See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him. Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 1 Behold The second argument is from the dignity…
1 Behold The second argument is from the dignity and excellency of our calling; for it was not common honor, he says, that the heavenly Father bestowed on us, when he adopted us as his children. This being so great a favor, the desire for purity ought to be kindled in us, so as to be conformed to his image; nor, indeed, can it be otherwise, but that he who acknowledges himself to be one of God’s children should purify himself. And to make this exhortation more forcible, he amplifies the favor of God; for when he says, that love has been bestowed, he means that it is from mere bounty and benevolence that God makes us his children; for whence comes to us such a dignity, except from the love of God? Love, then, is declared here to be gratuitous. There is, indeed, an impropriety in the language; but the Apostle preferred speaking thus rather than not to express what was necessary to be known. He, in short, means that the more abundantly God’s goodness has been manifested towards us, the greater are our obligations to him, according to the teaching of Paul, when he besought the Romans by the mercies of God to present themselves as pure sacrifices to him. (Romans 12:1.) We are at the same time taught, as I have said, that the adoption of all the godly is gratuitous, and does not depend on any regard to works.
What the sophists say, that God foresees those who are worthy to be adopted, is plainly refuted by these words, for, in this way the gift would not be gratuitous. It behooves us especially to understand this doctrine; for since the only cause of our salvation is adoption, and since the Apostle testifies that this flows from the mere love of God alone, there is nothing left to our worthiness or to the merits of works. For why are we sons? Even because God began to love us freely, when we deserved hatred rather than love. And as the Spirit is a pledge of our adoption, it hence follows, that if there be any good in us, it ought not to be set up in opposition to the grace of God, but, on the contrary, to be ascribed to him.
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When he says that we are called, or named, the expression is not without its meaning; for it is God who with his own mouth declares us to be sons, as he gave a name to Abraham according to what he was.
Therefore the world It is a trial that grievously assaults our faith, that we are not so much regarded as God’s children, or that no mark of so great an excellency appears in us, but that, on the contrary, almost the whole world treats us with ridicule and contempt. Hence it can hardly be inferred from our present state that God is a Father to us, for the devil so contrives all things as to obscure this benefit. He obviates this offense by saying that we are not as yet acknowledged to be such as we are, because the world knows not God: a remarkable example of this very thing is found in Isaac and Jacob; for though both were chosen by God, yet Ishmael persecuted the former with laughter and taunts; and Esau, the latter with threats and the sword. However, then, we may be oppressed by the world, still our salvation remains safe and secure.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 Before he declareth this adoption, he saith two things:…
Before he declareth this adoption, he saith two things: the one, that this so great a dignity is not to be esteemed, according to the judgment of the flesh, because it is unknown to the world, for the world knoweth not God the Father himself.
He beginneth to declare this agreement between the Father and the Son at the highest cause, to wit, at that free love of God towards us, wherewith he so loveth us, that he also adopteth us to be his children.
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What a gift of how great love.
That we should be the sons of God, and so that all the world may perceive we are so.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–24 1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath…
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Ver. 1. Behold what manner] Qualem et quantum, as 2Pe 3:11. {See Trapp on "Joh 1:12"} If Jacob was at such pains and patience to become son-in-law to Laban, if David held it a great matter to be son-in-law to the king, what is it then to be sons and daughters to the Lord Almighty? 2Co 6:18.
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The world knoweth us not] Princes unknown are unrespected; unkent, unkist, as the Northern proverb hath it. After the sentence was pronounced upon Mr Bainham, the martyr, he was counselled by Mr Nicholas Wilson to conform himself to the Church; to whom he answered, I trust I am the very child of God, which ye, blind asses, said he, do not perceive. The "king’s daughter is all glorious within," her beauty is inward, Psa 45:13; she is black, but comely as the tents of Kedar, Son 1:5; rough, but rich; as the tabernacle in the wilderness, covered with goat’s hair, but within costly and curious; as Brutus’s staff in the story, cuius intus solidum aurum corneo velabatur cortice. (Plut.) All righteous men are kings, as may appear by comparing Mat 13:17; cf. Luk 10:24; they are kings in righteousness as Melchisedec, but somewhat obscure ones as he; they must be content to pass to heaven as Christ their head did, as concealed men. Their glorious faith, Jas 2:1, now not notified or regarded, shall one day be "found to praise, honour, and glory," 1Pe 1:7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–24 So late mention having been made of that great…
So late mention having been made of that great thing, in the close of the foregoing chapter, being born of God, the holy apostle is here in a transport, in the contemplation of the glorious consequent privilege, to be
called his sons; and of that admirable love, from whence the whole hath proceeded.
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What manner; potaphn or, how great!
Called, here, (as often referring to God as the author), signifies to be made, or to be, Mat 5:9,45; Joh 1:12; Rom 4:17. He confers not the name without the thing; the new, even a Divine nature, 2Pe 1:4, in regeneration; the real advantages and dignity of the relation by adoption; and all of mere (and the greatest) kindness and good-will, Tit 3:5-7. Hence he intimates, it ought not to be counted grievous, that
the world knoweth us not, i.e. doth not own or acknowledge us for its own, is not kind to us, yea, hates and persecutes us; knowing often (after the Hebrew phrase) signifying affection, 1Co 8:3; 2Ti 2:19; and accordingly, not knowing, disaffection, and the consequent effects, Mat 7:23. Nor should it be thought strange,
because it knew him not: the Father, and the whole family, are to it an invisum genus, hated alike.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24 Our apostle begins this chapter with wonder and admiration…
Our apostle begins this chapter with wonder and admiration at the astonishing goodness and condescension of Alighty God towards believers, in taking them into his family, and adopting them into the number of his children; that strangers and enemies should be dignified with the honourable and amiable title of his sons; it is the same relation that Christ has, I ascend to my Father and your Father; there is indeed a diversity in the foundation of it; Christ is a Son by nature, we by favour; he by generation, we by adoption: However, not only crowns and sceptres are beneath his dignity, but the honour of our innocent state was not equal with it; well might the apostle then break out with an heavenly astonishment, and say Behold what manner of love is this, that we should be called, accounted and acknowledged, for the children of God!
Here note, 1. That it is the high and honourable privilege of all true believers, that they are now the sons of God.
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They are Song of Solomon , 1. By regeneration; they are made partakers of the divine nature; not in the essence of it, but in the gracious qualities of it, which enables them in some measure to resemble God their Father; they receive a principle of spiritual life from God which enables them to live unto God: and this principle received in regeneration: it is an inward principle, an universal principle, a God exalting principle, and an abiding principle.
2. They are children by adoption also: adoption is the acceptance of a stranger into the relation and privileges of a son; it was a rare condescension in Pharoah’s daughter to rescue Moses, an innocent and forsaken stranger, from perishing by the waters, and adopt him for her son; but O! how much greater kindness was it for Almighty God to save guilty and wretched man from eternal flames, and to take a rebel into his family! This privilege of being the sons of God by regeneration and adoption, is a choice and gracious privilege, an high and honourable privilege, a free and undeserved privilege, a lasting and abiding privilege.
Observe, 2. As the privilege itself, so the fontal cause of it, the fountain from whence it doth proceed and flow, namely, from the gratuitous love and free favour of God; what manner of love has the father bestowed upon us? He cannot say what, nor how great it was: He admires it, but cannot declare it; yet though adoption was the effect of God’s free love, it was the fruit of Christ’s rich purchase; he of a Son became a servant, that we of slaves might become sons.
Observe. 3. In the word, Behold! a note of attention and admiration both; God expects, the gospel requires, and the privilege of adoption deserves, that it be beheld with love and wonder, taken notice of with joy and thankfulness, and improved for growth in grace and advancement in holiness: Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us?
Note here, That the believer’s dignity though real and great, is altogether unknown to the unbelieving world; they are so far from acknowledging them to be God’s children, that they mock and scoff, jeer and deride them, for pretending so to be; and as they little know them, so do they less affect and love them, but hate and persecute them. The world knoweth us not.
Note, 2. The reason assigned why the world knows not the children of God, Because it knew not him; God once made himself manifest to the world in and by his Son; Christ, in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead, came and dwelt among us, but the world knew him not, received him not; and if they saw no beauty in him, who had strength of grace, and no corruption in him, is it any wonder that they see no excellency in them in whom is much weakness of grace, and too great strength of corruption? Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 11, 14, 20, 23 The apostle, having shown the dignity of Christ's faithful…
The apostle, having shown the dignity of Christ's faithful followers, that they are born of him and thereby nearly allied to God, now here,
I. Breaks forth into the admiration of that grace that is the spring of such a wonderful vouchsafement: Behold (see you, observe) what manner of love, or how great love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, effectually called (he who calls things that are not makes them to be what they were not) the sons of God! The Father adopts all the children of the Son. The Son indeed calls them, and makes them his brethren; and thereby he confers upon them the power and dignity of the sons of God. It is wonderful condescending love of the eternal Father, that such as we should be made and called his sons - we who by nature are heirs of sin, and guilt, and the curse of God - we who by practice are children of corruption, disobedience, and ingratitude! Strange, that the holy God is not ashamed to be called our Father, and to call us his sons! Thence the apostle,
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II. Infers the honour of believers above the cognizance of the world. Unbelievers know little of them. Therefore (or wherefore, upon this score) the world knoweth us not, Jo1 3:1. Little does the world perceive the advancement and happiness of the genuine followers of Christ. They are here exposed to the common calamities of earth and time; all things fall alike to them as to others, or rather they are subject to the greater sorrow, for they have often reason to say, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, Co1 15:19. The unchristian world, therefore, that walks by sight, knows not their dignity, their privileges, the enjoyments they have in hand, nor what they are entitled to. Little does the world think that these poor, humble, contemned ones are the favourites of heaven, and will be inhabitants there ere long. And they may bear their case the better since their Lord was here unknown as well as they: Because it knew him not, Jo1 3:1. Little did the world think how great a person was once sojourning here, that the Maker of it was once an inhabitant of it. Little did the Jewish world think that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was one of their blood, and dwelt in their land; he came to his own, and his own received him not. He came to his own, and his own crucified him; but surely, had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, Co1 2:8. Let the followers of Christ be content with hard fare here, since they are in a land of strangers, among those who little know them, and their Lord was so treated before them. Then the apostle,
III. Exalts these persevering disciples in the prospect of the certain revelation of their state and dignity. Here, 1. Their present honourable relation is asserted: Beloved (you may well be our beloved, for you are beloved of God), now are we the sons of God, Jo1 3:2. We have the nature of sons by regeneration: we have the title, and spirit, and right to the inheritance of sons by adoption. This honour have all the saints. 2. The discovery of the bliss belonging and suitable to this relation is denied: And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, Jo1 3:2. The glory pertaining to the sonship and adoption is adjourned and reserved for another world. The discovery of it here would put a stop to the current of affairs that must now proceed. The sons of God must walk by faith, and live by hope. 3. The time of the revelation of the sons of God in their proper state and glory is determined; and that is when their elder brother comes to call and collect them all together: But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him. The particle, ean, usually translated if, is here well rendered when; for the Hebrew particle am (to which this is thought to correspond) is observed so to signify, as Dr. Whitby has here noted; and not only is ean sometimes used for hotan, but some copies even here read hotan, when. And accordingly it seems proper so to render it in Joh 14:3, where we read it, And if I go, and prepare a place; but more naturally and properly, When I shall have gone, and shall have prepared the place, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, or paralēpsomai - I will take you along with myself, that where I am there you may be also. When the head of the church, the only-begotten of the Father, shall appear, his members, the adopted of God, shall appear and be manifested together with him. They may then well wait in faith, hope, and earnest desire, for the revelation of the Lord Jesus; as even the creation itself waiteth for their perfection, and the public manifestation of the sons of God, Rom 8:19. The sons of God will be known and be made manifest by their likeness to their head: They shall be like him - like him in honour, and power, and glory. Their vile bodies shall be made like his glorious body; they shall be filled with life, light, and bliss from him. When he, who is their life, shall appear, they also shall appear with him in glory, Col 3:4. Then, 4. Their likeness to him is argued from the sight they shall have of him: We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Their likeness will be the cause of that sight which they shall have of him. Indeed, all shall see him, but not as they do; not as he is, namely, to those in heaven. The wicked shall see him in his frowns, in the terror of his majesty, and the splendour of his avenging perfections; but these shall see him in the smiles and beauty of his face, in the correspondence and amiableness of his glory, in the harmony and agreeableness of his beatific perfections. Their likeness shall enable them to see him as the blessed do in heaven. Or the sight of him shall be the cause of their likeness; it shall be a transformative sight: they shall be transformed into the same image by the beatific view that they shall have of him. Then the apostle,
IV. Urges the engagement of these sons of God to the prosecution of holiness: And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, Jo1 3:3. The sons of God know that their Lord is holy and pure; he is of purer heart and eyes than to admit any pollution or impurity to dwell with him. Those then who hope to live with him must study the utmost purity from the world, and flesh, and sin; they must grow in grace and holiness. Not only does their Lord command them to do so, but their new nature inclines them so to do; yea, their hope of heaven will dictate and constrain them so to do. They know that their high priest is holy, harmless, and undefiled. They know that their Go and Father is the high and holy one, that all the society is pure and holy, that their inheritance is an inheritance of saints in light. It is a contradiction to such hope to indulge sin and impurity. And therefore, as we are sanctified by faith, we must be sanctified by hope. That we may be saved by hope we must be purified by hope. It is the hope of hypocrites, and not of the sons of God, that makes an allowance for the gratification of impure desires and lusts.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Behold what manner of love,.... See, take notice, consider,…
Behold what manner of love,.... See, take notice, consider, look by faith, with wonder and astonishment, and observe how great a favour, what an instance of matchless love, what a wonderful blessing of grace,
the Father hath bestowed upon us: the Father of Christ, and the Father of us in Christ, who hath adopted us into his family, and regenerated us by his grace, and hath freely given us the new name:
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that we should be called the sons of God. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version, add, "and we are", or "be"; and the Ethiopic version, "and have been"; for it is not a mere name that is bestowed, but the thing itself in reality; and in the Hebrew language, "to be called", and "to be", are terms synonymous; see Isa 9:6; in what sense the saints are the sons of God; See Gill on Gal 4:6; this blessing comes not by nature, nor by merit, but by grace, the grace of adoption; which is of persons unto an inheritance they have no legal right unto; the spring of it is the everlasting and unchangeable love of God, for there was no need on the adopter's side, he having an only begotten and beloved Son, and no worth and loveliness in the adopted, they being by nature children of wrath; it is a privilege that exceeds all others, and is attended with many; so that it is no wonder the apostle breaks out in this pathetic manner, and calls upon the saints to view it with admiration and thankfulness:
therefore the world knoweth us not; that is, the greater part of the world, the world that lies in wickedness, the men of the world, who have their portion in this life, whom the god of this world has blinded, and who only mind the things of the world, and are as when they came into it, and have their conversation according to the course of it; these do not know the saints are the sons of God; the new name of sons is what no man knoweth but he that receiveth it; they do not own the saints as theirs, as belonging to them, but reckon them as the faith of the world, and the offscouring of all things; nor do they love them, and that because they are not their own, but hate them and persecute them: the reason is,
because it knew him not; neither the Father, whose sons they are, and who has bestowed the grace upon them; wherefore they know not, and disown and persecute his children; see Joh 17:25; nor the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, the firstborn among many brethren; who, though he made the world, and was in it, was not known by it, but was hated, abused, and persecuted; and therefore it need not seem strange that the saints, who are the sons of God by adoption, should be treated in like manner.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 That we should be called - That is, should…
That we should be called - That is, should be, the children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not - They know not what to make of us. We are a mystery to them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–24 The extraordinary love of God towards mankind, and the…
CHAPTER III.
The extraordinary love of God towards mankind, and the effects
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of it, 1-3.
Sin is the transgression of the law, and Christ was manifested
to take away our sins, 4-6.
The children of God are known by the holiness of their lives,
the children of the devil by the sinfulness of theirs, 7-10.
We should love one another, for he that hateth his brother is a
murderer; as Christ laid down his life for us, so we should lay
down our lives for the brethren, 11-16.
Charity is a fruit of brotherly love; our love should be active,
not professional merely, 17, 18.
How we may know that we are of the truth, 19-21.
They whose ways please God, have an answer to all their prayers,
22.
The necessity of keeping the commandment of Christ, that he may
dwell in us and we in him by his Spirit, 23, 24.
NOTES ON CHAP. III.
Verse 1. Behold, what manner of love] Whole volumes might be written upon this and the two following verses, without exhausting the extraordinary subject contained in them, viz., the love of God to man. The apostle himself, though evidently filled with God, and walking in the fulness of his light, does not attempt to describe it; he calls on the world and the Church to behold it, to look upon it, to contemplate it, and wonder at it.
What manner of love. - ποταπην αγαπην. What great love, both as to quantity and quality; for these ideas are included in the original term. The length, the breadth, the depth, the height, he does not attempt to describe.
The Father hath bestowed] For we had neither claim nor merit that we should be called, that is, constituted or made, the sons of God, who were before children of the wicked one, animal, earthly, devilish; therefore, the love which brought us from such a depth of misery and degradation must appear the more extraordinary and impressive. After κληθωμεν, that we might be called, και εσμεν, and we are, is added by ABC, seventeen others, both the Syriac, Erpen's Arabic, Coptic, Sahidic, AEthiopic, Slavonic, and Vulgate.
Therefore the world] The Jews, and all who know not God, and are seeking their portion in this life; knoweth us not - do not acknowledge, respect, love, or approve of us. In this sense the word γενωσκειν is here to be understood. The world KNEW well enough that there were such persons; but they did not approve of them. We have often seen that this is a frequent use of the term know, both in Hebrew and Greek, in the Old Testament and also in the New.
Because it knew him not.] The Jews did not acknowledge Jesus; they neither approved of him, his doctrine, nor his manner of life.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 18, 21, 23 1Jn 3:1. The apostle, in the last verse of…
1Jn 3:1. The apostle, in the last verse of the preceding chapter, having declared that every one who worketh righteousness is born of God, begins the chapter with an exclamation expressive of his high admiration of the love of God in calling them his children, although they are not acknowledged to be such by the men of the world, because carnal men have no just notion of the character of God. Behold what manner — The word ποταπην, thus rendered, signifies both how great, and what kind; of love — Love immense, condescending, and kind, compassionate, forgiving, patient, forbearing, sanctifying, comforting, enriching, exalting, and beautifying, the Father — Of universal nature, of men and angels, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; hath bestowed on us — Fallen and depraved creatures, sinful, guilty, and dying; that we should be called sons, (τεκνα, children,) of God — Should be accounted, acknowledged, and treated by him as such; should be brought so near, and rendered so dear to him; should have free access to him, as children to a father, and be taken under his peculiar direction, protection, and care, and constituted his heirs, and joint-heirs with his only-begotten and beloved Son: and all this on the easy condition of turning to him, in repentance, faith, and new obedience. Therefore the world — The carnal and worldly part of mankind; knoweth us not — Is not acquainted with our true character, our principles and practices, our disposition and behaviour, our present privileges and future expectations; and therefore does not acknowledge us for what we really are, nor esteem and love us, but hates and persecutes us; because it knew him not — God’s eternal and only-begotten Son, through whom we have received the adoption, but accounted him a sinner, an impostor, and a blasphemer, and crucified him as such. As if he had said, Since the enmity of carnal men against the divine will, and the divine nature, is so great that Christ himself, the image of the invisible God, inhabited by the fulness of the Deity, was unknown and hated when he dwelt in the flesh, it is no wonder that we are hated also in those respects in which we resemble him. Nevertheless,
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–24 Behold, what manner of love - What love, in…
Behold, what manner of love - What love, in “kind” and in “degree.” In kind the most tender and the most ennobling, in adopting us into His family, and in permitting us to address Him as our Father; in “degree” the most exalted, since there is no higher love that can be shown than in adopting a poor and friendless orphan, and giving him a parent and a home. Even God could bestow upon us no more valuable token of affection than that we should be adopted into His family, and permitted to regard Him as our Father. When we remember how insignificant we are as creatures, and how ungrateful, rebellious, and vile we have been as sinners, we may well be amazed at the love which would adopt us into the holy family of God, so that we may be regarded and treated as the children of the Most High. A prince could manifest no higher love for a wandering, ragged, vicious orphan boy, found in the streets, than by adopting him into his own family, and admitting him to the same privileges and honors as his own sons; and yet this would be a trifle compared with the honor which God has bestowed on us.
The Father hath bestowed upon us - God, regarded as a Father, or as at the head of the universe considered as one family.
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That we should be called the sons of God - That is, that we should “be” the sons of God - the word “called” being often used in the sense of “to be.” On the nature and privileges of adoption, see the Rom 8:15-17 notes; 2Co 6:18 note, and practical remarks on that chapter.
Therefore the world knoweth us not - Does not understand our principles; the reasons of our conduct; the sources of our comforts and joys. The people of the world regard us as fanatics or enthusiasts; as foolish in abandoning the pleasures and pursuits which they engage in; as renouncing certain happiness for that which is uncertain; as cherishing false and delusive hopes in regard to the future, and as practicing needless austerities, with nothing to compensate for the pleasures which are abandoned. There is nothing which the frivolous, the ambitious, and the selfish “less” understand than they do the elements which go into the Christian’s character, and the nature and source of the Christian’s joys.
Because it knew him not - It did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, the world had no right views of the real character of the Lord Jesus when he was on the earth. They mistook him for an enthusiast or an impostor; and it is no wonder that, having wholly mistaken his character, they should mistake ours. On the fact that the world did not know him, see the 1Co 2:8 note; Act 3:17 note. Compare Joh 17:25. On the fact that Christians may be expected to be regarded and treated as their Saviour was, see the notes at Joh 15:18-20. Compare Mat 10:24-25.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 19, 24 Behold what manner of charity (or of love) the…
Behold what manner of charity (or of love) the Father hath bestowed upon us. St. John had said in the last verse of the foregoing chapter that every one who doth justice, is born of him; i.e. is the son of God by adoption. But the world knoweth us not, nor esteems and values us as such: and no wonder, because they have not known, nor acknowledged, nor reverenced God as they ought. We indeed are the sons of God; we believe it, because God has assured us of it; but it hath not yet appeared what we shall be, (ver. 2) to what glory or happiness we shall thereby be exalted hereafter, for neither eye hath seen, nor the ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians ix. 2.) We only know this, that his elect shall be like to him, because they shall see him as he is, when they shall enjoy him in heaven. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 1 John Chapter 3
1 John Chapter 3
Now to say that we are born of Him is to say that we are children of God.[13] What a love is that which the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children![14] Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not. The apostle returns here to His appearing and its effect on us. We are children of God: this is our present sure and known position; we are born of God. That which we shall be is not yet manifested; but we know that- associated with Jesus as we are in the same relationship with the Father, Himself being our life-we shall be like Him when He appears. For it is to this we are predestined, to see Him as He now is with the Father, from which the life came which was manifested in Him and imparted to us, and to appear in the same glory.
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Having then the hope of seeing Him as He is, and knowing that I shall be perfectly like Him when He appears, I seek to be as like Him now as possible, since I already possess this life-He being in me, my life.
This is the measure of our practical purification. We are not pure as He is pure; but we take Christ, as He is in heaven, for the pattern and measure of our purification, we purify ourselves according to His purity, knowing that we shall be perfectly like Him when He is manifested. Before marking the contrast between the principles of the divine life and of the enemy, he sets before us the true measure of purity (he will give that of love in a moment) for the children, inasmuch as they are partakers of His nature and have the same relationship with God.
There are two remarks to be made here. First, “hope in him” does not mean in the believer; but a hope that has Christ for its object. Second, it is striking to see the way in which the apostle appears to confound God and Christ together in this epistle; and uses the word “Him” to signify Christ, when he had just been speaking of God, and vice versa. We may see the principle of this at the end of chapter 5: “We are in him that is true, [that is to say] in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” In these few words we have the key to the epistle: Christ is the life. It is evidently the Son; but it is God Himself who is manifested, and the perfection of His nature, which is the source of life to us also, as that life was found in Christ as man. Thus I can speak of God and say, “Born of him;” but it is in Jesus that God was manifested, and from Him that I derive life; so that “Jesus Christ” and “God” are interchanged with each other. Thus “He shall appear” (1Jn 2:28) is Christ, He is righteous; the righteous one “is born of him” But in 1Jn 3:1 it is “born of God,” “children of God;” but the world did not know Him: here it is Christ on earth; and “when he shall appear,” it is again Christ and we purify ourselves “even as He is pure.” There are many other examples.
It is said of the believer, “he purifies himself:” this shews that he is not pure, as Christ is. He needed not to purify Himself. Accordingly it is not said, he is pure as Christ is pure (for in that case there would be no sin in us); but he purifies himself according to the purity of Christ as He is in heaven, having the same life as the life of Christ Himself.
Having set forth the positive aspect of Christian purity, he goes on to speak of it in other points of view, as one of the characteristic proofs of the life of God in the soul.
He who commits sin (not transgresses the law, [15] but acts lawlessly. His conduct is without the restraint, without the rule of law. He acts without curb; for sin is the acting without the curb of law or restraint of another’s authority, acting from our own will. Christ came to do His Father’s will, not His own. But Christ was manifested that He might take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin; so that he who commits sin acts against the object of the manifestation of Christ, and in opposition to the nature of which, if Christ is our life, we are partakers. Therefore he who abides in Christ does not practise sin; he who sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. All depends, we see, on participation in the life and nature of Christ. Let us not then deceive ourselves. He who practises righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous: for, by partaking in the life of Christ, one is before God according to the perfection of Him who is there, the head and source of that life. But we are thus as Christ before God, because He Himself is really our life. Our actual life is not the measure of our acceptance; it is Christ who is so. But Christ is our life, if we are accepted according to His excellence; for it is as living of His life that we participate in this.
But the judgment is more than negative. He who practises sin is of the devil, has morally the same nature as the devil; for he sinneth from the beginning: it is his original character as the devil. Now Christ was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil; how then can one who shares the character of this enemy of souls be with Christ?
On the other hand, he who is born of God does not practise sin. The reason is evident; he is made a partaker of the nature of God; he derives his life from Him. This principle of divine life is in him. the seed of God remains in him; he cannot sin, because he is born of God. This new nature had not in it the principle of sin, so as to commit it. How could it be that the divine nature should sin?
Having thus designated the two families, the family of God and that of the devil, the apostle adds the second mark, the absence of which is a proof that one is not of God. He had already spoken of righteousness; he adds the love of the brethren. For this is the message that they had received from Christ Himself, that they should love one another. In verse 12 he shews the connection between the two things: that hatred of a brother is fed by the sense one has that his works are good, and one’s own evil. Moreover we are not to wonder that the world hates us: for we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. If this love is an essential proof of being renewed, it is quite natural that it should not be found in the men of the world.
But, this being the case, he who does not love his brother (solemn thought!) abides in death. In addition to this, he who does not love his brother is a murderer, and a murderer has not eternal life. There is the absence of the divine nature, death; but more, the activity of the old man in the opposite nature is there, he hates, and is in spirit the activity of death-a murderer.
Further, as in the case of righteousness and of purity, we have Christ as the measure of this love. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; we ought to lay down ours for the brethren. Now, if our brother has need, and we possess this world’s good, but do not provide for his necessity, is that the divine love which made Christ lay down His life for us? It is by this real and practical love that we know we are in the truth, and that our heart is confirmed and assured before God. For if there is nothing on the conscience, we have confidence in His presence; but if our own heart condemns us, God knows yet more.
It is not here the means of being assured of our salvation, but of having confidence in the presence of God. We cannot have it with a bad conscience in the practical sense of the word, for God is always light and always holy.
We also receive all that we ask for, when we walk thus in love before Him, doing that which is pleasing in His sight; for thus walking in His presence with confidence, the heart and its desires respond to this blessed influence, being formed by the enjoyment of communion with Him in the light of His countenance. It is God who animates the heart; this life, and this divine nature, of which the epistle speaks, being in full activity and enlightened and moved by the divine presence in which it delights. Thus our requests are only for the accomplishment of desires that arise when this life, when our thoughts, are filled with the presence of God and with the communication of His nature. And He lends His power to the fulfillment of these desires, of which He is the source, and which are formed in the heart by the revelation of Himself. (Compare Joh 15:7)
This is indeed the position of Christ Himself when here below: only that He was perfect in it. (Compare Joh 8:29; Joh 11:42)
And here it is the commandment of God which He desires us to obey; namely, to believe on the name of His Son Jesus; and to love one another, as He gave us commandment.
Now he who keeps His commandments dwells in Him; and He dwells also in this obedient man. It will be asked whether God or Christ is here meant? The apostle, as we have seen, confounds them together in his thought. That is to say, the Holy Ghost unites them in our minds. We are in Him who is true, that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. It is Christ, who is the presentation of God to men in life in man; and to the believer He is the communication of that life, so that God too dwells in him, in the revelation, in its divine excellence and perfection, of the nature which the believer shares in the power of the Holy Ghost who dwells in him, so that love is alike enjoyed and exercised.
But what marvelous grace to have received a life, a nature, by which we are enabled to enjoy God Himself, who dwells in us, and by which, since it is in Christ, we are in fact in the enjoyment of this communion, this relationship with God! He who has the Son has life; but God then dwells in him as the portion, as well as the source of this life; and he who has the Son has the Father.
What marvelous links of vital and living enjoyment through the communication of the divine nature of Him who is its source; and that according to its perfection in Christ! Such is the Christian according to grace. Therefore also he is obedient, because this life in the man Christ (and it is thus that it becomes ours) was obedience itself, the true relationship of man to God.
Practical righteousness, then, is a proof that we are born of Him who, in His nature, is its source. In presence also of the world’s hatred, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Thus, having a good conscience, we have confidence in God, and we receive from Him whatsoever we ask, walking in obedience and in a way that is pleasing to Him. Thus walking, we dwell in Him [16] and He in us.
A third proof of our Christian privileges arises here. The Spirit whom He has given us is the proof that He Himself dwells in us, the manifestation of the presence of God in us. He does not here add that we abide in Him, because the subject here is the manifestation of the presence of God. The presence of the Spirit demonstrates it. But in abiding in Him there is, as we shall see farther on, the enjoyment of that which He is, and consequently moral communion with His nature. He who obeys enjoys this also, as we have seen. Here the presence of the Holy Ghost in us is spoken of as demonstration of one part only of this truth, namely, that God is in us. But the presence of God in us according to grace, and according to the power of the Spirit, involves also communion with that nature; we dwell also in Him from whom we derive this grace, and all the spiritual forms of that nature, in communion and practical life. It is in 1Jn 4:12 and 1Jn 4:16 of chapter 4. that our apostle speaks of this.
Practical righteousness or obedience, the love of the brethren, the manifestation of the Spirit of God, are the proofs of our relationship to God. He who obeys the Lord’s commandments in practical righteousness dwells in Him, and He in him. The Spirit given is the proof that He dwells in us.
Footnotes for 1 John Chapter 3
13: See previous note
14: John uses habitually the word “children,” not “sons,” as the more distinctly expressing that we are of the same family. We are as Christ before God and in the world, and so will be when He appears.
15: In Rom 2:12, the word is used in contrast with law breaking, or sinning under law. That is, the Greek word here used for what is translated “transgression of the law” is that used for sinning without law, in contrast with sinning under law, and being judged by it. I do not dissemble that this changing what is a definition of sin is a very serious thing.
16: Here dwelling in Him comes first, because it is practical realisation in an obedient heart. His dwelling in us is then pursued apart as known by the Spirit given to us, to guard against being misled by evil spirits. In 1Jn 4:7, he resumes; the indwelling in connection with the love of God.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 11, 19 2. The glory of the Sonship
2. The glory of the Sonship
1Jn_3:1-3
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1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed63 upon us64, that we should be called the sons65 of God66; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God67, and it doth not yet appear68 what we shall be: but69 we know that when he shall appear70, we shall be like him; for71 we shall see him as he Isaiah 3 And every man that hath this hope in him72 purifieth himself, even as he is pure73.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Origin of the adoption.74 v. la.
1Jn_3:1 a. Behold!—John desires to call the attention of his readers to their filial state, (Mar_13:1; Joh_1:29), not without his own amazement at its glory, whereof, he himself, as a child of God, had made experience and therefore he uses in the sequel ἡμῖν not ὑμῖν. The former (noted only by Augustine, Sander and Huther) should be combined with the latter (to which Lyra and Grotius call attention), so that the right view lies not midway between these two. thoughts (Düsterdieck), but in their combination.
What manner of love the Father hath given to us.—Ποτατός, of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and (according to Buttmann, Lexicog. 125, 302) probably derived from ποῦ, πόθεν, and ἀπὸ(πο-απός) with an inserted ὁ (pro-d-ire, pro-d-esse), and properly ought to be written ποδαπός, as it used to be written formerly, denotes literally wherefrom? whence? cujas? The question relates to extraction and race. Descent and quality are inquired after. So Luk_1:29 : ποταπὸς εἴη ὁ ἀσπασμός; Mat_8:27 : ποταπός ἐστιν οὖτος. Descent and extraction are wholly lost sight of and there remains nothing but kind and quality. Luk_7:39; 2Pe_3:11; Mar_13:1. In the last passage the word slightly touches the sense of quantus. Hence it is wrong to translate “qualem et quantum amorem” (Socinus, Episcopius, Estius), what or “how great love” (Lücke, de Wette, Sander, Ewald) although we may admit that the signification of “qualis” plays into that of “quantus” (S. Schmidt, Düsterdieck, Huther).—Luther renders very well: “what glorious, sublime love!” The quality has, at any rate, to be retained. The fact, however, of its being undeserved is not implied in ποταπήν (Calvin), but rather in ἡμῖν, indignis, inimicis, peccatoribus (a Lapide), just as the ἀγάπη and its nature involves the idea of its greatness, even as the strength and greatness, the intensiveness and extensiveness of love are concentrated in Joh_3:16 : οὕτως ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεός. Luther pertinently observes in his Scholia: “Usus est Johannes singulari verborum pondere: non dicit, dedisse nobis deum donum aliquod, sed ipsam caritatem et fontem omnium bonorum, cor ipsum, idque non pro operibus aut studiis nostris, sed gratuito.” Ἀγάπη does not mean caritatis munus (Beza), effectus, documentum, beneficium, token or proof of love (Socinus, Episcopius, Grotius, Spener, Neander, al.); this is occasioned by δέδωκεν. Bengel: “non modo destinavit et contulit, sed etiam exhibuit” God has not only given in love, but He has given love itself, made it our own, absolutely given it to us so that His love is now ours. [a Lapide explains ἀγάπην in the R. C. interest, thus: “i.e. charitatem tum activam (actum amoris Dei quo nos mire amat), tum passivam no bisque a Deo communicatam et infusam. Videte quantam charitatem—nobis—præstitit et exhibuit Deus, cum—charitatem creatam nobis dedit et infudit, quia filii Dei nominamur et sumus.” Calvin’s turn lies hardly in the Apostle’s expression: “Quod dicit datam esse caritatem, significat: hoc meræ esse liberalitatis, quod nos Deus pro fitiis habet.”—M.]. The Apostle, writing from a sense and consciousness of the adoption, says ὁ πατὴρ and thus points to the sequel.
That we should be called children of God.—As we have not ὄτι as in Mat_8:27, the reference is not merely to the substance, the standing fact that we are called God’s children (in opposition to S. Schmidt, Episcopius, al.); as we have not ὅπως, as in Joh_11:57, the reference is not purely telic, as maintained by Lange, Lücke, de Wette, Brückner, Neander, al., who are compelled to specify as the gift of love something which is not contained in the text, e.g. that of God sending the Son in order to indicate the purpose of our sonship. But being God’s children is not a gift shortly to be communicated, not simply a present fact, but a task and problem, a fact only in process of becoming, only gradually accomplishing, not a creation of instantaneous occurrence or an immediately finished act of creation, but a work of God passing through different stages of development, and a history of man, a life wrought by God in man from a beginning to a high end, like the forgiveness of sins. Hence here, as in 1Jn_1:9, ἵνα signifies=that we should be called. Our adoption by the Father is the substance and aim of His love.—Καλεῖσθαι (Joh_2:23 : φίλος θεοῦ ἐκλήθη does not denote a predicate without substance, a name without a meaning or an empty title, for He that calls us children is God, and the blessed and glorious spirits in heaven. Then we are called so by men, by the brethren in earnest, by the world in mockery. “Where God gives names, He always gives also the being [the thing signified by the name M.].” Besser.—We have not the name of children without the sonship, even as we do not only call God Father; He is also our Father. But the acknowledgment of this sonship given by God and exhibited in the life, is here brought out. Although Augustine is wrong (“hic non est discrimen inter dici et esse”), yet is Calvin right (“inanis titulus esse non potest”). Hence the Greek commentators explain: εἴδετε γὰρ ὄτι ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τέκνα αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι τε καὶ κληθῆναι (Oecumenius), or καὶ λογισθῆναι (Theophyl.).—Baumgarten-Crusius and Neander after him, explains καλεῖσθαι with reference to Joh_1:12, by ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν γενέσθαι, but this is only the presupposition of καλεῖσθαι and it is not said that we should have the right to call ourselves children.—The position τέκνα θεοῦ indicates the notion of the sonship, the choice of the word τέκνα instead of υἱοί the beginning, the birth, the dependence, and the Genitive θεοῦ instead of αὐτοῦ the glory and highness of this sonship. Bengel: “Quid majus, quam Deus? quæ proprior necessitudo, quam filius?
And we are!—This adjunction, externally testified and internally required, is neither a gloss nor governed by ἵνα (Vulgate “et simus”) but an independent sentence designed to give special prominence and testimony to the reality of the sonship and the essence of the name; it is the gladsome expression of the certainty and of the consciousness founded on experience respecting this gift, although not exactly a triumphant exclamation over a hostile world. The assumption of Ebrard that κληθῶμεν indicates the relation of God to us and ἐσμὲν our relation to God, the former the fact of His being reconciled, the latter that of our changed nature and renovation, is unfounded. Both, indeed, are implied but not thus separated and distributed.
Antithesis of the Sonship 1Jn_3:1 b.
Therefore the world knoweth us not.—Διὰ τοῦτο refers back to what goes before: Because we are the children of God, the world knoweth us not. The Apostle mentions a necessary consequence of our being children of God, viz.: the world knoweth us not. He desires neither to meet an objection of believers (S. Schmidt), nor to express a ground of consolation [with respect to the persecutions to which they are exposed on the part of the world M.] (Luther, Grotius, de Wette, Lücke al.), but to adjoin an ever-recurring truth of our experience [I should prefer to say with Huther that the Apostle here describes the contrast between believers, τέκνα θεοῦ, and the world and the greatness of the love of the Father who gave them that endearing name. M.]. Ἡμᾶς denotes the relation and attitude, the nature and walk of the children of God, not external personality or. relation.—On ὁ κόσμος compare notes on 1Jn_3:15, and on γινώσκειν notes on 1Jn_3:3.—“The essence of the notion ὁ κόσμος according to John’s manner of thinking is antagonism to God; this,—and not the consideration of the numerical strength and influence of those who were opposed to the few and obscure Christians, and without being properly godless were wont to judge every thing by the standard of worldly wisdom (Episcopius),—is the basis of the Apostle’s argument.” (Düsterdieck). γινώσκειν signifies a knowing which moves the whole man, rests on personal experience, voluntary agreement and lively interest, and agrees with the frame of mind, and the bias of life. The world does not understand Christians, seeks no intercourse with them, takes no part with them, or stands by them, and has no liking for them: all this is involved in οὐ γινώσκειν and signifies: does not know them [thoroughly or experimentally; the world has no conception of the spiritual nature of Christians.—M.]. Cf. 1Jn_5:13; Joh_16:33; Joh_15:20-21. Hence the explanations of Grotius “non agnoscit pro suis,” Semler “rejicit, reprobat,” Baumgarten-Crusius and others=μισεῖ are wrong. This relation subsisting between an ungodly world and the children of God the Apostle further explains in the following proposition:
Because it knew Him not.—Ὅτι does not depend on διὰ τοῦτο; John’s purpose is to explain how it happens that the world does not understand the Christians, because they are children of God, and he observes accordingly that the fault lies not with the children of God, but it is the fault of the world itself, because it has not known God. Γινώσκειν of course must be taken here in the same sense as in the former clause and, neither=credere in Deum (S. Schmidt), nor=nôsse doctrinam, curare divinam legem, jussa Dei observare (Episcopius), but “the whole contrast in mind and bias, also hatred and persecution” (de Wette) are embraced in the world’s not knowing God, both with reference to the children of God and to God Himself. The conclusion is valid: οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν υἱοθετήσαντα (Oecumenius), therefore οὐ γινώσκει τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ. Hence αὐτόν must designate God and not Christ. Because we are born of God, and have been made partakers of the Divine nature, the world knoweth not us, which did not know God.—The change of tense in γινώσκει and ἔγνω must not be overlooked. The fact of the world not knowing the children of God is conditioned by the fact of its not knowing God. This is the first, on which depends the second. The knowledge of God is the ground of the knowledge of man and the knowledge of the world, which are not wanting in the children of God; self-knowledge also depends on it. All these are wanting where the knowledge of God is wanting; there is wanting the knowledge and understanding of believers and personal knowledge with respect to the whole and he general to which people belong, and with respect to the particular, even down to their own heart and nature. They know nothing, not even, what they do (Luk_23:34).
The hope of the Sonship. 1Jn_3:2.
1Jn_3:2. Beloved.—This address, ἀγαπητοί, denotes a relation in which love is experienced, and in the present case experience of the love of God, whose children they are, and of the love of those with whom they are connected, and accordingly constitutes an antithesis to the preceding clause: We are children of God and therefore the world knoweth us not.
Now are we children of God.—The former ἐσμέν culminates in τέκνα θεοῦ and the preceding particle νῦν and is repeated after the parenthetical antithesis pointing first to the fact that the world does not know the children of God now, and secondly to the future. The context and position of νῦν require it to be taken as a particle of time (in opposition to de Wette: now, pursuant to that purpose of love). Thus it is emphatically asserted, that, notwithstanding the opposition of the world, we are already the children of God, although the glory of our sonship is still concealed and imperfect. So Lücke and Düsterdieck against Huther [who denies a reference to the preceding verse and considers νῦν used with respect to the future (οὔπω) to indicate the present glory of the children of God; adding that the Apostle before mentioning the future glory, notices the fact that it is as yet concealed.—M.].
And it hath not yet been manifested what we shall be.—Antitheses to the preceding are νῦν and οὔπω, ἐσμέν, and ἐσόμεθα, τέκνα θεοῦ, and τί, which is further answered by ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ, just as οὔπω ἐφανερώθη is carried further in ἐὰν φανερωθῇ and οἴδαμεν continued in ὀψόμεθα. These antitheses, however, are not contraria, but developments of the present τέκνα θεοῦ ἐσμέν, the development of the adoption into the inheritance. The argument therefore is properly carried on by καὶ (in opposition to Beza, Grotius, Spener and others, who construe καὶ as a Hebraism in the sense of ἀλλά), and δὲ after οἴδαμεν is rightly wanting (contrary to S. Schmidt, Lücke, Sander and others).—Οὔπω ἐφανερώθη points to something actually existing but as yet concealed. For φανεροῦν means to make manifest, to bring to light, so as to be open to sight and to be known; not from the word itself, but from the context it has to be determined whether this manifestation is to take place factually, by means of historical development and events, or logically by means of instruction and teaching; here the former course is very distinctly marked (so Huther in opposition to Ebrard) so also 1Jn_2:19; Joh_2:11; Joh_7:4; Joh_17:6; Joh_21:1. The context in like manner implies to whom this manifestation is to be made, if it is not explicitly stated. The primary reference is here probably to the world, the secondary to believers (Düsterdieck). The interrogative (τί ἐσόμεθα) presents no difficulty, and contains nothing to favour Ebrard’s opinion, since not only after verbs of knowing, inquiring etc., and in direct questions, but also in cases where classical writers would certainly have used ὅ, τι the N. T. writers use the interrogative pronoun; cf. Winer p. 181; Buttmann p. 216. On the thought itself compare Col_3:3 (ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν κέκρυπται σὺν τῷ Χριστῷ ἐν τῷ θεῷ) Rom_8:17 (εἰ δὲ τέκνα, καὶ κληρονόμοι—θεοῦ, συγκληρονόμοι δὲ Χριστοῦ), and 1Jn_2:18 (οὐκ ἄξια τὰ παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφῆναι εἰς ἡμᾶς), also Gal_4:1 (ἐφ’ ὅσον χρόνον ὁ κληρονόμος νήπιός ἐστι, οὐδὲν διαφέρει δούλου κύριος πάντων ὤν.) It is important to remember that what is said is: “it has not yet appeared what we shall be” and not, that “we shall be something which as yet we are not”: οὔπω negatives not the being, but the having appeared, the being manifested. There is only one Divine sonship (child-ship); non dantur gradus υἱότητος(Calov). But it has its status or stages, its unfolding and development, the development of the inner being of a child of God and the unfolding of their manifold privileges and possessions. “The future already exists in the germ and is latent in the present” (Düsterdieck). Augustine: “Quid est ergo, quod jam expectamus, si jam filii Dei sumus? quid autem erimus aliud, quam filii Dei?” However different the future state may be from the present and although we must distinguish the one from the other, the former is not absolutely new [Huther—M.]. This is the force of οὔπω ἐφανερώθη, which only brings out and opens to sight that which is concealed, and this is the ἐσμέν become ἐσόμεθα. [Oecumenius: τὸ γὰρ νῦν ἄδηλον φανερὸν γενήσεται, ἐκείνου ἀποκαλυπτομένου. ὅμοιοι γὰρ αὐτῷ ἀναφανέντες τὸ τῆς υἱοθεσίας λαμπρὸν παραστήσομεν. οἰ γὰρ υἱοὶ πάντες ὅμοιοι τῷ πατρί.—M.]. But what does that consist in?
We know that when it shall be manifested, we shall be like (similar to)Him.—Οἵδαμεν signifies certainty of knowing, not only guess-knowledge (Jachmann), and knowing participated in not only by the Apostles (Episcopius), but by all Christians (Calvin), by all of whom it is said: τέκνα θεοῦ ἐσμέν. The object of that knowing is: ὅτι ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα. The occurrence of this future condition is indicated by ἐὰν φανερωθῇ. As we have ἐὰν and not ὅταν the reference is not only to the time when (Socinus and al.), but to the reality of the matter, cf. notes on 1Jn_2:28. Also Joh_12:32; Joh_14:3; Joh_16:7. The Vulgate gives the precise shade of thought: cum apparuerit, bringing out the force of the Fut. exact. applied in the Subj. Aorist. The subject of φανερωθῇ is τί ἐσόμεθα, which is clear from the unmistakable reference to ἐφανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα. No expositor has seriously thought of God, but several supply Christ (Augustine, Bede, Calvin, Calov and others.).—Φανεροῦσθαι τί ἐσόμεθα coincides with the coming of Christ and quoad rem, it is very possible to think here of Christ. But φανεροῦν would then have to be explained here of His appearing in glory, whereas it is used in 1Jn_2:5 of His appearing in the flesh and expressly referred to Him by the demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος, and the same verb had different subjects in the two sentences immediately succeeding each other. We may admit here “the possibility of that reference, the reality of which” is stated in 1Jn_2:5, but have to maintain with the greater number of expositors that the concinnity of the diction requires us to supply to φανερωθῇ the same subject which belongs to ἐφανερώθη, namely τί ἐσόμεθα, especially since the latter is explained by ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα; the latter two as well as the two forms of φανεροῦσθαι are correlatives. Oecumenius excellently remarks: τὸ γὰρ νῦν ἄδηλον φανερὸν γενήσεται, ἐκεῖνου ἀποκαλυπτομένου: ὅμοιοι γὰρ αὐτῷ ἀναφανέντες τὸ τῆς υἱοθεσίας λαμπρὸν παραστήσομεν. οἱ γὰρ υἱοὶ πάντως ὅμοιοι τῷ πάτρι.—Ὅμοιος is resembling, similar to and not=equal to (Sander); it is not=ἴσος [the English “like” is ambiguous signifying both “similar” and “equal.” I have retained “like” in the text, but given “similar” in brackets.—M.]. Of Christ Paul says: τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ Php_2:6; and His enemies: ἴσον τῷ θεῷ, Joh_5:18. Luke calls υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ—ἰσάγγελοι but not ἴσοι θεῷ—Recollect the controversy of ὁμοούσιον and ὁμοιούσιον.—Ὅμοιος signifies similarity in external form and appearance (ὁράσει, Rev_4:3; cf. Rev_1:13; cf. Rev_1:15; Rev_9:7; Rev_9:10; Rev_9:19), and then in kind and authority (Joh_8:55; Rev_13:4; Rev_18:18). It is certain that “the creature will never become Creator” (Luther I), and “Non erimus idem, quod Deus, sed similes erimus Dei” (Luther, Schol.). That the connection requires us to to apply αὐτῷ to God and not to Christ, is clear and almost universally acknowledged; hence Bengel says very pointedly: “Deo, cujus sumus filii.” Now although the notion of resemblance to God is somewhat vague, the question arises whether the context does not shed light on the subject. Huther indeed rightly observes that commentators are not warranted in arbitrarily restricting it, but the attempt of deriving more light from the context must not be absolutely repudiated. Much will depend on the right understanding of the adjoined sentence.
Because we shall see Him as He is.—The annexation by ὅτι points to a casual relation of resemblance to God and seeing God. This is almost universally acknowledged. Hence it is wrong to take ὅτι=ἀλλὰ καὶ (Oecumenius), or=ὅτε καὶ (Scholiast. II.), or=et (Luther, Schol.), for this disturbs and negatives the internal relation of the two. Nor does ὅτι describe the “Modus hujus transformations” (Lyra). It is most natural to take the internal relation of resemblance to God and seeing God, so that the cause of resemblance to God lies in seeing God: we shall be similar to God, because we shall see Him face to face. For grammatically and dialectically this course is pointed out to us. We shall be similar to Him, because we shall see Him, says the Apostle, and not: ὀψόμεθα αὐτὸν, ὅτι ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα (Düsterdieck). The resemblance to God is the end of the love of God, and not the seeing God which is simply the instrument of the former. Cf. Joh_17:24. As γινώσκειν conduces to having (ἔχειν), so seeing God effects the being, and more particularly the being similar to Him. Hence the internal relation of the two is reversed if ὅτι is supposed to add only a “testimonium aut signum similitudinis” (Carpzov), not the cause of it, or if the seeing God is taken as the effect, from which is inferred the cause, resemblance of God (Calvin, Socinus, Episcopius, Rickli). Nor may we infer with Huther that because we shall see Him, therefore we know now (οἴδαμεν) that we shall be similar to Him; particularly as that knowledge rests on the sonship, which is a fact, and the word of promise given to the children of God. But this seeing must be taken in the full acceptation of the word, a real perfect seeing in the resurrection-body, and not only a real knowing The believer is in the σῶμα πνευματικόν (1Co_15:44) and sees face to face (1Co_13:12); it is “maxime practica visio, summi boni αἴσθησις plenissima” (J. Lange).—The object of this seeing is God, καθώς ἐστι: “As He is not only in His Image etc., but in Himself and in His Being, His perfect majesty and glory (Spener). Such a seeing of God is a real ground of resembling God according to Rev_22:4 : καὶ ὄψονται τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτο͂υ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αύτοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν μετώπων αὐτῶν. 2Co_3:18 : ἡμεῖς—ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τὴν δόξαν κυρίου κατοπτριζόμενοι τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα μετα ορφούμεθα ἀπὸ δόξης εἰς δόξαν, καθάπερ ἀπὸ κυρίπυ πνεύματος. Hence Bengel: “ex aspectu similitudo.” Spener: “The seeing is the cause of the likeness.” So likewise de Wette, Neander, Düsterdieck, Ebrard. The seeing God must react on him who sees by glorifying him into that which is the object of his seeing, making him similar to Him whom he sees. Thus is fulfilled the promise that we shall be θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως (2Pe_1:4). Hence we must not think with Ebrard of “the light-nature of God,” or with de Wette of “the δόξα of God,” and still less with S. Schmidt and Düsterdieck only of 1Jn_2:29 : δικαιός ἐστιν, but rather with the Greek expositors (συμβασιλεύσομεν καὶ συνδοξασθήσομεν αὐτῷ) also of our joint inheritance with Christ, since 1Jn_2:28 (cf. Rom_8:17; 2Ti_2:12) suggests as much, and we may say with Luther that we have become lords of sin, of death and the devil. But although Calov clearly passes the bounds of exegesis in his dogmatical thought (“ratione mentis sapientia, ratione voluntatis sanctitate et justitia, ratione corporis immortalitate, ratione utriusque gloria et felicitate æterna deo similes erimus”), those who are held fast in the enlightenment of the understanding by no means do justice to the text; and of these men Oertel caps the climax in his philosophical exposition: “I believe that the reference here is simply to the higher perfection of the knowledge of the Christian religion and the sense to be as follows: Some day, after several generations and centuries, mankind, which as yet clings overmuch to the spirit of coarseness, will be more enlightened, ennobled and happy and thus by means of the more perfect light that is to rise, attain to a perfect knowledge of the plan of God and the purpose of Jesus.—Ah, John, if thou hadst had a presentiment of the bloody Nicæades, Costnitziades, Dragoonades, edicts, etc. and the times when thousands were slaughtered in honour of religion!—But—thy presentiment of the education of mankind in religion, virtue and philanthropy will yet be perfected by the Providence of the Almighty Father.” [Augustine (Tract. in Ep. Joh_4:5) who however understands αὐτῷ and αὐτόν of Christ, exclaims: “Ergo visuri sumus quandam visionem, fratres, quam nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit: visionem quandam, visionem præcellentem omnes pulchritudines terrenas, auri, argenti, nemorum atque camporum, pulchritudinem maris et aëris, pulchritudinem solis et lunæ, pulchritudinem angelorum, omnia superantem, quia ex ipsa pulchra sunt omnia.”—M.].
The power of this hope. 1Jn_2:3.
1Jn_3:3. And every one that hath this hope on Him, halloweth himself.—With καὶ which is not=οὖν, John annexes the sentence expressing “the moral effect of Christian hope” (Huther), which although it contains an exhortation in point of sense, yet formally expresses it as a fact and that more emphatically, since it intimates in decided terms that he who does not hallow himself, surrenders that hope in ingratitude. For πᾶς ὁ ἔχων is omnis et solus; “Every one—and only such an one; for as this hope (1Jn_2:2) peculiarly and exclusively belongs to the children of God, they and they only enjoy the power of such a hope whether it is to exhibit itself in sanctification, as here, or to afford patienee and joyfulness (Rom_8:14 sqq.; Rom_8:23 sqq.)” (Düsterdieck), and ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ i.e. θεῷ denotes “the fulcrum” (Huther), or still better “the real foundation of this hope” (J. Lange), the ground and soil out of which it grows up, so that S. Schmidt rightly observes: “Deus gignit spem.” Grotius weakens the thought: “Sicut Deus eam spem vult concipi.” Besides ἐλείζειν ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ (God) occurs Rom_15:12 and ἐπὶ πλούτου ἀδηλότητι, ἀλλ̓ ἐν τῷ θεῷ 2 Tim. 6:17, although ἔχειν ἐλπίδα ἐπὶ cum dat., occurs only here and with εἰς θεὸν Act_24:15.—̔Ο ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα is not the same as ὁ ἐλπίζων, the latter denoting only the act of hope, but the former describing hope as a permanent property, as a fixed possession, so that the act of hoping is uninterrupted and lasting. Hence it is neither necessary nor correct to explain ἔχειν, as holding fast or preserving (Benson, Spener), or to take here ἐλπίδα as the object of hope, that which one is objectively entitled to hope (Ebrard). Τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην naturally leads us to think of ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα. This was 1Jn_2:2 the object and substance of οἴδαμεν. Now it is designated by ἔχειν τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ as the object of a yearning desire in the power of God, in order to bring out the purifying reaction in our earthly life. The mere ἐλπίζειν would be incongruous with the ἁγνίζειν ἑαυτὸν, which is affected and to be effected. Primarily, however, this hope and self-sanctification only are here connected (Hofmann), but the state of having hope and participation in this hope are presupposed in the case of the acts of such sanctifying of oneself. “Qui habet hanc spem et credit, se esse filium Dei, et expectat donec fides sua reveletur, is sine dubio ita accendetur spe illa, ut se purificet, nec involvat se sordibus carnis, sed carnem mortificabit” (Luther). Self-sanctification necessarily combined with Christian hope (de Wette) is its effectus (Hunnius). Hope is the mother of sanctification, not the reverse, as Grotius maintains. Nor is sanctification the condition of the fulfilment of this hope (Lücke and several Roman Catholic commentators), nor must we find here the combination of both views (Schlichting, Episcopius). ̔Αγνίζειν from ἁγνός=καθαρός (Suidas), טָהוֹר (Num_8:21; Num_6:2-3; Psa_11:7) clean, pure; applied; in the New Testament to wisdom (Jas. 3:47), to one fulfilling a vow (Act_21:24; Act_21:26; Act_24:18), to the Christian walk (1Pe_1:22; Jam_4:8; 2Co_6:6; 1Ti_5:22), and to the chaste (Tit_2:5; 2 Tim. 4:12; 5:2; 2Co_11:2). It signifies accordingly ἐλευθερία παντὸς μολυσμοῦ σαρκὸς καὶ πνεύματος (Phavorinus), ἡ τῶν ἁμαοτημάτων ἀποχή (Clement. Alex.). Hence it is the opposite of impure, and ἅγιος the opposite of profane, although the latter denotes inward impurity and the former outward profanity [pollution] as a consequence and in a secondary sense. The reference to God, who is δίκαιος and whom we are to resemble, necessitates us not to restrict the meaning of ἁγνίζειν to castificare (Augustine), but to take it in a wider sense like καθαρίζειν (1Jn_1:7; 1Jn_1:9.). “Hoc non tantum de illa turpitudine carnis intelligendum est, sed de omnibus passionibus animi vitiosis, ira, avaritia, invidia, odio, superbia, gloriæ cupididate etc.” (Luther). The object of this hallowing is ἑαυτὸν, that is to say our own self, and not only particular details of our life or our outward life. The exhortations of Peter (2Pe_3:13-14) and Paul (2Co_7:1) are analogous in point of matter. The Present denotes uninterrupted self-purification (Beza, Spener, Grotius, al.), because the Divine life in us constantly encounters impurity and unrighteousness and because these must be done away (Düsterdieck). But this self-purification does not proceed from our own self in the same manner as it bears upon it; hence there is no αὐτὸς by the side of ἑαυτόν. Augustine pointedly says in this respect: “Quis non castificat nisi Deus? Sed Deus te nolentem non castificat. Ergo quod adjungis voluntatem tuam Deo, castificas te ipsum. Castificas te, non de te, sed de illo, qui venit, ut habitet in te. Tamen quia agis ibi aliquid voluntate, ideo et tibi aliquid tributum est.” The power, the impulse and initiative of self-purification do not reside in the liberum arbitrium of man, but in that on which rests the hope which impels self-purification. [See Huther.—M.].
Even as He is holy.—̓Εκεῖνος is Christ, according to the constant use of that word in juxtaposition with αὐτὸς, in the writings of John. Cf. 1Jn_2:6. While the context required us to apply αὐτὸς to God, ἐκεῖνος may and must be applied to Christ, as the more remote subject. We cannot refer both to Christ (Aretius, Estius, Calvin), or both to God (Lyra, Socinus, al.). Christ is the pattern, and expressly shows us how we may become similar to God. If the Apostle had said only: καθὼς ἐκεῖνος, we should then have been obliged to supply ἁγνίζειν. This is impossible, and the Apostle therefore adjoins ἁγνός ἐστι; purity belongs to Him essentially, He is absolutely and originally holy and righteous, “in most perfect harmony with the original righteousness as well as the original purity of the Father” (Düsterdieck) see 1Jn_2:5; 1Jn_2:7, 1Jn_2:1. “The ἁγνότης is an attribute inhering in Christ” (Lücke), and ἐστι, not: ἦν, indicates an uninterrupted and permanent condition (Joh_1:18). There is no reason why καθὼς should be explained by quando-quidem and the purity of Christ should be construed into a second motive of self-purification (as Ebrard does). Even the externally direct relation to Christ is sufficiently manifest to the specifically Christian way of thinking, in virtue of the position of Christ as our only and eternal Mediator, and indispensable to John’s manner of contemplation; the immutable state of Christ is the perfect standard of Christians, and not only an outward example set before us, but a vital power. Cf. 1Jn_1:1; 1Jn_2:1; 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_3:5; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:16; 1Jn_4:17; [that is: the purity of Christ is the immutable and perfect standard and pattern according to which Christians should shape and mould their whole life, not only outwardly in acts, but inwardly in the disposition of the heart and the determination of the will.—M.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The state of our being the children of God is a gift of the preëminent love of God; this is a point to be insisted upon in opposition to Pelagius and all Pelagian errors. A chaste exegesis requires us not to go beyond this general character of this passage and neither to beat (with Calvin) with it “the sophists” who postulate the foreseen future dignity of those whom God adopts, nor to find here the Lutheran principle “regeneratio præcedit fidemsanctificatio,” while the (German) Reformed hold: “fides præcedit regenerationem.” Here is simply the assertion of the prevenient love of the Father as the cause of our adoption, as in 1Jn_4:10.
2. But not only from God, but from God only, from God exclusively proceedeth all the divine life, which passes before him. Our life of faith takes us back to Him, the Father, whose Nature is love.
3. Christianity brings not new information but a new life, not a new doctrine but a new nature, which like the natural, bodily birth has however its growth and development from the hidden, germ-like beginning to the most glorious perfection.
4. The world with all its glory does neither understand the kingdom of God nor the people and history of this kingdom; here is the ground and beginning of all enmity against the Church of Jesus and Christian Church-ordinances (Luk_23:34). Our Lord’s prayer: ἵνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύσῃ—Joh_17:21, does not contradict the language of John. Christ adverts to the means designed to break through the mind and hardness of the world, while John here bears testimony to the mind and hardness of the world without intending to exclude that they may and should be counter acted and that not in vain.
5. But the first thing the world ought to be helped to get is that it may know God and the Divine. The knowledge of God, which however is only excited under the influence and manifestations of His love, conditions the knowledge of His people and kingdom.
6. The adoption of God has a history from its first beginning to its perfected glorification in the likeness of God, which takes place in consequence of the perfect vision of God, the seeing God effecting the transformation into the Image of God.
7. That which one day will become perfect in seeing God must begin here on earth in faith, and the glorification into the Image of God has its beginning in the sanctification wrought on earth. But this does by no means put the sanctificatiojustificatio in the power of man. For first it does not go before the justificatio (as is assumed by Roman Catholics) and secondly it has respect only to those who are born of God and takes place only by means of the power conveyed and appropriated in regeneration; consequently although it takes place with our own power, yet is this power not originally our own but only bestowed by the grace of God and made our own in faith, so that Wolf is perfectly right in saying: “aliud est δικαιοῦν, aliud ἁγνίζειν, prius illud in hominem non cadit,—ut vero posterius.” Compare the quotation from Augustine in Exegetical and Critical on 1Jn_2:3.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Two wonderful things: 1. The love of God which desires to adopt us as children; 2. The perverseness of the world which does not know such a Lord.—Art thou more astonished at God’s loving attitude to the world, or at the world’s hateful attitude to God and His children? Dost thou think it more strange that God treats thee as a child than that the world does not and will not understand thee? Dost thou not see that it is more natural and reasonable that the world is against thee than that God is for thee?—See that thou find thy way through all the proofs of the love of God even to that of His adoption of thee and through all the enmity of the world even to the knowledge of its ignorance and want of understanding! He only that does the former is able to do the latter.—Think of thy own and thy children’s adoption by God and inquire even in the case of one who is distasteful to thee, whether he is not as well as thou a child of God, and perhaps better entitled to be one than thou art thyself. This is very important and profitable for one’s own discipline, the education of one’s children and one’s intercourse with and among men.—Hope for the future, but do not expect to reap hereafter without sowing now; wouldst thou hereafter see God and become like Him it is necessary for thee to begin here to purify thyself by strenuous application.—Thy adoption rests on the foundation of God’s eternal love, reaches even into God’s eternal felicity, but in this temporal present and the present transitoriness it may be lost and therefore must be preserved all the infirmity of thy own flesh and all the enmity of the world notwithstanding.—Happy is the man whose joy flows from the grateful love of God and whose troubles proceed from a hostile world, but woe to him, whose joy is from beneath and whose troubles come from above, who is the friend of the world and the enemy of God, because he will not be His child.—At peace with God and at war with the world is a wholesome foundation for the alternatives of joy and trouble in thy life.—The import of our adoption by God: 1. Its Origin—the love of God. 2. Its Opposite—an ignorant world without understanding. 3. Its hope—blessed likeness to God. 4. Its power—the zeal of self-purification.—Vital questions and answers for the guidance of life. 1. Who is for thee? God in His eternal love. 2. Who is against thee? The world in its short-sightedness. 3. Whence? From God. 4. Whither? To God’s glory. 5. How? In the work of sanctification.
Clemens Romanus:—How blessed and how wonderful are the gifts of God! Life in immortality, splendour in righteousness, truth in joy, faith in confidence, chastity in holiness—all these are goods present to our mind.
Chrysostom:—Those who depise and deride us, know not who we are, citizens of heaven, belonging to an eternal fatherland, associates of the Cherubim; but they will know it in the day of judgment when they will exclaim with sighs and amazement, these are they whom we used to despise and deride.
[Cassiodorus:—Let us therefore so live, that when He shall come again, we may be able to behold Him, as He is, in all the fulness of His grace and glory.—M.]
Augustine:—The whole life of a Christian is a holy longing. What we long for, we do not yet see; but by longing thou art enlarging thyself so that when it is visible, thou mayest be filled therewith.—It is God alone who purifies us; but He does not purify thee, thyself unwilling; thou purifiest thyself, but not of thyself, but of Him [de Illo] who comes to dwell in thee.
Luther:—If God were strictly to reckon with us, He would owe us nothing but hell; but if He gives us heaven, it is of grace.
Starke:—Dost thou bear here the image of the devil and thinkest to become like Christ there? O, folly! O, deceit! Without the renovation of the divine Image none can attain to the glory of God.—Without purification hope of the future glory is impossible. The hope of the impure is daring, impudence and insolence.—Our Christianity is not so much a being pure as a continuous purifying oneself.—Believers purify not only one thing or another, but themselves, wholly, body and soul. The main work lies within and in the soul.—O, the shameful abuse of the Gospel! to be ever appealing to Christ and His merits, and yet never to follow His example!
Daniel:—Christian, whose is the best nobility? His, who is born of God. Who is the most honoured man? He whom God regards in grace.—A missionary in India (Ziegenbalg) is translating the New Testament with the assistance of a native. Coming to this verse the Hindoo youth translates: that we may be allowed to kiss his feet. The missionary asks: Why do you render thus? The Indian replies: A child! that is too much! too high!—That had never entered into a heathen’s heart.
Steinhofer:—A child of God is always an enigma to the world.
Heubner:—The children of God bear the image, the glory of the Father, enjoy his whole fatherly love and are destined to own what He owns. All this God bestows upon us, apostates and former enemies. Every one is asked to become such a child.—The Christians should have called themselves the children of God? ’Twere pitiable indeed, if they did assume this title and as it were raise themselves to the divine nobility, and worse than if a fool would presume to call himself baron or count. We should be called thus by God and the heavenly children of God; in the Bible the name and the thing are one; the Bible does not know empty trifles.—The sonship is nothing that dazzles the eye, fascinates and attracts in a worldly point of view; it is rather something that is hidden. The world has no eye for it; why? because it knows not God, whereas we see in God the highest and most glorious good, and deem that only glorious which comes from God.—The Christian is quiet, calm, courageous under all the want of appreciation he experiences at the hands of the world; it neither surprises nor disturbs him; being misunderstood by the world cannot injure him.—Christians are the children of a prince, who are obliged to travel in lowly garb, incognito, and as it were in order to be tried, through a foreign country before they take possession of their kingdom. A secret, inward sense of his sonship accompanies the Christian on his journey through the world, through its busy noise; in his heart he walks with God—virtue is not to become a display and an ostentation, therefore the children of God have neither coat of arms nor the badge of an order. The future dignity of Christians cannot be guessed from his appearance any more than it could be determined from the appearance of Christ in His manger-cradle.—They are not condemned to eternal obscurity.—O day beyond compare when God will call His children, saying; Come forth from your obscurity, rise from your lowliness!—The promises of Christianity are transcendently glorious; Christians are not to be like the blessed, the perfected saints or the angels, but like God; what man could have laid hold of this daring hope without revelation?—The Christian should, as it were, keep himself up in a state of excitement. He is terrified at the thought: What? Shouldst thou exchange thy heavenly birthright for the world’s mess of pottage? denounce thy faith and lose thy Christian rank for the lust of the flesh, mammon or worldly honour?—Sanctification, though it does not acquire salvation (for it is the gift of grace), yet preserves it. Purification continues day by day; we are often polluted.
Ebrard:—Our future glory is not an object of curiosity, not an object for inquisitiveness to be exercised about.—Not to purify oneself is tantamount to saying to God: “I do not want the jewel which thou holdest up before my eyes as the most precious jewel and promisest one day to give me: to be freed from sin I do not esteem a jewel.”
Besser:—Says David as a Christian before Christ: “I am as a wonder unto many,” Psa_71:7; much more are Christians after Christ the real children of wonder. The world, indeed, which will remain in the Wicked One, sees in the name of our sonship nothing but an empty, imaginary title.—Even though rejuvenated to the state of apostolical power and consecration the Church would yet have the world—although against her, yet not only outside of her (for bad fish also are found in the net), and woe to her, if she were ever to forget in the time of her militant state that her holiness is not perfected in those who are sanctified but only in Him who sanctifies them, and that in the administration of discipline over her members with which she is solemnly charged, she must use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God for the condemnation of sin and the salvation of sinners, and not the winnowing shovel for cleaning the threshing-floor.—John, in particular, cherishes the most profound conviction that there is only one life for the children of God in time and in eternity, and he knows of no future happiness but that which, like the rose in the bud, is already contained germ-like in faith.—As the eye cannot endure the presence of the smallest particle of dust but sheds tears until it is clear again, so also the Christian’s eye of hope eagerly looking forward to the coming glory will not tolerate the presence of a particle of the world’s dust, and if any fly into it, it contracts with the keenest sensibility and the Lord gives tears of penitence which wash away the dust.—
Tholuck:—How blessed is the lot of a believing disciple of the Saviour.
1. How blessed such a disciple is even now. Who recognizes in mankind, as we see it, who recognizes in it a family of God? The heathen, when they saw how Christians were so intimately united in the bonds of so novel a life, exclaimed; “See, how they love one another!—Blissful joy and astonishment at one and the same time. A child like mind cannot understand how and why it was thought worthy of so much grace and favour.
2. How blessed he will be hereafter. If you like, you may call it a defiance, but it is a divine defiance, as Luther says: “That faith gives man a defiant heart toward God and toward all creatures.” But what is the centre of all the hope of these poor and miserable people? is it honour, glory, enjoyment? Certainly. Rom_2:7-10.
3. Whereto that faith and this hope impel him. It cannot be the centre of Christian longing and hope in the hour of death that we shall see again our loved ones, but its centre is rather that we shall see Him again. Does it well forth from a weakly sense, or from that manly-strong sense, that seeing Him and to be like Him, freedom from sin and error, are one and the same thing? Purify your faith, steel your hope in the faith and hope of the disciple whom you regard only too often as the preacher of a weakly, morbid love.—That resemblance will not fall to thy share without thy own will. Thou must feel within thee the thirst for it and ask and examine thyself with holy love, what is still unclean in me?—Compare the notes on 1Jn_2:4-10.
Biarowsky:—The Holy Communion a glorification of the Triune God: 1. in that the Triune God glorifies Himself in it; 2. in that we glorify thereby the Triune God.
Genzken (Baptismal address):—What a gift! what a task! what a blessed end even for this child.
[Burkitt:—We shall be like him: in holiness as well as in happiness; as well in purity as immortality.—M.]
[Secker:—To be “like God” implies in few words everything desirable, that ever so many words can express.—M.]
[Bp. Conybeare:—The state of good men in the other world will carry with it a resemblance not in degree, but in kind, to the absolutely perfect Being, in those perfections of which man is capable: and that these will be produced in us by “seeing God as He is;” that is, by a vastly more distinct and more full sight of Him, than the present condition of human nature will admit of.—M.]
[Macknight:—And every man that hath this hope of seeing Christ, and of being like Him “purifieth himself.” The felicity, which the Gospel teacheth us to expect in the world to come, is not that of a Mohammedan paradise, in which animal pleasures are the chief enjoyments. The happiness of the children of God in the kingdom of their Father will consist in being like Christ, not only in respect of His immortality, but in respect of his transcendent virtues, especially His boundless benevolence. And the joy, which will flow from the possession and exercise of virtues similar to Christ’s is so great, that no one, who hopes to become like Christ in virtue and happiness, will indulge himself in the unrestrained enjoyment of sensual pleasures; but will purify himself from the immoderate desire of those pleasures, in imitation of the purity of Christ.—Purifieth himself, namely, from the lusts of the flesh and from every sin. The Apostle, as Beza has observed, does not say, “hath purified himself,” but “purifieth himself,” to show that it is a good man’s constant study to purify himself, because in this life no one can attain unto perfect purity. By this text therefore, as well as by 1Jn_1:8, those fanatics are condemned, who imagine they are able to live without sin.—M.]
[Horsley:—Would God a better conformity to the example of his purity, than actually obtains, were to be found in the lives of nominal Christians! the numbers would be greater, which might entertain a reasonable hope that they shall be made like to Him when He appeareth. But thanks be to God, repentance, in this as in other cases, genuine, sincere repentance, shall stand the sinner in the stead of innocence: the sinner is allowed to wash the stains, even of these pollutions, in the Redeemer’s blood.—M.]
[Compare also the thoughtful lecture of John Foster on 1Jn_3:2 : “Our Ignorance of our Future Mode of Existence.”—M.]
[Ez. Hopkins:—We shall see Him as He is: we must not understand it as if we could ever arrive to such a capacity as to see and know God as He is in His Infinite Essence: for God’s Essence being altogether indivisible, to know God essentially, were to know Him comprehensively; to know Him, as much as He is to be known in Himself; that is, to know Him as much as He knows Himself; which is impossible, for no finite understanding can comprehend an infinite object. And, yet, our sight and knowledge of God shall so far surmount those dim and glimmering discoveries which here He makes of Himself to us, that, comparatively, the Apostle might well call it, a seeing Him as He is, and a knowing Him as we are known by Him.—M.]
[On Chapter III. Manton, T., Thirty-two Sermons. Works, 5, 577.
1 John 3:1. Hieronymus, S., The spiritual sonship. 2 Serm. Works, 349.
1Jn_3:1-3. Stoughton, John. The dignitie of God’s children: or an exposition of 1 John 3, 1-3, plentifully shewing the comfortable, happie and most blessed state of all God’s children, and also, on the contrarie, the base, fearfull, and most woful condition of all other that are not the children of God. 4to. London. 1610.
1Jn_3:2. Tillotson, Abp. Of the happiness of good men in a future state. 2 Sermons. Serm. 10, 56.
Saurin, J. Heaven. Sermons 3, 321.
Venn, John. The effect of seeing God as He is. Serm. 1, 210.
Dwight, T. Adoption. Theol. 3, 167
Hamilton, R. W. The heavenly state. Congregat. Lecture, 235.
1Jn_3:3. South, R. The hope of future glory, an excitement to purity of life. Sermons 6, 441 (Epiph. 6). Hope of resembling Christ. Pitman, 2d course, L. 206.
Alford, H. The pure in heart. Hulsean Lecture, 1842. 41. M.]
Footnotes:
[63] 1Jn_3:1 δέδωκεν B. C. Sin; others, A. G. ἔδωκεν. [German: “hath given.”—M.]
[64] ἡμῖν A. C. Sin; others read ὑμῖν; so B. K. [The latter reading probably originated in the reference to the 2 pers. Plural; ἴδετε.—M.]
[65] [Greek: τέκνα θεοῦ; German: “children of God;” the Article is superfluous and unauthorized and “children” is decidedly preferable to “sons”—M.]
[66] καὶ ἐσμέν after κληθῶμεν is inserted by A. B. C. Sin; many cursives and versions. Vulg.: et simus; others: et simus. Erasmus took it to be an addition; the Recept. omitted it. The false translation of the Vulgate was a stumbling-block to many, also Luther, and they omitted the words accordingly [The German retains καὶ ἐσμέν and renders in an independent clause: “and we are (it i.e. God’s children).” Oecumenius explains: ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τέκνα αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι τε καὶ κληθῆναι and Theophylact: γενέσθαι τε καὶ λογισθῆναι. The authorities are decidedly in favour o the genuineness of the addition.—M.]
[67] [1Jn_3:2 τέκνα θεοῦ; German; “children of God.”—M.]
[68] [German “and it hath not yet become manifest.” Lillie: “A Passive verb with or without an adjective is employed by Syr.; Dutch, Italian verss.; Aug. Beza, Hammond, Pearson, Berleb. Bible, Bengel,” and many others. He himself renders: “and it hath not yet been manifested;” the German seeks to retain the Aorist in preference to the Perfect, but it is difficult to do so in idiomatic English.—M.]
[69] G. K. insert δὲ after οἴδαμεν. [A. B. C. Sin. al. omit it; the insertion may be readily accounted for by the apparent contrast with the preceding. The German omits δὲ and begins a new sentence thus: “We know etc.”—M.]
[70] [φανερωθῇ, German: “when it shall be manifest;” Lillie: “when it shall be manifested” and in paraphrase: “when the mystery of our future being is unveiled, this is what shall be disclosed: ‘we shall be like Him,’ whatever of glory and blessedness that involves.—M.]
[71] [1Jn_3:3 German “because.”—M.]
[72] [German “on Him” in lieu of the ambiguous and deceptive “in him” of E. V.—M.]
[73] [German: “halloweth himself even as He is holy.”—M.]
[74] Would it not be well to coin the word child-ship after the analogy of son-ship, fellow-ship, friend-ship, etc.? The word rendered “adoption” denotes “childship,” and for the want of such a word in English the terms “sonship”—“adoption” have been used for the German “Kindschaft.” M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–24 Beloved--by the Father, and therefore by me.
Beloved--by the Father, and therefore by me.
now--in contrast to "not yet." We now already are really sons, though not recognized as such by the world, and (as the consequence) we look for the visible manifestation of our sonship, which not yet has taken place.
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doth not yet appear--Greek, "it hath not yet ('at any time,' Greek aorist) been visibly manifested what we shall be"--what further glory we shall attain by virtue of this our sonship. The "what" suggests a something inconceivably glorious.
but--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Its insertion in English Version gives a wrong antithesis. It is not, "We do not yet know manifestly what . . . but we know," &c. Believers have some degree of the manifestation already, though the world has not. The connection is, The manifestation to the world of what we shall be, has not yet taken place; we know (in general; as a matter of well-assured knowledge; so the Greek) that when (literally, "if"; expressing no doubt as to the fact, but only as to the time; also implying the coming preliminary fact, on which the consequence follows, Mal 1:6; Joh 14:3) He (not "it," namely, that which is not yet manifested [ALFORD]) shall be manifested (Jo1 3:5; Jo1 2:28), we shall be like Him (Christ; all sons have a substantial resemblance to their father, and Christ, whom we shall be like, is "the express image of the Father's person," so that in resembling Christ, we shall resemble the Father). We wait for the manifestation (literally, the "apocalypse"; the same term as is applied to Christ's own manifestation) of the sons of God. After our natural birth, the new birth into the life of grace is needed, which is to be followed by the new birth into the life of glory; the two latter alike are termed "the regeneration" (Mat 19:28). The resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth, and being born into another life. Our first temptation was that we should be like God in knowledge, and by that we fell; but being raised by Christ, we become truly like Him, by knowing Him as we are known, and by seeing Him as He is [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed]. As the first immortality which Adam lost was to be able not to die, so the last shall be not to be able to die. As man's first free choice or will was to be able not to sin, so our last shall be not to be able to sin [AUGUSTINE, The City of God, 22.30]. The devil fell by aspiring to God's power; man, by aspiring to his knowledge; but aspiring after God's goodness, we shall ever grow in His likeness. The transition from God the Father to "He," "Him," referring to Christ (who alone is ever said in Scripture to be manifested; not the Father, Joh 1:18), implies the entire unity of the Father and the Son.
for, &c.--Continual beholding generates likeness (Co2 3:18); as the face of the moon being always turned towards the sun, reflects its light and glory.
see him--not in His innermost Godhead, but as manifested in Christ. None but the pure can see the infinitely Pure One. In all these passages the Greek is the same verb opsomai; not denoting the action of seeing, but the state of him to whose eye or mind the object is presented; hence the Greek verb is always in the middle or reflexive voice, to perceive and inwardly appreciate [TITTMANN]. Our spiritual bodies will appreciate and recognize spiritual beings hereafter, as our natural bodies now do natural objects.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–24 II. OUR REGENERATION AND SONSHIP—ITS GLORY AND REQUISITE PURITY…
II. OUR REGENERATION AND SONSHIP—ITS GLORY AND REQUISITE PURITY IN CONTRAST WITH THE FALSE (GNOSTIC) REGENERATION IN IMPURITY, 1Jn_3:1-24.
1. Present and possible prospective glory of our regenerate sonship, 1Jn_3:1-2.
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The Nicolaitans taught that the regenerate man might so “know God” as to deliver his material body over to all licentious indulgence and yet remain pure. Our apostle now declares that to be anti-Christianity. True regeneration is not purity in sin, but purity from sin. On the contrary, between regeneration and sin there is an absolute opposition. And to exhibit the two in strong contrast is the purpose of this chapter. One belongs to the realm of God, of Christ, of righteousness, of heaven; the other belongs to the realm of Satan, of unrighteousness, of destruction.
1. Behold—As if a new vision of the glory of our sonship, present and future, beamed on the apostle’s sight.
Manner—Style or nature. Not only is that love wonderful in amount, but it is most extraordinary in quality, working a strangely glorious transformation in and of us.
Of love—He beholds that sonship in the full glory of its source, the divine love.
Called—In the dialect of God, of heaven, and, therefore, of truth.
Sons— Literally, children. We were once generated as children of nature; we are regenerated as children of God. But this regeneration is as yet in commencement; is secret within us until its revelation in the resurrection, when the transformation will be complete and all-glorious. And our being divinely so-called is an acknowledgment of our sonship by the Father, who thereby adopts us as his and gives us the spirit of adoption, crying, Abba! Father! To this, the best reading, add, and we are. That is, not only are we so called, but we truly are the children of God. Therefore corresponds to because, indicating that the latter clause, knew him not, gives the reason for knoweth us not.
Knoweth us not—The Christian looks like anybody else; no gleam of divine glory gives token of his divine nobility to the eye of the world.
Knew him not—Even the Nicolaitan Gnostic, who so calls himself—that is, a knower, because he “knows God”—knew him not, and so recognises not us as his children.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–24 1. what manner of] The same word (ποταπός) occurs…
1. what manner of] The same word (ποταπός) occurs Mat_8:27; Mar_13:1; Luk_1:29; Luk_7:39; 2Pe_3:11 : it always implies astonishment, and generally admiration. The radical signification is ‘of what country’, the Latin cujas; which, however, is never used as its equivalent in the Vulgate, because in N. T. the word has entirely lost the notion of place. It has become qualis rather than cujas: ‘what amazing love’. In LXX. the word does not occur.
love] This is the key-word of this whole division of the Epistle (1Jn_2:19 to 1Jn_5:12), in which it occurs 16 times as a substantive, 25 as a verb, and 5 times in the verbal adjective ‘beloved’. The phrase ‘to bestow love’ occurs nowhere else in N. T.
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the Father … upon us] In the Greek these words are in striking juxtaposition: to us miserable sinners the Father hath given this priceless right. ‘The Father’ rather than ‘God’, because of what follows: He who is the Father is our Father.
that we should be called] Literally, in order that we should be called: it is S. John’s characteristic construction (ἵνα), as in 1Jn_1:9. “The final particle has its full force” (Westcott): comp. 1Jn_3:11; 1Jn_3:23, 1Jn_4:21; Joh_13:34; Joh_15:12; Joh_15:17. This was the purpose of His love, its tendency and direction. ‘That we should be’ must not be understood as future: we already have the title.
the sons of God] So the earlier English Versions: better, as R. V., children of God. There is no article in the Greek; and we must not confuse S. Paul’s expression, ‘sons of God’ (υἱοί) with S. John’s (τέκνα). The confusion has arisen in English Versions through the filii Dei of the Vulgate. Both Apostles tell us that the fundamental relation of believers to God is a filial one: but while S. Paul gives us the legal side (adoption), S. John gives us the natural side (generation). The latter is the closer relationship of the two. But we must remember that in the Roman Law, under which S. Paul lived, adoption was considered as absolutely equivalent to actual parentage. In this ‘unique apostrophe’ in the centre of the Epistle two of its central leading ideas meet, Divine love and Divine sonship; a love which has as its end and aim that men should be called children of God. After ‘children of God’ we must insert on overwhelming authority (אABC and Versions), and we are: God has allowed us to be called children, and we are children. The simus of the Vulgate and S. Augustine and the ‘and be’ of the Rhemish are probably wrong. The present indicative after ἵνα is not impossible: but would S. John have put ‘called’ in the subjunctive, and ‘are’ in the indicative, if the two verbs were co-ordinate?
therefore] Better, as R. V., for this cause (διὰ τοῦτο), reserving ‘therefore’ for a particle (οὖν) which is very frequent in the narrative portions of the Gospel, but does not occur in this Epistle (it is not genuine in 1Jn_2:24 or 1Jn_4:19). Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan and the Rhemish all have ‘for this cause’: the A. V., as not unfrequently, has altered for the worse. It may be doubted whether the R. V. has not here altered the punctuation for the worse, in putting a full stop at ‘we are’. ‘For this cause’ in S. John does not merely anticipate the ‘because’ or ‘that’ which follows; it refers to what precedes. ‘We are children of God; and for this cause the world knows us not: because the world knew Him not’. The third sentence explains how the second sentence follows from the first. Comp. Joh_5:16; Joh_5:18; Joh_7:22; Joh_8:47; Joh_10:17; Joh_12:18; Joh_12:27; Joh_12:39. For ‘the world’ see on 1Jn_2:2. S. Augustine compares the attitude of the world towards God to that of sick men in delirium who would do violence to their physician.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 11 (2) THE DIVINE BIRTH THE OUTCOME OF GOD’S LOVE…
III.
(2) THE DIVINE BIRTH THE OUTCOME OF GOD’S LOVE (1Jn_3:1-3).—The thought of the new birth suddenly fires the Apostle’s mind with reverent amazement, in which he calls on his hearers to join. He then sketches some consequences of the Sonship:—
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(a) Neglect by the world, just as the world knew not Him who made them sons.
(b) The future glory in the perfected likeness.
(c) The purifying result of hope.
Sons.—Rather, children. The asserted relationship is no mere empty rhetorical title. It is not only a comparison to point origin, dependence, sympathy, care, union, love; it is a fact. As our spiritual life comes from God, we have but to be conscious of it, and to claim its privileges.
(2 a.) It passes before St. John’s mind how strange it is that the stream of the world’s thought, the tide of the world’s history, should be going on as they had been before Christ came. Of how small account was the old man, at Ephesus, or elsewhere, in the eyes of the wise, the powerful, the popular! Why was this? Because God, manifest in Christ, had been unintelligible to the world as such, or, if intelligible, the cause only of antagonism. As far as the children were like their Father, so far would the elements that made up their character be antagonistic to the elements that make up the character of the world. For, as far as “the world” exists at all in the moral meaning of the word, it is a mixture of qualities and tendencies which may or may not be like each other, but which all agree in being opposed to true righteousness.
(2 b.) We can imagine some one saying in the room where St. John was dictating, or the thought occurring to himself, “If you say we are already sons, what shall we be hereafter?” We cannot say. It is not good for us to know. At any rate, there will be the perfected sonship, the completed likeness, the unquiet and rebellious children conformed to the Father’s character. (Comp. Rom_8:17-18; 1Co_2:9; Gal_4:1; Col_3:3.)
(1) Of God.—Literally, out of God—a part of His holy nature. (Comp. Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5-6; Rom_12:2; Eph_4:23-24; Tit_3:5; 1Pe_1:3; 1Pe_1:23; 2Pe_1:4.)
(2) For we shall see.—The old philosophical dogma, that if knowledge could be perfect it would necessitate virtue, is true in this sense: the more we see God in this life (provided it is a real sight) the more like Him we must be. When we are able to see Him, by entering on the glorified life hereafter, our likeness will have grown complete, and it will never again be able to be defaced. (Comp. Psa_17:15; Mat_5:8; 1Co_13:12; 2Co_3:18; Rev_22:4.) A true knowledge must be convincing; when we are permitted to see the actual truth in God Himself, it will be impossible for any corner of the soul to remain unconvinced, unwarmed, unrenewed.
(2 c.) St. John, as usual, turns gently to the practical side of his thought. If we really hold this glorious hope of the future likeness, it cannot help having a correlative force in our present life. Such a hope must be the mother of the determination to be purified here; the resolve to be rid of all pollution in body or soul, and to struggle free from the chains of sins. The word for purifying is applied in the New Testament—
1. To wisdom (Jas_3:17);
2. To vows (Act_21:24; Act_21:26; Act_24:18);
3. To the Christian walk (2Co_6:6; 1Ti_5:22; Jas_4:8; 1Pe_1:22);
4. To chastity (2Co_11:2; 1Ti_4:12; 1Ti_5:2; Tit_2:5).
Our Lord gives a list of things that defile in Mat_15:18. St. John probably thought of Mat_5:8 in thus connecting the future vision with present purity.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–24 1Jn_5:12. 1Jn_5:3. SECOND MAIN DIVISION. God is Love.
1Jn_5:12. 1Jn_5:3. SECOND MAIN DIVISION. God is Love.
Vers. 1-24. (1) The evidence of sonship. Righteousness.
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Vers. 1-3. The Divine birth is the outcome of the Divine love.
Behold what manner of love! Potapov; literally, "of what country," in the New Testament always implies amazement (Matthew Mar_13:1; Luk_1:29 Luk_7:39; 2Pe_3:11) but, as the original meaning leads us to expect, it implies marvelous quality rather than marvelous size. Love must be taken literally: the Divine love itself, and not a mere proof of it, has been given. Potaphphn strikes the key-note of the whole section. "And the goal of this love ina is that once for all (aorist) we have received the title "children of God. And, whatever cavilers may say, the title is rightfully ours. (The words, "and (such) we are," are quite rightly inserted in the Revised Version after "children of God.") This is shown by the fact that the world does not recognize us as such, because from the first it did not recognize God. Had it known the Father, it would have known the children, Dia touto in St. John refers to what precedes; (Joh_5:16, 18 7:22 8:47 10:17 12:18, 27, 39) it does not merely anticipate the oti which follows it. In logical phraseology we have here first the major premise, then the conclusion introduced by dia touto, then (to clench the argument) the minor premise introduced by oti, We are children of God; Therefore the world knows us not; For the world knows not God.
But we must beware of supposing that every one who fails to recognize our form of Christianity is necessarily of the world. St. John invariably (but Rev_21:7) speaks of "children of God" tekna Qeou, St. Paul generally of "sons of God", uiJoi Qeou. The latter expression can apply to adopted sons; the former, strictly speaking, implies actual parentage. In saying klhqwmen kai ejsmen, St. John appeals to the conscious nobility of Christians: we have this magnificent title with its corresponding dignity.
Vers. 1, 2.
What manner of love!
Connecting link: The apostle has just spoken about being "born of God." This suggests the thought that, if born of God, then are we children! A relation so near and dear, a privilege so great, inspires him with a rapturous joy. He lingers exultingly on the thought, and calls on his fellow-believers to contemplate it as an amazing proof of the love of God. Whence our topicSo great love an object for adoring contemplation. There are some texts which actually oppress the preacher with their grandeur. This is certainly one of them. The utmost that we can do is to ask the reader to follow us as we endeavour to point out what it contains, and then to invite to its full and loving contemplation. This is our order of exposition. "Behold," etc.
I LET US OPEN UP THE CONTENTS OF THIS GREAT LOVE OF GOD AS POINTED OUT IN THE TEXT. Need we ask, "What is love?" The question would have been needless were it not that human handling has so vitiated the New Testament teachings concerning it. Evidently here love is regarded in action. So looked at, love is righteousness and benevolence acting in harmony. Apart from righteousness, benevolence would be a maudlin sentimentalism, Righteousness without benevolence would seem rigid and frigid. Benevolence is the beauty of righteousness. Righteousness is the strength of benevolence. "Strength and beauty" are both in God; and, together, they make up love. Here we have:
1. Love"s origin. "The Father." Here is love"s fount, love"s central fire. A self-kindled, self-sustaining love. Needing no pleading from without, but gushing forth spontaneously from the "righteous Father," from the very delight of loving! Yes, and loving, as the Father, all the rights of the Ruler being guarded, and his rectitude being demonstrated in a way which he appointed. This being indeed the very perfection of his love, that it is so manifested that we can say of it, "The righteousness thereof is like the great mountains." But we have here also:
2. Love"s objects. "Us." The impression this makes on any one will depend on the opinion he has of himself. If he is convicted of sin, and has traced the hidden windings of evil in his own heart, it will ever be to him the marvel of marvels that the All-pure One could ever love him, and seek to purge him from guilt by the Divine process of loving!
3. Love"s freeness. "Hath given to us dedwken hJmin." Love not only exists for us, goes out towards us, but it is given to us, as a rich and priceless treasure. Confers on us the noblest gifts from its vast stores, and all freely. (Hos_14:4)
1. Love"s actual achievements. "That we should be called children of God: and such we are." We were rebels. As subjects of the great Governor, we had revolted. And love has re-made us. We have been born a second time, and have thus become children in God"s family. We are such. We are called such. It is not, indeed, as yet openly manifested. "Our life is hid with Christ in God." There is no outward visible sign by which the world can distinguish us. Nor, indeed, have they the spiritual perception to discern nor the judgment to appreciate the marks of God"s own. Their wisdom
2. fails to show them God. They did not know the Christ. They do not know us. And for the same reason in every case. But their ignorance does not alter the glorious fact. "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
3. Love"s ultimate intentions. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," etc. It is not merely for the sake of what we are today that our Father loves us so. See that baby-boy in his cradle. Say, over and above the instinctive fondness of parents for their children, are there not big hopes that gather round the little one"s head? It is not merely for what he is today that he is loved like this; but for what he is to be! So with us. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." God"s children are as yet so young, so immature; their evolution is as yet so incomplete, that none can tell, from what they are with all their imperfections attending them, what they will be when all the imperfections are removed and their growth is unchecked. Still, three days are before us certain.
(1) The Lord Jesus will yet be manifested. (Col_3:4, Revised Version)
(2) Then we shall see him as he is. Not as he was when here in weakness and sorrow, but as he is in his glory, as King of men and Lord of worlds.
(3) Seeing him as he is will complete our resemblance to him. This effect presupposes union to him and sympathy with him; for it will not be so with. (Rev_1:7) This beatific vision, when we shall see face to face, will teach us more of God"s love at a glance than we can now gather from half a century of thought. We shall no longer get our thoughts of God at second-hand, through earthen vessels, but direct from the Son of God himself. But will the transformation effected on us be corporeal or spiritual? Both corporeal and spiritual. For the face of the glorified in the spiritual body will be a perfect index of the perfected spirit within. Even here Divine grace impresses itself on the features. God is, literally, "the health of our countenance." Much more when all drawbacks are removed.
4 . Such love that can and will effect all this is wonderful. "What manner of love!" It is marvelous:
(1) In its purity. We love only that which is worth loving. God loves the unworthy, in order that by love he may make them worth loving.
(2) In its methods of giving giving the noblest Gift at the greatest cost in order to win, and by winning to save. Had he terrified us, and so driven us from him, we had been ruined. But by being drawn to him, sin dies, and we live.
(3) In its royal enrichments. First creating the new relationship of "child," and then giving the new-born child the shelter of a home, the endearments of tenderest care, and the wealth of the Father"s kingdom and all for ever! What manner of love is this?
II SUCH LOVE IS WORTHY OF DEVOUT AND ABSORBING REGARD. "Behold!" "See!" By such a word had John"s attention first been called to Jesus. (Joh_1:29) By such a word would he now arrest ours and fasten it on Heaven"s wondrous love, which had been the Object of his adoring gaze for more than half a century when he wrote these words. And still to each new-comer, as he reads this Epistle, the words address themselves, Look at this sight! There is no other object so gloriously enchanting. And no other object will so infinitely repay the longest and profoundest study. Then look! But:
1. How?
1. Penitently,
2. gratefully,
3. appropriatingly,
4. lovingly,
5. adoringly.
6. When?
(1) When earth"s glare bewitches you, that by the heavenly sight the world may lose its power to enthrall.
(2) When sin hangs heavy on the conscience, that you may receive the pardoning word.
(3) When storms lower o"er your pathway, that Heaven"s light may disperse the gloom.
(4) When sickness weakens the frame, that you may rejoice in tribulation.
(5) When visiting the sepulcher, that you may espy the region in which there is no death.
(6) When entering the valley of the shadow of death, that it may be lit up with a heavenly glory.
7 . How long? Not fitfully or occasionally, but continuously, let the sight be turned, not inwardly on your own dark, sinful self, but outwardly, on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then in the clear light of God"s love many a perplexity will vanish; for love is the key, and the only key, to unlock the secrets of the universe. Then doubt and dread will give place to perfect peace, and in a rapturous appropriation you will feel and say and sing, "All is mine, since the love of God is mine." Look! look! look! "till the day break, and the shadows flee away," and you see "face to face.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-12.
Righteousness and sin in relation to children of God.
I RIGHTEOUSNESS INSEPARABLE FROM BEING CHILDREN OF GOD.
1. Present inner nature.
(1) As recognized by God. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are." The subject was started in the closing verse of the second chapter in the connecting of "doing righteousness" with being "begotten of him." The latter thought so arrests John, that he calls them to contemplate the great bestowal of love on them. It was love calculated to excite their admiration. It was love that proceeded from the Father. The fatherly love did not stop short of their receiving the title of "children of God;" and the title corresponds to the reality. God gives us community of nature with himself. "Partakers of the Divine nature" is the language which Peter employs. Our having God as our Father implies that we can enter into his thoughts, can enjoy his approval and love, can cooperate with him to the advancement of his ends. Beyond this it was impossible for love to go. Let us rejoice in the gifting of love, by which God openly gives us the title of his children, and does not give the title without the reality.
(2) As not recognized by the world. "For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." If we share the same nature with God, why are our circumstances so unlike our origin? The reason given is that "the world knoweth us not," i.e., cannot detect the Divine image in us. Our thoughts, our delights, our motives and ways of acting, are all a riddle to men of the world. That this reason holds good is confirmed by the fact that, when God appeared in Christ, the world knew him not. Instead of detecting his Divinity, when it was abundantly evidenced, to its utter condemnation, it took him to be an impostor.
2. Future glory.
(1) As concealed. "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be." His heart warming toward his readers as recipients with him of fatherly love, he addresses them as "beloved. He reverts to the particular outgoing of that love, to mark it as the foundation of present blessedness. "Now prominence being given to the thought of time are we children of God." With the same nature as the Father, we revel in the Father"s thoughts, we bask in the sunshine of the Father"s love, we run the way of the Father"s commandments. But what are we to say about our future state? To a certain extent that is concealed. "It is not yet made manifest what we shall be." The conditions of life will be changed. The great change, as indicated at the close of this verse, is that we shall see God as he is. There will not be the present veil of his works between us and God; but the veil will be rent in twain for us. Now we know not very definitely, or experimentally, how we shall be adapted for this vision of God. We can only imperfectly realize both the conditions and the experience.
(2) .As revealed. "We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is." It seems better to translate, "if it shall be manifested." It is not yet made manifest what we shall be; but it is certain that one day we know not how soon it shall be made manifest. Though we cannot very definitely anticipate this disclosure, yet we know this about it that we shall have likeness to God. This connects our future with our present. The main element in our present is that we are children of God. Our future is to be our full growth, the bringing out of the Divine features in us to their greatest distinctness. It may be doubted whether this assimilation is regarded here as the result of the vision of God as he is. Rather are we being transfigured at present; and when the transfiguration is completed then will be fulfilled the condition of the beatific vision. Though, then, much is dark about our future, we have this upon which our minds can work that it is the consummation of what we have of likeness to God along with the direct vision of God.
3. Action in view of the future. "And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he that One is pure." The future glory is a matter of hope to us, arising out of our present consciousness of sonship, our present experience of assimilation to God. It is a hope that rests for its realization on God. It is for him to complete the assimilation, and, with that, to give us the direct vision of himself. But it has been said of God (1Jn_2:29) that he is righteous. What, then, is the duty of every one who has his hope set on a righteous God the hope of being made like to him in righteousness? It is to address himself to the work of self-purification. This implies that he has yet sin cleaving to him. It does not imply that he is to look to himself for purification, but simply that it rests with himself to use the appointed means, viz. as these have already been set forth trust in the cleansing efficacy of Christ"s blood, confessing sins, taking advantage of the services of the Advocate. We may think of these as associated with the exercises of prayer and reading of Scripture, and with the struggle after purity in the daily life. We have great assistance in the work of self-purification in the fact that we have a Model of purity set before us in that One, viz. Christ. That was purity attained to in the use of means, and within humanity, and in the midst of the world"s defilements; and therefore meaning the goal of purity for us, while giving us direction and stimulus toward that goal. It is purity which is viewed as in the present, a gain which has come down to him from his earthly life, in parable from his being lost. Christ, at this moment, holds up before us an image of human purity, under the spell of which every one who hopes to get near to God should come.
II SIN INCOMPATIBLE WITH BEING CHILDREN OF GOD.
1. Sin in its essence. "Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness: and sin is lawlessness." Every one who hopes to behold God"s face in righteousness purifieth himself. What is to be said of every one who, instead of purifying himself, doeth sin? He is in conflict with law, or the Divine order. God lays down certain rules for our life, appoints certain means of purification. He who does not observe the rules, does not use the means, does not escape moral judgment or characterization. His whole doing takes the character of lawlessness: and sin, it is added, is lawlessness. Sin supposes a law which has authority over us, whether revealed simply in
2. the conscience or in Christ; it is the fact of there being such a law that gives character to action. Righteousness has the approval of God, as being the observance of his Law; sin has the condemnation of God, as being the violation of his Law.
3. Sin incompatible with the purpose of Christ"s manifestation. "And ye know that he that One was manifested to take away sins." Christ had not only been proclaimed, but had been received by his readers; he could therefore appeal to their consciousness. The manifestation (in the past) here referred to covers the whole of the earthly history of our Lord; and it is important to note that, though its culminating point was his death, yet it all had a bearing on the taking away sins. The language seems to go beyond the taking of our sins upon him as our Substitute, and the procuring of forgiveness for us. He was manifested to take away sins out of our life. It is manifest, then, how incompatible sin is with God"s thought. He who was in the bosom of the Father was manifested in flesh, endured hardness in this world, brought his earthly life to a close by a death of unmitigated anguish; and all that he might take away our sins. And are we, instead of carrying out the Divine intention, and having our sins taken away, to clutch at them as what we cannot part with, thus putting self before God?
1. Sin incompatible with Christ"s sinlessness. "And in him is no sin." The sinlessness (in keeping with verse 3) is carried down to the present moment. He is sinless now in heaven. No sin has come down to him from the earthly manifestation. "By his sinlessness is meant that he was filled at every moment of his life with the spirit of obedience, and with a love to God which surrendered itself unconditionally to his will, and with those powers which flow from an uninterrupted communion with God. The consequence of this was, not only that no distraction caused by sin could find a place either in his inner or his outer life, but, more than this, everything was both willed by him and carried into execution that the will of God appointed." The worldly minded judge of Jesus, who was a man by no means very susceptible of what is high and noble, felt constrained solemnly to recognize the innocence of the persecuted Jesus. And Pilate"s wife, who, we may suppose, was more impressible than he, was so deeply convinced of the purity and blamelessness of Christ, that the thought of her husband imbruing his hands in the blood of that righteous Man haunted her even in sleep, and gave her no rest. A Roman warrior who commanded the guard at the cross was so overpowered by the impression that the Crucified made upon him, that he broke forth in words of deepest reverence, "Truly
2. this was a righteous Man, this was the Son of God." And the malefactor who was crucified along with him, moved by his dying look, was made strong to give his whole confidence to his Person, and to apprehend the joy of a better life. Long and confidential intercourse had given Judas the most intimate knowledge of his Master; hence, if he could have found anything reproachable in his life, he would without doubt have brought it forward, in order to quiet his conscience in the view of the consequences of his treachery, and to palliate his crime. Among his friends, John the Baptist started back at the thought of baptizing him, saying, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" Peter was so impressed with the presence of holiness in the miraculous draught of fishes, that he fell at Jesus" knees, saying, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." As for Jesus himself, he was conscious of freedom from sin: "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" He claimed to be the Image and Reflection of perfect goodness: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." What, then, is the meaning to us of the sinlessness of Christ? It means that we are not to sin. Did he loathe sin, and reject it in every form? did he feel the attraction of all that was highest, and cleave to it with his whole being? and are we to feel the charm of sin, and take it unto us? are we to be insensible to the beauties of holiness, and put them away from us?
3. Sin incompatible with communion with Christ. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him." "Abiding in Christ" is taken up from the close of the second chapter. It implies an entire surrender of ourselves to Christ. It is, in communion with Christ, getting into his thoughts and life. Whosoever finds his destiny in this sphere of things sinneth not; i.e., it is his principle not to sin. The principle is no doubt imperfectly carried out, and is accompanied with daily falls into sin, for which forgiving grace is needed; still, it is his principle not to sin. Whosoever sinneth, i.e., makes it his principle to sin, makes self the point of his thoughts and lifehath not seen him, neither knoweth him. He hath not yet truly east his eye on Christ, neither is he in the circle of his thoughts.
1. Same truth emphasized. "My little children, let no man lead you astray: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he that One is righteous." He addresses them as objects of his warm affection. His affection goes out to them as in danger. He cannot bear the thought of their being led astray. He has just been referring to knowing. That was a word which the Gnostic teachers used. Gnostic is literally "known. Those teachers said in one form or another, that, if men knew, it did not matter
2. what their conduct was. Let no man, whatever his seeming authority, whatever his plausibility, whatever his use of the name of Christ, lead them astray. None can be placed above the demand for rightness of conduct. The only way in which a man can be regarded as righteous in the sight of God is by doing righteousness, i.e., carrying right principles into his whole conduct. It was so with that One; nay, it is so with him still. Even in his glorified life he can be thought of as held by Divine restraints. And, if we would maintain communion with him, we must love Divine restraints too.
3. Sin connects with an evil source. "He that doeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Taking up him that doeth sin, i.e., acts without regard to Divine restraints, he advances to the thought of his spiritual genesis. He is blessed with no high origin. He is connected with the name that is most repellent. The devil, originally good, "stood not in the truth." Appearing on the scene of human activity, he was the means of introducing sin into the world. That was his flagrant sin at the beginning; and he has not recoiled from his position. It is still his thought to baffle God, to destroy human happiness. This, then, is the spiritual parentage of him that doeth sin. God is not owned by him. He revels in such ungodly thoughts as Satan revels in, engages in such ungodly designs as Satan engages in. It is evident that he cannot have communion with Christ; for there is a deadly antagonism between Christ and the works of the devil. He was the Son of God, naturally zealous (so to think of it) for the Father"s honour. It was no matter of indifference to him to think of the fair creation as marred, of human happiness as destroyed. And in the depths of eternity he burned to retrieve our lost position, and to this end, in the fullness of time, he was manifested, tie came to be a destroyer too, but not like Satan a destroyer of good things, but a destroyer of Satan"s works, i.e., all works that have this common bond that they are done against God, in disregard or defiance of his authority. If a man, then, is Satan"s worker, Christ has a controversy with him; he is the deadly antagonist of his works, he aims at their utter destruction.
1. Divine origin is shown in opposition to sin. "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God." He starts here from the high origin. He takes a man who is begotten of God, and he uses the strong language regarding him that he doeth not sin, the reason given being that his seed, i.e., the principle of the Divine life, abideth in him. Nay, he uses the still stronger language that he cannot sin, the reason given being that it is of God and of no other that he is begotten. An animal (which is suggested) does not live, cannot live, but in accordance with the principle of life from which it has sprung, and which is being unfolded in it. So he who has received the Divine principle into his life, and is having it unfolded in him, is not as though he had only the seed of depravity in him. Though there is depravity remaining in him, coming out in sins for which he has to humble himself, yet it can be said that sin is utterly foreign to his life. A man can only have properly one principle in his life, and his principle is not, cannot be sin, because the Divine seed is there, and of God he is begotten.
III TRANSITION TO A NEW SECTION.
1. Mark of brotherly love. "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." So far as the principle of life is concerned, there are two, and only two, classes of men. We are either the children of God or the children of the devil. It becomes us to ask of ourselves to which class we belong. And, seeing Christ shall say of many who profess to have eaten and drunk in his presence, "I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity," we have need to be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy. Let us not please ourselves with illusions, but let us keep close to reality. The apostle gives us a mark here by which we may be helped to classify ourselves. According to his manner, he catches up the former idea of doing righteousness, but only to fix upon its most glorious form. He is not the child of God that loveth not his brother. Loving our brother, then, is that by which we are marked off from the children of the devil. This is the mark which we are to be helped to apply.
2. Commandment of brotherly love. "For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." It was of importance to consider brotherly love, because it was contained in the first message of Christianity. Did it announce the blessed fact that God made infinite sacrifice for us? Translated into a command that was that we should love one another. We have the command, with all the Master"s authority. This contains the principle which is to operate in our life in our relations to one another.
3. Exemplification of the converse of brotherly love. "Not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother"s righteous." He goes back to the first manifestations of evil for his example. Cain was the child of the devil. It is said here that he was "of the evil one." He was under the influence of him who was evil affected toward men. Being evilly affected toward his brother, he slew him. "And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother"s righteous." He disliked Abel"s piety, not so much purely, as because it gave him a better standing with God. When evidence was given, in the most convincing manner, of what their relative standing was, Cain"s dislike grew to hate and hot anger which could not be appeased. R.F.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES Ver. 1.
Behold what manner of love!
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us," etc.! The "behold" summons our attention to the kind of love which God has given to us. It is not the greatness of the love, but the "manner of love," that we are called to contemplate. And the nature of this love is to be inferred from its expression; hence St. John says "that we should be called children of God." God has bestowed his love upon us; not simply the gifts of it, or the proof of it, but itself. Yet of what kind it is can only be discovered from its manifestations. He has given to us not only streams of blessing, but the very fountain of blessing; yet we can know the nature of the fountain only from the streams which flow from it. Thus let us meditate upon the love of the Divine Father to us as it is exhibited in the text.
I LOVE OF IMMEASURABLE CONDESCENSION. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!" The Creator gave his love to his creature whom he had created in his own likeness. He made him capable of fellowship with himself, and, looking upon him with complacency, pronounced him "very good." God gave his love to man. But our text does not refer to man as he was created by God, but as he was when marred by sin against him. The infinitely Holy bestowed his love upon the unholy, the sinful; the unspeakably Glorious, upon the deeply degraded. He did not give his love to the amiable, the attractive, the worthy, or the lovable. He did not bestow it upon those who were merely immeasurably beneath him, but upon those who were in active rebellion against him. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." His love to us, then, was not that of complacency, but of compassion; not that of admiration, but of benevolence and pity. It was "love seeking not its own," but our wellbeing; not rejoicing over the good and beautiful, but seeking with deepest solicitude for the salvation of the unworthy and sinful.
II Love WHICH EXALTS AND DIGNIFIES ITS OBJECTS. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God!" He himself calls us his children. Our Lord. taught us to say, "Our Father, which art in heaven." He said, "My Father and your Father, my God and your God." But in what sense does he call us his children? Not as being his by creation, but by regeneration. The words immediately preceding the text place this beyond dispute: "Every one that doeth righteousness is begotten of him." He has created them anew. They are "born from above." They are made "partakers of the Divine nature." No new faculties or capacities are given to them; nor do they need them; for man lost none of them by sin. His powers were corrupted and perverted, but not destroyed. The true relation and. harmony and. direction of his faculties man lost by his sin: he lost holiness. Being begotten of God, he is changed from an attitude of distrust, suspicion, or aversion from God, to an attitude of love to him; and holy love is the life of the soul. "Every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God". (1Jn_4:7) They are "called children of God," then:
1. Because they are sharers in his life. In some humble measure theyparticipate in that life of truth and righteousness, purity and love, which is his essentially and infinitely, and which flows from him to all his intelligent creatures who are in union with him.
2. Because they morally resemble him. Like him in their inward life, theyare also in a measure like him in their outward action. As regards both their character and conduct, they bear some moral resemblance to him. He calls them his children because they are his children restored through Christ to his fatherly heart, animated with the Divine life of love, and growing in their conformity to his perfect character. How glorious is the love which thus blesses its objects!
III LOVE WHICH INSPIRES ITS OBJECTS WITH THE MOST BLESSED ASSURANCE. "Called children of God: and such we are." True Christians are conscious that they are children of God. They have a cheering and. strengthening conviction that they are accepted of him, not only as his subjects, but as his sons and daughters. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God"; (Rom_8:14-16) "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father". (Gal_4:4-6) We have this sacred testimony in our consciousness of the Spirit"s presence and work within us. He imparts unto us the filial spirit, "whereby we cry, Abba, Father." He inspires within us holy desires and purposes, he restrains us from sin, he comforts us in sorrow, he strengthens us to produce the fruit of the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." The presence of these things in our lives is a testimony that we are children of God. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
IV LOVE WHICH ENNOBLES THE CHARACTER OF ITS OBJECTS ABOVE THE RECOGNITION OF THE UNCHRISTIAN WORLD. "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." "The world" is the same here as in 1Jn_2:15.
1. The unchristian world knew not the Divine Father. "It knew him not." The "him" must be God the Father. If it refer to Jesus Christ at all, it must be as the Revelation of the Father. Our Lord said to the Pharisees, "Ye know neither me nor my Father: if ye knew me, ye would know my Father. (Joh_8:19 Joh_16:3 Joh_17:25)
2. The unchristian world knows not the children of the Divine Father. "Therefore the world knoweth us not." Because they are his children and resemble him, they are enigmas to the world. By the love which he hath bestowed upon them they are so ennobled in their disposition and character, their principles and practice, that the unchristian world cannot understand them.
Behold, then, "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us"! Believe it; contemplate it; admire it; reciprocate it. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 24 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed…
1Jn_3:1-6
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God
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Children of God
These two verses of St.
Johns Epistle contain a simple summary of true religion. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him. Thus far the Old Testament goes. Israel had learned this primary lesson of true religion, that the Almighty is the Righteous Power. Knowing Jehovah, not as a national deity who would help His own people whether they were right or wrong, but as the righteous God over all, who would reject His chosen people if they did wrong, the prophets saw clearly also that only those men who do right can claim to be the sons of the Most High. The next verse contains a summary of the New Testament revelation of real religion: Behold what manner of love, etc. It is all from Gods love in Christ that we have right to be called children of God. These two words--one fulfilling the Old Testament, the other opening the riches of the New--mark the essence of real religion: righteousness and sonship. Let us first take up the Old Testament word for it. It is a solid word. The true religion is not a moral veneering of life; it is not a piece of pious ornamentation, nor an official robe drawn over an unprincipled heart. It is not an emotional substitute for conduct. The Old Testament word for religion is a word of cubic contents--righteousness, a real thing, concrete as just dealing between man and man. A present indisputable argument for belief in Moses and the prophets as holy men of old inspired of God is that they made the superhuman effort of building a nation on the Ten Commandments. They had the supernal faith to command a people to do right, and to live together in just relations in the fear of God. We do not yet dare bring our politics up to that level of the prophets. The religion which first mastered the lesson of eternal justice and made it the foundation of a state was not a faith which had sprung up of itself out of the jungle of Canaanitish superstitions. It was not found in Babylon. Assyrias power perished for the lack of it. The true God impressed Himself upon Moses and the prophets. We know that they were the appointed bearers of a Divine revelation, and the bringers of the light, very much as we might know that a highway running up to some clear mountain height through the swamp and the underbrush at its foot was never a spontaneous freak of nature, but marks the course of some intelligent purpose. The Lord God made that way of righteousness through all the superstitions and idolatries of the nations on and up to its Messianic height. The religion of eternal righteousness is the supernal fact of history. Once gain sight of the everlasting righteousness, and nothing else seems great. Observe that the righteousness which from beginning to end the Old Testament presses for is no abstraction, but concrete, solid right-doing. The preachers of righteousness in the Old Testament faced men, and threw themselves in the name of the holy God into the thick of events. They were the fearless advocates of the oppressed; they were Gods statesmen amid the shifting politics of Jerusalem. They could flash the eternal justice into the covetous eyes of princes. Righteousness in the old testament is no scholars candle flickering in an attic; it is an electric light revealing the street; all classes have to pass under it and be seen. Turn now from the prophets to the New Testament. We hear ringing clear and full through the preaching of the apostles another word for the true religion. It is sonship. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. The essence of the New Testament is in the Lords parable of the prodigal son. So Jesus Himself opened the heart of the gospel toward us sinners. The grandest thing in the world for any man to do is really to live day and night, alike in the darkness or in the joy of life, as a son of the Most High God. Only one ever accomplished perfectly this task; and we for the most part do but succeed as yet in living here and there, now and then, as the children of the Father in heaven. But think a moment what it is to do this. It would signify within us a very genuine humility. In a life of sonship humility would have to be at times that conscious sense of evil or of wrongdoing which is repentance for sin. The humility of a life of filial dependence on God will become so deep and pure that no possible outward success or inward spiritual triumph will be able to cause the son of the living God to dwell in any other habit and atmosphere. Sonship, again, so far as this New Testament word for religion is realised by any of us, will free us from the haunting sense of strangeness in this world. It is not simply the mystery of things; it is the mystery of ourselves that baffles us. Death does not grow less strange from our increasing familiarity with it. All things are strange, and will grow stranger to us, unless we can discover some diviner thoughtfulness in them; unless, amid all the mystery of the universe, we shall know ourselves as Gods children, and begin on this earth to be in our hearts at home with our God. This likewise will be the mark of true sonship, and the religion of sonship--obedience, strong, cheerful obedience. The Christian sense of sonship, so far as we receive the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father, will enable us, in short, to live the simple life of trust. It is life up on the sunny heights. Trust is final spiritual mastery of things. It is perfect poise of spirit, like the poise of the eagle after it has beaten its way up against the wind into the sky, and rests circling with buoyant wings upon the sunny air. Trust is ability of soul to live happily without Divine explanation. Faith in God is willingness to wait for explanations of things. You ask for reasons why certain event, have happened to you; why any evil, such as we may meet in the street, is tolerated for a moment in a world which has a God over it; why human life has otter proved so tragic; why death reigns; why a thousand shadows fleck the light; why in short, we mortals seem to be like wanderers in a forest, where it is both dark and bright. Now, faith is not an answer to any of these inquiries; faith does not yet lead us out with the clearing, but faith is trust in the light between the shadows trust that the light is high and eternal, and the shadows only for the moment Trust is the discovery of the soul that it can live awhile without explanations, and not be disturbed. Such trust is the confidence of sonship. Now, I am aware that men who have to meet the practical urgencies of life often find it easier to come to some determination of righteousness than it is for them to let their lives be lifted up into the assurance of sonship. It is less difficult for some of you to be Old Testament worthies than it is to become New Testament saints. You love righteousness, and you hate injustice and fraud. There you are inclined to stop. It is better for anyone to live according to the righteousness of the Old Testament than not to live at all from the Bible. The seeds of the perfect life of sonship are contained in the religion of the prophets. Nevertheless, the Christ came to fulfil the righteousness of the old dispensation. The righteousness which is by faith is out full salvation. Let ones dutiful living spring directly out of his sense of sonship, and it will become a transfigured conscientiousness. The light of love will play all through
2. To this higher life we are called. Men will finally do right toward one another when they shall learn to live together as sons of God. The present revival of right-doing will be complete when in the power of the Holy Spirit men are born anew as the children of the Father in heaven. (Newman Smyth.)
The Divine birth--the family likeness
The first verses of the third chapter are to be viewed as inseparable from the last verse of the second. It is that verse which starts the new line of thought; our knowing that God is righteous, and doing righteousness accordingly, in virtue of our being born of Him. Born of Him! That is what awakens Johns grateful surprise.
I. In every view that can be taken of it, our being called the sons of God is a wonderful instance of the Fathers love.
II. And we are His children: Beloved, now are we children of God. Our being called children of God is a reality; our being born of God makes it so. The world may not know us in that character, for it knows not God, and has never known Him. Let us lay our account with having to judge and act on principles which the world cannot understand. Let us be Gods children indeed; though on that very account the world that has not known God should not know us.
III. For whatever the world may think or say, we are the children of God, His dear children; sharers of His Divine nature; the objects of His fatherly love. It concerns us to bear this in mind, to feel it to be true. It is our safety to do so. It is what is due to ourselves; it is what God expects, and has a right to expect from us. Let us stay ourselves on the conviction that our being Gods children is not a matter of opinion, dependent on the worlds vote, but a matter of fact, flowing from the amazing manner of love which the Father hath bestowed upon us. And let us be put, as the saying is, upon our mettle, to make good our claim to be Gods children by such a manifestation of our oneness of nature with Him of whom we are born as may, by Gods blessing, overcome some of the worlds ignorant unbelief, and lead some of the worlds children to try that manner of love for themselves, to taste and see how good the Lord is.
IV. And we are to do so all the rather because these drawbacks and disadvantages will not last long. We are only at the beginning of our life as Gods children.
1. What is set before us as matter of hope in the future life is not something different from what is to be attained, enjoyed, and improved by us, as matter of faith, and of the experience of faith in the present life.
2. When it does appear what we are to be, when that is no more hidden but disclosed, we shall be like God whose children we are as being born of Him: for we shall see Him as He is. The full light of all His perfection as the righteous God will open upon our view; we shall know the righteous Father as the Son knows Him. Is not this a hope full of glory? And is it not a hope full of holiness too? (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Gods adoptive love
I. First, we are arrested by the manner in which the apostle opens the subject--Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. It is the language of adoration and wonder. Our astonishment might well be excited that God had created us that He preserved us, notwithstanding our unworthiness. But that He should adopt sinners was condescension which might well prompt the exclamation, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. What, then, is the manner of this love? It passeth knowledge. It was everlasting love, gratuitous love, and at the same time costly love. And then how rich the blessings procured by such love.
2. We are called the sons of God. It is clear this statement must be understood in a restricted sense. All are the sons of God by creation, also by providence. The text refers to a sonship peculiar to those who are the objects of redeeming love. Adoption into the family of God is singled out as evidence and effect of His love. Nor can we wonder at this selection. Think of the work that is done when the sinner is made a son of God. It is a new birth unto righteousness. The sinner is made alive unto God. Think, again, of the change that is effected in such a work. Think of the privileges of sonship. Think, finally, of the inheritance in store for them. If children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
3. The estimate formed of the privilege of sonship by the world. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. It might have been supposed that all men would applaud them as the happiest and most excellent of the children of men. But, alas! it is very different. The world does not know the sons of God. The world both disapproves and dislikes the peculiarity of the sons of God. The reason is suggested in the text. Therefore, saith the apostle. He had only said it was a blessed thing to be called the sons of God. Can it be, then, this is that which the world dislikes? This is clearly his meaning. Worldly men do not understand the doctrine of sonship. It is too spiritual for their perception. They scorn it as the offspring of spiritual pride. Unhappily, however, for their hot displeasure, there is an indisputable fact to prove this enmity of the world to the sons of God. It is quoted by the apostle. It is the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says of the world and of Him, it knew Him not. This accords with the history, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Ought this, then, to offend them? Certainly not. It ought to profit them. It should put them on their guard, that they may give no unnecessary offence. It should make them thankful they are not of the same spirit.
4. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. How carefully the views of the apostle are balanced in this passage. When he set forth sonship and its high privileges he annexed a caution, the world knoweth us not, lest any might be disappointed and injured. So again after he had given that caution he reassures them of the reality and continuance of their blessedness, Now are we the sons of God. This might be rendered necessary by the dark suspicions of their own minds. They found much within them contrary to what they could desire or might expect. Let them not be cast down. Or it might be rendered necessary by the conduct of others towards them. They might find themselves suspected and evil entreated. Through it all let them remember they are still the sons of God. Nor should they forget what was required of them as such. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Walk worthy of your high vocation. So living they might enjoy the sweet consciousness that, let the world do or say as they might, they could appropriate the assuring words, Now are we the sons of God.
5. Their thoughts are directed to the future. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
6. Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Adopting love of the Father
I. Look at the result or purpose of this love, and we shall be the better prepared to understand its manner. What manner of love is this, in transforming those who were once so unlike Him? Love prompted Him to adopt them; and after they are adopted He has peculiar delight in them. What manner of love is this, that the fallen should at length have a place in His bosom which the unfallen can never occupy! Still more, a glorious destiny awaits them. When the years of minority are expired the children are taken home to the household on high, where the whole family form one unbroken and vast assemblage. The extraordinary love of the Father is also seen in the entire circuit of discipline which has been arranged for His children. And will not such a child be content in any circumstances? What is good for him his Father will give him. As much of temporal blessing will he get as he can improve.
II. The singularity of the Divine affection.
1. And first, the love that leads a man to call a child his own, which is not his by natural descent, has not such a manner about it. For when among men a child is adopted, it is usually because the adopter thinks it worthy of his regard; because there is something in its features or character that pleases him. But no such motive could prompt the Divine affection, for we are utterly lost and loathsome before Him.
2. Again, if one adopts a child, it is commonly because himself is childless, or his hearth may have been desolated by war or disease. He longs to have some object near him on which to expend his attachment. But Jehovah had myriads of a flourishing progeny--uncounted hosts of bright intelligences, who have never disobeyed Him. But the present condition of the sons of God is veiled and incomplete. Therefore, the apostle adds, the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. The mission of the Son of God was spiritual, was too ethereal for the coarse vision of the world to detect, or its sordid heart to admire. Its great ones, and not its good ones, divide among themselves the worlds homage. Not that the world is able to ignore Christianity. But it admires it not for itself but for its splendid results--for the beneficial effects, in the form of patriotism and philanthropy, which it has produced. It is not Wilberforce the saint, but Wilberforce the queller of the slave trade, that men admire. The dignity and prospects of the sons of God are not of a secular and visible nature. The world knoweth them not. But should this ignorance on the part of the world dispirit you? By no means. Your case is not solitary. It did not recognise the Son of God. Now are we the sons of God. Despite of this non-recognition on the part of the world, we are the sons of God. The reality of our adoption is not modified by the worlds oblivion of it. It may be undiscovered by others, but our own experience gives ourselves the full assurance of it. But noble as is our present condition, our ultimate dignity surpasses conception. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. Even though we now revel in the Divine favour, yet such transcendent felicity is scarcely a premiss to reason from as to the glory of our ultimate heritage. There is so much about us that clogs and confines us--so deep is the shadow that earth throws over the children of God that any inference as to coming freedom and glory is all but an impossibility. Such being the present eclipse of our sonship, there is the less wonder that the world knoweth us not. Their aim is to be as like Him as they can be here, in the hope that they shall be perfectly like Him hereafter. (John Eadie, D. D.)
The manner of love bestowed upon us
I. The manner of love which the Father hath bestowed upon us.
1. Sovereign in its exercise.
2. Gracious in its communication.
3. Merciful in its regards.
4. Everlasting in its continuance.
II. The consequences which flow to us from that love.
1. Present adoption into Gods family.
2. Future restoration to His image.
III. The attention with which the whole should be regarded.
1. Your attention should deepen your humility.
2. Your attention should strengthen your confidence.
3. Your attention should excite your affection. (W. Mudge, B. A.)
The present relationship and future prospects of the faithful
I. The Christians present state is one of relationship to God. It implies--
1. Godlikeness.
2. Confidence.
3. Liberty.
4. It entitles us to a glorious inheritance.
II. The circumstances of his future life are in a great measure unknown to him.
III. We have, nevertheless, sufficient knowledge of that future to make us happy in the present. (H. P. Bower.)
The wonderful love of God as displayed in human redemption
I. The unworthiness of its objects.
II. The expensiveness of the sacrifice.
III. The variety and vastness of the blessings secured to us through this adopting love.
1. Present.
2. Future.
IV. This love is to be to us a subject of meditation. Behold.
1. Admire it.
2. Trust in it.
3. Extol it.
4. Believe it. (W. Lloyd.)
What manner of love
Here, you notice, that although St. John had been learning more and more about the love of God all his days, he does not trust himself to characterise it. I believe throughout eternity we shall never find the right word for it. Even if we think that we have made some such grand discovery as to present it to us in an altogether new light, we shall still go on discovering that there is more to be said about it. Mark, the love spoken of here is the love of the Father. This text takes us right back to the source from which all other blessings flow. That word Father!--there is scarcely a heart in which there does not seem to be awakened something like a sympathetic thrill at the sound--even those who are most estranged from God by sin and wicked works. Does it not answer to an inward yearning of our human hearts? Orphans are we, and desolate, unless we know that within the veil we have One who not only bears a Fathers name but possesses a Fathers heart. Now observe, this love is represented as being definitely bestowed, with a view to a specific end, and that end is in order that we might be called the sons of God. We might hay, Deer called the sons of God in the sense of creation, without any such love being bestowed upon us, without any gift being made. There was no particular difficulty in our being placed in such a position; indeed, as an historical fact, we are His offspring. Nor, again, was there any special difficulty in the way of His adopting a certain ecclesiastical relationship to us, standing to us in the relation of Father to an ecclesiastical theocracy, which He Himself established; there was no difficulty in that. But in order that He might stand in the relationship indicated to us in this sense, as our Father, and put us in the position indicated by the word son in this passage, it was necessary that He should make such a manifestation of His love towards us as He has made in the Incarnation. Now we pass on to consider this special relationship, and the first thought that strikes me is this, that in order theft you and I might attain to it the love of God had first of all to surmount a stupendous difficulty. There was a question which God represents Himself as putting to Himself, and that question is, How shall I set thee amongst the children? Oh, you say, by an act of Gods sovereign power. But an act of Gods sovereign power would not make us real children of His. The child partakes of the nature of his parent. Now, we have lost the nature of our spiritual Parent, we have inherited the nature of our earthly parent: the old Adam. We come into the world with an hereditary taint of rebellion against God. How many of us there are who, from our earliest days, have gone on living consistently with this start. Now, under those circumstances, how can God put us amongst the children? If God were to say to one of you, You are My child, would that make you His child unless He were first to perform a moral miracle upon you? Now, God performs moral miracles, but He does it in a particular way. He so performs the miracle that in the actual performance of it our will shall be consciously cooperating with Him. How shall I set thee among the children? The answer is given in the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was only one way in which the love of God could achieve this marvellous result. It was to be done by a gift--the gift of Incarnate Love. What do we know about the love of God? I see it revealed in the human form of Jesus. What is that love of God like? I apprehend its character by gazing into the face of Jesus. What is it that the love of God actually does achieve? It achieves its very end, it achieves the end of bringing me, poor, guilty rebel as I am, into a filial relationship with God; enabling me to look up into Gods face and say, Thank God, I now am a child of God. How is this done? It is done by a new birth. How is this birth to be elected? Ye must be born again. But how am I to pass from the old life into this new life of God? I am born not of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of the will of God. How am I born? By complying with that will, by surrendering myself to the revealed love of God in the person of Christ. If at some great cost some boon which you very much require is brought within your reach, and if you spurn it, I venture to say it is impossible to cut your benefactor more to the heart than by such a line of conduct. Now, then, are you called a child of God? Does God call you so? Is it so? If not, why not? Dont say that God has made it so difficult. Do you think it probable that God should refuse the very boon which He has given His Son in order to bestow? (A. H. M. H. Aitken.)
The sons of God
1. The privilege itself is to be called the sons of God. Mark, not subjects or servants, but sons; and to be called the sons of God is to be the sons of God.
2. The fountain and first rise is the love of the Father, who is everywhere represented as the first Cause of our blessedness. Gods love is nothing else but His goodwill and resolution to impart such great privileges to us; He did it because He would do it; He was resolved to do it, and took pleasure in it.
3. The wonderful degree in the expression of His love, What manner of love. The expression noteth not only the quality, but quantity.
4. The note of attention, or the terms used exciting our attention, Behold. There is a threefold behold in Scripture, and they are applicable to this place; as--
(1) The behold of demonstration, which is referred to a thing,, or person present, and noteth the certainty of sense (Joh_1:29).
(2) The behold of admiration, or awakening our drowsy minds, when any extraordinary thing is spoken of (Lam_1:12). So here in the case of good, is there any love like unto this love? And all is that we may entertain it with wonder and reverence.
(3) The behold of gratulation, as rejoicing and blessing ourselves in the privilege (Psa_121:4).
I. There is such a relation as that of father and children between God and His people.
1. It proceedeth from a distinct cause, His special and peculiar love, not from that common goodness and bounty which He expresseth to all His creatures (Psa_145:9). But this is the special act of His grace or of His great love (Eph_2:4-5).
2. The foundation of this relation is not our being which we have from Him as a Creator, but our new being which we have from Him as a Father in Christ.
3. The whole commerce and communion that is between us and Him is on Gods part fatherly, on our part childlike.
II. That this is a blessed and glorious privilege will appear if we consider--
1. The person adopting, the great and glorious God, who is so far above us, so happy within Himself, and needeth not us nor our choicest love and service; who had a Son of His own, Jesus Christ, the eternally-begotten of the Father, the Son of His love, in whom His soul found such full complacency and delight.
2. The persons who are adopted--miserable sinners.
3. The fountain of this mercy and grace, or that which moved God, was His love: this was that which set Hts power and mercy at work to bring us into this estate.
(1) This was an eternal love; the first foundation of it was laid in the election of God; there is the bottom stone in this building.
(2) It was a free love: I will love them freely.
(3) It is special, peculiar love, not common to the world; yet this love was bestowed upon us.
(4) It is a costly love, considering the way how it is brought about.
4. The dignity itself nakedly considered; it is a greater honour them the world can afford to us, a matter to be rather wondered at than told.
5. It is not a naked and empty title, but giveth us a right to the greatest privileges imaginable.
(1) With respect to the present state; and there--
(a) He will give us the Holy Spirit to be our sanctifier, guide, and comforter.
(b) He giveth us an allowance of such temporal things, of outward mercies, as are convenient for us (Mat_6:25; Mat_6:30).
(2) With respect to the life to come. Eternal blessedness is the fruit of adoption (Rom_8:17).
III. Believers ought to be excited to the earnest consideration of it.
1. To quicken our thankfulness, which is the chief motive and principle of gospel obedience.
2. That we may keep up the joy of our faith and comfort in afflictions from the world. Though we be Gods children, yet the greater part of the world treateth us as slaves. It doth support us often and frequently to consider the world cannot hate us so much as God loveth us.
3. That we may be satisfied and contented with our portion; if you have God to your Father, what though you be straitened in the world?
4. To stir us up to be exemplary in holiness; for if God be matchless in His love we should be singular in our holiness; our return must carry proportion with our receipts.
5. We should consider it, that we may clear up our interest the more in it and not foolishly content ourselves with an inferior happiness. The use that I shall make of it is to persuade you to put in for a share in this blessed privilege. To direct you in this, let me tell you--
(1) That this new relation dependeth on the new birth, and that none are adopted but those that are regenerated and renewed to the image and likeness of God; all others, though called Christians, are degenerate children.
(2) Regeneration is Gods act; but repentance and faith, which are the immediate issues of it, are ours, and you must enter by the strait gate if you would enter into Gods family and obtain the privileges of it.
(3) If you would have the privileges of children you must perform the duties of children; we catch at privileges but neglect duty. Now the great duty of children is to love, please, and honour their father.
(4) If we would enjoy the privileges of the family we must submit to the discipline of the family. (T. Manton, D. D.)
The spiritual sonship
In the words there are two things chiefly: First, what this means Sons of God; secondly, what this, To be called the sons of God. First, sons of God is a title used divers ways; the son of God is either by nature, or by creation, or by participation, or by a general profession, or by adoption. Now, when this sonship by adoption is applied to those whom God chooseth, there are two kinds of it mentioned in Scripture, the former of which is but a resemblance and figure of the latter. Of it is that speech of God to Moses (Exo_4:22), which very privilege Paul calleth by the name of adoption (Rom_9:4). By it is no other thing meant but Gods choosing that people out of all nations under heaven to be His peculiar people; which, albeit it were an high favour, yet it was not properly a spiritual blessing, but a type and a shadow of that adoption which Paul calleth the adoption of sons (Gal_4:5), which is that grace of God by which He is pleased to take us for His children in Christ, and to make us heirs together with Him of eternal glory; and this is that which John speaketh of in this place. The second thing is, what it is to be called the sons of God. It must not be so taken as though this of being the sons of God were a matter of title only without substance, as when a man hath a word of respect cast upon him only for compliments sake; but to be called the sons of God and to be the sons of God are here all one. The general points are these--First, that the state of Gods adoption is a glorious estate. Secondly, that it is an estate of which it is possible for him that is invested into it to be assured in his own soul. Thirdly, that it is an estate unalterable. Fourthly, that the alone spring and beginning of it is Gods love. How the first point is grounded upon this Scripture appears by the admiration which the apostle breaks out into, wondering at the infiniteness of Gods mercy, who should vouchsafe unto the sons of men such a prerogative, and provoking others to join with him therein, as though it were a matter singular from all example that we should be advanced to so great an honour to be the sons of God. I could easily collect even a cloud of circumstances for the enlarging the glory and worth of this estate; I will reduce all to three heads. The first is the excellency of the means to procure it to us. The second is the majesty of the person by whose name (through our adoption) we are entitled. The third is the prerogatives and privileges that are belonging to it. Now these prerogatives are to be distinguished thus: To be either in this life or hereafter. Touching this life I will name only two. The first is an interest into Gods particular and special providence. If my wants be outward here is my Heavenly Father standing by me, He knoweth what I need, and He cannot forget me. If my defects be from within He is that God of all grace, and shall fulfil all my necessities. This privilege of Gods especial providence is that river of God out of which flow these streams to make glad the adopted of God. The second prerogative in this life is the free use of Gods creatures, both for necessity and for delight. This is a true saying. The charter anciently given by the great Lord of all at our first creation, touching the use of His creatures, was forfeited into the hands of the Donor by Adams fall. It is restored and renewed by Christ, and only to those who are honoured with the adoption of sons, only the heirs of heaven are the right inheritors of the earth; all the rest are but usurpers. Now for the prerogative of the sons of God appertaining to the life to come, which way shall I begin to express it? When Haman was willed to speak by Ahasuerus, What should be done to the man whom the king would honour, he (supposing that the king had no meaning to honour any but him), said thus (Est_6:8-9). So shall it be to the sons of God at the day of judgment. What should now be the use of this doctrine, or wherefore hath this dignity of adoption been set before us, but to stir us all up to say in our hearts, as Christs hearers did when He had spoken to them of the bread of life, Lord (said they) evermore give us this bread. So you, I beseech you, say everyone in the strength of your best desires. Is the state of adoption such an honourable estate? Lord, evermore give us this dignity. And now, touching the means by which those that do affect this prerogative of adoption may attain unto it. There are two places of Scripture especially by which we may be rightly informed in this matter (Gal_3:26; Joh_1:12). Both put together do make this good, that the means of adoption is faith in Christ Jesus, or believing in His name. First, what kind of faith it is which makes us capable of adoption. Secondly, how it brings us to be the sons of God. Thirdly, how itself is wrought in the hearts of the adopted. Touching the first, this I say, that the believing, or faith, which maketh a man the son of God is an action of the will, whereby a man knowing certainly out of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour of mankind doth for the matter of his soul settle his heart and repose himself wholly and solely upon Him. This is properly that faith which is called justifying or saving faith. For the second, that also is necessary to be rightly opened, because some men of corrupt minds do think these speeches, faith justifieth, faith adopteth, faith saveth, to be derogatory to the glory of God, and to carry a contradiction to these, Christ justifieth, Christ adopteth, Christ saveth. Understand we therefore, and be not deceived. One thing may be spoken of divers particulars in a different sense: as, for example, God the Father adopteth, Christ Jesus adopteth, the Holy Ghost adopteth, faith adopteth; these are all true and without any mutual contrariety. God the Father adopteth as the fountain of adoption; Christ as the ground of adoption; the Holy Ghost as the applier of adoption; faith as the instrument of adoption. The third point was to show how this faith is wrought in the hearts of the adopted. The Supreme Giver of faith is God, every good gift is from Him. The second doctrine is, that it is possible for him that is the son of God to be assured in his own soul that he is so. I am commanded by my Saviour when I pray to call God Father. How is He to me a Father into whose presence I may dare to come, but as I am His adopted son in Christ? Shall I term Him Father, and have no assurance that I am His son? This were intolerable presumption. To bring us to the assurance of our adoption is the drift of preaching, the scope of praying, and the intent of our administering and receiving the sacraments: all aim and drive at this, that we may learn to apply the general sweetness of the Scriptures to our own particulars. But to cut off all mistakings: here is a necessary question to be made touching this assurance of adoption. Whether it be such an assurance which is so certain that it is never disturbed with doubting? I answer: I dare not say it is such an assurance; I know David knew himself to be the chosen of God, yet I know that sometimes he thought he was cast out of Gods sight, and that the Lord would show no more favour (Psa_31:22; Psa_77:7; Psa_69:3). What assurance then (will you say) is this you discourse of? I answer, an assurance striving after assurance; an assurance wrestling and combating with continual doubtings. It is the wisdom of God by this very means to settle the hearts of His chosen. It was one of the old rules of the law, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should stand. It is therefore the wisdom of God that the assurance of adoption should be grounded upon the testimony of two very sufficient witnesses, the Spirit of God and our own spirit. The Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. (S. Hieron.)
The Fathers love and the childrens blessedness
I have taken the text from the New Version, which gives us this very emphatic Amen: And such we are. Well may the apostle cry Behold! as he sets forth this wonderful truth.
I. See, then, whence this love comes. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Let men come to think that God is against them, and what can they do? There is nothing for it then but utter despair. But if a man only believes through and through him that God loves him--that God wants to help him--then let winds blow, let earth tempt, that man can hope; he can rise up and can come home; he is more than conqueror. But saith some timid soul, Does it not say that God is angry with the wicked every day? True. How then can He love me? Well, it is because He loves that He is angry. If I were going on my way, and heard a set of boys rough and rude and profane, I should feel sorry for them; but if I saw my son amongst them I should feel not sorry only, but angry--angry not because I did not love him, but because I did. All the meaning of Christs coming--of His life and death and resurrection and intercession--is the story of Gods love to us. All the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into the assurance of His love.
II. Let us draw near and look at the freeness and fulness of the love of God.
1. It does not proceed from any need in the Divine nature. That wonderful preface to the writings of St. John shows us the Only Begotten dwelling in the bosom of the Father. There is the eternal communion. There is loves satisfaction. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in eternal communion and fellowship.
2. This love of God is not mere pity. It is not that the Almighty is moved by our needs and miseries as the Samaritan of old. Pity saw the wants, and would give what it could spare; but love saw the son, and could not give enough. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us--love that takes us for His very own; love that would hold us in closest communion and tenderest relationship; love that saith, Son, thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is thine.
3. Behold what manner of love--it is a righteous love. It may yearn to deliver and to restore, but there is one thing it can never do--it cannot pass by sin. It can never make light of that. And who of us could trust Gods love if He did? Hereby perceive we the love of God, that He laid down His life for us. And now there meets us love that is righteous, and therefore free and full. Love that hath nothing to conceal, nothing to be afraid of.
4. Another light falls on the text if we turn it round and think of the children--that we should be called the children of God. Adoption has much in it that is beautiful and very gracious. But ours is not an adoption; we are His by regeneration. It is not a new name but a new nature which is bestowed upon us. Begotten of God, we are His children indeed and of a truth. Do not explain it away as a figure. And so we are. Bound to the heart of the Father by the tenderest ties of relationship. Wonder at it, but do not doubt it. Claim it, in all its fullest privilege and blessing. (M. G. Pearce.)
The Father
s love to His family:--
I. What Gods living family are called upon to behold. What manner of love, etc.
1. It is covenant love.
2. Unchangeable love.
3. Incarnate love.
4. Redeeming love.
5. Pardoning love.
6. Restoring love.
II. What they, upon whom the Fathers love is bestowed, are called. The sons of God.
1. It is not a fictitious name.
2. It is a name which shows the peculiar relation they sustain to God.
3. It is a name which gives them a title to all things in the whole universe of God.
III. What the sons of God say of the world. Knoweth us not.
1. The world knoweth not the life which they live--even a life of faith on the Son of God, and a life hid with Christ in God.
2. The world knoweth not their inward conflicts; the flesh lusting against the spirit, etc.
3. The world knoweth not their doubts and fears.
4. The world knoweth not their joys and sorrows.
5. The world knoweth not the doctrines which the children of God are taught by the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive.
IV. The reason why the world knoweth not the sons of God. Because it knew Him not--the Incarnate God. (J. J. Eastmead.)
The dignity of human nature and its consequent obligations
1. We are the sons of God--of the first and greatest of Beings. What noble and elevated sentiments should fill our minds! How should we rise above everything that is low and worthless to what is dignified and elevating!
2. We are the sons of God--of the purest and best of Beings. How pure and holy should be the affections which animate our own breasts!
3. We are the Sons of God. How much should we love God, our Creator, Unwearied Benefactor, who discovers His paternal relation to us by unceasing care and the most substantial benefits! How greatly should we honour Him! How devoutly should we trust in Him! How cheerfully should we submit to Him! How diligently should we serve Him! (Charles Lowell.)
A Christians high condition and hope
Behold what manner of love (what great and singular love, that is to say) the Father hath bestowed, etc. Now this seems to imply that we had forfeited the name. Like the prodigal in the parable, we had virtually renounced our sonship and inheritance; and it was a question of agonising interest, whether God would ever again consent to stand towards us in the relation of a parent. And so when Almighty God, regarding us in Christ, declares, I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, we understand that His anger is turned away, that our offences are cast behind His back, and that we are restored to all the privileges which appertain to children. Such are the blessings comprehended in the promise, Ye shall be called the sons of God. But there is still more in it. Not only had we forfeited the right to call God Father, but we had also lost the child-like spirit. And therefore when God calls us children, on the ground of being reconciled to us in Immanuel, He engages to make us so by communicating to us of His Spirit. The apostle, after this burst of admiration at the love God shows towards His people in Christ, and the honours He puts upon them, anticipates an objection. Are we indeed so great and honourable? Yet, what is our condition upon the earth? The rich, the great, the wise of this world stand aloof from us, as from persons of disturbed intellect or morose temper are we indeed so great before God, while so little before men? It is even so. God seeth not as man seeth: and that which is vile to human judgment is precious in His sight. Was it not so with holy men and prophets and apostles of old? Was it not so with Jesus Himself? Indeed, there is much of comfort in the thought suggested by the words, Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. If you do not resemble Christ, who was so unlike ordinary men, the world which loves its own would know and approve you. For your conscience may justly testify that therefore the world which rejected Christ refuses to know you with approbation, because it perceives in you His features and carriage. And, after all, we are sons. That is our confidence, our comfort, our triumph. And here I must remind you of the duties which flow from this relation to God--the duties of obedience and trust. If you are children of the Most High, to Him, surely, more than to any human superior, must absolute obedience be due. As a Creator, as a King, as a Master, He might have demanded, with perfect justice, the consecration of all our faculties to His service. But He speaks to us by a tenderer name: I am your Father, He says. Try to show yourselves worthy of that noble estate by a child-like deportment towards Him. Well, then, we are actually the sons of God, through His free and abounding grace, although not yet wearing a royal diadem and clothed in princely apparel. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. The real grandeur of the righteousness is overshadowed by the hand of Providence; the present display of it being incompatible with their own spiritual welfare, and with the scheme of Gods kingdom. Yet, while glorifying the grace which bestows upon us so great a privilege, forget not the duty it entails. Remember that to live as slaves of sin and the world, after God has freed you from that bondage, and brought you into the glorious liberty of His own children, would be infinitely base and ungrateful. Therefore pray for the Holy Spirit of God to enable you to walk worthy of this high relation. (J. N. Pearson, M. A.)
Sons of God
I. Notice the word behold, with which the words of my text are introduced, which gives an item of the vast importance of what is contained in them. It is used by the Lord Himself, by the prophets, and Christ, and the evangelists on some very particular occasions, both in the Old and New Testament (Isa_40:10; Isa_42:1; Zec_3:8-9; Rev_1:7; Rev_3:20; Rev_21:3, etc.).
II. What we are called upon to behold. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. He is not here calling on us to believe the love wherewith God hath loved us; nor is he calling on us to receive the knowledge of it into our minds, that we may receive the same into our hearts. He is calling us to behold it, to look at it, to contemplate it in its original--in its spring and fountain--in its freeness and sovereignty--in the nature of it--in the manner of it--in its gifts and blessings. The love of God is a subject for the minds of Gods saints to contemplate. They may well behold, survey, and take a view of it, by faith. It is the greatest thing in God Himself, which we are concerned in. His love to us is a free love. It is also sovereign love. It proceeds from Himself alone. It is a love fixed on us. It is a love of complacency and delight. It is an immutable and an everlasting love. Survey it in election, in predestination, in adoption, in salvation, in the blessedness of personal communion. It is vast glorious. It surpasseth all finite understanding.
III. The speciality of this. What in the love of the Father it is which the apostle would have these saints to take special notice of. It is this, That we should be called the sons of God. It is, says Dr. Goodwin, but a title which is here expressed. Yet, says Mr. Romaine, God bestows no empty titles. He gives all contained in it. Therefore the greatness of the love of God is contained herein. To be heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, in all the riches of Gods communicable grace and glory, this is the fruit and blessedness which flows from the grace and royalty of adoption. God is our inheritance, and we are His inheritance.
IV. Though this be the case, that we are, and are called, the sons of God, and this title is bestowed on us by our heavenly Father, yet the world knoweth us not, as so called, and as thus distinguished by free sovereign favour; neither did they our Lord before us. It is the same to the very present moment, yet we wonder at it, whilst there is not the least cause for it, if we but reflect one moment. How can contraries unite? The longer you live, the more you will find supernatural truths disrelished. The present day is not that in which any are persecuted for their profession. Yet it is a day when supernatural truth, and the supernatural gospel, and a supernatural profession of them, were never more heartily despised. (S. E. Pierce.)
Children of God
I. How real Christians are to be understood to be the children of God.
II. What considerations may serve to heighten and endear the love of God in taking them into this relation to Himself.
1. The consideration of His majesty and supreme greatness, which thus vouchsafes to make and own us for His children, notwithstanding our infinite distance from Him (1Sa_18:18).
2. The consideration, how early the Divine love laid the foundation of their sonship whom it pleased to recover from the common ruin, in which it saw them lie involved with others.
3. The consideration of the means ordained to make way for their adoption, even the sufferings and death of the only-begotten Son of the Father to view.
(1) Consider the person given: He is the Lord Jesus Christ--Gods eternal and only-begotten Son.
(2) Consider what this Person is sent for, viz., to suffer, to be put to death, even by those that He came to save.
(3) This love will appear all miracle if we consider the persons Christ was given for, to do and suffer all this, even for the infinitely unworthy.
(4) We have reason to admire the love of God in making us His sons upon this further consideration, if we call to mind the state He finds us in when He comes to work the blessed change, and the power and patience He exercises therein.
(5) The happy difference made in the relation of such as are dignified to be children of God, both from themselves, before it was made, and from others.
(6) The privileges of the sons of God, negative and positive, as to time and eternity, heighten and endear the love of God to all that are called to be and really made such. (D. Wilcox.)
The privileges of the good
I. That privileges of unspeakable worth now belong to the disciples of Christ. Now are we the sons of God.
II. That notwithstanding these high privileges they are, while in this lower world, subject to tribulation. The world knoweth them not--knoweth not their spirit, their character, their dignity.
III. That privileges of a higher order await the children of God in a future state. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
IV. That those privileges of their future state cannot be fully revealed to Gods people on earth. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
V. That all these privileges, present and to come, flow from the love of the Father. Behold, what manner of love!
VI. That every man, that hath this hope of heaven through the love of the Father, purifieth himself. (Samuel Roberts, M. A.)
The love that calls us sons
It is not so much to the contemplation of our blessedness in being sons, as to the devout gaze on the love which, by its wonderful process, has made it possible for us to be sons, that we are summoned here. Again, you will find a remarkable addition to our text in the Revised Version, namely, and such we are. Now these words are parenthetical, a kind of rapid aside of the writers, expressing his joyful confidence that he and his brethren are sons of God, not only in name, but in reality.
I. The love that is given. The apostle bids me behold what manner of love. I turn to the Cross and I see there a love which shrinks from no sacrifice, a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part, but comes from the depth of His own Infinite Being, who loves because He must, and who must because He is God; a love which sighs for recognition, which desires nothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection; a love that will not be put away by all sinfulness and shortcomings and evil. In like manner we have to think, if we would estimate the manner of this love, that through and in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ there comes to us the gift of a Divine life like His own. We may gain another measure of the greatness of this love if we put an emphasis on one word, and think of the love given to us, such creatures as we are.
II. The sonship which is the purpose of this given love. The writer draws a broad distinction between the sons of God and the world of men who do not comprehend them; and so far from being themselves sons, do not even know Gods sons when they see them. And there is a deeper word still in the context. John thinks that men (within the range of light and revelation, at all events) are divided into two families--the children of God and the children of the devil. There are two families amongst men. Thank God! the prodigal son, in his rags amongst the swine, and lying by the swine troughs in his filth and his husks and his fever, is a son. He has these three elements and marks of son ship that no man ever gets rid of: he is of a Divine origin, he has a Divine likeness in that he has got mind and will and spirit, and he is the object of a Divine love. All that is blessedly and eternally true, but it is also true that there is a higher relation than that to which the name Children of God is more accurately given, and to which in the New Testament that name is confined. What is implied in that great name by which the Almighty gives us a name and a place as of sons and daughters? Clearly, first, a communicated life; therefore, second, a kindred nature which shall be pure as He is pure; and, third, growth to full maturity.
III. The glad recognition of the sonship by the childs heart. Such we are--the Here am I, Father, of the child, answering the Fathers call, My Son. He turns doctrine into experience. The truth is nothing to you, unless you have made it your very own by faith. Do not be satisfied with the orthodox confession. Unless it has touched your heart and made your whole soul thrill with thankful gladness and quiet triumph, it is nothing to you. Can you say, And such are we? Take another lesson. The apostle was not afraid to say, I know that I am a child of God. Do not be afraid of being too confident, if your confidence is built on God, and not on yourself; but be afraid of being too diffident, and be afraid of having a great deal of self-righteousness masquerading under the guise of such a profound consciousness of your own unworthiness that you dare not call yourself a child of God.
IV. The loving and devout contemplation of this wonderful love. I have but two remarks to make about that, and the one is this, that that habit of devout and thankful meditation upon the love of God, as manifested in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, lies at the foundation of all vigorous and happy Christian life. How can a thing which you do not touch with your hands and see with your eyes produce any effect upon you, unless you think about it? But remember that we cannot keep that great sight before the eye of our minds without effort. You will have very resolutely to look away from something else, if, amid all the dazzling gauds of earth we are to look over them all to the far off lustre of that heavenly love. Just as timorous people in a thunderstorm will light a candle that they may not see the lightning, so many Christians have their hearts filled with the twinkling light of some miserable tapers of earthly care and pursuits, which, though they be dim and smoky, are bright enough to make it hard to see the silent depths of heaven, though it blaze with a myriad stars. Wrench yourselves away from the absorbing contemplation of Birmingham jewellery and paste, and look at the true riches. Do not let the trifles which belong not to your true inheritance fill your thoughts, but renew the vision, and by determined turning away of your eyes from beholding vanity, look away from the things that are seen, that you may gaze upon the things that are not seen, and chiefest among them on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not--
Christians unknown
If we were to ask worldly men what is the difference between Christians and themselves, we should suppose, from their answer, that it was very trifling and of small moment. They appear to think that the distinction between the people of God and the world has no foundation except in the self-righteous conceits of those who assert it. But is there no foundation for it in truth?
1. From Scripture language and examples we should not expect that the worldly would readily perceive the difference between Christians and themselves. Here it is expressly asserted that Christians should be in a great measure unknown in the world. Again, the life of the believer is called a hidden life: Your life is hid with Christ in God, and the spirit of piety is called the hidden man of the heart. And again, when we remember how Jesus and His apostles were regarded we may readily suppose that the Christian now would be unknown in the world.
2. Those who are not Christians are not qualified to judge of the difference between themselves and those who are Christians. Were an ignorant and a learned man to be placed in company with each other, which would perceive most clearly their difference of attainment? Why, the ignorant man would realise perhaps that there was some inferiority on his part, but upon the whole would be very well satisfied with himself. Just so is it in the present case; no one is qualified to decide whether Christians differ from others unless he is himself a Christian.
3. The distinction between Christians and others is of such a character that it is not easily noticed by the worldly. The qualities which the world admires are obtrusive and showy, but those which religion cherishes are humble and unobtrusive, and, like certain modest flowers, prized by those who value and seek after them, but despised by the unthinking.
4. The worldly hear all the dissensions among the various denominations of Christians, and they see everything that is discreditable, but they enter not into the secret and chief blessedness of religion. Like strangers on the shore of an unknown country, who behold great barrenness and desolation, hear the dashing of the waves, and are ready to conclude it is a most dismal region, while farther in than they have ever penetrated there may be pleasant and fertile fields.
5. It is to the prejudice of Christians that the worst representatives of their profession are most prominently before the world, while the more worthy are more concealed. Is there among those with whom we are acquainted a professor who has more zeal than knowledge?--his character will be well known; his sayings will be often repeated, with the bitter remark that such things are enough to disgust one with religion. But is there one that glorifies God by patience under affliction, by striving to bring his heart and life to correspond with Gods Word, by humble efforts to do good, by a life of prayer and self-denial? Ah, the attention of the world is never drawn to such as these; they pass through it unknown. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
The world knoweth us not
First, of the concession; and there the first granted truth is--
1. That the children of God are obnoxious to the contempt and hatred of the world: The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.
2. The second concession is the imperfection of the present state, by which the glory of this privilege is darkened. It doth not appear what we shall be by what we are now. The heirs of the world make a great show and noise; they may be pointed at where they go; there goeth such a prince, or such a lords son and heir; but Gods children carry no such port and state. Secondly, by way of correction; and there--
1. He asserts the reality of the privilege: Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
2. That in the future state the glory of Gods children shall be manifest: When He shall appear we shall be like Him. That shall be the day of the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom_8:19). First Christ, and then all the rest of His children (Col_3:3-4).
I. Our glorious relation to God, with the effects and fruits of it, is a thing hidden and not seen.
1. It is not seen by the world; the world knoweth us not, as it knew Him not; it is hidden from the world, as colours from a blind man; they have no eyes to see them.
(1) Because they are blinded by the delusions of the flesh, and cannot judge of spiritual things (1Co_2:14).
(2) Being blinded with malice and prejudice they censure this estate perversely, and so malign it and oppose it (1Pe_4:4-5). But their perverse judgment should be no discouragement to the godly in the way of holiness, wherein they endeavour to imitate God, their heavenly Father.
(a) Because if God be not known nor honoured in the world, nor Christ, nor the Spirit, why should we take it unkindly?
(b) Their opinion is little to be valued, and therefore we should rather pity their ignorance than be offended by their censures.
(c) Christians should be satisfied with the approbation of God. It is enough that we have Gods image, Gods favour and fellowship, and are taken into Gods family.
(d) It might be cause of suspicion to us if we were hugged and embraced by the world. It is better to have the praise of their hatred than the scandal of their love and approbation.
(e) Those that are truly blessed in their own consciences cannot be truly miserable by the judgment of other men (2Co_1:12).
(f) The slanders and mockery of worldly men should be no discouragement to us in the ways of the Lord; for God will reckon with them about their hard speeches against His people (1Pe_4:4).
2. As our dignity is not of the world, so in itself it doth not appear during our present state.
(1) The privileges float belong to our dignity and prerogative of adoption are spiritual, and therefore make no fair show in the flesh, as for instance--
(a) The image of God is an internal image (Psa_45:13).
(b) The life which floweth thence is hidden (Col_3:3), like the sap of the tree, which is not seen though the fruit appear.
(c) Their comforts are spiritual, known by feeling rather than by report and imagination: The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through Jesus Christ.
(d) The protection and supplies of Gods providence; it is a secret, it is a mystery and a riddle to the world that must have all under the view of sense (Psa_31:20).
(2) Because it is hidden (Col_3:3), not only in point of security, as maintained by an invisible power, but hidden in point of obscurity; there is a veil upon it.
(a) The spiritual life is hidden under the veil of the natural life (Gal_2:20).
(b) Another veil is that of afflictions and outward meanness and abasement.
(c) Another veil is reproach and calumnies (2Co_6:8).
(d) There is another veil: Christians quench the vigour and obscure the glory of this life by their infirmities; they have too much of Adam and too little of Jesus, and so the spiritual life is carried on darkly; the good herbs and flowers are hidden in neglected gardens by the plenty of weeds.
(3) It is future: Now are we the children of God, but it doth not appear what we shall be; and so our filiation is not only hidden from others, but in a great measure from ourselves.
II. The reasons why this glory doth not appear.
1. Because now is the time of trial, hereafter of recompense; therefore now is the hiding time, hereafter is the day of manifestation of the sons of God. Christ had his bright side and dark side, a glory to be seen by those eyes that were anointed with spiritual eye salve, and affliction and meanness enough to harden them that had no mind to see; so God hath His chosen ones in the world who keep up His honour and interest, and He hath His ways to express His love to them, but not openly.
2. Now is the time of faith, hereafter of sight; and faith is the evidence of things not seen. Therefore in this day of faith God will not too openly expose things to the view of sense, for that would destroy faith. Now we are sanctified and justified, and live by faith.
3. That we may be conformed to our head, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came not with external appearance.
4. God hath chosen this way as most fit to advance His glory; He will give us little in hand that He may daily hear from us, and we may seek our supplies from Him, for the spirit of adoption was given us that we may cry, Abba, Father; and also that His power may be perfect in our weakness. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Slighted by the world
Virtue loses not its worth by being slighted by the world. (Scraggs.)
The world does not know Christ
The principle [on which He manifests Himself to His people as He does not to the world] is illustrated by some of the common facts of life. A man is present to his friend, as he is not to a stranger, though he may be at the same moment speaking to both. The light which floods the landscape with a deluge of beauty is present to him who sees it as it is not to the blind man walking at his side. Music, though it may ripple round the deafened ear, is only present to him who hears it. The discourse of the naturalist on his experiments, of the scholar on his books, of the mathematician who is talking with raptures on the beauties of a theorem, will bring things into the presence of initiated listeners which are still remote from the minds of those in the very same company who have no sympathy with the theme. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
The hidden life
Standing by the telegraphic wires one may often hear the mystic wailing and sighing of the winds among them, like the strains of an AEolian harp, but one knows nothing of the message which is flashing along them. Joyous may be the inner language of those wires, swift as the lightning, far reaching and full of meaning, but a stranger intermeddles not therewith. Fit emblem of the believers inner life; men hear our notes of outward sorrow wrung from us by external circumstances, but the message of celestial peace, the Divine communings with a better land, the swift heart throbs of heaven born desire, they cannot perceive: the carnal see but the outer manhood, but the life hidden with Christ in God, flesh and blood cannot discern. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v16 Chapter 13
Chapter 13
LOFTY IDEALS PERILOUS UNLESS APPLIED
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1Jn_3:16-18
Even the world sees that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ has very practical results. Even the Christmas which the world keeps is fruitful in two of these results- forgiving and giving. How many of the multitudinous letters at that season contain one or other of these things-either the kindly gift, or the tender of reconciliation; the confession "I was wrong," or the gentle advance "we were both wrong."
Love, charity (as we rather prefer to say), in its effects upon all our relations to others, is the beautiful subject of this section of our Epistle. It begins with the message of love itself-yet another asterisk referring to the Gospel, to the very substance of the teaching which the believers of Ephesus had first received from St. Paul, and which had been emphasised by St. John. This message is announced not merely as a sounding sentiment, but for the purpose of being carried out into action. As in moral subjects virtues and vices are best illustrated by their contraries; so, beside the bright picture of the Son of God, the Apostle points to the sinister likeness of Cain. After some brief and parenthetic words of pathetic consolation, he states as the mark of the great transition from death to life, the existence of love as a pervading spirit effectual in operation. The dark opposite of this is then delineated in consonance with the mode of representation just above. But two such pictures of darkness must not shadow the sunlit gallery of love. There is another-the fairest and brightest. Our love can only be estimated by likeness to it; it is imperfect unless it is conformed to the print of the wounds, unless it can be measured by the standard of the great Self-sacrifice. But if this may be claimed as the one real proof of conformity to Christ, much more is the limited partial sacrifice of "this worlds good" required. This spirit, and the conduct which it requires in the long run, will be found to be the test of all solid spiritual comfort, of all true self-condemnation or self-acquittal.
We may say of the verses prefixed to this discourse, that they bring before us charity in its idea, in its example, in its characteristics-in theory, in action, in life.
I We have here love in its idea, "hereby know we love." Rather "hereby know we The Love."
Here the idea of charity in us runs parallel with that in Christ. It is a subtle but true remark, that there is here no logical inferential particle. "Because He laid down His life for us," is not followed by its natural correlative "therefore we," but by a simple connective "and we." The reason is this, that our duty herein is not a mere cold logical deduction. It is all of one piece with The Love. "We know The Love because He laid down His life for us; and we are in duty bound for the brethren to lay down our lives."
Here, then, is the idea of love, as capable of realisation in us. It is continuous unselfishness, to be crowned by voluntary death, if death is necessary. The beautiful old Church tradition shows that this language was the language of St. Johns life. Who has forgotten how the Apostle in his old age is said to have gone on a journey to find the young man who had fled from Ephesus and joined a band of robbers; and to have appealed to the fugitive in words which are the pathetic echo of these-"if needs be I would die for thee as He for us"?
II The idea of charity is then practically illustrated by an incident of its opposite. "But whoso hath this worlds good, and gazes upon his brother in need, and shuts up his heart against him, how doth the love of God abide in him?" The reason for this descent in thought is wise and sound. High abstract ideas, expressed in lofty and transcendent language, are at once necessary and dangerous for creatures like us. They are necessary, because without these grand conceptions our moral language and our moral life would be wanting in dignity, in amplitude, in the inspiration and impulse which are often necessary for duty and always for restoration. But they are dangerous in proportion to their grandeur. Men are apt to mistake the emotion awakened by the very sound of these magnificent expressions of duty for the discharge of the duty itself. Hypocrisy delights in sublime speculations, because it has no intention of their costing anything. Some of the most abject creatures embodied by the masters of romance never fail to parade their sonorous generalisations. One of such characters, as the world will long remember, proclaims that sympathy is one of the holiest principles of our common nature, while he shakes his fist at a beggar.
Every large speculative ideal then is liable to this danger; and he who contemplates it requires to be brought down from his transcendental region to the test of some commonplace duty. This is the latent link of connection in this passage. The ideal of love to which St. John points is the loftiest of all the moral and spiritual emotions which belong to the sentiments of man. Its archetype is in the bosom of God, in the eternal relations of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "God is love." Its home in humanity is Christs heart of fire and flesh; its example is the Incarnation ending in the Cross.
Now of course the question for all but one in thousands is not the attainment of this lofty ideal-laying down his life for the brethren. Now and then, indeed, the physician pays with his own death for the heroic rashness of drawing out from his patient the fatal matter. Sometimes the pastor is cut off by fever contracted in ministering to the sick, or by voluntarily living and working in an unwholesome atmosphere. Once or twice in a decade some heart is as finely touched by the spirit of love as Father Damien, facing the certainty of death from a long slow putrefaction, that a congregation of lepers may enjoy the consolations of faith. St. John here reminds us that the ordinary test of charity is much more commonplace. It is helpful compassion to a brother who is known to be in need, manifested by giving to him something of this worlds "good"-of the "living" of this world which he possesses.
III We have next the characteristics of love in action. "My sons, let us not love in word nor with the tongue; but in work and truth." There is love in its energy and reality; in its effort and sincerity-active and honest, without indolence and without pretence. We may well be reminded here of another familiar story of St. John at Ephesus. When too old to walk himself to the assembly of the Church, he was carried there. The Apostle who had lain upon the breast of Jesus; who had derived from direct communication with Him those words and thoughts which are the life of the elect, was expected to address the faithful. The light of the Ephesian summer fell upon his white hair; perhaps glittered upon the mitre which tradition has assigned to him. But when he had risen to speak, he only repeated-"little children, love one another." Modern hearers are sometimes tempted to envy the primitive Christians of the Ephesian Church, if for nothing else, yet for the privilege of listening to the shortest sermon upon record in the annals of Christianity. When Christian preachers have behind them the same long series of virgin years, within them the same love of Christ and knowledge of His mysteries; when their very presence evinces the same sad, tender, smiling, weeping, all-embracing sympathy with the wants and sorrows of humanity; they may perhaps venture upon the perilous experiment of contracting their sermons within the same span as St. Johns. And when some who, like the hearers. at Ephesus, are not prepared for the repetition of an utterance so brief, begin to ask-"why are you always saying this?"-the answer may well be in the spirit of the reply which the aged Apostle is said to have made-"because it is the commandment of the Lord, and sufficient, if it only be fulfilled indeed."
IV This passage supplies an argument (capable, as we have seen in the Introduction, of much larger expansion from the Epistle as a whole) against mutilated views, fragmentary versions of the Christian life.
There are four such views which are widely prevalent at the present time.
(1) The first of these is emotionalism; which makes the entire Christian life consist in a series or bundle of emotions. Its origin is the desire of having the feelings touched, partly from sheer love of excitement; partly from an idea that if and when we have worked up certain emotions to a fixed point we are saved and safe. This reliance upon feelings is in the last analysis reliance upon self. It is a form of salvation by works; for feelings are inward actions. It is an unhappy anachronism which inverts the order of Scripture; which substitutes peace and grace (the compendious dogma of the heresy of the emotions) for grace and peace, the only order known to St. Paul and St. John. The only spiritual emotions spoken of in this Epistle are "joy, confidence, assuring our hearts before Him": the first as the result of receiving the history of Jesus in the Gospel, the Incarnation, and the blessed communion with God and the Church which it involves; the second as tried by tests of a most practical kind.
(2) The next of these mutilated views of the Christian life is doctrinalism-which makes it consist of a series or bundle of doctrines apprehended and expressed correctly, at least according to certain formulas, generally of a narrow and unauthorised character. According to this view the question to be answered is-has one quite correctly understood, can one verbally formulate certain almost scholastic distinctions in the doctrine of justification? The well known standard-"the Bible only"-must be reduced by the excision of all within the Bible except the writings of St. Paul; and even in this selected portion faith must be entirely guided by certain portions more selected still, so that the question finally may be reduced to this shape -"am I a great deal sounder than St. John and St. James, a little sounder than an unexpurgated St. Paul, as sound as a carefully expurgated edition of the Pauline Epistles?"
(3) The third mutilated view of the Christian life is humanitarianism-which makes it a series or bundle of philanthropic actions.
There are some who work for hospitals, or try to bring more light and sweetness into crowded dwelling houses. Their lives are pure and noble. But the one article of their creed is humanity. Altruism is their highest duty. Their object, so far as they have any object apart from the supreme rule of doing right, is to lay hold on subjective immortality by living on in the recollection of those whom they have helped, whose existence has been soothed and sweetened by their sympathy. With others the case is different. Certain forms of this busy helpfulness-especially in the laudable provision of recreations for the poor-are an innocent interlude in fashionable life; sometimes, alas! a kind of work of supererogation, to atone for the want of devotion or of purity-possibly an untheological survival of a belief in justification by works.
(4) A fourth fragmentary view of the Christian life is observationism, which makes it to consist in a bundle or series of observances. Frequent services and communions, perhaps with exquisite forms and in beautifully decorated churches, have their dangers as well as their blessings. However closely linked these observances may be, there must still in every life be interstices between them. How are these filled up? What spirit within connects together, vivifies and unifies, this series of external acts of devotion? They are means to an end. What if the means come to interpose between us and the end-just as a great political thinker has observed that with legal minds the forms of business frequently overshadow the substance of business, which is their end, and for which they were called into existence. And what is the end of our Christian calling? A life pardoned; in process of purification; growing in faith, in love of God and man, in quiet joyful service. Certainly a "rage for ceremonials and statistics," a long list of observances, does not infallibly secure such a life, though it may often be not alone the delighted and continuous expression, but the constant food and support of such a life. But assuredly if men trust in any of these things-in their emotions, in their favourite formulas, in their philanthropic, works, in their religious observances-in anything but Christ, they greatly need to go back to the simple text, "His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."
Now, as we have said above, in distinction from all these fragmentary views, St. Johns Epistle is a survey of the completed Christian life, founded upon his Gospel. It is a consummate fruit ripened in the long summers of his experience. It is not a treatise upon the Christian affections, nor a system of doctrine, nor an essay upon works of charity, nor a companion to services.
Yet this wonderful Epistle presupposes at least much that is most precious of all these elements.
(1) It is far from being a burst of emotionalism. Yet almost at the outset it speaks of an emotion as being the natural result of rightly received objective truth. St. John recognises feeling, whether of supernatural or natural origin; but he recognises it with a certain majestic reserve. Once only does he seem to be carried away. In a passage to which reference has just been made, after stating the dogma of the Incarnation, he suffuses it with a wealth of emotional colour. It is Christmas in his soul; the bells ring out good tidings of great joy. "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."
(2) This Epistle is no dogmatic summary. Yet combining its procemium with the other of the fourth Gospel, we have the most perfect statement of the dogma of the Incarnation. As we read thoughtfully on, dogma after dogma stands out in relief. The divinity of the Word, the reality of His manhood, the effect of His atonement, His intercession, His continual presence, the personality of the Holy Spirit, His gifts to us, the relation of the Spirit to Christ, the Holy Trinity-all these find their place in these few pages. If St. John is no mere doctrinalist he is yet the greatest theologian the Church has ever seen.
(3) Once more; if the Apostles Christianity is no mere humanitarian sentiment to encourage the cultivation of miscellaneous acts of good nature, yet it is deeply pervaded by a sense of the integral connection of practical love of man with the love of God. So much is this the case, that a large gathering of the most emotional of modern sects is said to have gone on with a Bible reading in St. Johns Epistle until they came to the words -" we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." The reader immediately closed the book, pronouncing with general assent the verse was likely to disturb the peace of the children of God. Still St. John puts humanitarianism in its right place as a result of something higher. "This commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." As if he would say-"do not sever the law of social life from the law of supernatural life; do not separate the human fraternity from a Divine Fatherhood."
(4) No one can suppose that for St. John religion was a mere string of observances. Indeed, to some his Epistle has given the notion of a man living in an atmosphere where external ordinances and ministries either did not exist at all, or only in almost impalpable forms. Yet in that wonderful manual, "The Imitation of Christ," there is scarcely the faintest trace of any of these external things; while no one could possibly argue that the author was ignorant of, or lightly esteemed, the ordinances and sacraments amongst which his life must have been spent. Certainly the fourth Gospel is deeply sacramental. This Epistle, with its calm, unhesitating conviction of the sonship of all to whom it is addressed; with its view of the Christian life as in idea a continuous growth from a birth the secret of whose origin is given in the Gospel; with its expressive hints of sources of grace and power and of a continual presence of Christ; with its deep mystical realisation of the double flow from the pierced side upon the cross, and its thrice-repeated exchange of the sacramental order "water and blood," for the historical order "blood and water"; unquestionably has the sacramental sense diffused throughout it. The Sacraments are not in obtrusive prominence; yet for those who have eyes to see they lie in deep and tender distances. Such is the view of the Christian life in this letter-a life in which Christs truth is blended with Christs love; assimilated by thought, exhaling in worship, softening into sympathy with mans suffering and sorrow. It calls for the believing soul, the devout heart, the helping hand. It is the perfect balance in a saintly soul, of feeling, creed, communion, and work.
For of work for our fellow man it is that the question is asked half despairingly -"whoso hath this worlds good, and seeth" (gazes at) "his brother have need, and shutteth up his heart against him, how doth the love of God dwell in him." Some can quietly look at the poor brother; they see him in need. They may belong to "the sluggard Pitys vision-weaving tribe," who expend a sigh of sentiment upon such spectacles, and nothing more. Or they may be hardened professors of the "dismal science," who have learned to consider a sigh as the luxury of ignorance or of feebleness. But for all practical purposes both these classes interpose a too effectual barrier between their heart and their brothers need. But true Christians are made partakers in Christ of the mystery of human suffering. Even when they are not actually in sight of brethren in want, their ears are ever hearing the ceaseless moaning of the sea of human sorrow, with a sympathy which involves its own measure of pain, though a pain which brings with it abundant compensation. Their inner life has not merely won for itself the partly selfish satisfaction of personal escape from punishment, great as that blessing may be. They have caught something of the meaning of the secret of all love-"we love because He first loved us." {1Jn_4:19} In those words is the romance (if we may dare to call it so) of the divine love tale. Under its influence the face once hard and narrow often becomes radiant and softened; it smiles, or is tearful, in the light of the love of His face who first loved. It is this principle of St. John which is ever at work in Christian lands. In hospitals it tells us that Christ is ever passing down the wards: that He will have no stinted service; that He must have more for His sick, more devotion, a gentler touch, a finer sympathy; that where His hand has broken and blessed, every particle is a sacred thing, and must be treated reverently.
Are there any who are tempted to think that our text has become antiquated; that it no longer holds true in the light of organised charity, of economic science? Let them listen to one who speaks with the weight of years of active benevolence, and with consummate knowledge of its method and duties. "There are men who, in their detestation of roguery, forget that by a wholesale condemnation of charity, they run the risk of driving the honest to despair and of turning them into the very rogues of whom they desire so ardently to be quit. These men are unconsciously playing into the hands of the Socialists and the Anarchists, the only sections of society whose distinct interest it is that misery and starvation should increase. No doubt indiscriminate almsgiving is hurtful to the State as well as to the individual who receives the dole, but not less dangerous would it be to society if the principles of these stern political economists were to be literally accepted by any large number of the rich, and if charity ceased to be practised within the land. We cannot yet afford to shut ourselves up in the castle of philosophic indifference, regardless of the fate of those who have the misfortune to find themselves outside its walls."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 1–3. Behold, what manner of love, etc. The last…
1–3. Behold, what manner of love, etc. The last verse of chapter 2 speaks of the saints as born of God. That thought suggests the wonderful love in allowing us to be born again and thus to become God's children. Sons of God. What greater glory than to be acknowledged as sons of the King of Kings! Therefore. If the world does not know the Father it will not know his children.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 13, 18 THE last word of the previous chapter brought to…
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SONSHIP
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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THE last word of the previous chapter brought to mind that the Christian is related to God by a spiritual and Divine birth. A Christian is one “born of the Spirit”—“born of God.” But St. John suddenly feels how much is involved, and included in that new Divine birth, and expresses sudden feeling in the outburst of grateful surprise which begins chap. 3. Birth brings near to thought Divine Fatherhood, and privileges of spiritual sonship. That sonship may bring some present disabilities, but it has in it the very noblest possibilities, and time is altogether on its side.
1Jn_3:1. What manner.—ποταπήν, of what kind; “how great of its kind.” The Father.—The distinctive name of the Christian God, as Jehovah was the distinctive name of the Jewish God. Bestowed.—Compare Joh_1:12, R.V. Notice the singular use of διδόναι. Be called.—I.e. should bear the name, and experience the reality of sonship. Not something that is to be ours in the future. A privileged relation into which we are brought now. We receive the name because we have the reality. Sons of God.—Better, as R.V., “children,” which is more comprehensive, and bears better relation to the comparison of 1Jn_3:2. An addition is necessary here, as in R.V., “and such we are.” “God has allowed us to be called children, and children we are.” Therefore.—Better, “for this cause”: on account of our being children of the Father, the world does not recognise us, since it does not recognise Him. Dr. Plummer says that “St. Augustine compares the attitude of the world towards God to that of sick men in delirium who would do violence to their physician.”
1Jn_3:2. Sons.—Children. Appear.—Made manifest; evident to our present apprehension. Omit the word “but.” For “when” read “if.” For “He” margin reads “it,” which makes the reference to be to the full meaning of the sonship, which can only be imperfectly apprehended under present conditions. If “He” is preserved, the reference is to Christ, and to His second coming, which appears to have been at this time in St. John’s thought (see chap, 1Jn_2:28). If we take the word “He,” the likeness suggested is to Christ. If we take the word “it,” the likeness suggested is to the Father-God. See Him as He is.—Compare 2Co_3:18. “The Divine image which was lost in the Fall shall be restored.”
1Jn_3:3. Hope in Him.—There is certainly more point if this is referred to Christ. Hope in God is too general, since John is addressing Christians, and dealing with their distinctive hope of being fully like Christ. Purifieth Himself.—The word ἁγνίζειν is used chiefly in a technical sense of ceremonial purifications; and St. John, in Rev_1:6, represents Christians as made “kings and priests unto God.” The Christian’s “purifying himself” must be seen in its harmony with the other side of truth which St. John presents. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us [Christians] from all sin.” As He is pure.—The holiness of Christ, as the holiness of a man living on earth under human conditions, is our model and inspiration. Such holiness is an attainable thing, because it has once been attained.
1Jn_3:4. Committeth sin.—Better, “doeth the sin, doeth also lawlessness.” This should not be taken as a merely general statement; it is specific to those whom St. John addresses. A Christian who wilfully does sin must not for one moment imagine that his standing in Christ has freed him from the grip of the law. St. John had in mind the Gnostics, who considered the moral law to be no longer binding on the enlightened, as a rule of life. Transgression of the law.—Better, “is [or doeth] lawlessness,” i.e. acts from caprice, not from conscience; does his own will, not God’s.
1Jn_3:5. Take away our sins.—Not the same as “blot out our sins.” Two reasons are given for the sinlessness of Christians:
1. To take away the love and the power of sin was Christ’s work. They would not want to sin if Christ was really doing His work in them.
2. Christ was the model Christian, and His example was distinctly one of sinless-ness, in this sense, that He never wanted to sin. Those who are sons with Christ, through the new spiritual birth, never want to sin. They may be overborne by frailties; they never will to sin.
1Jn_3:6. Abideth.—One of St. John’s special words. See Rom_7:20; Gal_2:20. Whosoever sinneth.—Purposely, wilfully, persistently, proves that he has not in him that new life which comes with the spiritual birth. Not having the life, he has not the vision which alone can see Christ, nor the apprehension that alone can know Him, because these belong exclusively to the new life.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Jn_3:1-6
What we are, and what we hope to be.—The things which St. John remembered, of the words and works of the Lord Jesus, were the things that most arrested and engaged his attention, and became most firmly fixed in his memory. It is a general mental law, that we remember things according to the measure of attention that we give to them. And that law is used, not swept aside, when the Divine inspiration comes to a man. Only St. John records our Lord’s interview with Nicodemus. Only St. John distinctly gives us the idea of the Christian life as coming from a new and Divine birth. “Ye must be born from above.” The apostle evidently made this a ruling idea in his ministry. Closing the previous chapter, he had said, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him.” That word “begotten” brings before him his favourite thought, and he is at once carried away by his feelings, and led to exclaim, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” For that begetting of the Father makes us spiritual sons; and it is not possible to unfold all that is involved in being spiritually, and with Christ, the children of God. We can, however, see what present obligations that new birth and that new relation bring. It delivers us from wanting to sin, and it puts us upon earnest self-purifying. This is the point of the paragraph, which may be unfolded in the following way:—
I. As new-born, we may think what we now are.—All the apostles deal with the Christian standing, and expect to gain persuasion unto righteousness, consistency, and service, by presenting and urging the Christian privileges; but none make so much of the Divine sonship as does the apostle John. St. Paul’s idea is adoption into the family of God. St. John’s idea is actual spiritual birth into the spiritual family, involving direct, and immediate, and complete family rights and privileges. Adoption implies something that we may become; birth implies something that we are.
1. We are objects of the Divine love. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” The expression of surprise reminds us of St. John’s familiar sentence, “God so loved the world”; and it may be illustrated by Goneril’s answer to King Lear: “Beyond all manner of so much I love you.” St. John had fully entered into the Christ-revelation of God as the Father; and indeed that was essential to the idea he had of the beginning of Christian life as a birth, and the relation of Christian life as a sonship. Outside the Christian sphere God may be the Creator, the Provider, the moral Governor—El, or Shaddai, or Jehovah. Within the Christian sphere, on the standing with Christ the Son, God is, distinctly and comprehensively, the Father. But birth is the fruitage of human love, and St. John sublimates the idea, and bids us think of God’s giving birth to spiritual sons as a fruitage of His Fatherly love; and then we are permitted to think that God’s spiritual children are dear to Him, even as our natural children are to us. We stand in the surprising love of our heavenly Father. We are called sons, children, because we are wrapped round, watched, and tended with the Father-love of Him by whom we are begotten. Perhaps we have never yet entered fully into all the precious meaning involved in our being spiritually begotten by the eternal Father, and so actually in a standing with Him beside His Son Jesus. Did we realise that, we should at once utter our thankful surprise with St. John, and say, “Behold what manner of love.”
2. We are children of God. The R.V. does well in substitviting “children” for “sons”—not only because “children” is more inclusive than “sons,” but because, as we shall presently see, what he has to say depends on our recognising the immaturity that belongs to children. It may, however, be asked whether all men are not, by nature, the children of God. They are, in a sense; but there is a further sense in which Jesus was the Son of God—Son by a mysterious spiritual generation. It is in something of that sense that we too may become children of God. The Hindoos speak of men as being “twice born.” And we may see a double sense in which we are the children of God: a first sense in which we are the creations of His power, into whom He has breathed His breath of life, and whom He makes the objects of parental and providential care; and a second sense, in which we are the quickenings of His Spirit, and live in a higher life of relations with Him, which glorify the lower. We are children of God in a spiritual sense. And if we would understand that, we must enter into the mystery of Christ as the spiritual Son of God. His real life on earth was the life of His spiritual sonship; and this carried into a responsive and harmonious service all His bodily life, and all His material relations. In a spiritual sense Jesus was the Son of God; in that same sense we are the children of God—born, in the Divine love, into the Father’s spiritual family. The life of children that we live is a spiritual life. The obedience of children that we offer is spiritual obedience. The service of children that we render is spiritual service. It carries with it the material life, and powers, and relations, just as Christ’s spiritual life as the Son carried to the Father the full devotion and consecration of His human life; but His Sonship and ours are essentially spiritual; and what we have therefore to be supremely anxious about is the child-life of our souls. Keep that nourished into health and vigour, and there need not be any fear of its failing to carry into obedience the whole material life.
3. We are sharers in the experience of Christ. This is involved in what has now been said; but St. John brings in a point which we might readily have missed. It is one which our Divine Lord set in prominence in His great high-priestly prayer. He prayed thus for His disciples, “I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And St. John, in his epistle, says, “For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” The experience of Christ was that which one born into and living in a spiritual sphere must always repeat. It is another life to the material life of men. It is otherwise. There are other atmospheres, other interests, and other relations; and the people who are confined to the lower ranges can no better understand the life, and thought, and feeling of those in the higher ranges, than the uneducated rustic can understand and appreciate the speeches in a convention of scientific men. The people who were unspiritual could do nothing with Christ, when He was here on earth, but turn Him out, and crucify Him. And in every age it has been a grave source of suspicion when the Church has confederated with the world, and the world has felt that it understood the Church. It is the side of peril in which the spiritual life is placed in these days. Be spiritual children of God, and you must share the experience of Christ; “the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.”
II. As new-born, we may think what we hope to be.—“We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” The margin R.V. gives, “if it shall be manifested,” and makes the reference to be to the sonship; but St. John evidently had the reappearance of Christ in his mind, for immediately before (chap. 1Jn_2:28) he had written, “Abide in Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not to be ashamed before Him at His coming.” And the point of the apostle is evidently this—Our Lord’s Sonship has unfolded in the heavenlies into something quite beyond our present apprehension. But it is the proper unfolding of the spiritual sonship. And we shall find that the growth of our spiritual life, even here on earth, is growth along the same lines, so that this surprise awaits us—when we do understand what Christ now has become, and is, we shall find that we have been growing so like Him, that we shall be able to see Him even as He is. If we did not grow and develop as spiritual children of the Father, and the Only Begotten did blossom into a glorified humanity, a glorified manhood, we should lose Him—lose our relations with Him, and blind our eyes, so that we should not be able to see Him. And St. John would therefore say—See how much depends on the self-purifying, self-culture of the spiritual life. This idea may be opened in two ways:
1. “We shall be like Him”—that is, we shall be matured, as a child is who has become a man. It will at once be seen what point is given by reading “now are we the children of God,” instead of “sons of God.” Now are we but “children,” in the child-stage. We cannot now realise what it is to be children still, but children in the mature, the man-stage. But that is precisely what Christ is now, a Child matured through a completed earth-experience, who has reached His man-stage, His full maturity, as a spiritual Son. But who of us can imagine what the full maturity of spiritual sonship is? Who of us can worthily conceive Christ in heaven, in His glorified humanity—the spiritual Child of earth unfolded into the spiritual Man in heaven? You see the earth-child bright with play, the earth-boy busy with lessons, the youth learning his trade. Do any of them know what it is to be a man? Can any of them anticipate a man’s thoughts, and feelings, and ways? And yet they are on their way to that manhood; and if they grow worthily, they are growing into that manhood. And when it is come, when it is manifested, they will find that they have been precisely preparing for it, and are able quite to understand it. And that seems to be St. John’s thought. We are all now in the child-stage, spiritually. Jesus our Lord was also in the child-stage once, when He tarried among men here. He is out of the child-range now. He is in the spiritual manhood and maturity now. And we cannot fully and worthily realise Him as He is. But it does not matter greatly; for of this we may be well assured—if we do but worthily grow through our child-stages, we too shall become men, and then we shall have the great glory of discovering, that we can see and understand Christ. We can be, like Him, sons still, but sons that have grown into full maturity and manhood. Child-training may be trying, anxious work; it may seem to be moving toward nothing. It is moving towards the spiritual manhood which assuredly will give us the vision of Christ as He is.
2. “We shall be like Him”—that is, we shall be pure, as He is whose character has come through a severe life-testing. “Every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” We do not know what Christ now is, but we do know one thing—“He is pure”: not merely “innocent,” as a little child is pure; but pure as a man can be pure who has walked life’s soiling highways, and experienced life’s temptations. Of this we can be absolutely certain, “He is pure”—fittingly figured before us as the infinitely white One of the book of Revelation. If we are ever to see Him as He is, we must become like Him in this. Only the pure-souled can ever see pure souls. Then see how this becomes an inspiration to self-purifying. If the hope of seeing Christ as He is is set before us, it will surely exercise a present and practical influence on our daily life and endeavour. St. John gives us both sides of this most inspiring truth. He who is spiritually born of God does not want to sin. He strives with himself that he may not sin. Yet he may sin through frailties and infirmities. But the “blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all such sin”; and we have an Advocate with the Father, and He is the propitiation for our sins. We shall see Him, when we are pure as He is pure. And if we are ever to be pure, we must now be purifying ourselves. We can understand this best, if we think of the immaturity—in respect of moral purity—of the child-stage. You cannot in any high spiritual sense call a child pure. You can call him innocent. You may recognise that in some small things he may have won victory over himself, and over evil, and so gained a beginning of purity. But a man can never be morally pure until he has been soiled, or at least has come to understand what it is to be soiled. His manhood of passions and possibilities must have come to him before you can talk of his moral purity. That manhood must have been submitted to its Divinely arranged circle of earthly testings and temptations, and come through them all victorious, ere we can possibly speak of the man as morally pure. And self-purification is precisely this—the effort which the new life in Christ makes to win the whole body and the whole earth-relations for righteousness. Do it. Let your life be one persistent effort to purify the self, and one day, the day when Christ is fully apprehended, you will find that you can see Him as He is, because you are like Him. The issue of the life-struggle is, that you are pure, “even as He is pure.” There is one other thing that we are clearly to see. That hope, that particular Christian hope of one day being like Christ, and therefore able to see Him as He is, acts in a really practical way upon us. Usually hope does little save set men dreaming: this hope sets men working, and even working upon themselves. It becomes a present impulse to self-purifying. It becomes a present defence from the sinning of self-love and self-serving. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.” “Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness: and sin is lawlessness.… Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” The Christian hope then is of unfolding through this child-stage of earth into the maturity which Christ has gained. The Christian hope is of winning at last that purity which Christ has gained. Christ won it through a human life of conflict, and so must we. “It is enough for the servant that he be as his Master.” Be as the Master in the daily sanctifyings, self-purifyings, of earth, and then the great surprise awaits you. One day you will see Christ—see Christ as He is. He will be manifested to you; and the secret will be this—beyond all your possible imaginings you will be found like Him, cultured into likeness to Him, and therefore able to see Him as He is. Sons come to their manhood, even as He has.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn_3:1. The Christian Standing.—How different is the tone which men put on their teachings and writings! Some are coldly intellectual; some are wisely restrained; some are passionately intense; and some are emotional, even to weakness. But there is a sphere of service and influence for men and women of every kind of temperament—for practical James, and impulsive Paul, and mystical John. It is characteristic of the apostle John that he gives us truth with the glow of personal feeling upon it. He himself grasps the truth through personal feeling, spiritual insight, rather than by distinct mental operations. And he is to be fully understood only by those who are found in answering sympathetic moods. We may well be warned of the influence exerted on us by the scientific spirit of our times. It tends to make us think that cannot be truth at all which cannot be set down in intellectual forms, and fully verified. It remains the fact, however the scientific mind may try to resist it, that man has to feel his way, not think his way, into the best truth he can attain. As long as we have the writings of the apostle John, we shall be sure of this—that our love can be the opening of our eyes to see the deepest and the best of God’s truth, and the saintly soul may know Him better than the cultured mind. St. John should be recognised as the apostle of the sonship. His chief words are “Father,” “Son,” “Fellowship.” He received fully that revelation of the Divine Fatherhood which Jesus brought. He knew in his own life-experience the exceeding honour and joy of the sonship in Christ. Our Lord constantly taught the Fatherhood of God toward men; and the apostles constantly taught the sonship of men toward the Father. The two truths answer to one another. We behold the manner of love the Father hath bestowed. We see it, we know it, we feel it, in this—that to us is given the standing, the relationship, the spirit of sons. And our separation from the world is found in this—we are like our Father-God.
I. The Christian standing.—“Called the sons of God.” We do not hesitate to affirm, that this is something distinct and peculiar to the Christian religion. Other religions propose no such relations to the gods. There have been many forms of incarnation, but never elsewhere has the essence of the Incarnation been the manifestation of God in the relation of sonship, Divine help to the apprehension of God through the nearest and dearest of human ties, man in his best forms of fellowship representing the relationship existing between God and His creatures. Think what standings men may possibly have before their God. They may be the creatures of a Creator, and so may have reasonable claims to His care, His providings, and His guidance. He who makes a thing, brings a thing into being, is honourably bound to provide for the thing which He has made. And so “God’s tender mercies are over all His works”; and He “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good; and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” “The eyes of all wait upon Him, and He giveth them their meat in due season.” We have our rights before God, on the standing-ground that we are His creatures. “He gave us breath and being.” “He made us, and not we ourselves: we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” It is well sometimes to remind ourselves of our common rights before God as His creatures. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Sometimes our standing before God is represented as that of subjects to a king. We do not greatly value this mode of presenting our relationship, because a king is a purely earthly creation, a governmental device of sinful men, who wanted to protect themselves from one another. When God set men forth upon His world, He made fathers; when men cast God off, and took the ordering of life into their own hands, they made “kings.” But this good lies in regarding our standing as that of subjects—it brings prominently before us that we are under the control of law and rule, and that this rule is in the hands of One altogether beyond and above us. It must be wrong for us to follow “the devices and desires of our own hearts.” “God is the great king above all gods.” But neither of these forms of standing before God can satisfy men who can think, and love, and trust, and yearn for a supreme object of love, one who can be trusted absolutely. Man is not a mere creature of a creator; he is not a mere subject of a king. There is a child in every man. And there is no rest for any man until the child in him has found the eternal Father. And this is the very essence of God’s revelation, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son.” “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.” Dr. A. Maclaren, in a sermon on this text, says: “Thank God, the prodigal son, in his rags among the swine, and lying by the swine-troughs in his filth, and his husks, and his fever, is still a son. No doubt about that! He has these three elements and marks of sonship that no man ever gets rid of: he is of Divine origin; he has a Divine likeness in that he has got mind, and will, and spirit; and he is the object of a Divine love. The doctrine of the New Testament about the Fatherhood of God, and the sonship of man, does not in the slightest degree interfere with these great truths: that all men, though the features of the common humanity may be almost battered out of recognition in them, are all children of God because He made them; they are children of God because still there lives in them something of the likeness of the creative Father; and, blessed be His name! they are all children of God because He loves, and provides, and cares for every one of them.” All this is true; and yet there is a higher relation to which the name “sons of God” is more accurately given; and this higher sonship is the aim and purpose of the revelation of God’s love to men, and most especially of the great gift of His love in Christ. Think of the case of right relation between an earthly father and his child. There is a purely physical tie. There is a condition resulting from the long years of close association. There has grown up a very loving sense of dependence; and it has even become a mutual dependence. But there is more. There is a full sympathy, perfect love, unquestioning trust. And these bring a joy unspeakable into the relationship. The Christian standing of sonship is the relation in its very highest form. And to St. John it seems so supremely blessed, that he calls on us to “behold,” to look, to look long, and fully realise what “manner of love” it was that put us in this standing and relation. Let us not fail to recognise that “sonship” involves “brotherhood.” Our common life in Christ ought to bring us closely together. As Christians, these are our marked peculiarities. We have a heavenly Father; we are, spiritually, sons; we are bound in fellowship with the Father’s other sons; we belong to a family, some members of which are in the heavenlies, and some are with us yet on earth; and the family name is, “the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which ore written in heaven.”
II. The ground of our standing.—God’s love in calling us to be sons. To understand this, let us think of the prodigal son in our Lord’s parable, who so penitently and so humbly said, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son,” because he felt, in his deep heart, that he had made himself so unsonlike. Then if God can call us sons, we may be sure that He only calls us what we are, and in His great love He must have made us sonlike. And precisely that—making us sonlike, making us “obedient children”—is the great aim and purpose of the wonderful and gracious redemption which He has wrought for us in Christ. He is making us sons, so that He may call us what we are, and deal with us as the sons He would have us be. Did ever father show such love to a prodigal son as God, our Father, has shown to us, His wayward, wilful, lost sons and daughters? See what God has had to do. Think about it with the help of that most pathetic of all our Lord’s parables. He had to get a prodigal thinking rightly of his father. If he had thought aright, he never would have wandered off in his wilfulness, taking his “portion of goods.” He had to get the prodigal to think rightly of himself. The conceited confidence in the management of his own life had to be utterly broken down, as failure, calamity, and degrading wretchedness alone could break it down. He had to set the prodigal upon longing for home, and envying the very servants that went to and fro in the dear old house. He had to show the prodigal the way home. For fears blinded his eyes, and despair would have made him faint by the way. And He had to inspire the father to meet with such a love and welcome the prodigal’s return, that sin and wilfulness, fear and despair, would for ever flee away, and the sweet joy of sonlike feelings come back to the humbled soul. Types of God! Suggestions of the Divine Fatherhood! Beautiful vision! St. John looks on Christians as a company of returned prodigals—he knows that nothing but the Father’s love could have won them back; they are sitting, happy indeed, at their Father’s table, and they are once again called sons. And St. John exclaims, as he looks upon them, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed!” Do you ask then for the ground of oustanding? It is this, only this, but thus is everything—our Father’s love. Would we “know the love of God, which passeth knowledge,”? We must turn to the work of Christ. “The most wonderful revelation to every heart of man, of the depths of the Divine heart, lies in the gift of Jesus Christ. I turn to the cross, and I see there a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part, but comes from the depths of His own infinite being, who loves because He must, and who must because He is God. I turn to the cross, and I see there manifested a love which sighs for recognition, which desires nothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection, and longs to see its own likeness in me. And I see there a love which will not be put away by sinfulness, and shortcomings, and evil, but pours its treasures on the unworthy, like sunshine on a dunghill. So, streaming through the darkness of eclipse, and speaking to me even in the awful silence in which the Son of man died there for sin, “I behold,” and I hear, the “manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us,” stronger than death and sin, armed with all power, gentler than the fall of the dew, boundless and endless, in. its measure measureless, and in its quality transcendent—the love of God to me in Jesus Christ my Saviour” (A. Maclaren, D.D.).
III. The world’s blindness to this Christian standing.—“Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” It was the fact of St. John’s time, that the Christians were neglected and despised. But the fact surprised the loving apostle, because he looked upon the men of the world as “sons of God” too. Only they did not know their Father in His fullest relations, and so they did not feel like sons indeed, and then find themselves looking out for their Father’s other sons. Our Lord prepared us for the treatment the world would give us. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” St. John’s meaning may be illustrated from our own family life. Outsiders are strangers to all the secret joys we find in our home fellowships; and the world can never understand or appreciate the pleasures we find in our family life with God. And what shall be said in conclusion? Only these two things:
1. Here is the bond that binds the heavenly family together. Not any mental agreement. That we can never get while brains vary in size, capacity, and contents. This—knowing and feeling our Father’s love. You know that. So do I. Then we are one for all human fellowship in the common joy of that love.
2. Here is the truth given to the family to use in getting back the rest of the prodigal sons. The Father yearns over them. He cannot bear to see their vacant places at the table. He wants them to come home. This opens up the gospel, which is the good news of the Father’s love for His sons, for all His sons; and of this the Lord Jesus Christ, the “Man Christ Jesus,” is the proof, the “teacher, the illustration, and the persuasion.”
The Love that calls us Sons.—This text may point to the fact that we are called the sons of God, as the great exemplification of the wonderfulness of His love. But it is better to see that the love bestowed is the means by which the design that we should be called His sons is accomplished. What John calls us to contemplate with wonder and gratitude is not only the fact of this marvellous love, but also the glorious end for which it has been given to us, and works, viz. that men should become, in the deepest sense, God’s children. The Revised Version adds the words “and such we are,” a kind of rapid “aside” of the writer.
I. The love that is given.—We can no more “behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us,” than we can look with undimmed eyes right into the middle of the sun. But we can look on the sun’s activities. So we have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death, if we would estimate the love of God. Through and in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ there comes to us the gift of a Divine life like His own. This communication of Divine life, which is at bottom Divine love—for God’s life is God’s love—is His great gift to men. Christ for us and Christ in us must both be taken into account if you would estimate the manner of the love that God has bestowed upon us.
II. The sonship which is the purpose of His given love.—John’s phrase, “the sons of God,” is, “children of God.” Stress is laid on the Children’s kindred nature with their Father, and on their immature condition. Consider this great gift and dignity of being children of God, which is the object that God has in view in all the lavish bestowment of His goodness upon us. There are two families amongst men. All men are children of God because He made them; because there still lives in them something of the likeness of the creative Father; and because He loves, and provides, and cares for every one of them. But there is a higher relation than that, to which the name “children of God” is more accurately given, and to which in the New Testament that name is confined. What is implied in that great word by which the Almighty gives us a name and a place as of sons and daughters? Clearly, first, a communicated life; second, a kindred nature which shall be “pure as He is pure”; third, growth to full maturity.
III. The glad recognition of this sonship by the child’s heart.—By the expression “and such are we,” John asserts his and their glad consciousness of the reality of the fact of their sonship, which they know to be no empty title. He asserts, too, the present possession of that sonship, realising it as a fact, amid all the commonplace vulgarities, and carking cares, and petty aims of life’s little day. He turns doctrine into experience.
IV. The loving and devout gaze upon this wonderful love.—“Behold.” This is not a mere exclamation, but a distinct command to do the thing, to look, and ever look, and to look again, and live in the habitual and devout contemplation of that infinite and wondrous love of God. Such a habit of devout and thankful meditation upon the love of God, as manifested in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of the Divine Spirit, joined with the humble, thankful conviction that I am a child of God thereby, lies at the foundation of all vigorous and happy Christian life. But we cannot keep that great sight before the eye of our minds without effort. You will have very resolutely to look away from something else, if, amid all the dazzling gauds of earth, you are to see the far-off lustre of that heavenly love.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
1Jn_3:2. Getting like Christ.—We shall know Christ by getting like Him. The water of life takes the shape of the containing vessel, but it has likewise the property of dilating the spirit into which it flows, and, by fruition, enlarging capacity, and hence kindling desire. The sun shines upon the sensitive plate, and an image of the sun is photographed there.—Ibid.
The Inestimable Privileges of Believers.—Our Lord was hated, reviled, and persecuted unto death; but we see how glorious was His person, and how exalted His character. In the same manner His followers are treated with contempt; but God declares their state to be the most honourable upon earth. To this effect St. John represents them as slighted by man and honoured by God.
I. The present state of believers.—Not servants, but sons.
1. His by adoption. Every believer was once a child of wrath. But God takes whom He will into His family; He adopts them as His sons, and makes them heirs of His glory.
2. Also by regeneration. Born again of the Holy Spirit; they are renewed after the image of their heavenly Father.
3. They enjoy this slate “now.” Rich and poor, learned and unlearned, partake alike of this honour. Even now, while the world despises them, does God own His relation to them. What an unspeakably blessed state is this! How different from the state they were once in! How great the privileges of this relation! To what a glorious state does-it lead in a better world!
II. Their future state.—
1. Very little is known respecting this. No idea of spiritual and glorified bodies. We cannot imagine how extensive will be the capacities of the soul. We have very faint conceptions of perfect holiness and perfect happiness.
2. Yet there are some things revealed to us. We shall see Christ with our bodily eyes. We shall resemble Him in all His imitable perfections. This resemblance will result from our sight of Him.
3. These things we may be said to “know.” We have already experienced the earnest of them in our hearts. When we believe in Him, we have views of Him which we had not before: these transform the soul into His image. Our Lord has given us the full assurance of these things. St. Paul leaves us no room to doubt (1Co_15:49; Col_3:4).
Infer—
1. How wonderfully different the lot of believers and unbelievers. Believers are children of God; unbelievers are children of the wicked one. One no idea of the happiness of the future; the other no idea of the misery. How different their feelings on seeing Christ upon His judgment-throne! What a different state to all eternity! If we believe in Christ, these blessings shall be ours.
2. How bright the prospects of the true Christian. The Christian’s warfare will soon be over. Another day may bring him to the full possession of it. Let these prospects animate every pious soul. Let none of us suffer our minds to be drawn away by the things of time. Let every one stand ready to take his flight. Let the beloved apostle be our example.—C. Simeon, M.A.
Likeness brings Vision.—This familiar passage is altered in the Revised Version, which reads: “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He [margin, it] shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.” This is the dreamy, meditative utterance of an aged saint, whose interest is in the other life to which he is hastening. Compare a young man’s speculative and an old man’s meditative way of dealing with the future life. St. John has been expressing joy in the standing of the redeemed as sons. The Father’s giving prodigals again their places as sons is a surprise of love. In the text he dwells on it broodingly. There is something we know. There is something that we cannot know. What we cannot actually know, we can argue about, and get comfort and assurance from our argument.
I. Something we know.—“Now are we the children of God.” The word “children” is more inclusive than the word “sons.” Children—
1. In fact—of nature, and of restoration.
2. In favour—within the shadow of the Fatherliness.
3. In feeling—really wanting to be, and striving to be, children. We need not wait for the joy of the fact, the safety of the favour, or the inspiration of the feeling. We ought to have them all now.
II. Something we cannot know.—“It is not yet made manifest what we shall be.” It cannot be known—
1. Because we are unable to understand.
2. Because we are only getting like what we are to be. Illustrate by the boy not realising his manhood, because he is only getting towards it.
3. Because Christ is out of present apprehension. But everything that is growing is growing up to something, though it may not now know what is to be its flower or its fruit. The Christian is surely growing to something; but no Christian ever reached full flowering, so as to hang the perfect flower out in the earth-skies. All who remain among the earthly things remain among imperfect things.
III. What we cannot know we can argue about.—Compare the A.V. “He” with the R.V. margin “it.” When what we shall be is manifested. It will be by-and-by. One thing is certain—then we shall see God. But seeing God is only possible to the creature in seeing Christ, who is the ray of the eternal Sun that comes into the sensible spheres. We have had Christ in the flesh, and men apprehended Him thus. We have Christ in the Spirit, and we do apprehend Him thus. But these involve limitations. (Illustrate from T. Moore’s Lalla Rookh, “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.”) We are to see Christ as He is in His glorified humanity, and then we shall find that He is what we have been growing to become like. We can argue thus: If we see Him, we must have become like Him. Try this with the apostles—that apostle knew Jesus best who was most like Him. It was St. John. Then this is a practical application for us—in the measure of our growing likeness to Christ comes to us the clearer vision of Him. If we are ever to be like Him, we must be getting daily towards that end, changing into His likeness, image. Our best helps are present lookings into the face of Christ. There is a story, or parable, of a family in the Spanish Indies, who were in nowise different from their neighbours in the same upland, save that, when they looked towards the sky, every one of them saw a face looking back upon him. The family got scattered, and multiplied; but, into whatever towns or strange lands they came, this mark followed every one of them—that still he saw the face which no other around him could see. Men marked that, while differing widely in other respects, all were like to each other in their look. And while some explained that they inherited this common look from their ancestors, others said that, by looking to the one face, they grew like to it in their own visage, and, consequently, like to each other. The story may stand for illustration of what takes place through looking unto Jesus: we are changed into His likeness—as, in His appearing, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
“For, oh! the Master is so fair,
He smiles so sweet to banished men,
That they who once have seen His face
Can never rest on earth again.”
In heaven, after “ages of ages” of growing glory, we shall have to say, as each new wave of the shoreless, sunlit sea bears us onward, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.”—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Unrevealed Future of the Sons of God.—The present is the prophet of the future. “Now are we the sons of God, and” (not “but”) “it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”
I. The fact of sonship makes us quite sure of the future.—The strongest reasons for believing in another world are these two: first, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and has gone up there; and, second, that a man here can pray, and trust, and love God, and feel that he is His child. Childhood leads to maturity. He that here, in his infantile way, is stammering with his poor, unskilled lips the name, “Abba, Father,” will one day come to speak it fully. He that dimly trusts, he that partially loves, he that can lift up his heart in some more or less unworthy prayer and aspiration after God, in all these emotions and exercises has the great proof in himself that such emotions, such relationships, can never be put an end to. The roots have gone down through the temporal, and have laid hold on the Eternal. “We are the sons of God”; therefore we shall always be so, in all worlds, and whatsoever may become of the poor wrappage in which the soul is shrouded. Not only the fact of our sonship avails to assure us of immortal life, but the very form which our religious experience takes points in the same direction. As the bud foretells the flower, so the very imperfections of the Christian life, as it is seen here, argue the existence of another state, where all that is here in the germ shall be fully matured, and all that is here incomplete shall attain the perfection which alone will correspond to the power that works in us. Think of the ordinary Christian character. The beginning is there, and evidently no more than the beginning. As one looks at the crudity, the inconsistencies, the failings, the feebleness, of the Christian life of others, or of oneself, and then thinks that such a poor, imperfect exhibition is all that so Divine a principle has been able to achieve in this world, one feels that there must be a region and a time where we shall be all which the transforming power of God’s Spirit can make us. The very inconsistencies of Christians are as strong reasons for believing in the perfect life of heaven as their purities and virtues are. There is a great deal in every man, and most of all in Christian men and women, which does not fit this present. The consciousness of belonging to another order of things, because I am God’s child, will make me sure that, when I have done with earth, the tie that binds me to my Father will not be broken.
II. We remain ignorant of much in that future.—John seems to say, “There has never been set forth before men’s eyes, in this earthly life of ours, an example, or an instance, of what the sons of God are to be in another state of being.” And so, because men have never had the instance before them, they do not know much about that state. In some sense there has been a manifestation through the life of Jesus Christ. Let us feel two things: let us be thankful that we do not know, for the ignorance is the sign of the greatness; and, then, let us be sure that just the very mixture of knowledge and ignorance which we have about another world is precisely the food which is most fitted to nourish imagination and hope. The white mountains keep their secret well; not until we have passed through the black rocks, that make the throat of the pass on the summit, shall we see the broad and shining plains beyond the hills.
III. Our sonship flings one all penetrating beam of light on that future, in the knowledge of our perfect vision and perfect likeness.—“When He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” His “coming” is His manifestation. To behold Christ will be the condition and the means of growing like Him. That way of transformation by beholding, or of assimilation by the power of loving contemplation, is the blessed way of ennobling character, which even here, and in human relationships, has often made it easy to put off old vices, and to clothe the soul with unwonted grace.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Power of the Soul-vision of God.—Endeavour to keep vivid the consciousness of God’s face as looking always in on you, like the solemn frescoes of the Christ which Angelico painted on the walls of his convent cells, that each poor brother might feel his Master ever with him.—Ibid.
The Face of Jesus.—Painters have attempted to meet the longing to see the face of Jesus which Scripture leaves unsatisfied. They show us the child Jesus, clad at times in the “tender sweetness of unsuffering and unforeboding youthfulness,” and again with the shadow of the cross thrown over His face; they represent almost every incident of His ministry and life recorded in the New Testament; they venture into Gethsemane, with the mystery of its grief and agony; they fill up almost every moment from His leaving the Prætorium and going down the steps where the cross awaits Him, with a face in which there is no guile, and a bearing that shows Him equal to the endurance, onward till we see His dead face ready to be wrapped up for the grave; they trace Him from the grave to the Ascension; they show Him, as it were to-day, knocking at the heart-door, with a crown on His head, and eyes full of yearning love, and wondering, sorrowing patience. Few comparatively of these pictures are spiritually helpful; they fail to “enlarge our sense” of Christ. Some of them, indeed, are profane in the highest degree; not a few of them tend to a worship of art rather than of God. Many of the painters had no right to touch the subject. They may have been competent to render scenes from heathen mythology, or battle-pieces, or popes and emperors, or sensuous beauty, or portraits of a county gentleman or member of parliament, but they were as unfit for showing us the face of Jesus Christ as an unbeliever is for leading Christian song, or preaching the everlasting gospel. Especially in trying to represent the Sufferer, whose visage was “so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men,” they have made too much of the physical, and have missed the grand, glorious grief which marked Him for the Man of sorrows. And, after all they have shown us, we sympathise the more earnestly with the words of the apostle Paul: “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”—J. Culross, D.D.
1Jn_3:3. The Purifying Influence of Hope.—Here is the most mystical teacher of the New Testament insisting on plain morality as vehemently as his friend James could have done His thought is a simple one—If you expect, and, expecting, hope to be like Jesus Christ yonder, you will be trying your best to be like Him here.
I. The principle insisted on—if we are to be pure, we must purify ourselves.—There are two ways of getting like Christ. One is the way of assimilation and transformation by beholding. “If we see Him, we shall be like Him.” The word “purify” speaks of another condition,—it implies impurity; it implies a process which is more than contemplation; it implies the reversal of existing conditions, and not merely the growth upwards to unattained conditions. Growth is not all that Christian men need: they need excision; they need casting out of what is in them; they need change as well as growth. Purifying they need, because they are impure. But if there is to be this purifying of the Christian, it must be done by the Christian himself. Our best way of cleansing ourselves is by keeping firm hold of Jesus Christ, and of the cleansing powers that lie in Him. The very deepest word about the Christian effort of self-purifying is this—keep close to Jesus Christ. We kill all evil by fellowship with the Master. But holding ourselves in fellowship with the Master is not all that we have to do. There have to be direct specific efforts, constantly repeated, to subdue and suppress individual acts of transgression. We have to fight against evil, sin by sin. Holiness is not feeling; it is character. You do not get rid of your sins by the act of Divine amnesty alone. You are not perfect because you say you are, and feel as if you were, and think you are. God’s cleansing does not dispense with fighting, but makes victory possible. Then first turn to Him from whom all cleansing comes; and then, moment by moment, remember that it is our work to purify ourselves by the strength that is given to us by the Master.
II. This purifying of ourselves is the link or bridge between the present and the future.—“Now are we the sons of God” is the pier on one side of the gulf. “When He is made manifest, we shall be like Him”—that is the pier on the other side. How are the two to be connected? We must throw across the gulf, by God’s help, day by day here, that bridge of oureffort after growing likeness to Himself, and purity therefrom. The one link between sonship here and likeness to Christ hereafter is this link of present, strenuous effort to become like Him day by day in personal purity. Only this effort will ever enable us to “see Him as He is.” Only the pure in heart shall ever see God in Christ.
III. This self-cleansing is the offspring and outcome of the hope referred to in the text.—It is the child of hope. Hope is by no means an active faculty generally; she is not in the way of doing much work in the world. The hope here is a certain kind of hope; it is the hope of being like Jesus Christ. Such a hope fights against the disappointment and depression which are so apt to dishearten us. Here is a test for Christian people who say that they look to heaven with hope as to their home and rest. A great deal of the religious contemplation of a future state is pure sentimentality, and, like all pure sentimentality, is either immoral or non-moral. But here the two things are brought into clear juxtaposition—the bright hope of heaven, and the hard work done here below.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Making of Character.—The microscopic creatures, thousands of which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So permanent and solid character is built up out of trivial actions; and this is the solemn aspect of our passing days—that they are making us.—Ibid.
The Power of the Christian’s Hope.—It is obvious to observe how the hopes of persons, by degrees, greaten their spirits from their childhood. The proper spirit of a nobleman, a prince, or a king is greater than that of an inferior person. And the reason is, because, as he comes to understand his quality, his spirit grows with his hopes of what he shall attain to; his very hopes greaten his spirit, ennoble him, and make him think of living like one that expects to be in such a state as that to which he is born. And such is the property of the Christian’s hope. It not only makes him not ashamed, but it heightens and ennobles his spirit, makes him aspire high, and look forward to great things.—John Howe.
The Lost Purity restored.—“This hope” is a hope to be with Christ; and as Christ is, in highest verity, the manifestation of God, who is infinite purity, it is a hope to be concomitant with purity, the purity of Christ and of God, which again is but a hope of being entered into, and perfectly answerable to, the purity of God. It follows that every man that hath this hope in him will be purifying himself here on earth even according to the purity of Christ, with whom he hopes to be. Purity of soul is the aim of spiritual redemption, and the legitimate issue of Christian experience.
I. Form a fit conception of what purity is.—It is the character of angels and of God. It is God, as represented here on earth, in the sinless and perfect life of Christ,—His superiority to sense, and passion, and the opinions of the world; His simple devotion to truth; His unambitious goodness; His holy, harmless, undefiled life, as being with, yet separate from, sinners. Take the analogy of the crystal. Purity is, in character, what transparency is in the crystal. Or we may describe purity by reference to contrasts; then it is a character opposite to all sin. It is innocent. It is incorrupt. It is man lifted up out of the mire of sin, washed as a spirit into the clean white love and righteousness of his Redeemer, and so purged of himself as to be man, without anything of the sordid and defiled character of a sinner. Or we may set forth the idea of purity under a reference to the modes of causes. In the world of causes, it is the scientific ideal of purity that events transpire normally, according to the constitutive order and original law of the creation. But as soon as a soul transgresses, it breaks out of order, and its whole internal working becomes mixed, confused, tumultuous, corrupt. Abiding in God, all its internal motions would proceed in the simple, harmonious, orderly progress of the firmament, and it would be a pure soul. Plunging into sin, it breaks order, and falls into mixtures of causes in all its actions. Or we may describe purity absolutely, as it is when viewed in its own positive quality. It is chastity of soul; that state of the spiritual nature in which it is seen to have no contacts or affinities, but such as fall within the circle of unforbidden joy and uncorrupted pleasure. Real chastity puts the soul as truly asunder and apart from the reach of evil suggestion as God Himself is in the glorious chastity of His holiness.
II. It is the aim and purpose of Christian redemption to raise us up into the state of complete purity before God.—It is curious to observe, in Scripture, what an apparatus of cleansing God appears to have set in array for the purification of souls. It would seem, on looking at the manifold array of cleansing elements, applications, gifts, and sacraments, as if God had undertaken it as the great object and crowning mercy of His reign, to effect a solemn purgation of the world. But it may be asked, Is it given to us to attain to a state which can fitly be called purity, or which is to itself a state consciously pure? There is a Christian purity that is related to the soul as investiture. Christ may be so completely put on that the whole consciousness may be of Him, and all the motions of sins give way to the dominating efficacy of His harmonious and perfect mind. Being thus held up by the attachment to him of Christ’s affinities, he is growing like Him—pure as He is pure. Still the body is dead because of sin. Perfect, absolute purity it is hardly supposable may be realised here. Enough to know that there need be no limit to the process of purifying while life remains, and that, when life ends, it may be gloriously approximated to the state of completeness.
III. How may we promote our advancement toward the state of purity?—
1. We must set our heart upon it.
2. Live in Christ, and seek to be as closely and intimately one with Him as possible. This includes—
(1) A willingness to wholly cease from the old man, as corrupt, in order that a completely now man from Christ may be formed in you.
(2) The life must be determined implicitly by the faith of Christ.
(3) The hope of being with Christ is ever an inspiration; of itself it draws the soul towards purity. We are to be much in the meditation of Christ as glorified. We are to be raised by our longings, and purified with Christ by the hopes we rest upon His person.—Horace Bushnell, D.D.
1Jn_3:4-5. The Sinlessness of Christ.—In St. John’s day there were men so over-refined and fastidious, that they could not endure the thought of anything spiritual being connected with materialism. They could not believe in anything pure that was also fleshly, for flesh and sinfulness were to them synonymous terms. While admitting the Divinity of Jesus, they denied the reality of His materialism. In this there was an attempt to be eminently spiritual; and, what seems exceedingly marvellous, is the fact withal that these men led a life of extreme licentiousness. But the most spiritual of all the apostles was the one who insisted most earnestly on the materialism of the human nature of our Lord. In the natural propensities of human nature there is nothing to be ashamed of; there is nothing for a man to be ashamed of but sin—there is nothing more noble than a perfect human nature.
I. The sinlessness of our Lord’s nature.—We have a definition of sin. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” There is a difference between sin and transgression. Every sin is a transgression of the law; but every transgression of the law is not a sin. There must be some voluntary act, transgressing some known law, or there is no sin. But there is a law written for the heart, as well as for the outward man; and it is not the outward act that constitutes alone the morality of Christ—it is the feeling of the heart, the acts of the inner man. Some men say, “If the thought is as bad as the act, why should we not do the act? I am as guilty as if I had committed the transgression. Why should I debar myself from the enjoyment?” But that is a sophistry with which no man who has any conscience can deceive himself. Christ was doubly free from sin, as free in desire as He was free in act. The proof of His perfect purity is to be found in the testimony of His enemies, His friends, and those indifferent to Him. There was no actual transgression in our Lord’s life. See too what His inward life was. For there may be no outward transgression, and yet the heart may not be pure. Outwardly all may seem right, through absence of temptation; and yet there may be the want of inward perfection. His mind regulates every other mind; it moves in perfect harmony with the mind of God. In all the just men that ever lived, you will find some peculiarity carried to excess. We note this in the zeal of St. John, in the courage of St. Peter, in the truth-seeking of St. Thomas. It was not so with Jesus; no one department of His human nature ever superseded another: all was harmony there. The one sound which has come down from God in perfect melody is His life, the entire unbroken music of humanity.
II. The power there is in the manifested sinlessness of Jesus to take away the sins of the world.—Consider this
(1) in reference to man;
(2) in reference to God. There is in the eternal constitution of the heavenly government that which makes the life and death of Jesus the atonement for the world’s sins. Human nature, which fell in Adam, rose again in Christ; in Him it became a different thing altogether in God’s sight—redeemed now, hereafter to be perfected. Consider how the world was purified by the change of its own nature. There are three ways by which this may be done—by faith, by hope, by love.
1. It is done by faith, for the most degrading thing in the heart of man is the disbelief in the goodness of human nature. What raises human nature is, faith in the perfect innocence of Jesus.
2. Trust in Divine humanity elevates the soul by hope. Notice the hopefulness of the character of Jesus—His hopefulness for human nature. This hopefulness raises hope in us. We dare to hope for that nature which Jesus loved; we dare to forgive that nature which Jesus condescended to wear.
3. It is done also by love. Hate narrows the heart; love expands the heart. To love is to have almost the power of throwing aside sin. If we would separate the world from sin, and from the penalty of sin, and the inward misery of the heart attendant on sin in this world, and the world to come, it is written in Scripture, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” than the name of Jesus.—F. W. Robertson.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
1Jn_3:1. The Privilege of Sonship.—When the Danish missionaries in India appointed some of their Indian converts to translate a catechism, in which it was mentioned as the privilege of Christians to become the sons of God, one of the translators, startled at so bold a saying, as he thought it, said, “It is too much; let me rather render it, ‘They shall be permitted to kiss His feet.’ ”
1Jn_3:2. Spiritual Development imperfect now.—If you take a seed that has ripened in Nova Zembla, and bring it into the tropics and plant it, it will not be what it would have been in Nova Zembla, with a short growing season and a scanty supply of food. It will have, with a long summer and an abundant supply, a growth to which no one would suspect it could attain who had only seen it grow in the frigid zones. Many things that are shrubs in the frigid zones, are high, waving, century trees in the tropics. And so men in this life are in conditions which, though fitted to develop the earlier stages of human growth, are not fitted to develop the full estate of that idea which God has expressed in the creation of man.—H. W. Beecher.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv7, 19 7. “Little children, let no one deceive you.” John…
ARGUMENT 7
THE GRANDEUR OF REGENERATION
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7. “Little children, let no one deceive you.” John solemnly warns young converts and all other Christians against these Antichrists who teach a sinning religion, lest they deceive them to their eternal ruin. Oh, how pertinent this warning today, when the world is flooded with sinning religion.
8. “He that committeth sin is of the devil; because the devil sinneth from the beginning.” This needs no comment; a simpleton can understand it. Your preacher, standing in the pulpit, says, “ I sin every day.” Dare to believe God. Your preacher belongs to the devil, preaches his gospel, and will lead you to hell if you follow him. “For this the Son of God was made manifest, that He may destroy the works of the devil.” You see how these Antichrists do their utmost to defeat the work of Christ, i.e., the destruction of sin. Oh, how grossly they falsify Christ by telling the people they can not get rid of sin, when Christ came into the world for this very achievement, i.e., the extermination of our sins.
9. “Every one who has been born of God doth not sin because His seed remaineth in him; and he is not able to sin because he has been born of God.” The advocates of sinning religion wage an exterminating war against sanctification on the hypothesis that none can live without committing sin. See how blindly they utterly unchristianize themselves, because it does not take sanctification to stop all sinning, but you see from this verse that regeneration settles the question of committing sin. So long as you have the divine seed, i.e., the life of God, the holy agapee, in your heart, you can not sin. The seed is planted in regeneration, the ground purified from all indigenous filth in sanctification, and the golden harvest reaped by the angels in glorification.
10. “In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil,” i.e., the latter commit sin and the former do not. Oh, how easy to draw the line between God’s people, who live a holy life and commit no sin, and Satan’s people, who commit sin, whether church members or worldlings!
11. John constantly pours his burning emphasis on this divine love, the heavenly exotic from the heart of God, poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost in regeneration and delivered from all carnal antagonisms in sanctification; meanwhile it not only extends up to God whence it came, but reaches forth its Briarean arms, encircling the world in its loving embrace, regardless of race, sect or color.
12. Cain was the great antediluvian patriarch of a bloodless, sinning religion. Cain’s religion was so popular that it finally crowded out Abel’s bloody experience, perpetuated by Seth and his followers, and filled the world, thus provoking the indignation of Heaven and bringing on the flood.
13, 14. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren with divine love: he that loveth not with divine love abideth in death.” What a deplorable pity the English Scripture does not bring out the difference between the divine agapee, the nature of God, and philia, the carnal love, peculiar to fallen humanity. For ages churches have been filled up with people joining on a profession of love to God and the brethren, which in millions of cases has proved by their lives to be nothing but their own natural carnal love, which never did have anything to do with salvation, only to be purified by it. How can I discriminate between the human and divine love? This heavenly agapee, i.e., divine love, is identical in the heart of God, angels and human beings, reaching out indiscriminately to all created intelligences, pouring floods of sympathy on the entire animate creation. So when you have it, you love the black Hottentot, the tawny Mongolian and the beautiful Caucasian all alike, no longer discriminating between your enemies and your friends, but like God, who loves his enemies enough to die for them, you speed to make reconciliation with every foe and girdle the world in your arms. This is regeneration.
Sanctification has plenty still left to do in the complete expurgation of the spiritual organism from all hereditary ailment.
15. This verse is confirmatory of the preceding, affirming the dismal turpitude of unregenerated nature, pronouncing every misanthropist a guilty murderer in the sight of God. “Man looks at the outside, but God looks on the heart.” Hatred is the spirit of murder, involving actual guilt. This divine agapee, the essence of regeneration, supersedes all hatred in the heart of the recipient, inundating him with love for his vilest enemy.
16. This divine love brought Jesus from the glorified throne to die on Calvary for a world who hated Him. The effect of it in our hearts is to make us love not only our friends but even our enemies, sufficient to die for them.
17. While human love, which is natural in the fallen heart, goes out and belts the globe with its philanthropic enterprises, of course divine love, its tremendous superior, can not be delinquent in needed benefactions. While the unregenerated will discriminate in this philanthropy, actuated only by human love, the regenerated recipient of this heavenly agapee will overflow with philanthropy in behalf of the suffering, whether friends or foes.
18. We are here warned that profession and possession are different words.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1Jn 3:1
1Jn 3:1
The Love that calls us Sons.
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Notice:—
I. The love that is given. We are called upon to come with our little vessels to measure the contents of the great ocean, to plumb with our short lines the infinite abyss, and not only to estimate the quantity, but the quality, of that love which in both respects surpasses all our means of comparison and conception. Properly speaking, we can do neither the one nor the other, for we have no line long enough to sound its depth, and no experience which will give us a standard with which to compare its quality. But all that we can do John would have us do—that is, look, and ever look, at the working of that love till we form some not wholly inadequate idea of it. We have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death, if we would estimate the love of God. According to John’s constant teaching, that is the great proof that God loves us. The most wonderful revelation to every heart of man of the depth of that Divine heart lies in the gift of Jesus Christ. The Apostle bids me "behold what manner of love."
II. Look, next, at the sonship which is the purpose of His given love. It has often been noticed that the Apostle John uses for that expression "the sons of God," another word from that which his brother Paul uses. John’s phrase would perhaps be a little more accurately translated "children of God," whilst Paul, on the other hand, very seldom says "children," but almost always says "sons." Of course the children are sons, and the sons are children, but still the slight distinction of phrase is characteristic of the men and of the different points of view from which they speak about the same thing. John’s word lays stress on the children’s kindred nature with their father and on their immature condition. What is implied in that great word by which the Almighty gives us a name and a place as of sons and daughters? Clearly, first, a communicated life, therefore, second, a kindred nature which shall be "pure as He is pure," and third, growth to full maturity.
III. Now still further let me ask you to look at the glad recognition of this sonship by the child’s heart. Notice the clause added in the Revised Version, "And such we are." It is a kind of "aside," in which John adds the "Amen" for himself and for his poor brothers and sisters toiling and moiling obscure among the crowds of Ephesus to the great truth. He asserts his and their glad consciousness of the reality of the fact of their sonship, which they know to be no empty title.
IV. We have here, finally, the loving and devout gaze upon this wonderful love. "Behold," at the beginning of my text, is not the mere exclamation which you often find both in the Old and in the New Testaments, which is simply intended to emphasise the importance of what follows, but it is a distinct command to do the thing—to look, and ever to look, and to look again, and live in the habitual and devout contemplation of that infinite and wondrous love of God.
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 2nd series, p. 241.
References: 1Jn 3:1.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 208; M. G. Pearse, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 64; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 333; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 290; J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 367. 1Jn 3:1, 1Jn 3:2.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 44; A. Mahan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 184. 1Jn 3:1-3.—Homilist, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 341. 1Jn 3:1-5.—A. Cooper, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 344; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 107.
1Jn 3:2
Consider the short word "now." What is time present? What is the meaning of "now"?
I. This is a matter not so plain, nor lying so much on the surface, as we might at first sight imagine. Time is altogether a mysterious thing. There is every reason to believe that time is nothing more than a state ordained by God for the purposes of, and as a condition of, His finite creation. Succession, the waxing onward, i.e., of hours and days and years, is that without which we cannot conceive existence at all. But that is not the condition of God’s own being. His being is independent of the condition which limits ours. With Him is no waxing onward, no succession of hours and days and years. He is the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity. He is the Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
II. There is no such thing as "now," properly and strictly speaking. Time is a rapid stream in which no point is ever stationary. But—and this is the important consideration—it is a tendency inherent in us ever to be arresting in our thoughts certain portions of time and treating them as if they were, for certain purposes, stationary, and unaffected for the moment by the rapidity of transit of the whole. With reference to the subject of which the Apostle is writing, this—this state revealed for and during this present space of time—is all we know and all we can speak of. A ray of light is shed down on one portion of our course; in that portion all is distinct and clear—all, that is, which it is necessary for us to know and to have revealed. Does not this clothe with immense interest and importance this present? We stand, as it were, on a promontory, and before and around us are the infinite waters. By our life here, by our gathering strength and our forming ourselves here, will the character of that vast unknown voyage be determined. Remember that as it is by very common acts and daily recurring duties that the main work of life must be carried on, so it is by these common thoughts made solemn that the soul’s great work must be done.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 1.
Possibilities of the Future.
We are grateful when we find in the word of God the recognition of the fact that that which is of the nature of perfection is quite incomprehensible to us; that we do not understand God Himself; that we do not understand the heavenly state; that we do not understand what our own perfected natures ought to be, nor what they are who have risen and are among "the spirits of just men made perfect." The annunciation of our ignorance reassures and comforts us.
I. All knowledge is measured by the attaining power of the human faculties. We do not know but there may be revelations coming to us all the time which break on us as the waves break on unknown shores. This is a fact which explains much of what men stumble over in regard to Divine revelation; for it has been supposed that the revelation of God would be one that would take all things of the Spirit, and shape them into crystalline accuracy, and put them beyond all cavil before men, whereas it is a revelation which is relative to the unfolding process of human life and of nature. As the eye increases in power it is able to bear more and more light; and as the power of apprehension in men has increased they have been able to take in more and more truth. And the word of God has been given to the world little by little. Small were the elements that were revealed at first. These elements have grown as men grew. And revelation has not preceded comprehension, but has rather followed it, because men cannot understand faster than they have the capacity to understand. The grand fact, then, on which all reasoning in respect to final states must proceed, is this: that man is not a creature complete and ended, but is a being who is in a state of change and process, as is distinctly recognised in the word of God; and that all teaching must conform to that universal and fundamental principle of evolution which is going on in the understanding and moral parts of human nature.
II. See how clear now, in the light of this thought, comes out the passage of our text, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." It carries with it a magisterial idea. Now that we are the sons of God, the higher things rule the lower; and higher than anything else, Paul being our witness, are faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. The relation is to be that of sonship. We are to come, not into the relationship of magisterial power, nor of justice, nor of vengeance, but of love; and the centre of the universe is love; and the farther we go toward that perfection, the nearer we shall be to God. We have the hint of love here; but we are to see its full disclosure in the world to come: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." We are on this side in the beginning of it; and when we reach the other side—when we have sloughed the chaff in which we grew, when we are wheat gathered into the eternal garner, when we are where all parts of our nature are effluent and effulgent, when we are in a society whose public sentiment nourishes and helps us, when we are in a sphere where God Himself is personally present—though it doth not yet appear what we shall be then, it is because it is too high, too large, for any man to think of in this mortal state. Round and round the earth goes the spirit of instruction and inspiration, pouring out things which give to a man some hints (you cannot give him much more), some slight notion, of the vastness of that God who fills all space, all time, all eternity. And so, when we think of Him, sometimes we think of Him as a Father, sometimes as a Brother, sometimes as a Comforter, sometimes as a Leader, sometimes as a Judge, sometimes as a King, sometimes as one thing and sometimes as another. These, however, are only images, symbols, giving us intimations of qualities; but by-and-by we shall see Him as He is. The limitation of human faculty shall not prevent our knowing what God is. Now we have no conception of His form or of His glory except from the most insignificant sources; but the time is coming when we shall go home as the sons of God, and shall be changed, throwing off the raiment and chains of slaves—for we have been in bondage: the time is coming when we shall be emancipated, and shall stand in the presence of God; and then we shall no longer go by hints and notions. "We shall see Him as He is."
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 353.
1Jn 3:2
Immortality.
I. This is revelation’s last word on a great subject which theologians have too often forgotten in their positive statements and assumptions. Our English version does not quite correctly represent the Greek original. It is not "It does not appear as a result of human inference or speculation," but "It has not yet been manifested or revealed." God Himself still wraps our destiny among His "hidden things." Even Paul, when wading in these perilous depths, and talking of the change that awaits all, and attempting to describe the properties of a "spiritual body," felt himself to be confronted with a "mystery," and while satisfied that there would be a victory over the grave, and that mortality would be swallowed up in life, wisely brought back his readers’ thoughts from dreamland to reality by bidding them simply "be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as they knew that their labour was not in vain in the Lord."
II. Nor can it be said that the great Teacher Himself, when He most clearly proclaimed the doctrine of the resurrection, drew aside for more than the briefest moment the curtain by which the mystery is veiled. But in the dim gloom that shrouds the land beyond the grave there is a streak of light like some sudden lightning flash, illuminating the darkness with hopes full of immortality; in the still silence of the chamber of death there is a voice heard, sustaining the soul in its passage through the shadowed valley: "He that believeth in Me shall never die." Grant me a right to believe in a personal God, in a living Christ, in an indwelling Spirit, in a life of the world to come, and, like that ship driven up and down in Adria upon which no small tempest lay, I shall have, as it were, my four anchors cast out of the stern, while I "wait for the day."
Bishop Fraser, University Sermons, p. 167.
I. We Christians are now, in this our earthly life, children of God. He is interested in the welfare of each with inexpressible tenderness and sympathy. He has showered upon us magnificent gifts, if we will but acknowledge them and use them to His glory. There is not one among us so poorly endowed but that his heart can swell with love of good, and admiration, and reverence, can feel the beauty and tenderness of the life of Jesus Christ, can believe in a God who hears prayer, and so taste of the powers of the world to come. And these are glorious gifts, the gifts of a Father to children whom He loves and respects.
II. There is a future awaiting us all beyond, and greater than all that we have ever yet reached. A child of God cannot die forever. Nothing can take him out of his Father’s hands. Wherever he is, he must be about his Father’s business. If he sleep for a time, it will be to gather strength for ampler service. "If he sleep, he shall do well," or if he enter at once on some fresh period of growth, of this at least faith assures us: that it must be growth towards God, and not away from Him. By some means, in some sphere of being, the child must be drawing nearer to his heavenly Father.
III. As to the nature of this future being, this much at least we know: that we shall be like God, because we shall see Him as He is. To see God is to be like Him. The man that gazes on the Divine is already transfigured and become a partaker of the Divine nature. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." Thought fails in trying to conceive of this splendid growth that awaits us after death, when, by God’s mercy, the lowliest will be "something far advanced in state," with a Divinely granted work adjusted to his renewed powers. This only we know as the climax and consummation of all: that we shall be like God, for we shall see Him as He is.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 150.
I. We stand, then, on this bright, illuminated platform of the present, this sunny promontory in the midst of the dark, infinite ocean, and what is that light upon us which is said to be so clear? Now we are children of God, children of God. We are here introduced to a Being above us, a Being from whom we are said to have sprung, in some sense. Who and what is this Being? How can we know anything of Him? The will of a Person is the only intelligible origin of this world and of ourselves, because that agency is the only one which we know that is not subject to the laws by which matter is bound.
II. Now, this one great point being granted, many others follow from it. If it were the will of that supreme Being to create, if it is His present will to uphold, the universe, then we can judge of His character by the laws which He has established and keeps in working. We see these laws calculated to promote and to conserve order, life, happiness, beauty. He is, then, a Being who loves and approves these, who wills order, life, happiness, beauty, in His creation. But more than this, there are laws in our own minds and spirits as fixed and invariable as those which act on matter; and by the character of these also we may judge of His character who ordained them. In our own spirits there is no rest in evil; He who made us willed that we should be good.
III. On this platform of the present life we have two parties brought together: ourselves and God. The greater part of mankind go on day and night, and never think of the awful presence around them; they lose the safeguard and they lose the dignity of a life in which God’s presence is realised. Have you ever travelled as the dawn of a bright day was waxing onward, the place of every object more and more indicated, but a dimness over all, the reaches of the rivers faintly reddening through the mist, the trees and the hills massed together in indistinctness, groups of forms, but without the life of detail? And then on the sudden, as you look, here and there beams of brightness leap forth, the hillsides glow with rosy light, the rocks burn like molten metal, living fire looks forth from the streams, and heaven and earth rejoice because the sun is risen. Even such is the change when the presence of God arises upon the inner life of a man. All things were seen before but dimly and in their outlines; but now they are full of clearness and light. Now, now first, he has put on the dignity of his nature, and is fulfilling the ends of his nature.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 25.
I. "Now are we children of God." It must be plain to us with very little consideration that the Apostle could not here mean the absolutely general relationship which exists between the great Father and all His creatures. To this there is no exception; all men and all living things may in this sense be said to be children; and the assertion of this fact would lead to no consequences with regard to the future such as are here implied. We are here treating of a state above and beyond nature, a new state, in which we are brought into some different relation to God from that which we held to Him by the mere tie of our creation. As by that we were in some sense His children, so by this we are His children in another and a more blessed sense. So that this of which we speak may well be called a new creation.
II. "Now are we children of God." Now have our spirits become, by some grand and glorious process or other, alive again to God, endued with His very nature, adopted into His family. We could not be children of God, in the sense here intended, without such a new birth, without the entrance of new life into this withered and paralysed noblest portion of us.
III. "Now are we children of God." What a position to stand in, and to what a Father, the recovered, the adopted, the chosen children of Him that made heaven and earth, not destined for, not to end in, this world, but with God’s heavenly abode for our Father’s house, God’s throne for our family centre, the light unapproachable in which He dwelleth pointing out our distant home across the dark waste of life! In the blessedness of this knowledge is all the happiness of the life present, and in the trust which this knowledge gives is all the hope for the great non-apparent future.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 53.
I. First of all, observe that which must strike every one on hearing the words—viz., that a well-meaning Person is here spoken of as He: "We shall be like Him." The Apostle’s thoughts are so fixed on his Divine Master, that He is their continual object, spoken of without introduction or explanation: "We shall be like Him"—the Lord Jesus Christ—"for we shall see Him"—i.e., Christ—"as He is." Christ has entered into and taken upon Him in full that mysterious unknown state; His present shall be our future. When that state, now all dark to us, shall be manifested, we know that it will consist in likeness to Him.
II. To what does this knowledge amount? This is certain: that we—that means His saved ones, His Church—shall see Him as He is, and this, the Apostle argues, can only be brought about by our being like Him. That glory of His cannot be beheld except by those who have entered into His likeness; that we shall see Him as He is is of itself sufficient proof that we must be like Him.
III. But here arises an important question: Who are they that shall be manifested? who are they that shall be like Him, and thereby shall have the sight of Him? Observe that this is not a mere question of bodily sight. Even if it were, we might have something to say of refined vision, of the training of the sense to perceive glory, and majesty, and beauty. Even thus we might say that the eye of man might fail to apprehend that glory even when manifested. In order to see the glorified Redeemer as He is, the eye of man’s spirit must be educated. For of this one thing be sure: that, whatever and however great the change may be which shall introduce us into that state, we ourselves shall remain the same. I mean that our inner desires and purposes, our bent of custom and thought—these will not be rooted up and superseded by new ones; but as in this present life the boy is father of the man, and the youth’s views and thoughts in their main course survive the change from youth to age, so in our whole life of time and eternity the childhood of the state now present must contain the germs of that future maturity. What has never begun now will not be first implanted then. A man must have yearned after the image of Christ here, if he is to wear the image of Christ there.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 155.
In speaking of the new life which the love of the Father hath bestowed on men, we observe—
I. That new life begins with new birth. Man is found in the state into which our race has come by the Fall, a state of deadness as to the life of the noblest part of him, viz., his spirit. Over the wide world, to all nations (such is His command), goes the glad message, "Christ in you the hope of glory"—the message which makes known man’s disease and God’s remedy. The effects of this proclamation, the good spell, or Gospel, going forth upon the world, are twofold. It acts upon the individual heart, and it acts upon men as a society; it reawakens the dead spirit of him who hears, and it brings about a society or body of men in which this new condition may be put upon men by stated ordinances and a prescribed covenant. God has ordained the rite of baptism, speaking with His own mouth, and He has appointed it to be the symbol and ordinary vehicle of the new birth, insomuch that St. Paul, writing to Titus, calls the vessel in which the water for baptism was contained "the laver or font of the new birth."
II. Well, then, we are children of God; we are regenerate, new-born. In the Son of His love, who has taken our nature into His Godhead, and has become the Lord our Righteousness, He has adopted us into His family and made us His children. But between various persons among us there is a wide distinction. Some know not of, some care not to know of, this glorious relation between God and themselves. Still it is true of us as a whole, true in the main and general, that now we are children of God; that on this portion of the great stream of time known as the present, and designated by the term "now," there shines this clear beam of God’s love to us, by which He hath bestowed on us a place in His family of spiritual children, and hath given us an inheritance among the saints in light. This we know with the knowledge of faith, faith resting on evidence, resting on the assured persuasion of those who can render a reason for their hope.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 79.
Of the future we know nothing. We may speak of this day, or this year, or this life, and in each case of another day, another year, another life. It doth not yet appear, no one has ever been able to show us, what shall be, or what we shall be. All that we say of our own minds about another day, another year, another life, is founded on surmise, is true on certain conditions. We assume that what has been will continue to be.
I. Surely it is a strange and solemn thing to think of this standing up against total darkness, this evermore taking steps into an unknown void. And still stranger it is to think that we and the whole race of mankind evermore exist and go onwards under these solemn circumstances so quietly, so contentedly, so assuredly. It is as if one should march to the edge of a precipice continually receding before him, but uncertain when it will stop, and he take the step which will be his fall.
II. In the very terms of the text it is taken for granted that there is a future for us beyond the present life. From us as Christians thus much of the darkness has been lifted from the future; we know that it will not bring us annihilation. As the concealment of the manner and phenomena of the future life is for our God, so is the revealing of the certainty of our further development in it as the perfected children of God. We may work by the sunlight, though we cannot gaze upon the sun.
III. "Who knows if life be death, and death be life?" sang the old Greek tragedian in the days of darkness. What he nobly guessed, we know by faith, and live upon that knowledge. The children of God now are like sick men in the long night—vexed, and tossing, and crying out for repose; in them dwelleth no good thing; anxiety seems too much for them, grace too little. Now are we children of God; still it is an inheritance long coming, a hope deferred that maketh the heart sick. But meanwhile the unknown state is coming nearer and nearer; the streaks of day are gathering in the horizon; like the throbbing of the distant train upon the wind, the tokens of His coming are beginning to be heard. "Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus."
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 105.
I. In none of the Old Testament books is any direct revelation made as to what we shall be. Rather is that momentous question, by the very terms of some of these passages, left involved in additional mystery. The absence of sorrow and pain, the presence of triumph and joy, are set forth in the New Testament in most vivid terms; but it is in language drawn entirely from the habits and wants of this our present state, not from the new habits and wants of our future one. What we shall be, if set forth at all, is only set forth by negativing or intensifying that which we are. It is all as if we were with our thoughts and imaginations, even when they are Divinely guided, only building up a ladder which may reach to heaven, but whenever we attempt to place it against the bulwarks of the celestial city, it proves all too short, and will not reach. And so it will be to the end. We shall be changed. We shall pass, as it were, through a crucible, and our whole spirit, soul, and body, remaining in identity the same, will come out new, partakers of a different life, using different senses, thinking different thoughts. On the one hand, this must be; and, on the other, it very well may be.
II. It must be. As flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so neither can the senses which inform flesh and blood inform us of the realities of that new state. If they bear in their new state some analogy to their present uses, this is all that we can at present surmise. How much of our present selves will survive the change, how much will bear transmuting into that new existence, whether traits of character, outward or inward, which are now fleeting or unpromising, may pass, as it were, through fire, and become fixed and brightened in the enamel of eternal beauty and freshness, we cannot say; but the change must be: so much is evident. And it very well may be, even according to our present conceptions. As St. Paul shows in the case of the body, so might it be shown in the case of the whole man, with his thoughts and habits. Circumstances in their change will also completely change the character, and thoughts, and habits of a man.
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 131.
Self-discipline.
I. Intelligent service. There is, first, the body. We must take care of that. It needs the full power of forethought and resolution if we are ever to present these bodies as a living sacrifice, such as God could actually view with favour and with pleasure, as something undamaged, unspoiled, sound and whole in every part. And then after the body there is the mind. That is to be transformed by a gradual process of renewal, which will purge it of its old instinctive conformity to the world, those habits and standards we had lived in, and will build up in it a faculty of apprehension and sensitiveness of touch by which it will respond with rapid readiness to all those emotions by which the will of God prompts it towards that which is good, and desirable, and perfect. And then, moreover, as the mind bends to the control of this directed will, it will have to learn its proper place in society and in the Church; it will have to subordinate itself to the general excellence of the whole.
II. The Epiphany is made manifest in our purified lives. His glory is to show itself through us. He houses the glory within the body of His believers, and thence He shines out upon the world, as through a lamp, and their goodness of life is the vehicle of illumination, the medium through which His light passes out to irradiate the surrounding darkness. That is the plain band that binds the Epistles to the Gospels. The Epistles illustrate the issue and continuance of that which the Gospels require. That very Christ, at whose feet the wise men of the East presented frankincense and myrrh, shall shine out now upon the intellectual thought of the world, through that renewed and transformed mind of those who have won the faculty to recognise what is the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God.
III. Christ’s epiphany in the world is bound with terrible intimacy to our moral fidelity to His commandments. It is because we have seen Him that we are summoned to the task of self-discipline. He was manifested to take away our sins. As our task is always simply just to admit Jesus Christ in fuller measure into our souls, therefore, if we can ever succeed in doing this at any one point in our lives, we shall be doing it for all other parts. For Christ is one, and all the variety of duties only represents the behaviour of that one character under varying circumstances. Secure Him, then, at one corner of your being; get closer to Him, then, at some point where you have to beat under some one special temptation, some one all-besetting sin, at some point where you have to work hardest to develop one most needed virtue; admit Him there, by that door, and it is the whole Christ that enters, and the whole of you will feel the effect of that entrance; the whole of you will be nearer Him; the whole of you will be warmer, purer, truer, gentler; through every part of you the presence now admitted will speak.
H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 148.
1Jn 3:2
I. What is this sight awaiting us which shall accomplish so much? Observe—(1) It is the sight of a personal Saviour. "We shall see Him." It is only natural that we should desire to see the countenance of one whose works we have read, and whose friends we have often met, and who is often in our thoughts and affections. It is but natural that there should be a longing to see any one of whom we have read much, and of whom we have thought more. Is it, then, surprising that when the heaven of the saint is described it should be represented as the sight of a personal Christ? Yes, we shall see the Christ of the Scriptures, the Christ of whom Moses and the prophets spake. We shall see also the Christ of our own thoughts. There is not a believer but has his ideal Saviour. We shall see Him—a living, personal Saviour, arrayed in human form. We shall not have to inquire who He is, or where He is. We shall see Him in the very identical body that once hung in shame on Golgotha. (2) It is the sight of a glorified Saviour: "We shall see Him as He is." Jesus has been beheld as we shall never behold Him. We shall never see Him as the Magi saw Him: the Infant; we shall never see Him as the disciples saw Him: so tired out that He was sound asleep on the open deck of a fisherman’s boat; we shall never see Him, the cursed Substitute, groaning under the horrible load of His people’s sins; but as He is now: highly exalted. Take the most blessed season earth has ever known, and it is only seeing Christ through the glass darkly. And these feebler manifestations are never as clear as they might be. I question whether there has ever been a saint but has had in some measure a veil over his soul. The veil may vary in thickness. Sometimes it is dense and dark as a London fog, and at other times it seems no more hindrance than the thinnest gauze. Then we see, as it were, the outlines of His beauty, but no more.
II. Notice the effect wrought by the sight: "We shall be like Him." In a minor degree, this is true on earth. Nobody can look on Jesus long without getting something of His image. Any man or woman who is in habitual communion with Jesus Christ will have something about them that betrays their intercourse. Now, if seeing Jesus through a glass darkly makes me something like Him, seeing Him in all His glory, without a veil, will make me altogether like Him. When this poor green bud is brought into the sunshine of His countenance in glory, how in a moment will all the green shields that hide its beauty fly apart, and all its leaves of loveliness expand in His own light, and I shall be like Him!
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 848.
The Apostle admits that there is obscurity hanging over much of our eternal future. He glances at this part slightly; but it is the background of that one bright scene to which he afterwards points. (1) The place of our future life is obscure. (2) The outward manner of our final existence is also uncertain. (3) Many of the modes and feelings in the life to come perplex us. The atmosphere is too subtle, the azure is deep even to darkness, and from every endeavour we must come back to realise the lesson of our present state: that, while Christians are now the sons of God, the heir is but a child. It would be unsatisfactory enough if this were all that could be said and done. But the Apostle puts this dark background upon the canvas, that he may set in relief a central scene and figure: Christ and our relation to Him.
I. The first thing promised is the manifestation of Christ: "Christ shall appear." It is not merely that Christ shall be seen, but seen as never before. The first thought of the Apostle was no doubt the human nature of Christ as appearing again to the eyes of His friends, but he must also have thought of His Divine nature. The glory that He had with the Father before the world was shall be resumed, and if we may venture to say it, raised, for the glory of the Divine shall have added to it the grace of the human.
II. The second thing promised at the appearance of Christ is a full vision on our part; we shall see Him as He is. This implies a necessary and very great change on us before we can bear and embrace, even in the smallest measure, the perfect manifestation of Christ. We shall be changed (1) in our material frame; (2) in our soul. It will be a vision free from sin in the soul, free from partiality, intense and vivid, close and intimate.
III. The third thing promised is complete assimilation to Christ. We shall be like Him. (1) Our material frame will be made like unto Christ’s glorious body. (2) Our spiritual nature will be like His. God has used this way of revealing the future (a) as a method of spiritual test and training; (b) as a means of quieting our thoughts; (c) as a means of making Christ the centre of the soul’s affections and aims.
J. Ker, Sermons, p. 365.
The Unrevealed Future of the Sons of God.
I. The fact of sonship makes us quite sure of the future. That consciousness of belonging to another order of things because I am God’s child will make me sure that when I am done with earth the tie that binds me to my Father will not be broken, but that I shall go home, where I shall be fully and for ever all that I so imperfectly began to be here, where all gaps in my character shall be filled up, and the half-completed circle of my heavenly perfectness shall grow like the crescent moon into full-orbed beauty.
II. Now I come to the second point, namely, that we remain ignorant of much in that future. That happy assurance of the love of God resting upon me, and making me His child through Jesus Christ, does not dissipate all the darkness which lies on that beyond. "We are the sons of God, and," just because we are, "it does not yet appear what we shall be," or, as the, words are rendered in the Revised Version, "it is not yet made manifest what we shall be." The meaning of that expression "It doth not yet appear," or "It is not made manifest," may be put into very plain words. John would simply say to us, "There has never been set before man’s eyes in this earthly life of ours an example or an instance of what the sons of God are to be in another state of being." And so because men have never had the instance before them they do not know much about that state.
III. The last thought is this: that our sonship flings one all-penetrating beam of light on that future in the knowledge of our perfect vision and perfect likeness: "We know that when He shall be manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." To behold Christ will be the condition and the means of growing like Him.
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 2nd series, p. 255.
References: 1Jn 3:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 196; vol. ii., Nos. 61, 62; J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i., p. 18; R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 6; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. x., p. 228; Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 259; E. D. Solomon, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 353; P. W. Darton, Ibid., vol. xxxiv., p. 101; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 353; vol. ix., p. 337; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 265; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 31.
1Jn 3:2-3
The Believer’s Sonship.
It is a law of our nature, or rather of our mental constitution, that in looking at any particular truth or subject we unconsciously present it in that aspect which strikes ourselves most forcibly, or which is the most congenial to our own minds. Take, for example, the heaven of the believer’s hope and prospect. While the object of expectation has been one with the universal Church, the features of that object have been various as in the glass of the kaleidoscope, and individuals have dwelt for their comfort upon the different aspects of its blessedness, according to their own felt need or yearning sorrow. Thus it is said of Wilberforce, whose life was one sunny activity of benevolence, unbroken by the wearing languors of the sick-bed, that when he thought of heaven it was as a place which refined and sublimated every righteous affection, that his central idea was love; while the suffering Robert Hall, whose life was a torturing illness, and his brow beaded ever with the sweat of pain, murmured in his acutest paroxysms of the promised recompense of rest. Thus we are not surprised to find John the beloved declaring the gospel of love, warming every precept to its genial inspiration, and exhorting the whole body of the faithful to its cultivation and spread. In the words of the text there is a rich mine of comforting truth. It brings before us—
I. The believer’s present relationship: "Now are we the sons of God." Who shall estimate the preciousness of this rare and hallowed privilege? God commendeth His love to us, not merely in that "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us," but in "that we might receive the adoption of sons."
II. The text gives us a glimpse of the believer’s future. There is a general uncertainty, redeemed by a particular assurance: "We shall be like Him," etc. This is not the language of hesitation, nor even of conjecture, but of firm and well-warranted conviction. To be like Christ, fully and without a drawback to reflect His image—this is the destiny of our ransomed nature.
W. M. Punshon, Sermons, p. 66.
Our Views of Heaven.
I. When we claim on behalf of the Christian morality a purity or disinterestedness greater than that: of any other religion, we are sometimes met with the reply that the motives it offers to man, however they may be disguised in language, are really selfish, inasmuch as they appeal to his self-interest: "Do this, and you shall obtain a reward; do that, and you shall be punished." And these objectors say that, so far from Christianity inspiring men with the most perfect spirit of self-devotion, it is quite impossible that it should do so; and that men in ages preceding the Christian revelation who gave up their lives for their country or one another without any expectation of recompense in another world were in reality exhibiting a much more perfect form of sacrifice.
II. St. John says plainly in the passage of his first epistle which is before us that our view of a future life determines our present one: "Whoso hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." He says boldly, therefore, that the hope of reward is a powerful agent, in fact the only effectual one. As men learned what was the treasure which God offered to every one of them, so they learned to hope for that treasure thereafter, and to lay it up for themselves while on earth by following the Divine likeness. Christ did appeal to men’s self-interest, but not till He had taught them that their interest was to be perfect, as their Father in heaven was perfect. To lose self in Christ, not to find it haunting us still, is the heaven which God has promised to His redeemed.
III. The desire for repose, the desire to find rest for the spirit in some thing or some person, is the master yearning of every man’s life. We want to be delivered from falsehoods, from vanities of all kinds, from delusions which hold us one day only to yield to others the next. We try to find rest in some object short of the highest, and we feel that we are only hiding from us our own poverty, and that when this object has been attained there will remain a power, a righteousness, above us, to which we have not been reconciled. St. John offers us a method different from our own. He does not say, "Be good, be true, and you shall find out God." He says, "Take to your comfort a hope, and that hope shall make you pure."
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 13.
Sonship the Foreshadowing of Heaven.
I. In our text we have concealment: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." Christ reveals the fact of immortality, gives the promise of immortality, but tells us little or nothing about the outward conditions of immortality. A Christian must frankly accept this ignorance. By the terms of his Christian covenant he engages to walk by faith, not by sight. Restlessness, toil, sorrow, bereavement, ignorance, are all outgrowths of sin; and the Bible promises the abolition of these in promising a sinless heaven.
II. But there is revelation as well as concealment. It doth not yet appear, but we know something. Concealments are necessary because of the limitations of our intelligence; but these concealments are in the interest of our knowledge on another side, and are intended to direct our researches into another and more profitable channel. For if we rightly read the New Testament, we find it aiming, not so much to put us in possession of new facts about the future life, as to put us in the right attitude alike toward what is revealed and what is hidden. Our disposition is to inquire into the circumstances of the world to come, while the Gospel persistently counteracts this tendency by showing us that the future life is essentially a matter of character rather than of circumstances. On this side we know something of the heavenly world. We know the moral laws which govern it, for they are essentially the same laws which the Gospel applies here. We know the moral sentiments which pervade heaven. They are the very sentiments which the Gospel is seeking to foster in us here. We know that holiness, which is urged upon us here, is the character of God, and that where a holy God reigns the atmosphere must be one of holiness; that if God is love, love must pervade heaven; that if God is truth, truth must pervade heaven.
III. The essence of the promise is that we shall be like God. Likeness to God comes through vision of God. Love has a power of transformation. In that fact we have both a consolation and an exhortation to duty.
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace, p. 175.
References: 1Jn 3:2, 1Jn 3:3.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 291; Ibid., vol. vi., p. 27.
1Jn 3:3
What is the effect of this hope upon him who entertains it?
I. "Every man that hath"—that possesses—"this hope in him," this hope resting on him, "purifieth himself, even as He is pure." All hope rests upon some ground or other, if it be a hope of which any account can be given. This hope is founded on Christ. If the ungodly man is forbidden by the character of his life to entertain this hope, then surely the children of God will be warranted by the character of their lives to entertain it. This seems reasonable, but it is very instructive to see that it is not so; the hope rests, not on ourselves at all, but on Him, on our blessed Lord. And how does this instruct us? Why, it teaches us that He and His accomplished work in our natures are absolute all-including facts, to be made the ground of hope simply in themselves, and without digging into this ground, so to speak, any characteristics or experiences, or anything, of our own.
II. What are the fruits of this faith, resulting in hope for the future? "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." His lifelong struggle springs out of his hope, and that hope is grounded on his faith in Christ. He does not carry on this struggle in order that it may in the end result in a hope for the future: if he did, all his efforts would be vain; but he fights on against evil in the power of his faith and hope. He is aware that though perfect likeness to Christ will never be attained till the great change has come, and we see Him as He is, yet for that perfection the present time must be a preparation, or it will never be realised at all. And in that preparation what is the one obstacle which stands between us and likeness to Him? It is all comprehended in one word: we cannot be like Him because we are impure. Our struggle for purity, which is grounded on this hope, has ever before it as its standard and pattern "as He is pure."
H. Alford, Sons of God, p. 179.
The Purifying Influence of Hope.
I. Notice the principle that is here, which is the main thing to be insisted upon, namely, if we are to be pure, we must purify ourselves. The very deepest word about Christian effort at self-purifying is this: Keep close to Jesus Christ. Holiness is not feeling; it is character. You do not get rid of your sins by the act of Divine amnesty only. You are not perfect because you say you are, and feel as if you were, and think you are. God does not make any man pure in his sleep. His cleansing does not dispense with fighting, but makes victory possible.
II. This purifying of ourselves is the link or bridge between the present and the future. "Now are we the sons of God," says John in the context. That is the pier on the one side of the gulf. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He is made manifest we shall be like Him." That is the pier on the other. How are the two to be connected? There is only one way by which the present sonship will blossom and fruit into the future perfect likeness, and that is, if we throw across the gulf, by God’s help, day by day here that bridge of our effort after growing likeness to Himself and purity therefrom.
III. This self-cleansing of which I have been speaking is the offspring and outcome of that hope in my text. It is the child of hope. Hope is by no means an active faculty generally. As the poets have it, she may "smile and wave her golden hair," but she is not in the way of doing much work in the world. And it is not the mere fact of hope that generates this effort; it is, as I have been trying to show you, a certain kind of hope: the hope of being like Jesus Christ when "we see Him as He is."
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 1st series, p. 3.
References: 1Jn 3:3.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 98; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. ii., p. 224; F. H. Dillon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 348; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 250. 1Jn 3:4.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 167; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 244; vol. vii., p. 60; vol. x., p. 283. 1Jn 3:5.—C. J. Vaughan, Good Words, vol. vi., p. 47.
1Jn 3:8
Why Christ came.
I. We are carried here into the very heart of the Gospel; we are told why Christ came, why there is a gospel. Some one may say that the object of the Gospel is to destroy the works of the devil, which is, I suppose, a Hebrew form of words for sin, and thus the amount of it all is that the one aim of the Gospel is to teach men to lead moral lives. In this tone you hear men speak of the Christian morals as higher and purer than those of other religions or other philosophies. They are Christians, according to their idea of that phrase, because they admire the Sermon on the Mount and the general tone of Scripture. The text does bear on its surface an enforcement of morality. It does imply that Christ’s real battle is with sin. It does bid us, if we are Christians, to fight it out with our sins. But the thing wanted was—conscience knows it—a specific medicine for a specific disease, a Divine intervention to repair a breach and a ruin, a supernatural remedy for an unnatural condition. To teach morality to a being whose very will is in bondage is no satisfaction to the demands, to the expectations, of the heart and soul of mankind.
II. "That He might destroy the works of the devil." What have we here? Not, surely, a mere Orientalism for moral evil; not, surely, a chance or a cant phrase for which a mere abstraction might be substituted at pleasure; rather a glimpse faint yet true of a wreck and a chaos utterly unnatural; of a power alien and hostile which has entered, and defiled, and desolated a portion of God’s handiwork; something which is not a mere spot, or stain, or disfigurement, but has an influence and an action real and definite, a power which works in the hearts, and lives, and souls of men, and which can only cease to work by being destroyed.
III. And for this purpose the Son of God was manifested. The revelation of the supernatural was the death-blow of the unnatural as such. Conscience accepts, conscience welcomes, conscience springs to grasp, it. We find conscience satisfied, tranquillised, comforted, by the discovery of a love and a power mightier than all the hate and might of evil. We find an argument here, such as there is nowhere else, for renouncing and casting out sin. We do find an echo in all but hardened hearts of that brief, thrilling expostulation of St. John, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
IV. "If the Fall," one has written, "is a fearful tragedy, reparation must be more than an idyll." The man who makes light of Calvary, the man who rests in Deism, the man who thinks ethics enough, and rather compliments the Gospel upon its morality than views that morality as a revelation—such a man, depend upon it, is a man of either darkened or else unawakened conscience. When he learns the plague of his own heart, then there will be a revelation within of the necessity, of the beauty, of the adaptation and congruity, of a gospel of grace. Then will the words flash upon him with a dazzling lustre, "He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him."
C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 15.
The First Sinner.
Nothing in the whole of Scripture is plainer than its teaching respecting the evil spirit. If he be not a personal reality, the word of God is good for nothing. His agency is closely interwoven with the first man’s original sin, as closely interwoven with the second Man’s established righteousness; in fact, it forms an integral part of the great whole, which if we attempt to tear away, difficulties beset us far more appalling than anything involved in the doctrine itself thus called in question.
I. Gathering up then the testimony of Scripture respecting Satan, we learn from our Lord’s own lips that he abode not in the truth. He was one of those spiritual beings created, like ourselves, in love and living in the love of God. In this love, the spring of all spiritual conscious being, he did not abide. All evil is personal, is resident in a person and springing from the will of a person. And in every such person sin, evil, is a fall, a perversion of previous order and beauty, not in any way an arrangement of original creation.
II. Sin was in this spirit no result of weakness, no distortion of a limited being, endeavouring to escape into freedom. He was mighty, and noble, and free. Out of his very loftiness, out of his spiritual eminence, were those elements constituted which, when once the perversion took place, became the powers and materials of his evil agency. Sin springs not from the body, nor from any of the subordinate portions of our own nature, but is the work of the spirit itself, our highest and our distinguishing part, arises in the very root and core of our immortal and responsible being.
III. All sin is in its nature one and the same thing, whether in purely spiritual beings or in us men, who are both spiritual and corporeal; it is a falling from the love of God and of others into the love of self. And for this reason the fallen spirits are everlastingly tormented; they believe that there is one God, and tremble at Him as their Enemy, perversely mistrusting His love and hopelessly opposing His will.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv., p. 68.
References: 1Jn 3:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1728; W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 376. 1Jn 3:9.—J. B. Heard, Ibid., vol. ix., p. 158. 1Jn 3:10.—F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 89. 1Jn 3:13.—J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 42. 1Jn 3:13, 1Jn 3:14.—H. C. Leonard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 160.
1Jn 3:14
Our True Orbit.
I. History tells us for how many thousand years men believed that the sun went round the earth. History tells us how men went on century after century inventing new theories to account for the different new facts which this belief had to account for as their knowledge grew. And for how many centuries have men practically set aside the similar truth we are now looking at, the truth that we must not make ourselves the central point of our life, must not look to self first, and make life and the works of life circle round our hopes and fears, but look out into God’s great world of life and make others the centre round which we circle, and doing good to them our power of gravitation, by which all things move by secret heavenly attraction, binding us by an unseen mystery to heaven. Self-seeking or self-goodness is no more life than the earth is the centre of the universe. Look on yourself as less than the meanest life you help, not greater; for lo, it is Christ and His life you help. Go out of self; fasten on by cords of love to all those others who have been to you as yet either unthought of, or thought of as helps or hindrances to you, instead of worlds of life in Christ, by being fastened on to which you live. Revolve round others in loving-kindness and faith, instead of making others and your dealings with them revolve round you. "Because ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Your life circles round Him the moment being kind to others becomes the sole aim in all you do.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. ii., p. 155.
Brotherly Love.
There are many kinds of knowledge, but the most difficult is self-knowledge. Now in spiritual self-knowledge it is not so requisite that we be able to say in any given time whereabouts we stand in the Divine life, as it is that we be able to tell at all times whether we do really live unto God or not. This is the only self-examination commanded in the Bible. But we long for some simple, infallible test whereby we may try and determine our own state before God. Such a test we have here: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."
I. Look at the thing which is to be known. The idea conveyed in the words is of two states, two lands, separated as by a gulf; and there is now, what one day there will not be, a transit from one to the other. The one side is a land of death. There everything that is done is short and uncertain. Its lights blaze for a moment, then they go out, and when they are gone the night seems darker than if they had never been. It is a country of graves, and the joys of pleasure have no resurrection. On the opposite shore everything is in essential light, because there is a new principle there. That principle is one which works for ever and ever. That light, springing from invisible sources, nourished by hidden nourishments, reaching on to unknown passages, is still gaining more.
II. The sign by which we know it: "We love the brethren." The brethren are those who have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts, even though there be much clinging to them that is unrefined, and unintellectual, and unpleasing. We must love all the brethren. And this very comprehensiveness of a catholic spirit is the mark of a mind that has had to do with the largeness of an almighty God.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 59.
References: 1Jn 3:14.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 17; S. Minton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 312.
1Jn 3:15
The Peril of Unlawful Venture.
I. Self-control is a thing which we can perfectly well understand in its effects, in its sources, perhaps, not so well. In frail, unassisted man, self-control is a weak and poor safeguard against temptation. Passion and self-interest are too strong for it when it has nothing further to rely on than a man’s own resolution and innate sense of right. But here God has been pleased to interfere, and to offer us the help of His grace to strengthen us in the conflict of life. His character as the Father of our spirits is pledged and committed to giving this grace and furnishing this strength to all that ask for it.
II. God’s help is only to be looked for in God’s ways, within those limits of serving Him and trusting Him which He has prescribed to all of us. Venture is lawful when we may fairly look, if God’s mysterious providence does not interpose to prevent it, for a favourable issue of our labours. This is lawful venture, venture according to the ordinary course of God’s providence, defeated and brought to loss only by His mysterious interposition. On the other hand, venture appears to me to be unlawful where no such reasonable prospect of success exists, where there is not, in God’s ordinary course of providence, any connection existing between the means used for gain and the event upon which the gain depends. Take the case of one who wagers money on the issue of a matter over which he has not, even humanly speaking, any control. Such a one has no reason whatever to look for a prosperous issue to his venture in the common course of things. The awful name of a murderer clings by implication not only to him who hateth his brother, but to every man who surrenders himself to a pursuit in which he has not the secret of self-control, the fear of God, and the help of His grace.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 339.
Reference: 1Jn 3:16-18.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 590.
1Jn 3:19
The Good and the Bad Conscience.
There is many a text concerning which it may be said that, without an earnest study of the whole chapter, of the whole context, or of the whole Epistle to which it belongs, it would be impossible to get at its depth and fulness. But happily, as St. Augustine says, if Scripture hath its depths to swim in, it hath also its shallows. Just as the geologist may mark the beauty of the crystal without attempting to set forth all the marvellous and subtle lines of its formation, so, without any possibility of showing all which a text articulates, a preacher may yet be thankful if he be enabled to bring before you with it only one or two thoughts such as may serve to the building up of the Christian life. St. John is dealing in our text with tests of sonship. He is telling us how we may decide the infinitely important question whether or not we are children of God. He is speaking to Christians, Christians, it may be, wavering, but still Christians, who shone as bright lights in that dark heathen world. However, the Apostle St. John makes love—that is to say, absolute unselfishness, a perfect and intense desire to devote our lives to the good of others—the one supreme test of spirituality. "My little children," he says, "let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." And then he adds, "And hereby we recognise that we are of the truth, and that truth shall assure our hearts before Him." The word "truth" in St. John, as in many other places of Scripture, means reality. If we belong to the truth, the real and eternal world, then, having God as our hope and strength, we are safe, and the world cannot hurt us; no storms can wreck our inward happiness. If we belong to a false world, our life is a failure, our death a terror. We are on the path that leads to destruction. There are in this world two paths: one a condition of fear and peril, wherein a man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain; but the other is the hope that maketh not ashamed. St. John refers to conscience as the supreme arbiter in this awful question. Who does not know the use of the conscience? It is to the supreme honour of Greek thought that it brought into use that word, which first occurs in the Apocrypha, that word which describes self-knowledge, to describe that voice of God in the heart of man, a prophet in its information, a priest in its sanctions, and a monarch in its imperativeness. The Hebrews in the Old Testament use the word for truth and spirit to convey the same meaning. And the conscience of each one of us either condemns us or condemns us not.
I. Let us take the case of the absolving conscience: "Brethren, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." The Apostle defines wherein this confidence consists; it is boldness of access to God; it is a certainty that our filial prayers will, in their best and highest sense, be heard and answered. It is the consciousness of a life which leans on the arm of Christ, and keeping His commandments, is so transformed by the spirit of Divine life as to be conscious it is one with God. Yet there is such a thing as a spurious conscience. But when the oracle of conscience has been so tried, it can neither stand John’s test nor give us peace. When our conscience acquits us, malediction becomes of none effect. It is simply impossible for any good and great man to go through the world, whether on the lighted stage of a public career, or in the office, or in the workshop, or in the back street, without the chance of suffering from unkindness and misconception, without not only his real errors, which all men do commit, being exaggerated, but his honest intentions, his most blessed and most intense actions, being depreciated. Yet he will all the while remember this was the case of the Master, Christ. However much reviled, He calmly and humbly committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God."
II. Now turn to the other case—the case of the condemning conscience: "Brethren, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." What do these words mean? Are they merely a contemplation? Do they mean to warn us? Do they mean that we stand self-condemned in that silent court of justice which we ever bear about within ourselves, ourselves the judge and jury and ourselves the prisoner at the bar? If we stand thus self-condemned by the incorruptible judge within us, in spite of all our ingenious pleadings and infinite excuses for ourselves, how much more searching, more awful, more true, must be the judgment of Him who is "greater than our heart, and who knoweth all things." Or, on the other hand, is it a word of hope? Is it the cry, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee"? Is it the affirmation that if we be but sincere we may appeal to God and not be condemned? I believe this latter is the meaning. The Christian’s heart may turn to a gracious, pardoning Omniscience, and be comforted by the thought that his conscience is but a water-pot, whereas God’s love is a deep sea of compassion. He will look upon us with larger and other eyes than ours, and make allowance for us all.
F. W. Farrar, Family Churchman, Aug. 1st, 1883.
1Jn 3:19-22
God Greater than Our Heart.
I. The subject with which these verses deal is an accusing conscience and its antidote. St. John does not say that the heart may not accuse justly. He does not say that a child of God is sinless by virtue of his relation as a child, and that his self-accusation is quieted by being pronounced groundless. It is entirely possible that one’s heart may justly accuse him of sin, and that God’s judgment may confirm the accusation of the heart. But he does mean to say that the heart is not the supreme and final arbiter, and that whatever it may accuse us of must be referred to a higher tribunal. You will observe that emphasis is laid on the words "before Him"—we "shall assure our hearts before Him."
II. God knoweth all things, while our heart is ignorant and blind. Whatever light or power of discernment conscience has, it receives from God. Not a few Christians live habitually in a state of self-accusation. They live in anticipation of Divine judgment. Life is one continuous arraignment at the bar of conscience, spite of all their prayer, and striving, and study of the word. Is it the appropriate daily occupation of a child of God to be a mere bookkeeper, writing down bitter things against himself? And then, once more, it is true that many Christians do not carry up their case from the bar of the heart. It is at this mistake that the Apostle’s words are aimed. The whole text carries a protest and an antidote against that kind of piety which is too contemplative and self-scrutinising; which is always studying self for the evidences of a right spiritual relation and condition; which tests growth in grace by the tension of feeling; which limits God’s presence by the sense of His presence; which reckons the spiritual latitude and longitude by the temperature of emotion, as if a sailor should take his reckoning by the thermometer. Feeling, religious sensibility, have their place in the Christian economy, and a high and sacred place it is; but its place is not the judgment-seat.
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace, p. 160.
References: 1Jn 3:20.—J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, pp. 123, 137, 151. 1Jn 3:21.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1855; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 260. 1Jn 3:22-24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1103. 1Jn 3:23.—Ibid., vol. ix., No. 531; Mackarness, Church of England Pulpit, vol. x., p. 313. 1Jn 3:23, 1Jn 3:24.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 316.
1Jn 3:24
The Abiding Witness.
I. The first lesson which these words convey is the dignity not only of the state of the saint, but also of the evidence by which he is assured of it. This state consists in the abiding presence of God, and this not only above us, though this is true, not only around us, though this is true, but in us. We must neither pare down the literal fact of this indwelling, nor must we forget the majesty of the Indweller. God Himself dwells within the saints. He dwells, not flashing a ray of His glory now and then, breaking the natural darkness of the soul for a moment and then leaving it again darker than before, but abiding there, dwelling like the sun in the heavens, with his beams hidden, it may be, sometimes with earthly clouds and mists, but like the sun behind the clouds, filling the soul, as in ancient times He filled the material temple with the glory of His presence.
II. With the dignity we must combine the definite clearness of the test which proves our possession of it, for we might otherwise find great difficulty. By keeping His commandments, we know. We have great cause to bless God for thus resting our hopes on our obedience, which every honest mind can see and recognise. The lesson draws close, and tight, and indissoluble the connection between faith and holiness, the heart and the life, the religion and the character and conduct. It makes Christianity to be a real, practical, working power. (1) The obedience, which is the proof of the Spirit’s presence, is not a holiness finished or perfect, otherwise it would belong to none of us this side of heaven. (2) It is a holiness riot complete, but progressive. (3) It is not partial. Christian obedience accepts and follows the whole law.
III. The words express the infinite blessedness both of the state and of the evidence. God is the source of life, and when He dwells within the soul He dwells as the spring of life, and every pulse of that life is love, and every thrill of it joy.
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 27.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 7 1 John
1 John
THE LOVE THAT CALLS US SONS
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1Jn 3:1.
One or two points of an expository character will serve to introduce what else I have to say on these words.
The text is, I suppose, generally understood as if it pointed to the fact that we are called the sons of God as the great exemplification of the wonderfulness of His love. That is a perfectly possible view of the connection and meaning of the text. But if we are to translate with perfect accuracy we must render, not ‘that we should be called,’ but ‘in order that we should be called the sons of God.’ The meaning then is that the love bestowed is the means by which the design that we should be called His sons is accomplished. What John calls us to contemplate with wonder and gratitude is not only the fact of this marvellous love, but also the glorious end to which it has been given to us and works. There seems no reason for slurring over this meaning in favour of the more vague ‘that’ of our version. God gives His great and wonderful love in Jesus Christ, and all the gifts and powers which live in Him like fragrance in the rose. All this lavish bestowal of love, unspeakable as it is, may be regarded as having one great end, which God deems worthy of even such expenditure, namely, that men should become, in the deepest sense, His children. It is not so much to the contemplation of our blessedness in being sons, as to the devout gaze on the love which, by its wonderful process, has made it possible for us to be sons, that we are summoned here.
Again, you will find a remarkable addition to our text in the Revised Version--namely, ‘and such we are.’ Now these words come with a very great weight of manuscript authority, and of internal evidence. They are parenthetical, a kind of rapid ‘aside’ of the writer’s, expressing his joyful confidence that he and his brethren are sons of God, not only in name, but in reality. They are the voice of personal assurance, the voice of the spirit ‘by which we cry Abba, Father,’ breaking in for a moment on the flow of the sentence, like an irrepressible, glad answer to the Father’s call. With these explanations let us look at the words.
I. The love that is given.
We are called upon to come with our little vessels to measure the contents of the great ocean, to plumb with our short lines the infinite abyss, and not only to estimate the quantity but the quality of that love, which, in both respects, surpasses all our means of comparison and conception.
Properly speaking, we can do neither the one nor the other, for we have no line long enough to sound its depths, and no experience which will give us a standard with which to compare its quality. But all that we can do, John would have us do--that is, look and ever look at the working of that love till we form some not wholly inadequate idea of it.
We can no more ‘behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us’ than we can look with undimmed eyes right into the middle of the sun. But we can in some measure imagine the tremendous and beneficent forces that ride forth horsed on his beams to distances which the imagination faints in trying to grasp, and reach their journey’s end unwearied and ready for their task as when it began. Here are we, ninety odd millions of miles from the centre of the system, yet warmed by its heat, lighted by its beams, and touched for good by its power in a thousand ways. All that has been going on for no one knows how many æons. How mighty the Power which produces these effects! In like manner, who can gaze into the fiery depths of that infinite Godhead, into the ardours of that immeasurable, incomparable, inconceivable love? But we can look at and measure its activities. We can see what it does, and so can, in some degree, understand it, and feel that after all we have a measure for the Immeasurable, a comparison for the Incomparable, and can thus ‘behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us.’
So we have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death, if we would estimate the love of God. According to John’s constant teaching, that is the great proof that God loves us. The most wonderful revelation to every heart of man of the depths of that Divine heart lies in the gift of Jesus Christ. The Apostle bids me ‘behold what manner of love.’ I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which shrinks from no sacrifice, but gives ‘Him up to death for us all.’ I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part, but comes from the depth of His own Infinite Being, who loves because He must, and who must because He is God. I turn to the Cross, and I see there manifested a love which sighs for recognition, which desires nothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection, and longs to see its own likeness in me. And I see there a love that will not be put away by sinfulness, and shortcomings, and evil, but pours its treasures on the unworthy, like sunshine on a dunghill. So, streaming through the darkness of eclipse, and speaking to me even in the awful silence in which the Son of Man died there for sin, I ‘behold,’ and I hear, the ‘manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us,’ stronger than death and sin, armed with all power, gentler than the fall of the dew, boundless and endless, in its measure measureless, in its quality transcendent--the love of God to me in Jesus Christ my Saviour.
In like manner we have to think, if we would estimate the ‘manner of this love,’ that through and in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ there comes to us the gift of a divine life like His own. Perhaps it may be too great a refinement of interpretation; but it certainly does seem to me that that expression ‘to bestow His love upon’ us, is not altogether the same as ‘to love us,’ but that there is a greater depth in it. There may be some idea of that love itself being as it were infused into us, and not merely of its consequences or tokens being given to us; as Paul speaks of ‘the love of God shed abroad in our hearts’ by the spirit which is given to us. At all events this communication of divine life, which is at bottom divine love--for God’s life is God’s love--is His great gift to men.
Be that as it may, these two are the great tokens, consequences, and measures of God’s love to us--the gift of Christ, and that which is the sequel and outcome thereof, the gift of the Spirit which is breathed into Christian spirits. These two gifts, which are one gift, embrace all that the world needs. Christ for us and Christ in us must both be taken into account if you would estimate the manner of the love that God has bestowed upon us.
We may gain another measure of the greatness of this love if we put an emphasis--which I dare say the writer did not intend--on one word of this text, and think of the love given to ‘us,’ such creatures as we are. Out of the depths we cry to Him. Not only by the voice of our supplications, but even when we raise no call of entreaty, our misery pleads with His merciful heart, and from the heights there comes upon our wretchedness and sin the rush of this great love, like a cataract, which sweeps away all our sins, and floods us with its own blessedness and joy. The more we know ourselves, the more wonderingly and thankfully shall we bow down our hearts before Him, as we measure His mercy by our unworthiness.
From all His works the same summons echoes. They all call us to see mirrored in them His loving care. But the Cross of Christ and the gift of a Divine Spirit cry aloud to every ear in tones of more beseeching entreaty and of more imperative command to ‘behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.’
II. Look next at the sonship which is the purpose of His given Love.
It has often been noticed that the Apostle John uses for that expression ‘the sons of God,’ another word from that which his brother Paul uses. John’s phrase would perhaps be a little more accurately translated ‘children of God,’ whilst Paul, on the other hand, very seldom says ‘children,’ but almost always says ‘sons.’ Of course the children are sons and the sons are children, but still, the slight distinction of phrase is characteristic of the men, and of the different points of view from which they speak about the same thing. John’s word lays stress on the children’s kindred nature with their father and on their immature condition.
But without dwelling on that, let us consider this great gift and dignity of being children of God, which is the object that God has in view in all the lavish bestowment of His goodness upon us.
That end is not reached by God’s making us men. Over and above that He has to send this great gift of His love, in order that the men whom He has made may become His sons. If you take the context here you will see very clearly that the writer draws a broad distinction between ‘the sons of God’ and ‘the world’ of men who do not comprehend them, and so far from being themselves sons, do not even know God’s sons when they see them. And there is a deeper and solemner word still in the context. John thinks that men {within the range of light and revelation, at all events} are divided into two families--’the children of God and the children of the devil.’ There are two families amongst men.
Thank God, the prodigal son in his rags amongst the swine, and lying by the swine-troughs in his filth and his husks, and his fever, is a son! No doubt about that! He has these three elements and marks of sonship that no man ever gets rid of: he is of a divine origin, he has a divine likeness in that he has got mind and will and spirit, and he is the object of a divine love.
The doctrine of the New Testament about the Fatherhood of God and the sonship of man does not in the slightest degree interfere with these three great truths, that all men, though the features of the common humanity may be almost battered out of recognition in them, are all children of God because He made them; that they are children of God because still there lives in them something of the likeness of the creative Father; and, blessed be His name! that they are all children of God because He loves and provides and cares for every one of them.
All that is blessedly and eternally true; but it is also true that there is a higher relation than that to which the name ‘children of God’ is more accurately given, and to which in the New Testament that name is confined. If you ask what that relation is, let me quote to you three passages in this Epistle which will answer the question. ‘Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,’ that is the first; ‘Every one that doeth righteousness is born of God,’ that is the second; ‘Every one that loveth is born of God,’ that is the third. Or to put them all into one expression which holds them all, in the great words of his prologue in the first chapter of John’s Gospel you find this: ‘To as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God.’ Believing in Christ with loving trust produces, and doing righteousness and loving the brethren, as the result of that belief, prove the fact of sonship in its highest and its truest sense.
What is implied in that great word by which the Almighty gives us a name and a place as of sons and daughters? Clearly, first, a communicated life, therefore, second, a kindred nature which shall be ‘pure as He is pure,’ and, third, growth to full maturity.
This sonship, which is no mere empty name, is the aim and purpose of God’s dealings, of all the revelation of His love, and most especially of the great gift of His love in Christ. Has that purpose been accomplished in you? Have you ever looked at that great gift of love that God has given you on purpose to make you His child? If you have, has it made you one? Are you trusting to Jesus Christ, whom God has sent forth that we might receive the standing of sons in Him? Are you a child of God because a brother of that Saviour? Have you received the gift of a divine life through Him? My friend, remember the grim alternative! A child of God or a child of the devil! Bitter words, narrow words, uncharitable words--as people call them! And I believe, and therefore I am bound to say it, true words, which it concerns you to lay to heart.
III. Now, still further, let me ask you to look at the glad recognition of this sonship by the child’s heart.
I have already referred to the clause added in the Revised Version, ‘and such we are.’ As I said, it is a kind of ‘aside,’ in which John adds the Amen for himself and for his poor brothers and sisters toiling and moiling obscure among the crowds of Ephesus, to the great truth. He asserts his and their glad consciousness of the reality of the fact of their sonship, which they know to be no empty title. He asserts, too, the present possession of that sonship, realising it as a fact, amid all the commonplace vulgarities and carking cares and petty aims of life’s little day. ‘Such we are’ is the ‘Here am I, Father,’ of the child answering the Father’s call, ‘My Son.’
He turns doctrine into experience. He is not content with merely having the thought in his creed, but his heart clasps it, and his whole nature responds to the great truth. I ask you, do you do that? Do not be content with hearing the truth, or even with assenting to it, and believing it in your understandings. The truth is nothing to you, unless you have made it your very own by faith. Do not be satisfied with the orthodox confession. Unless it has touched your heart and made your whole soul thrill with thankful gladness and quiet triumph, it is nothing to you. The mere belief of thirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand Articles is nothing; but when a man has a true heart-faith in Him, whom all articles are meant to make us know and love, then dogma becomes life, and the doctrine feeds the soul. Does it do so with you, my brother? Can you say, ‘And such we are?’
Take another lesson. The Apostle was not afraid to say ‘I know that I am a child of God.’ There are many very good people, whose tremulous, timorous lips have never ventured to say ‘I know.’ They will say, ‘Well, I hope,’ or sometimes, as if that was not uncertain enough, they will put in an adverb or two, and say, ‘I humbly hope that I am.’ It is a far robuster kind of Christianity, a far truer one, ay, and a humbler one too, that throws all considerations of my own character and merits, and all the rest of that rubbish, clean behind me, and when God says, ‘My son!’ says ‘My Father;’ and when God calls us His children, leaps up and gladly answers, ‘And we are!’ Do not be afraid of being too confident, if your confidence is built on God, and not on yourselves; but be afraid of being too diffident, and be afraid of having a great deal of self-righteousness masquerading under the guise of such a profound consciousness of your own unworthiness that you dare not call yourself a child of God. It is not a question of worthiness or unworthiness. It is a question, in the first place, and mainly, of the truth of Christ’s promise and the sufficiency of Christ’s Cross; and in a very subordinate degree of anything belonging to you.
IV. We have here, finally, the loving and devout gaze upon this wonderful love. ‘Behold,’ at the beginning of my text, is not the mere exclamation which you often find both in the Old and in the New Testaments, which is simply intended to emphasise the importance of what follows, but it is a distinct command to do the thing, to look, and ever to look, and to look again, and live in the habitual and devout contemplation of that infinite and wondrous love of God.
I have but two remarks to make about that, and the one is this, that such a habit of devout and thankful meditation upon the love of God, as manifested in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of the Divine Spirit, joined with the humble, thankful conviction that I am a child of God thereby, lies at the foundation of all vigorous and happy Christian life. How can a thing which you do not touch with your hands and see with your eyes produce any effect upon you, unless you think about it? How can a religion which can only influence through thought and emotion do anything in you, or for you, unless you occupy your thoughts and your feelings with it? It is sheer nonsense to suppose it possible. Things which do not appeal to sense are real to us, and indeed we may say, are at all for us, only as we think about them. If you had a dear friend in Australia, and never thought about him, he would even cease to be dear, and it would be all one to you as if he were dead. If he were really dear to you, you would think about him. We may say {though, of course, there are other ways of looking at the matter} that, in a very intelligible sense, the degree in which we think about Christ, and in Him behold the love of God, is a fairly accurate measure of our Christianity.
Now will you apply that sharp test to yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and decide how much of your life was pagan, and how much of it was Christian? You will never make anything of your professed Christianity, you will never get a drop of happiness or any kind of good out of it; it will neither be a strength nor a joy nor a defence to you unless you make it your habitual occupation to ‘behold the manner of love’; and look and look and look until it warms and fills your heart.
The second remark is that we cannot keep that great sight before the eye of our minds without effort. You will have very resolutely to look away from something else if, amid all the dazzling gauds of earth, you are to see the far-off lustre of that heavenly love. Just as timorous people in a thunder-storm will light a candle that they may not see the lightning, so many Christians have their hearts filled with the twinkling light of some miserable tapers of earthly care and pursuits, which, though they be dim and smoky, are bright enough to make it hard to see the silent depths of Heaven, though it blaze with a myriad stars. If you hold a sixpence close enough up to the pupil of your eye, it will keep you from seeing the sun. And if you hold the world close to mind and heart, as many of you do, you will only see, round the rim of it, the least tiny ring of the overlapping love of God. What the world lets you see you will see, and the world will take care that it will let you see very little--not enough to do you any good, not enough to deliver you from its chains. Wrench yourselves away, my brethren, from the absorbing contemplation of Birmingham jewellery and paste, and look at the true riches. If you have ever had some glimpses of that wondrous love, and have ever been drawn by it to cry, ‘Abba, Father,’ do not let the trifles which belong not to your true inheritance fill your thoughts, but renew the vision, and by determined turning away of your eyes from beholding vanity, look off from the things that are seen, that you may gaze upon the things that are not seen, and chiefest among them, upon the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you have never looked on that love, I beseech you now to turn aside and see this great sight. Do not let that brightness burn unnoticed while your eyes are fixed on the ground, like the gaze of men absorbed in gold digging, while a glorious sunshine is flushing the eastern sky. Look to the unspeakable, incomparable, immeasurable love of God, in giving up His Son to death for us all. Look and be saved. Look and live. ‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on you,’ and, beholding, you will become the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Righteousness of God and the Duties and Privileges…
The Righteousness of God and the Duties and Privileges of Sonship
1. The sons of God] RV 'children of God,' adding the words, 'and such we are.' The word translated 'children' here is characteristic of St. John, and implies community of nature, whereas the term 'sons' as used by St. Paul suggests the privileged condition of heirship.
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2. Note changes in RV.
3. This hope] of being hereafter like God in Christ.
In him] RV 'set on him.' Purifieth himself] 'He who looks forward to becoming like God hereafter must strive after His likeness now' (Westcott).
6. Sinneth not] That the possibility of sinlessness in present experience is not taught here is clear from 1Jn_1:8, 1Jn_1:9. St. John's thought moves in the region of the ideal. The divine life and the life of sin are in idea mutually exclusive. Sin in the Christian is either involuntary or in acknowledged contradiction to the ruling principle of his life. The commission of it is to that extent a failure perfectly to abide in Christ.
8. He that committeth sin] RV 'he that doeth sin.' The present tense implies that which is habitual, which results from a ruling principle.
9. RV 'Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him.' The same principles of interpretation apply here as in the foregoing vv. A perfect realisation of the filial relationship to God excludes sin. His seed remaineth in him] The germinal principle from which his new life has sprung.
12. Cain] The typical example of hatred, inspired by the Evil One, and resulting in murder, the germ of which is hatred (1Jn_3:15).
16. Hereby perceive we the love of God] RV 'hereby know we love,' i.e. what love is.
He.. we] The pronouns are emphatic.
17. This world's good] RV 'the world's goods,' lit. 'the world's life,' i.e. that which supports life.
19. Hereby] i.e. by loving in deed and truth.
20. In RV 1Jn_3:19 ends with a comma, then follows, 'whereinsoever our heart condemn us; because God,' etc. God is greater] He is a more perfect judge. Are these words meant to inspire awe or to afford consolation? Is God regarded as more exacting or more merciful than conscience? Opinion is much divided. The contrast in 1Jn_3:21 suggests the former alternative, but the whole context rather favours the latter. 'We shall then still our heart in whatsoever it may condemn us, because we are in fellowship with God, and that fact assures us of His sovereign mercy' (Westcott). 22. See 1Jn_5:15.
24. The spirit which he hath given us] RV 'the Spirit which he gave us,' i.e. when we became Christians. The indwelling Spirit, from whom springs the Christian's love to God and man, is his assurance of fellowship with God. The test of having the Spirit of God, and not the spirit of Antichrist, is treated in the six following verses.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 10, 13 kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v19 1. Hereby we know that we are of the…
V. HEREBY WE KNOW
CHAPTERS 3:19-5:13
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1. Hereby we know that we are of the truth (1Jn 3:19-24)
2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God (1Jn 4:1-4)
3. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and of error (1Jn 4:5-6)
4. The Love manifested toward us (1Jn 4:7-19)
5. The final tests as to the possession of eternal life (1Jn 4:20-21; 1Jn 5:1-13)
1Jn 3:19-24.
If the love of God dwells in the heart of the child of God it must be manifested in a practical way. Love must be expressed in deed and in truth, which is the fruit of true faith. If the believer does this he knows that he is of the truth. If it is lacking he is but an empty professing believer. But if we know that we are of the truth, by bearing such fruit of faith, we can assure our hearts before Him, and we can draw nigh with confidence. As our hearts do not condemn us, knowing that we are of the truth, we have confidence toward God and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Where there is not a good conscience and the Holy Spirit is grieved real nearness to God and the effectual prayer which availeth much are impossible. It is the same blessed truth our Lord spoke in connection with the parable of the vine. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (Joh 15:7).
But what is His commandment? Strange that some expositors have read into it the Ten Commandments. The context answers the question: “And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. And He that keepeth His commandment dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit He hath given to us.”
1Jn 4:1-4.
The last sentence of the preceding chapter gives the assurance that the believer has the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as a true child of God without the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is the proof that He Himself dwells in us. But how do we know that it is the Spirit of God? How can a test be made? The sphere of the Spirit is the territory in which the spirit of error and darkness operates and where the liar from the beginning counterfeits. Many false prophets inspired by the spirit of darkness had gone out into the world and the apostle gives a warning not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits. The true test is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.
But this means more than a mere confession with the lips, it means to own the person and lordship of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The demons know how to confess Him and yet they are demons (Mat 8:29). The spirit of antichrist denies Him, does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This spirit which is not the Spirit of God manifests itself in the most subtle forms. It is called “true Christian charity” in our days to make common cause in what is called “social service” with those who do not confess Christ, who do not own Him as Saviour and Lord. These many antichrists speak of Him as man, they go so far as to call Christ a manifestation of God in human form, but they deny that He is very God come in the flesh.
As stated before the most prominent form of it is today the denial of His virgin birth. Anything which denies the full glory of the Lord Jesus Christ which in any way detracts from His glory, is the spirit of antichrist. About a hundred years ago a movement was in existence which claimed to be another Pentecost, just as there are movements today which claim the same unscriptural thing. The leader of that movement, Edward Irving, put great stress upon the incarnation, that Jesus came in the flesh. But after a while the demons which stood behind the movement brought forth the horrible doctrine of the peccability of Christ, that He had a corrupt nature like any other man. Such is the subtlety of Satan, the old serpent. He always strikes at Christ and His glory.
“The false prophets are certainly no fewer in number at the present time than when the apostle spoke; yet, in general, we may say they assume less divine authority. We have sunk down so far into the wisdom of the world that man is credited with a place which God has lost. Inspiration is the inspiration of genius, rather than of God. We are more and more getting to lose the reality of the last, just as we are coming more and more to believe in the former. We believe in brilliancy, in eloquence, in intellect, in whatever you please in this way, but the assumption of speaking in any direct way by the Spirit of God no more exists, for the mass, except as one may say that the Spirit of God is as liberal as men are, and speaks in very diverse fashion--in poets, philosophers, and all the acknowledged leaders among men” (Numerical Bible).
1Jn 4:5-6.
The fifth verse has a good description of these antichrists and their following. These men, with their boasted learning and scholarship, their great swelling words, called eloquence, their natural amiability and cultured, courteous manners are of the world. They were never born again. If they had ever seen themselves lost and undone, and found in Christ their peace with God, they would yield complete obedience to Him and not deny His glory. When they speak they speak of the world. They speak of world conditions, and how they may be improved, of a better human society. Quite true they are even religious, but what they speak is not that which is of the Spirit, but what concerns the world system. The crowds want to hear that for it pleases the flesh, and thus the devil brings his audience to hear them. Such antichrists in cap and gown have multiplied by the thousands; they are found in the leading pulpits of all denominations.
The test as to the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error is stated in these words: “We are of God; He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and of error.” The test is the apostle’s doctrine. The Epistles are the full revelation of the doctrine of Christ, they contain the “many things” which the Lord spoke of when on earth, and which should be revealed when the Holy Spirit came. He has come and has made known the blessed things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him, but which are now revealed by His Spirit, the Spirit of truth (1Co 2:9-10). The spirit of error denies these doctrines. In our day the enemy has invested a most subtle slogan, “Back to Christ.” It sounds well but behind it stands the father of lies. These men who speak of going back to Christ charge our beloved brother Paul with having a theological system of his own, which they claim Christ, on earth, never taught. They reject the great redemption truths made known by the Lord through the apostle to the Gentiles. Their cry “Back to Christ” is the spirit of antichrist.
1Jn 4:7-19.
These blessed words are addressed to the beloved, true believers. The great center of this passage is “God is Love.” Love is of God. But how do we know that God is Love? Such an antichristian system as “Christian Science” babbles about the love of God, but that which alone expresses the love of God, and by which it is known that God is love, they reject completely. The question, how do we know that God is love is answered in 1Jn 4:9-10. “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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Apart from this there is no knowledge of the love of God. He who is born again knows that love, for in believing it (Joh 3:16) he receives eternal life, and that love was perfect in Him when we had no love for Him--not that we loved God, but that He loved us. In His great love He has met every need.
This love, the nature of God, is in those who are born again, Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” Love therefore is the very essence of the new nature and must be manifested towards all who are the objects of the love of God and are in the family of God by having believed that love.
“His presence, Himself, dwelling in us rises in the excellency of His nature above all the barriers of circumstances, and attaches us to those who are His. It is God in the power of His nature which is the source of thought and feeling and diffuses itself among them in whom it is. One can understand this. How is it that I love strangers from another land, persons of different habits, whom I have never known, more intimately than members of my own family after the flesh? How is it that I have thoughts in common, objects infinitely loved in common, affections powerfully engaged, a stronger bond with persons whom I have never seen, than with the otherwise dear companions of my childhood? It is because there is in them and in me a source of thoughts and affections which is not human. God is in it. God dwells in us, What happiness! What a bond! Does He not communicate Himself to the soul? Does He not render it conscious of His presence in love? Assuredly, yes. And if He is thus in us, the blessed source of our thoughts, can there be fear, or distance, or uncertainty, with regarding to what He is? None at all. His love is perfect in us” (John N. Darby).
His love is perfected in us by loving one another. Once more he uses the phrase “Hereby we know.” “Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” “The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the indwelling Spirit.” He proceeds: “We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in Him and he in God.” What wonderful words these are! Can there be anything greater and more wonderful than dwelling in God and God dwelling in us! And this is true of every believer. If we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if we rest in His finished work as well, knowing the Father sent Him to be the Saviour, and our Saviour therefore, then the Holy Spirit dwells in us and as a result God dwelleth in us and we in God. There can be no question about it for God says so.
The enjoyment of it is a different matter. If it is not real to us and if we do not enjoy it there is something which hinders it in ourselves. If a great king should pay us a visit in our home and dwell there and we do not recognize the fact of the honor and privilege bestowed upon us, and if we do not trouble about it and show our appreciation of it, we would have no enjoyment in such a visit. To have the reality of it and enjoy the wonderful truth that God dwells in us and we in Him we must practise what our Lord said in Joh 14:23, “If a man love Me he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode in Him.” We must dwell in love, the very nature of God, and that love is manifested towards Him and towards the brethren. 1Jn 4:12 and 1Jn 4:16 make this clear. “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.”
Another important fact is stated in the verses which follow: “Herein hath love been perfected with us, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear has torment; and he that feareth is not perfected in love.” It has nothing to do with our love, as some take it nor with seeking an experience of being “perfect in love.” It is His love which casteth out fear, believing that love and dwelling in it. If we believe and know what God has made us in His infinite grace what Christ is, that as He is so are we, how can we fear anything! The coming day of judgment we await not only without any fear, but with boldness, for the day will only bring the full display of what Christ is and what we are in Him and with Him. The knowledge of His perfect love, the love which has reached down to us and lifted us so high, casteth out all fear.
(“It is a blessed love that Christ came into the world for such sinners as we are. But then there is the day of judgment. When I think of the love, I am all happy; but when I think of the day of judgment, my conscience is not quite easy. Though the heart may have tasted the love, the conscience not being quite clear, when I think of judgment I am not quite happy. This is what is provided for here. ‘As He is so are we in this world.’ The love was shown in visiting us when we were sinners; it is enjoyed in communion: but it is completed in this, that I am in Christ, and that Christ must condemn Himself in the day of judgment, if He condemns me, because He is, so am I in the world, I am glorified before I get there. He changes this vile body and makes it like to His glorious body. When I am before the judgment seat, I am in this changed and glorified body; I am like my judge” Synopsis of the Bible.)
1Jn 4:20-21; 1Jn 5:1-13.
Once more brotherly love is applied as the test. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” God is in the believer, he is the object of God’s love, if therefore the brother is not loved, but hated, it is an evidence that God does not dwell in such a heart and again the beloved disciple brands such an one as a liar.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” This is very logical. Then he gives a counter test to show that it is genuine. “By this we know, that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” If we love God and keep His commandments, we can rest assured that we love the children of God also. If the soul goes out to Him in love, and it is shown by unreserved fidelity to His will, then love for those begotten of Him, the other members of the family of God, will be the result. “For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” It is a different thing from the law which is called elsewhere a yoke which no one was able to bear (Act 15:10). Keeping His commandments means to be obedient to His Word, being subject unto Him in all things, for love to God is the spirit of obedience. But the children of God are in the world, though no longer of it. There are hindrances all about in the world which knew Him not and which know not the children of God. All in this world is opposition to God and hinders true obedience. But that which is born of God overcometh the world. Our faith is the victory which overcometh the world. What faith is it? It is the faith which is occupied with the Son of God, which yields obedience to Him, does His will. Such a faith is the victory that overcomes the world and its attractions. This is stated in 1Jn 5:5.
“And He, the Son of God, even Jesus Christ, came by water and blood-not by water only, but by water and blood.” “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” (1Jn 5:6). How beautiful is this passage and what divine perfection it reveals! Only John in his Gospel gives the account of the opened side of our adorable Saviour and that water and blood came forth out of the pierced side. “And he that saw it (John) bare record and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith true that ye might believe” (Joh 19:35). What the sinner needs is cleansing, a cleansing morally and a cleansing from guilt. The water is for cleansing, the blood telling of expiation cleanses from guilt. To make here of the water, baptism, and of the blood, the Lord’s Supper, is as false as it is ridiculous. It is purification and propitiation as accomplished and provided for in the death of Christ for the believer. As a result the Holy Spirit is here on earth. Note the Apostle John does not put forward his own testimony here as given in the above passage, but the Holy Spirit Himself beareth witness to it. He is on earth for this purpose to bear witness to Christ and the work of Christ. How awful the rejection of that witness appears in the light of these words--that rejection which is so widespread and pronounced in antichristian modernism!
The seventh verse (1Jn 5:17)has no business in our Bibles. It must be stricken out. It is an interpolation and all the historical evidences are against it. The oldest manuscripts do not contain these words which we read in 1Jn 5:7. Leaving out this inserted verse we notice the connection which exists between 1Jn 5:6 and 1Jn 5:8. “And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one.” The Spirit is the abiding witness of accomplished redemption, and He dwells in the believer.
1Jn 5:9-13 need no further detailed annotations. They are so plain and simple that only one wilfully blind can misunderstand them. God’s witness is concerning His Son. The believer who believes on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, that is, by the indwelling Spirit, and by the salvation he possesses, the new nature, the eternal life. Any man who does not believe God’s witness concerning His Son hath made Him a liar. Think of it, dear reader, the creature of the dust makes God, who cannot lie, a liar! This is the heinous sin of the great religious world. The record we have is, that God hath given to us eternal life, that this life is in His Son, that if we have the Son we have life, if we have not the Son we have not life. 1Jn 5:13 concludes the argument and teaching of the Epistle concerning eternal life.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 13, 19 The Glory, Privileges, and Obligations of Sonship.
The Glory, Privileges, and Obligations of Sonship.
The beauty of the sonship of God:
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v. 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him. not.
v. 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.
v. 3. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.
It was righteousness in life and conduct which the apostle had been urging. He now introduces another motive for such conduct: See how great a love the Father has given to us that we should be called the sons of God, and are. The Christians should behold and see, they should use the eyes of both body and mind, they should concentrate their attention upon that miracle, upon that mystery, that we should be honored with the name of children of God. To have been taken out of the state of wrath and damnation and to have been placed into such intimate fellowship with God as to have been born anew through the power of His Spirit in the Word, that is the experience which we have had. Children of God, that is what we are by faith in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26, sons of God, led by the Spirit of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, Rom 8:14-17. The image of God, lost by the Fall, is being renewed in us. once more, Christ Himself is being formed in us. Gal 4:19. What unspeakable, immeasurable majesty is ours! With this assurance in our hearts we can well bear what the apostle tells us: For this reason the world does not know us, because it does not know Him. The children of this world will not know, will not acknowledge us, will consider us beneath their notice, because we are the children of God, with all that this relation implies. The world did not know, did not acknowledge God as the Lord, did not accept Him in faith, and therefore it cannot possibly enter into friendly relations with us. His children; the unbelievers refuse to acknowledge the new, spiritual, divine character which the Christians show.
For our comfort, however, the apostle repeats and amplifies his statement: Beloved, now are we the children of God, and not yet has it been manifested what we shall be; we know that, when it shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. By nature we were the children of wrath and of Satan, but now, by our conversion, we have become and are children of God. Of that fact we are assured in so many passages of Scriptures that there can be no doubt in our minds. This confidence is not shaken either by the statement that it has not yet been manifested what we shall be. Although we have the certainty of our sonship even now and enjoy many of its blessings, yet the full glory of our future state has not yet been revealed to us. But when that revelation will take place, on the day when Christ will appear to us in the fullness of His glory, then we shall be like God the Lord, as nearly like Him as it is possible for creatures to become; then the image of God will be restored in us in the perfection of its beauty; then we shall be holy and righteous before Him. No longer shall we then view Him through a glass, darkly, but we shall see God face to face, as He is, in all the inexpressible beauty of His holiness and love. This seeing of God will, at the same time, be the means by which the image of God in us will ever again be renewed and kept in the fullness of its glory. That is the certain hope of the believers, a confidence which cannot fail.
It is self-evident, then, for a Christian: And every one that has this hope resting upon Him will purify himself, just as He is pure. Every one without exception that clings to this hope of the final glorious revelation, every one that rests his confidence in God, as the Author and Finisher of his salvation, will find it self-evident that he separates and cleanses himself from all defilements and carnal allurements, from everything that is an abomination in the sight of God. We have the example of Christ before our eyes always, as one who was perfectly pure and holy. It is impossible for Christians that have such hope in their hearts any longer to serve sin. This hope nourishes and strengthens the new life which was created in us in regeneration unto the genuine righteousness of life.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 23 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
In this part John tells the believers about their new nature, which cannot sin.
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See what kind of love the Father has given to us
"Think about how our Father loves us so much"
we should be called children of God
"the Father called us his children"
children of God
Here this means people who belong to God through faith in Jesus.
For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know him
Possible meanings are 1) "Because we are the children of God and because the world did not know God, it does not know us" or 2) "Because the world did not know God, it does not know us."
the world does not know us, because it did not know him
Here "the world" refers to people who do not honor God. What the world did not know can be made explicit: AT: "those who do not honor God do not know that we belong to God, because they did not know God" (See: Metonymy and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Beloved, we are
"You people whom I love, we are" or "Dear friends, we are." See how you translated this in 1 John 2:7.
it has not yet been revealed
This can be stated in active form: AT: "God has not yet revealed" (See: Active or Passive)
revealed
This can mean here either "told," "demonstrated," or "shown."
Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure
"Everyone who confidently expects to see Christ as he really is will keep himself pure because Christ is pure"
translationWords
love
God the Father
children
world
beloved
reveal
Christ
confidence
pure
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23 3:1-3 When Christ returns, we will be like him,…
3:1-3 When Christ returns, we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. God’s children bear the image of Christ and will share in his glory (see Rom 8:18-30). • Those who have this hope keep themselves pure, seeking to become more like Christ in anticipation of his glorious appearing. It is partly for this reason that God’s children will not be ashamed when Christ comes (1 Jn 2:29).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.