

146 TO WHOM THE FIRST EPISTLE WAS SENT.

the document itself but even tradition is silent, it would be—either that it was sent forth about the same time with his Gospel, as a companion writing (as possibly the Second Epistle of Peter may have accompanied the Gospel of Mark), or that it was a circular letter designed for the churches among whom he had spent many years, and to whom he had delivered his apostolic testimony, and that it was written when age and weakness had rendered him unable to visit them personally.

Either way it presupposes that he had already borne his full testimony to the great Christian facts. It mediates between the Gospel and the Book of Revelation, having something in common with each. It exhibits what in a good sense may be called the philosophy of the Gospel. Its scope is shown forth in the opening words, which tell us how the Apostles saw the Life Eternal—how they tasted it, and handled it, and understood what it meant,—and how they declared it to others, that they also might have communion in it,—not merely knowing about it, but living therein.

Though we are unable to tell the original destination of the Epistle, we can form a tolerably clear idea of the condition of those to whom it was sent. They were believers in the Son of God. Some of them were children; some were young men; some were fathers. They were surrounded by a heathen population that still clung to the old immoralities and idolatries. They stood in close personal relations to the Apostle. Many of them probably “owed their own selves” to him. A rich and deep spiritual life existed among them. At the same time certain evils were beginning to appear, and the seeds of other evils were being sown. False prophets and false apostles were rising up here and there. An “arrogant licentiousness” was beginning to show itself in some quarters. There was

"KNOWLEDGE."

danger of the weakening of brotherly love among them, and of its degenerating into a mere selfish sentimentalism, cherished because it was a luxury. Some were becoming dissatisfied with the Gospel itself, and were going forth again to form new fellowships, hostile to Jesus Christ. At the same time the churches had to maintain a constant and uncompromising conflict with "the world," whose threatenings, allurements, seductions, and wiles never ceased.

Some things require special notice. Already the word "knowledge" was beginning to assert itself against the word "faith." Some men within the bosom of the Church, falling out of sympathy with their brethren, and others outside of it who had been in some measure attracted to Christ and Christianity (for the most part cultured and wealthy, if we may judge from a later time), were becoming dissatisfied with teaching which they deemed common-place, and craved something more gratifying to the speculative intellect. It was out of this craving that Gnosticism in the Church grew, which was a fresh attempt to solve questions respecting the Divine nature, the creation of the universe, the origin of evil, and so on, that had baffled the keenest intellects of former ages, and to become as gods in knowledge.

We may understand the craving from what we observe in the present day, in which under modern conditions we still meet the ancient demand for a "scientific" religion. Possibly, in those far away days, the cry for "knowledge" was in part a protest against the indolent credulity and contented ignorance of many professing believers, whose faith was becoming torpid. In part it was the expression of a desire which the Gospel itself created. But in part also it indicated a wrong spiritual condition, a vain curiosity sundered from moral earnestness, a preference for speculation over holiness, a half-belief in salvation by knowledge rather than by faith. The men who prided themselves upon

FALSE LIBERTY.

being "men of knowledge," looked down on simple believers as weak, very much as the Rationalist does to-day, and had but the slightest perception of the transcendent beauty of holiness, if indeed they were not altogether blind to it.

In meeting this tendency, which in process of time made the word "knowledge" the symbol of a subtle anti-christianism, John casts no slight upon the word, but, on the contrary, treats it as a very noble one, and uses it with honour. Thus he writes: "Hereby we do *know* that we *know* Him;" "Hereby we *know* that we are in Him;" "We have *known* and believed" God's love; and, not to multiply examples, "We *know* that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may *know* Him that is true." Just as in his Gospel he rescues the word *Logos* from antichristian uses, so in this Epistle he rescues the word "*Know*," and aims at making his "little children" Gnostics in the Divine sense. Knowledge is excellent, but the path to it is not through intellectual speculation, however keen and subtle, but through faith in Jesus Christ and subjection to Him, according to those most Johannine words in the Gospel of Matthew, "Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."

Side by side with the craving after "knowledge," a tendency in opposition to moral law was also beginning to show itself. We have nothing to do with "obeying," they said; if you talk of that, you bring us again under the yoke of bondage; what have we to do with "Law"? Under the Gospel we are set free from all restraints. They did not know what this meaneth, "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;" nor did they desire to say, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart."

THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

The tendency which showed itself thus is not peculiar to any age or country, but belongs to human nature. At the same time it specially besets those who overvalue knowledge, when the head works without aid from the heart and the moral nature; they unconsciously make their knowledge a substitute for love, obedience, and holiness—or at least they give knowledge the precedence. Here lay one of the dangers of John's time, and he warns his "children" against it. That is not true knowledge, he says, which can let one go on sinning. Knowing and sinning are in direct antagonism. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Truth cannot be held by the intellect unless it is also loved by the heart and submitted to by the will—the proof being that it is practised in the life. No foothold is left by the Apostle for antinomianism, or turning the grace of God into licentiousness. It is not merely put in this way, *We ought* to be holy; but, with the firmest decisiveness, *He that doeth righteousness is the righteous man; he that committeth sin is of the devil.* It is not knowledge singly and alone that is to be regarded, then; but knowledge issuing in holy obedience to the Divine will.

The subject which was coming to engross speculative thought in the Christian Church, and which did so for generations, was the Person of the Redeemer: as, in our own day, the battle between faith and unbelief, retreating from other points, is being waged again round this central Figure. This witness is true—that there is no spiritual controversy which, "in its deepest roots and latest issues, may not be traced back to a fundamental difference of opinion as to the person of Jesus." Looking upon Him as represented in the Evangelic narrative, men found themselves in the presence of mystery. It did not seem that they could satisfactorily class Him with themselves; and yet there were difficulties

CERINTHUS.

in the way of making Him purely Divine : who and what could He be ?

As early as John's time, the heretic Cerinthus led an advance band who solved the mystery in this way : they accepted the pagan doctrine of *Æons* or Emanations from the One Eternal Being, the ground of all existence. Being familiar with heathen ideas, they had no difficulty in conceiving of various persons sharing less or more a common Divine nature ; they held that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph and Mary ; that the Æon Christ was united to Him at His baptism, and it was this Æon in Jesus of Nazareth that wrought miracles and taught the true knowledge of God ; that this Æon left Him again before His crucifixion ; and that it was only the Man—"Jesus"—who was crucified—not "*Jesus Christ*."

Naturally enough, speculation did not stop here, but advanced to regions beyond. Following out views that still survive in the Brahminism and Buddhism of the East—and that linger even in some Christian minds—matter seemed to be inherently and essentially evil.* The body, being material, was held to be in itself defiled, and the cause of defilement to its royal prisoner, the soul. To hold the material in check, or to overpower it, seemed the necessity of virtue ; as, for a virtuous soul to get rid of the material by death was the grand felicity. It was not perhaps to be wondered at that such views should have a charm in a fleshly and brutal age, when noble spirits longed for deliverance from sensual bonds, or sighed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, and when weaker souls were many of them inspired with a disgust of life. Coming to their inquiries

* A tract lies before me in which "original sin" is explained in this way : God creates the soul pure, and it becomes defiled through its union to "corrupt matter," or this "vile flesh" (in the sense of *body*).

GNOSTICISM.

however with such ideas, it is easy to understand how they should have erred. We must not indeed attribute to John's age the developed error; only the germ. But men's minds were becoming confused and perplexed, and ages of confusion and perplexity lay in advance.

This world and its things could not have been created (they thought) by the true God. It must have been the work of an inferior Being, to whom the supreme God had delegated creative power. Jesus Christ was not what plain people took Him to be. He did not really come in the flesh. He did indeed *seem* to be one of us; He took His place alongside of us; He made common cause with us against the devil; He came to save us; yet His appearing among us was, after all, only one of those Theophanies with which the Old Testament makes us acquainted.

"A mortal shape, to Him

Was like the vapour dim

Which the orient planet animates with light."

As speculation advanced, the Christian facts one by one disappeared or were etherealized into something thinner than air; and the Gospel story lost its meaning, its truth, and its power. If Jesus Christ was not really the Word made flesh, but a phantasm, certain inevitable consequences followed. For one thing He stood in no true relation of brotherhood to us; He was not truly "born a Saviour." Nor were His sufferings real sufferings. When He was tempted in the wilderness, He sustained no real assault; when He wandered over the land, He was not really fatigued; when He sat on Jacob's Well, He was not really weary; when He bowed in Gethsemane, the agony was but in appearance; the blood-shedding on the cross was only an illusory show.

As an indication how such views took hold on men's minds, a writer, long after the time of John—described as

CONSEQUENCES.

the Trumpet of the Latin Church—in contention with the Arians, says, “Ye will not allow that when the nails pierced His palms, He felt no pain;” and the same writer affirms that “our Saviour’s body was no more susceptible of pain from a wound than the surface of water from a spear or javelin thrust into it.” We look out at times from some commanding height over a rich and beautiful landscape, smiling in the sun, and have difficulty in bringing home to ourselves that where the husbandman now guides the plough, and the cottage smoke curls up in the peaceful air, there was once waged a life and death warfare, in which the fortunes and freedom of a nation were at stake. The words that I have quoted above are mere rubbish to us now; but they mark where battle-strife was formerly waged, that has secured for us the peaceful enjoyment of the truth.

Some very serious consequences result if such views as those ancient speculators contended for were true. The death of Jesus could be no real sacrifice for sin. If Bethlehem be explained away, so must Calvary be, and all that wounding for our transgressions and bruising for our iniquities. Nor could Jesus really sympathize with us, inasmuch as He did not experience what we really experience. He would know our frame, because He made us; but we lose the comfort of believing in One who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And still farther, He ceases to be an example to us. We see Him moving about without sin—it is a beautiful picture, but it is nothing more; it gives us no help or encouragement, for He never was (like us) “in chains and fetters of the flesh.” In this way, though men did not at the outset perceive that it must be so, the whole Christian system, both in its facts and its truths, melts away, the only residuum left being a series of

THE APOSTLE'S WARNING.

purely visionary transactions, like what we fancy in our dreams.

The moral consequences were not less deplorable. Virtue indeed would still be infinitely lovely; right would still be right, and wrong would still be wrong; but men's search would be directed to seek the key of the universe through speculation rather than submit like little children, and attain to holiness through Him who is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Those who led in this speculative course "laid the axe to the root of all morality: they withered up the love of God in man's heart." *

It will not therefore surprise any one that the Apostle, discerning the harvest in the seed, should warn his little children so earnestly that in embracing such views as were then being introduced they were rejecting Christ; nor need we wonder at his using words so energetic as "liar," "false prophets," "antichrists," "children of the devil." While Christianity, dealing with the mightiest problems that concern human beings, goes down to humanly unfathomable depths, and up to humanly unreachable altitudes, of thought, yet in its historical forthcoming it starts from certain facts that true, honest men could witness to, and that the simplest and least cultured may apprehend. The facts have value, not merely as they body forth or express certain great truths—not merely as they form the pitcher in which the Water of Life is held—but in themselves, as pertaining to Christ's redeeming work. The Pilgrim's Progress loses nothing—rather gains—when the reader discovers that the facts never happened; but the facts of the Gospel have inherent and substantive value, apart from and beyond their fitness for expressing truth. The death of Christ, for example, does

* Dr. James Donaldson: "Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine."

TEST OF TRUTH.

not merely declare God's righteousness and love, but is a sacrifice for sin, even as He said, "My blood is shed for the remission of sins." His resurrection from the dead not only tells of a living God, but is the first stage in Christ's advancement to supreme dominion. If the facts can be cleared out of the way, if the supernatural can be resolved into the ideal, there will be but slight difficulty in turning the Gospel into a theology vapid, powerless, and comfortless, or making an end of it altogether. If the facts are accepted, then Christianity is felt to be no mere theory, excogitated in the closet and to be debated by philosophers, but a Divine institution resting on a basis solid as a rock, firm as adamant.

Hence it is that John affirms with such clearness that he "heard," "saw," "gazed upon," "handled," the manifested Word of Life; and that he makes this the very test of truth—"Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and 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." •

The Epistle itself, called forth by the condition and needs of the churches, is characterized by great simplicity, freshness, and spiritual depth. It has an inexpressible charm for those to whom the religion of Jesus is a "religion of the heart." To the mere logician there may appear to be a hopeless incoherency of thought in it the garrulous repe-

• "Ah! to how many Faith has been

No evidence of things unseen,

But a dim shadow, that recasts

The creed of the Phantasiasts;

For whom no Man of Sorrows died,

For whom the Tragedy Divine

Was but a symbol and a sign,

And Christ -a Phantom crucified!"

*Robert Browning.* titions of a kindly old man, whose memory is beginning to fail him, and who has lost the thread of his story. This however is the logician's error. The disorder of ideas is only seeming. In reality they are linked one to another, in the firmest and most natural spiritual sequence, by links indeed that are deep out of sight, but that are surely traced by the contemplative and loving heart. The "simplicities" are the deep and wise and holy simplicities of the Spirit of God. The Epistle runs as follows, the variations from the English text being those in regard to which Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles are agreed:

"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we gazed upon and our hands handled, • concerning the Word of Life-- (and the Life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the life eternal which was with † the Father, and was manifested to us)--what we have seen and heard declare we also to you, ‡ that ye also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship truly is with the Father

• The words "seen with our eyes," "gazed upon" and "handled," added to the word "heard," forbid our thinking of mere dogmas and abstractions, and call up before us the living Christ. John had known Him in flesh and blood; had talked with Him; had seen His ways and doings; and hence he testifies with a positiveness and assurance in which there is no shade of hesitance. He takes us out of the region of argument and speculation, and uncertainty; bears witness to what he has seen and known; and reports the message that he had received from the Son of God.

† "Which was such as was with—the same kind of life that was with—the Father." He that believeth hath eternal life. What is this "life"? Is it pardon and deliverance from condemnation? Is it happiness? Or what is it? God has answered our questions by sending His Son into the world, There, in Jesus, is the Life I mean; and the Apostles deliver their report, The Life was manifested, and we have seen it.

‡ Not in this present Epistle, but in our Gospel testimony The Epistle assumes such testimony, certainly oral, possibly also written in his Gospel.

and with His Son Jesus Christ: and these things write we to you, that our joy may be made full.

"And this is the message which we have heard of Him and tell over again unto you, that God is light, and darkness in Him there is none.* If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light as He [*Himself*] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [*our*] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,† we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

"My little children, I write these things to you in order that ye may not sin: and if any one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is [*Himself*] Propitiation ‡ for our sins; yet not for ours only, but also for the whole world.§

* It is impossible to tell out all that lies in that word "*Light*." As every one who hath ears to hear is addressed when John testifies concerning "the Word," so every one who has eyes to see is addressed when it is said that God is Light. Light reveals Very painful its revelations may be. Very painful therefore it may be to walk in it. A man who has fallen in the mire gets on comfortably enough so long as he walks in the dark: nobody sees him; he does not see himself: but he does not like to be pushed into a brightly-lighted room. The light shows the state he is in. God's light reveals our sinfulness. It does not purify, but shows the need of purifying. Then the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

† "Not sinned" *since when* † Evidently since we became His. It is inconceivable that any believer should say he had not sinned *prior* to conversion. That would be to justify the old life, and to deny the need of the blood of Christ.

‡ Not, "He *makes* propitiation," but "He *is* the Propitiation."

§ The aim of the writing is, that we may not sin at all; in other words, may attain complete holiness. The Advocate is not One who persuades the

CHAP. i. 5-ii. 11.

“And herein we know that we have known [know] Him,* if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I have known [know] Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him: but whoso keepeth His word, in this [man] truly is the love of God perfected;† herein we know that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He [Christ Jesus] walked.

“Beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning: this old commandment is the word which ye heard. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which [thing] is true in Him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.‡ He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and

Father to wink at our faults; but in whom we have an assured and abiding standing as God’s sons, so that we may come back when we have erred, and confess our faults, and obtain His grace. No provision is made for future sinning, by an arrangement beforehand, of the nature of an indulgence; but a Divine meeting of our sense of guilt when we think of the irrevocable past. There is no other advocate or propitiation for any man in the whole world: none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The Apostle by his “we” includes himself among those who need the advocacy. The struggle against sin is not a hopeless one, in which defeat is inevitable: God is for us and with us.

* Have attained the knowledge and continue in it. “Him” is not Christ, but the Father.

† Has really attained its proposed design.

‡ The New and the Old are one and the same. One takes up the Gospel message, which came forth so freshly and mightily more than eighteen centuries ago. It seems very old. Possibly it is so familiar to our ear as to have lost its once-experienced power to gladden. We do not like to confess that it is so; but we feel about it as if it were a thrice-told tale. An old commandment, we say; we felt it once, but it does not touch us now. Yet one day, perhaps of sorrow, perhaps of joy, it suddenly walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness blinded his eyes.*

"I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because ye have known† Him [that is] from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the Wicked One. I have written‡ to you, little children, because ye have known [know] the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known Him [that is] from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the Wicked One.

"Love not the world, neither the [things that are] in the world. If any [man] love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all [that is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

"Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now are there risen many antichrists,§ whence we know that it is the last hour. They went shines out before us with new light -and the old commandment which we heard from the beginning becomes a new commandment, as if met with for the first time. Not outworn, but fresh as yesterday.

* Blinded them in the very entering.

† And continue to know; and so throughout the Epistle.

‡ Epistolary aorist.

§ John recognizes the Antichrist as distinctly as Paul recognizes the Man of Sin -in whom the Apostasy is concentrated, and whose rise immediately precedes Christ's glorious appearing. These "many antichrists" are, so to speak, his forerunners, bearing a moral resemblance to him. They prepare his way. In both cases there is the retention of the Christian name, with enmity at the heart. All things have their doubles. There is Christ and Antichrist, the "Harlot" arrayed in purple and scarlet, tossing her jewelled head, and the Bride, the Lamb's wife; Babylon, the mock city that sin has built, and the New Jerusalem.

CHAP. ii. 12 24 out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but [*they went out*] that they might be made manifest that none of them are of us.* And ye [*for your part*] have an Unction† from the Holy One, and ye know all things.‡ I have not written to you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it and that no lie is of the truth.§ Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?[] This is the antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son. He that denieth the Son, neither hath he the Father; he that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.

“You [*for your part*] let that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you. If that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning, ye also shall abide in the Son

* Not “*were*” but “*are of us*.” At the time of John’s writing they still claimed the Christian name which the Apostle refuses to them.

† Chrism: not *the act of anointing*, but *the anointing oil*; here the Spirit.

‡ The emphasis does not lie on the word “*all*.” They were not omniscient. The emphasis lies on the word “*know*.” Take the things that God has revealed, and respecting which He imparts teaching: ye have no longer notions and shifting opinions: ye *know* the things. This knowing is the result of the “Unction.” The passage is correlative to the promise of Jesus. *When the Spirit is come, He shall teach you all things.* Tauler says, “The Holy Ghost will not teach us all things, so that we shall know whether there will be a good harvest and vintage, whether bread will be dear or cheap, whether the present war will come to an end soon; but all things which we can need for a perfect life and for a knowledge of the hidden truth of God.” The “*all things*” are included in the next line under the expression “*the truth*.” Bengel remarks that “Scripture is not wont to say in the plural, *truths*. Truth is one and a whole.”

§ Then what about all pious frauds? What about all false emphasis laid on one line of truth so as to lead to the undervaluing of the line beside it? What about a writer giving forth a work of his own composition, and getting it accepted as the Gospel of John?

|| He is the liar *per excellence*: he has got hold of the seed-lie, as deadly a lie as that of the Fool, who hath said in his heart, “*No God*.”

and in the Father. And this is the promise which He Himself promised to us,* the life eternal. These things have I written to you concerning those who are deceiving you. And as for you, the Unction which ye have received from Him abideth in you, and ye have no need that some one teach you: but as the same Unction teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him; that when [He] shall be manifested, we may have boldness [of speech],† and not be shamed from Him in His coming.

"If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called [receive the name] children of God!‡ And we are: therefore the world knoweth§ us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet manifested what we are to be: we know that when it shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

* That is, promised with His own lips.

† Not "courage" in the general, but "free-spokenness," through our sense of being in Him. It marks that state of mind in which, even when we do not speak, we might do so with freedom and fearlessness. Its opposite is seen in the man at the wedding feast, who, when the king challenged him, was speechless. "In His coming," when He and we shall meet.

‡ Not viol, who might be sons by a mere act of adoption, but vixva, born into his family by regeneration.

§ Lay emphasis on knoweth, rather than on not or us. A and B are next-door neighbours, both poor. A prospers in the world, while B, though good and true, remains in humble circumstances. After long separation, they meet again. B is going to claim old acquaintance, but A turns superciliously away. "Ah," says B, "he does not know me now." Not, "he does not know me:" he really does know, but does not wish to recognize or be recognized. The world did not know the Son of God; saw nothing Divine in His life: how can the world know us? It is not every eye that sees an oak in an acorn—or a saint's halo encircling a poor man's head.

CHAP. ii. 25—iii. 10.

“And every one that hath this hope on Him * purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.† And ye know that He was manifested to take away sins,‡ and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth § seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. Little children, let no one deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous; he that doeth sin is of the devil,|| for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.* Whosoever is begotten of God doeth not sin, for His seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God. In this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil.

* That is, on Him, whom we shall see as He is Christ Jesus.

† Not the *transgression of the law*: the word goes deeper. In the region of our Divine relations, “law” is the uttered will of God, whether the uttering be in secret to the conscience or in the words of a statute-book. Sin involves the setting of that will aside—ignoring it—refusing it—taking our own way: *i.e.*, sin is lawlessness. Consider Rom. ii 12-14; iv. 15; v. 13.

‡ More is involved than disposing of our guilt. The expression looks forward to the teaching that follows, in which we learn that he who is begotten of God “*sinneth not*.” No doubt his legal standing is all right; but it is his moral conduct that is brought into view.

§ The description of the man’s life: whosoever liveth the old ungodly life—the “worker of iniquity”—not to be confounded with the brother overtaken in a fault.

|| The “fruit” of the one life is *righteousness*; that of the other is *sin*. On a good tree there may be some worthless or bad apples. Yet the tree is known by its fruit.

¶ The account of the design of His manifestation is very comprehensive. We are to note that it was not to reveal duty merely, nor to show what comes of disobedience; but to undo what the devil has done. He is the Physician who undertakes an otherwise hopeless case, and expels the poison from the blood. Hence the life-warmth, freshness, and glory of the gospel; hence the story of the Advent is “good tidings of great joy” for evermore. Reducing the work of Christ to mere enlightenment and example, and missing out “salvation,” the gospel loses all its meaning and power, and Christ becomes a mere teacher of morals, or doctor of philosophy.

“Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, and he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain was of the Wicked One, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were wicked, but his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you.* We [*for our part*] know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren: he that loveth not abideth in death.† He that hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Herein have we known Love,‡ because He laid down His life for us; and we [*for our part*] ought to lay down [*our*] lives for the brethren.§ But whoso hath the world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels [*of compassion*] from him, how abideth the love of God in him? Little children, let us not love with word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.||

“In this shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if [*our*] heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth

* The world’s hatred is one of the “vouchers” of their belonging to Christ, and of God’s “Father-love.”

† The state of hatred is thus identified with death—as love is with life.

‡ The words “*of God*” are added in our English version as a supplement. They are not only unnecessary, but tempt us off the line of thought. If you would know the very type of Love, to which all true love conforms, it is here,—“*He laid down His life for us.*” It is silently taken for granted that every Christian will have in mind for what holy ends that Life was laid down. The laying down of that Life is the fullest interpretation of the word “*Love*” ever given to man—perhaps to the universe.

§ To be a Christian involved danger of death *then*. Now it is respectable, even fashionable. But the truth of the profession is still to be determined by the existence of self-sacrificing love.

— || It is a “deed” to give a suffering brother five pounds: it is not “in truth” if the gift would have been only a shilling but for the publicity.

CHAP. iii. 10—iv. 4.

all things.* Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness [*of speech*] with God. And whatsoever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the [*things that are*] pleasing in His sight.† And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him.‡ And herein we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit that He gave us.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.§ In this ye know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in flesh || is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God; and this is the [*spirit*] of the Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh, and now already is it in the world. Ye [*for your part*], little children, are of God, and have overcome them; because greater is He [*that is*]

* Obviously there is *awe* in this consideration in so far as the condemnation of our heart is faint and uncertain, while God speaks according to truth. But there is also *joy*. Our heart sometimes condemns us wrongfully; we write bitter things against ourselves; we question whether we are God’s children at all. What a comfort is the word, “God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things!” *He* makes no mistakes of this sort.

† “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” (Psalm lxvi. 18; James iv. 3.)

‡ As with two friends, each abides in the other’s heart. The lower fact is a parable of the higher. Only the higher is above the lower, as heaven is above the earth.

§ Then there is to be no traffic with any untried spirit. We must first know if the spirit is “*of God*.” The Apostle fixes upon a Shibboleth for spirits—the utterance of the heart-truth of Christianity.

|| “Come *in*—not *into*—flesh,” *i.e.*, it was not a Divine Æon that entered the man at his baptism. It is obvious to me that John is not dealing in this paragraph with developed Gnosticism. A writer living (say) in the year 150, must have used different forms of expression.

in you, than he [*that is*] in the world. They* are of the world; therefore speak they [*what is*] of the world, and the world heareth them: we are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not never knew God; for God is love.† In this was manifested the love of God in us, that God hath sent His Son, the Only begotten, into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son [*to be*] a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No [*man*] hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Herein we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. We also have seen and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son [*us*] Saviour of the world.‡ Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath in us.§ God is love, and

* The false prophets. They are worldly men; not children of God. Hence their words belong to the world's level, and please the world's ear. The “Golden Legend” puts the devil in a pulpit and makes him preach what many would count a very fine sermon—which indeed it is, as Swift's or Sterne's are fine.

† The term cannot be defined. A definition implies finiteness, and that we have gone round the finite thing, and drawn the bounding-line. Here this is an impossibility. Love is God's very essence: it is *Himself*. What we call his “Attributes,” are but Love in action or manifestation.

‡ Yea, with all its bigness, all its guilt, all its woe. There is none besides; but there is need of none besides.

§ It is more than “*toward us*.” The love has reached us, and penetrated our hearts. It is “*in us*,” and hence is called, immediately after, “*love with us*.” It is the Divine in the human. Winer, from the grammarian's point of view, finds fault with the interpreters, “who *will* smuggle in the preposition *to* or *toward*.

CHAP. iv. 5—v. 3.

he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him. Herein is love with us made perfect, that we should have boldness [*of speech*] in the Day of Judgment; because as He is,\* are we also in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear;† because fear hath torment;‡ but he that feareth is not made perfect in love.§ We love, because He first loved us.† If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar;¶ for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

“Every one who believeth that Jesus is the Christ is a gotten of God; and every one who loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. Herein we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments

\* Not *As He was*, but *As He is*. It is not that His earthly life is probed as our example, to be reproduced in us. But a blessed *fact* is announced, to be realized by believers.

† Love that is not perfect—that is not sure of another’s heart—is full of tremblings and anxieties; as, e.g., in a mother toward her son. And love can never be perfect until it is sure of another’s heart. That is perfect love Godward which is sure of God’s heart. The perfectness of God’s love thus becomes the ground for perfectness in mine.

‡ Strictly, punishment. The torment is the punishment of fear.

§ A trembling, timid soul may have *real* love; yet, real as it is, it is not perfect. Such love is of the *quality* that the Apostle speaks of, but it has not the *e-quality*.

¶ Not that we love Him back again—constrained by gratitude, or by a sense of duty. Even in the case of two human hearts, love kindles love; and the kindled love can give no farther account of itself than is given here.

¶ To lie is not merely to say “the thing that is not,” for one may do under a mistaken impression: it is to say “the thing that is not,” *nowing it to be the thing that is not*. In the light of this, the Christian professor who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar. His whole life is a perpetual lie. He “behaves” a lie.

are not grievous. For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh * the world [even] our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

"This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood;† and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the Water and the Blood; and the three agree in one.‡ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness—that He hath borne witness concerning His Son. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he hath not believed in the witness which God hath witnessed concerning His Son. And this is the witness, that God gave to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God, hath not the life.

"These things have I written unto you, that ye may know § that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the boldness

* That did overcome and that goes on overcoming, just as the world's forces are brought out against us. *Our faith* is the victorious principle. Compare with Paul's words, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal."

† The water (of baptism) and the blood (of the cross) are the two *termini* of His public ministry—*a quo* and *ad quem*.

‡ That the omitted passage was not written by the Apostle John must unquestionably be accepted. Here are "three tokens by which Jesus as the Son of God has revealed Himself; indicating at the same time three combined relations in which He presents Himself to the Christian consciousness as the One incarnate Son of God. . . . The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, all have reference to one and the same object, and all concur in revealing and accrediting Jesus as the Son of God."—*Neander*.

§ Not by information *ab extra*, but by consciousness.

CHAP. v. 4-20.

[*of speech*] that we have with Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us:\* and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked from Him.† If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and shall give life to him, [*even*] to those who sin not unto death: not concerning that do I say that he shall pray. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.‡

“We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the Wicked One toucheth him not. We know that we § are of God, and the whole world lieth in the Wicked [One]. But we know; that the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding that we may know the True; and

\* There is no room here for the mistake of those who fancy that they will get whatever they ask, *if only they work themselves up into the assurance that God will give it*. A boy would like to possess a pistol. He says to himself, *I will ask my father for one; and if I am only confident of getting it, my father will give it*. Is that faith in his father? If his father had given him reason to expect it—and if his request had been grounded on some intimation of his father’s will—he would have been right in his confidence, not otherwise. *The prayer of faith grounds itself on something in God*. That word, “according to His will,” must never be lost sight of.

† Either in present possession or certain reversion. But there must be “asking.” The things will not be thrust upon us.

‡ I do not see any warrant here for the distinction between “venial” and “mortal” sins, in the Roman Catholic sense. There is a region fully known to God, but not defined to us, within which intercession for others does not avail. Our prayer is no interference with His sovereign rights. All that is done is to take the case of some men out of the number for whom intercessory prayer prevails.

§ There is a temptation for English lips to emphasize this “*we*,” as if the idea were, “*We, in distinction from others, are of God*.” The word, however, is unemphatic, not being expressed in the original.

§ Note this thrice-repeated “*We know*.” It is as much as to say, *This—and this—and this is a settled matter*. The three conclusions may be regarded as a summing-up of the truths set forth in the Epistle.

THE SECOND EPISTLE.

we are in the True, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and Life Eternal.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”\*

The remaining two Epistles are “the spillings of the heart;” but it is a heart of rarest wisdom and grace.

The SECOND EPISTLE is a private letter to a Christian lady—advanced to at least middle life, her name perhaps Cyria, or Eclecta Cyria—who was widely loved. Whatever womanly graciousness may have characterized her, that which won for her this wide love was the dwelling of the truth in her: it was this which made her what she was.

We know nothing of her personally, beyond what comes out in this short letter. She does not seem to have been specially eminent in the Church; at all events her name has not found its way into ecclesiastical history—scarcely (if at all) into ecclesiastical fable. She was no Sister of Mercy or Nun, but a Christian wife and mother, with children who had grown up at her knee, and whom she had taught to love “The Name.” Shortly before writing his letter, John had met some of them away from home, who showed that they walked in truth. Like another Lydia, who constrained Paul and his companions to accept her hospitality, she opened her house and dispensed her bounty to those who came forth bearing with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those whom she thus received into her house might be fairly represented by the brethren who after the

\* The commonest justification of images or idols is that they give definitiveness to our spiritual conceptions, and help us nearer to the True One. As against idolatry or the worship of false divinities, the manifestation of God in His Son is the true safeguard. The idols from which they were to keep themselves were the idols that existed all around.

TO WHOM ADDRESSED.

death of Stephen “went everywhere preaching the word :” or later by such a man as Justin Martyr, who after his conversion seems to have travelled about from land to land as an evangelist, proclaiming the truth he had found.

The letter which John writes to this lady is very gracious and beautiful. There was danger that her hospitality might be taken advantage of for antichristian purposes, by men who, professing to preach Christ, really denied Him. She must use holy discrimination. “Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh : this is a deceiver and an antichrist.” The consequences involved in a denial of the true humanity of the Lord - or in the mystification of the truth might not at first be obvious : the Gnostic doctrine indeed might seem to be an exalting of Him, and a setting of His holiness in clearer light ; but to the Apostle it was utterly hateful, because utterly false and insidiously deadly. Hence he writes to this Christian lady, warning her not to give it countenance. He knows that she loves the Truth, and would do nothing against it : let her not then open her doors to those who were spreading error disguised under a holy name.

The charge which John gives is an antidote to that so-called “liberality” to which truth and falsehood are alike, and which generally ends in hating truth with a murderous hatred. Whatever may be done from Christian compassion or kindness, let it be done without hesitation or fear ; but let it be done *as* compassion or kindness — in the spirit of the good Samaritan : John finds no fault with it, and throws no hindrance in its way. But keep the distinction clear between doing a deed of Christian beneficence and giving help to antichristian error. “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not in your house, neither bid him God-speed : for he that biddeth him God-

THE SECOND EPISTLE.

speed is partaker of his evil deeds." There is a time for everything; and there is a time for crucifying mere good nature as well as the lusts of the flesh. The letter runs:

"The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth * and not I only, but also all that know the truth—for the truth's sake which dwelleth in us, and will be with us for ever. Grace, mercy, and peace shall be with you from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

"I rejoiced greatly that I have found among thy children those who walk in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as writing to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments: and this is the commandment, as ye heard from the beginning, that ye should walk in it.† For many deceivers went out ‡ into the world, who confess not Jesus Christ coming in flesh: § this is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which ye wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.|| Whosoever goeth before ¶ and abideth not in the teaching of Christ hath not God: whosoever abideth in the teaching, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any one to you, and he bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into [your]

* Not merely, *whom I love truly*, but whom I love in the same truth in which I found children of thine walking.

† *In it, i.e.*, not *in the commandment*, but *in love*. The Apostle seems to be moving in a circle; but experience understands it.

‡ From the Church.

§ They reject or evade the idea of incarnation out and out.

: Wages; the fruit of Christian labour.

¶ As a spiritual leader or guide. The shepherd goes before the sheep.

DEMETRIUS.

house, neither bid him God-speed ; • for bidding him God-speed [*one*] is partaker of his evil deeds.

“Having many things to write to you, I would not [*write*] with paper and ink ; for I hope to come to you and speak mouth to mouth, that our joy may be full. The children of thy elect sister greet thee.”

The THIRD EPISTLE is also a private letter, addressed to a Christian gentleman of the name of Caius or Gaius. We know nothing of him except what we learn from this letter, though I believe tradition has raised him to a bishopric. We recognize in him a man of high character, but somewhat weakly in health, and perhaps standing also on the cold side of the world’s favour. He is one of the Apostle’s “children,” whom he joys to see walking in truth, and in whose behalf he prays “that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” The letter is about the same length as the preceding one, and is a companion to it. The Christian lady is forewarned against giving countenance to false teachers : Gaius is commended for showing hospitality to the true.

The story lying behind the letter is a very simple one. Certain Christian evangelists had gone forth on a missionary tour (“in behalf of The Name they went forth”), taking nothing of the Gentiles. One of the band, probably a leading member of it, was Demetrius—one who had good report of all, yea, of the truth itself—his success in bringing men to Christ being witness in his behalf. These friends did not wander from place to place unknown, but were properly accredited. It appears even that they were intro-

• Do not give him greeting. Let not your house be made a base of operations again Christ. The test of Christian love is the maintenance of Christian truth.

GAIUS AND DIOTREPHES.

duced by John himself:—"I wrote (he says) unto the Church:" so that, though personally strangers, they were sufficiently attested as true men.

Diotrephes, however, refused to receive them. I imagine Diotrephes to have been a church pastor somewhere perhaps wealthy—a somewhat priestly and overbearing man—with a strong will, a keen scent for heresy, and some considerable power over the Church; just such a man as is brought into view by Peter's phrase, "lording it over God's heritage." This man not merely refused to receive the brethren, but excommunicated those who did. The "elect lady" may have been too facile and unsuspicious; Diotrephes goes to the opposite extreme. Very likely he had his list of cases in which unworthy men had come in under false pretences and done harm—"false brethren"—"wolves in sheep's clothing"—and so he sets his face against the whole thing.

It would seem that Gaius had come into trouble with Diotrephes in consequence of befriending some of these evangelists: in John's hearing they had testified before the Church to the kindness of Gaius; and John expresses his pleasure at this, and his intention of bringing up, at the proper time, the conduct of Diotrephes for censure.

The letter has abiding value by reason of its bearing on evangelistic work. We must be careful what men we back up. But when servants of the Lord, bringing the Truth, come to us properly accredited, we should help them forward after a godly sort; for in so doing we help the Truth itself.

Here is the THIRD LETTER also.

"The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

"Beloved, I wish that in all respects thou mayest

THE THIRD EPISTLE.

prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified to thy truth, even as thou walkest in truth. Greater joy than this I have none, to hear of my children walking in the truth.

“Beloved, thou doest faithfully * whatsoever thou doest toward the brethren (and that toward strangers) who bore witness to thy love before the Church; † whom if thou send forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well; for on behalf of The Name they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles: ‡ we therefore ought to receive § such persons, that we may become fellow-workers for the truth. I wrote somewhat to the Church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not. Therefore, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his deeds which he doeth, || prating against us with wicked words; and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and those who would he forbiddeth and casteth them out of the Church. ¶ Beloved, do not thou imitate the evil, but the good. He that doeth good is of God; he that doeth evil hath not seen God.

* Not in the sense of *conscientiously*, but as a deed of Christian faith. The meaning is, Thy work which thou hast done is work of faith.

† In open assembly.

‡ Individuals belonging to the nations, as we would say, *heathen men*. There is an abiding principle in what Jesus said to His disciples when He sent them forth two and two. They were not to provide gold or silver or brass in their purses; they were to take no scrip for their journey, neither two coats nor shoes nor yet staves: in other words, they were not to live on their private fortunes. How then? “The workman is worthy of his meat:” the Lord will deal with them on this footing; and will provide for their temporal needs through means of those whose hearts are opened to receive their message. This was no false start.

§ The idea is to receive and help on, as we speak of *taking one by the hand*.

|| It is not merely that John will *bear in mind* this man’s deeds, but will *recal* them, for censure and for the warning of others.

¶ Depriving them of membership.

SPECULATIVE QUESTIONS.

"To Demetrius testimony hath been borne by all, and by the truth itself; yea, we also bear testimony, and thou knowest that our testimony is true.

"I had many things to write to thee, but I wish not to write to thee with ink and pen; but I hope immediately to see thee, and we shall speak mouth to mouth.

"Peace be to thee. The friends greet thee. Greet the friends by name."

Attention is being more and more powerfully drawn to the writings of this Apostle, and inquiry evoked. I need not point out what possible dangers this exposes to; they will readily occur to any one who reflects. It is not in our power, even were it desirable, to draw a line, and say to the spirit of inquiry, *Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther*. We cannot thus escape difficulty. Men must and will scan the whole range of truth, and will open up afresh questions that had been regarded as permanently settled.

If I read rightly, the questions that lie immediately in advance are not exactly those that have been agitated between Calvinist and Arminian, but different and quite as vital. To fancy that inquiry can be hushed as dangerous, or that speculative questions can be evaded, is a profound mistake; and it is not good for us to keep our eyes shut. Where then is our security against error? Not, as I believe, in ecclesiastical forms, or in intensifying our dogmatic utterances. Not in high education and great intellectual abilities; for "the natural man," however able and highly educated, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." With the aid of a grammar and lexicon, one may interpret Scripture after a fashion; but cannot rightly apprehend *the thoughts* unless through a heartfelt sense of sin, a quickened con-

OUR TRUE SECURITY.

science, and faith in God, as He is manifested in His Only-begotten Son, the suffering Saviour, who “came into the world to bless it, and was tortured and slain there, and went out wearing a crown of thorns.” Our true security, as I believe, lies in our spirituality in our being men and women who are born of God, reverent and truth-loving, to whom the “Unction from the Holy One” is no mere figure of speech, but a deep and blessed reality.