1 John 2

1 John 2:1

My tender Christians, I write this to you which I have last written, vv. 6—10, (see note [b] ch. i,) to deter and forewarn you of this deceit that so many are now fallen into, that you may not be drawn away into the heresy and impurities of the Gnostics, either by following them into unclean, bestial sins, or by depending on and pretending to such a perfection in yourselves, which may secure you in any one act of deliberate sin, but that if you have fallen, or shall fall into any such act, that then presently you confess it, and forsake it freely, and lay hold on Christ, who (for your encouragement you may know) is on God’s right hand, acting as an advocate for those that have sinned, and now reform and amend their lives, and, when the church prays to him for any lapsed sinner, he is just and faithful to perform his promise, to hear the church’s prayers, and to present them to his Father, and to manage all that belongs to such, to their best advantage.

1 John 2:2

And he, having entered by blood into the holy place, that is, having died for us, and gone to heaven, where he is now invested with power, which he exerciseth in our behalf, is a powerful means of reconciling God to us, of obtaining free pardon for our sins, (on condition of our giving of ourselves up to new life,) and not for ours only, but for all the sins of all the world of men (on condition of faith in Christ, and new life).

1 John 2:3

And this is a character by which it may be discerned whether we truly know Christ or no, (as the Gnostics call themselves by that name, which signifies knowledge, 1 Tim. vi. 20,) that is, whether we have a right notion of Christ as he is our advocate, ver. 1,

1 John 2:4

He that undertaketh to be a Gnostic, or perfect Christian, that is, one that hath more perfection of divine knowledge and love of God, ver. 5, than all others, if he express not this in a pure and holy life, is the greatest hypocrite in the world: see note [b] ch. i.

1 John 2:5

But the observing his commands is the only sure argument, that he that doth so is a perfect lover of God, truly so called (the appellation being falsely assumed by the Gnostics) and an argument of evidence to himself, that he is a branch, a member of Christ, as the Gnostics boast that they are, and that whatsoever they do, it cannot make them cease to be so: (see note [b] ch. i.)

1 John 2:6

He that pretends to be a member of Christ, (see John xv. 4,) doth by that engage himself to live as Christ lived, or if he do not, to give over so pretending.

1 John 2:7

It is not any new matter which I now discover or write unto you, but that which you were taught at the first preaching the faith unto you; and that which was taught you so early may deserve to be styled an old commandment.

[a] from the beginning] There be in these two verses, which seem perspicuous, very many difficulties, which it will be fit to explicate. 1. What is meant by the beginning, and so by the old commandment, which they had heard from thence. It hath been conceived by others that the old commandment was that given to the Israelites by Moses, and then the beginning must be the beginning of the Jewish church under Moses; and so there may be truth in it, that the commandment which this apostle now gives them, (whether more generally, that they that profess God should not fall into those black heathen sins, ch. i. 6, 8, 10, and ch. ii. 1, 3, 4, or more particularly, that profession of piety must carry charity to our brethren along with it, which is the precept immediately subjoined, vv. 9, 10, 11,) was the very doctrine and commandment of Moses, whom the Judaizers so zealously adhered to, and therefore they were not to look upon it as any new or strange doctrine brought in by Christ. But it must be remembered, that those whom this apostle here writes to, being those which had formerly by his preaching received the Christian faith, and the end of this Epistle being to confirm their constancy against the seducers that were now amongst them, it might be to them a sufficient argument to receive what now he said to them, that it was no more than he had taught them, and they had absolutely believed and entertained at the first preaching of the gospel unto them. For the Gnostics pretending to be perfect, and so that whatsoever they did they sinned not, (see note [b] on ch. i.) that which the apostle here from the beginning of the chapter desires to impress upon them is the unreasonableness of this, the obeying the commands of God being the one thing wherein true perfection consisted, ver. 5, and the living of Christian lives after Christ’s pattern the only way to approve themselves Christians, ver. 6. And to this it will be most pertinent to apply these words of the apostle, ver. 7, following immediately upon those; and then from the beginning must signify from the beginning of the apostle’s preaching, and their receiving the faith of Christ, thus, that what he now saith unto them they had once received for granted, when they first embraced the faith; and therefore why should they now be led unto other persuasions, think they may live unchristian lives, and yet be perfect men, good Christians? That this is the meaning of ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning, may be concluded from 2 John 5 and 6, where the same phrase is twice used, I write no new commandment to thee, but that which we had from the beginning, (and that in the same matter, specified here against uncharitableness, ver. 9,) that we love one another; and, ver. 6, This is the commandment, that according as ye have heard from the beginning ye should walk in it. That this belongs to the true, pure, Christian doctrine, taught them at the first planting of the faith among them, (and not to the precepts given to the Jews by Moses,) and that in opposition to the new, heretical doctrines, lately brought into the church of Christ by the Gnostics, may appear both by the antecedents and consequents there. In the antecedents, ver. 4, I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in the truth, that is, according to the pure Christian doctrine of charity, &c., as we have received commandment

1 John 2:8

It is that indeed that Christ called a new commandment, and so it is in comparison with the Mosaical law, to which Christ hath added some degrees of perfection; but that is no prejudice to it; it is not the less true for being so, nor the less considerable to you; but ought in all reason (as proclaimed by God from heaven, and Christ sent on purpose to preach it) to be looked on as a thing wherein we are at this time concerned most particularly, those dark imperfect shadows of the Mosaical economy being now at an end, and the more perfect Christian precepts which are to take place, and to turn out the Mosaical performances, being already, as the sun, risen, and shining in our horizon, in full force obligatory to all Christians.

1 John 2:9

This consideration obligeth you to all Christian practices, actions of light, particularly that of charity and kindness to all your fellow-Christians, contrary to those emulations and contentions and seditious, and persecutings of their fellow-Christians, that are observable in the Gnostics among you.

1 John 2:10

He that is thus charitably disposed and inclined is the true Christian, and hath little occasion to insnare him in any sin, little temptation to any ill, most of the sins that men fall into flowing from this original of uncharitableness: see Matt. vi. 22.

1 John 2:11

For as the dark keeps any man from discerning which way to go, so doth uncharitableness obstruct all Christian practice.

1 John 2:12

A precept I have, ver. 15, which I desire to enforce upon all sorts of you: first, on the tender Christians among you, because God hath been so kind to you, as to forgive your sins for Christ’s sake, which will be an engagement to you, ver. 15, to take off your love from the world, and place it on God.

1 John 2:13

The same I have for you, the most ancient, for you know Christ, (which is agreeable to those of your age, to know the Ancient of days,) and that may be an engagement to you to love whom you know: and so it is likewise for young men, to whose age it is agreeable to entertain ambitions and desires of conquering, and have been enabled by God to do so, to overcome the evil one, both the devil and every other that can mean you any hurt, and (if you adhere fast to Christ) all temptations of the world or devil. Which sure is an engagement to you not to love the world which you have overcome. And for you, little ones, again, your knowing of the Father is an obligation to love him with a most filial love.

1 John 2:14

And again I reiterate and reinforce this exhortation upon you, ancient men, as I did before, to impress it the deeper, and so on you young men also; and the exhortation on which I lay so much weight to you all, is this:

1 John 2:15

Love not the world, nor any thing in it; for whosoever doth so, that man hath not that love of God which is prescribed now under the gospel, of

• sacndal, σκάνδαλον.

1 John 2:18

[b] the last time] That ἐσχάτη ὅρα here signifies that famous

[c] many antichrists] Who the πολλοὶ ἀντίχριστοι were, ver. 18, hath been at large deduced, note [b], the whole sect of Gnostic heretics. One mistake only this matter may be farther liable to, by thinking the ὁ ἀντίχριστος, the antichrist, here, to be some peculiar person, distinct from the many antichrists there. If there were any convincing reasons to conclude this, it would soon be decided who it was; those first-fruits of Satan, Simon Magus, who may well be supposed alive at the writing of this Epistle, being affirmed by the ancients to have contended with St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, and that most probably at their coming thither, before their martyrdom, that is, about the twelfth of Nero, very little before the Jewish war, which brought that ruin upon them. See Arnobius, l. 2. advers. Gentes, Sulpicius Severus Hist. Sacr. l. 2. Cyril. Hierosol. Catech. 6. Isidore Pelusiot. Ep. 13. All relating that contention between those apostles and him, and that, saith Cyril, after the error of the Gnostics had spread itself over the church, and so made it necessary for the apostles to oppose him publicly. Beside him other particular persons there were also capable of this title, Cerinthus, opposed by this apostle St. John particularly, and Carpocrates, and Saturnilus, and others. And accordingly 9 Hippolytus the martyr, in his book, Περὶ συντελ. κόσ. καὶ Ἀντιχρ. interprets the place, Many shall say, I am Christ, of Simon Magus and others, Ἀνέστησάν τινες λέγοντες, ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ Χριστός, καθὼς ὁ Σίμων ὁ Μάγος, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ, ὡν οὐκ ἔστι καιρὸς ἄρτι τὰ ὀνόματα μνημονεύσαι, “Some rose and said, I am Christ; as Simon Magus and the rest, whose names it is not seasonable to rehearse.” So Hegesippus, in that eminent passage set down from him in 7 Eusebius, having named the several heresies that were come into the church in his time, the followers of Simon, Cleobius, Dositheus, Gortheus, Menander, Marcion, Carpocrates, Valentinus, Basilides, and Saturnilus, concludes, Ἀπὸ τούτων, ψευδόχριστοι, ψευδοπροφῆται, ψευδαπόστολοι, “From these were the false Christs, false prophets, false apostles, which divided the unity of the church with pestilent doctrines against God and his Christ.” But there is no reason thus to affix the title, the ὁ ἀντίχριστος, the antichrist here being visibly of the same importance with the same word, ver. 18, and that there, either all one with, or contained under the many antichrists that follow. For so the words must import, that the prophecy which had foretold that antichrist comes in the last hour, was fulfilled in the many antichrists that were then come; which could not be, if that antichrist foretold were another from those many antichrists. And besides it hath already appeared that the coming of that antichrist foretold, was the arising of false prophets, Matt. xxiv. 11; and then though the word be here in the singular number, yet must it be all one with those ψευδοπροφῆται, false prophets, in the plural. And it is ordinary for a word in the singular to be a complexum, and so to signify a whole sort or

1 John 2:20

And that testimony of the truth of the gospel of Christ, which was given to it by the Holy Ghost, is imparted to you, and gives you such an assurance of the truth against these impostors, that you cannot in any reason be thus cheated by them: see note [c] Acts x.

1 John 2:21

And consequently my writing to you now is not out of jealousy, or suspicion that you are ignorant of the truth, for then I would write more largely on this matter, and give you the evidences and proofs of all this; but I satisfy myself with these brief admonitions, because you are so firmly rooted in the truth, that you cannot but discern the difference of every such false doctrine from the one revealed truth.

1 John 2:22

There is no such liar, such dangerous false teacher, as he that denies Jesus to be the Messias, and thus do the ringleaders of the Gnostic heresy (see note [a]). Whosoever doth so is an antichrist, denying in effect both the Father and the Son—the Son directly, the Father by consequence; because he hath testified of Christ by miracles and voice from heaven, which testimony of the Father is not true, if Jesus be not the Christ.

1 John 2:23

And so, whosoever denieth the Son to be the Messias renounceth the Father also, who hath testified him to be so. And this do the followers of Simon, the Gnostics, who deny Christ to have been born, or lived or died truly, but only in appearance.

¹² And, Kai. ¹³ I have written unto you, not because, Οὐκ ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ὅτι. ¹⁴ This

is the antichrist denying, Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀντίχριστος, ὁ ἀρνούμενος.

[d] hath not the Father] To have the Father is to be expounded by analogy with having grace, Heb. xii. 28, that is, retaining it, holding it fast, or making use of it, as in the parable of the talents, he that hath is he that makes use of and improves the talents by so doing;

⁵ Læusisc. Histor. c. 31. p. 949 D.