For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
Parallel Translations
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For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
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This is the love of god that we kepe his commaundementes and his commaundementes are not greveous
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For this is the loue of God, that we keepe his commandements: and his commandements are not burdenous.
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to 1 John 5:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
- John 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.
- Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
- John 14:21-24 One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
- 1 John 2:3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
- 2 John 1:6 This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
- Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- John 15:14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
- Romans 7:22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
- Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
- Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good?
- Daniel 9:4 I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,
- Psalms 119:47-48 I will delight myself in your commandments, because I love them. I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes.
- Matthew 12:46-50 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him. One said to him, “Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you.” But he answered him who spoke to him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” He stretched out his hand toward his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
- Romans 7:12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
- Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
- Psalms 19:7-11 Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether. They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb. Moreover your servant is warned by them. In keeping them there is great reward.
- Exodus 20:6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
- Deuteronomy 5:10 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
- Psalms 119:127-128 Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold. Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.
- Psalms 119:45 I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts.
- Psalms 119:103-104 How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
- Psalms 119:140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.
- Proverbs 3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3 His commandments are not grievous This has been…
3 His commandments are not grievous This has been added, lest difficulties, as it is usually the case, should damp or lessen our zeal. For they who with a cheerful mind and great ardor have pursued a godly and holy life, afterwards grow weary, finding their strength inadequate. Therefore John, in order to rouse our efforts, says that God’s commandments are not grievous.
But it may, on the other hand, be objected and said that we have found it far otherwise by experience, and that Scripture testifies that the yoke of the law is insupportable. (Acts 15:2.) The reason also is evident, for as the denial of self is, as it were, a prelude to the keeping of the law, can we say that it is easy for a man to deny himself? nay, since the law is spiritual, as Paul, in Romans 7:14, teaches us, and we are nothing but flesh, there must be a great discord between us and the law of God. To this I answer, that this difficulty does not arise from the nature of the law, but from our corrupt flesh; and this is what Paul expressly declares; for after having said that it was impossible for the Law to confer righteousness on us, he immediately throws the blame on our flesh.
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This explanation fully reconciles what is said by Paul and by David, which apparently seems wholly contradictory. Paul makes the law the master of death, declares that it effects nothing but to bring on us the wrath of God, that it was given to increase sin, that it lives in order to kill us. David, on the other hand, says that it is sweeter than honey, and more desirable than gold; and among other recommendations he mentions the following — that it cheers hearts, converts to the Lord, and quickens. But Paul compares the law with the corrupt nature of man; hence arises the conflict: but David shews how they think and feel whom God by his Spirit has renewed; hence the sweetness and delight of which the flesh knows nothing. And John has not omitted this difference; for he confines to God’s children these words, God’s commandments are not grievous, lest any one should take them literally; and he intimates that, it comes through the power of the Spirit, that it is not grievous nor wearisome to us to obey God.
The question, however, seems not as yet to be fully answered; for the faithful, though ruled by the Spirit, of God, yet, carry on a hard contest with their own flesh; and how muchsoever they may toil, they yet hardly perform the half of their duty; nay, they almost fail under their burden, as though they stood, as they say, between the sanctuary and the steep. We see how Paul groaned as one held captive, and exclaimed that he was wretched, because he could not fully serve God. My reply to this is, that the law is said to be easy, as far as we are endued with heavenly power, and overcome the lusts of the flesh. For however the flesh may resist, yet the faithful find that there is no real enjoyment except in following God.
It must further be observed, that John does not speak of the law only, which contains nothing but commands, but connects with it the paternal indulgence of God, by which the rigor of the law is mitigated. As, then, we know that we are graciously forgiven by the Lord, when our works do not come up to the law, this renders us far more prompt to obey, according to what we find in Psalm 130:4,
“With thee is propitiation, that thou mayest be feared.”
Hence, then, is the facility of keeping the law, because the faithful, being sustained by pardon, do not despond when they come short of what they ought to be. The Apostle, in the meantime, reminds us that we must fight, in order that we may serve the Lord; for the whole world hinders us to go where the Lord calls us. Then, he only keeps the law who courageously resists the world.
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 To them that are regenerate, that is to say,…
To them that are regenerate, that is to say, born anew, which are led by the Spirit of God, and are through grace delivered from the curse of the Law.
Because experience teacheth us that there is no ability in our flesh, neither yet will to perform God’s commandments, therefore lest the Apostle should seem, by so often putting them in mind of the keeping of the commandments of God, to require things that are impossible, he pronounceth that the commandments of God are not in such sort grievous or burdensome, that we can be oppressed with the burden of them.
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The reason: for to love God is to keep his commandments, which being so, and seeing that both the loves are commanded of one and the selfsame lawmaker (as he taught before) it followeth also that we do not love our neighbor, when we break God’s commandments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 3 For this is the love of God, that…
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Ver. 3. For this is, &c.] {See Trapp on "Joh 14:15"}
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His commandments are not] {See Trapp on "Mat 11:30"}
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 For this is the love of God, i.e. this…
For this is the love of God, i.e. this is the most lively, certain expression and effect of our love to God, our keeping his commandments, which are so little grievous, that true love can make no difficulty of doing so, Mat 11:30; Psa 19:11.
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 Our apostle in these words gives a threefold description…
Our apostle in these words gives a threefold description of a sincere Christian. He describes him,
1. By his inward affection to God and Christ, and that is love; this is shed abroad in his heart.
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2. By the action which flows from this affection, namely, obedience to God in keeping his commandment.
3. By the disposition and inclination from which that obedience doth proceed and flow, namely, a delight and cheerfulness in the doing of our duty. His commandments are not grievous; that is, they have nothing in them heavy or burdensome, but every thing that may render them at once both our duty and delight.
Learn hence, 1. That obedience is the most natural and necessary product of love; where love is the governing principle, it rules all the inclinations of the heart and actions of the life.
Learn, 2. That love makes our obedience to God cheerful and constant, delightful and lasting. Love is seated in the will, and that obedience which proceeds from it is out of choice, and purely voluntary. No commandment is grievous that is performed from love, and it makes obedience also constant. That which is forced from impressions of fear is unsteadfast, but that which flows from delight is lasting.
Learn hence, That the service of Christ is a very gracious, a most desirable and delightful service, not to sinners, whose minds the God of this world has blinded, whose consciences are cauterized, who have not only grieved, but quenched the Holy Spirit of God.
But, 1. It is not grievous in itself.
2. Nor is it grievous to a regenerate person: a sound eye never complains of light, but a sore eye is uneasy under it.
The commands of Christ cannot be grievous, because they exact things of us which are agreeable to our reason, suitable to our natures, consonant to our rational desires. We cannot give an instance of any one of the commands of Christ which is in itself grievous; that command of his, To do to others as we would have others do by us, is a dictate of nature as well as the law of Christ.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For this is the love of God, that we…
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,.... Keeping of the commandments of God is an evidence of love to God; this shows that love is not in word and tongue, in profession only, but in deed and in truth; and that such persons have a sense of the love of God upon their souls, under the influence of which they act; and such shall have, and may expect to have, greater manifestations of the love of God unto them:
and his commandments are not grievous; heavy, burdensome, and disagreeable; by which are meant, not so much the precepts of the moral law, which through the weakness of the flesh are hard to be kept, and cannot be perfectly fulfilled; though believers indeed, being freed from the rigorous exaction, curse, and condemnation of the law, delight in it after the inward man, and serve it cheerfully with their spirit; and still less the commands of the ceremonial law, which were now abolished, and were grievous to be borne; but rather those of faith in Christ, and love to the saints, Jo1 3:23; or it may be the ordinances of the Gospel, baptism, and the Lord's supper, with others, which though disagreeable to unregenerate persons, who do not care to be under the yoke of Christ, however easy and light it is, yet are not heavy and burdensome to regenerate ones; and especially when they have the love of God shed abroad in them, the presence of God with them, communion with Jesus Christ, and a supply of grace and strength from him; then are these ways ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace, and the tabernacles of the Lord are amiable and lovely.
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 For this is the love of God - The…
For this is the love of God - The only sure proof of it. That we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous - To any that are born of God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. For this is the love of God]…
Verse 3. For this is the love of God] This the love of God necessarily produces. It is vain to pretend love to God while we live in opposition to his will.
His commandments] To love him with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, are not grievous-are not burdensome; for no man is burdened with the duties which his own love imposes. The old proverb explains the meaning of the apostle's words, Love feels no loads. Love to God brings strength from God; through his love and his strength, all his commandments are not only easy and light, but pleasant and delightful.
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On the love of God, as being the foundation of all religious worship, there is a good saying in Sohar Exod., fol. 23, col. 91: "Rabbi Jesa said, how necessary is it that a man should love the holy blessed God! For he can bring no other worship to God than love; and whoever loves him, and worships him from a principle of love, him the holy blessed God calls his beloved."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For this is the love of God, that we…
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments - This constitutes true love; this furnishes the evidence of it.
And his commandments are not grievous - Greek, “heavy” - βαρεῖαι bareiai; that is, difficult to be borne as a burden. See Mat 11:30. The meaning is, that his laws are not unreasonable; the duties which he requires are not beyond our ability; his government is not oppressive. It is easy to obey God when the heart is right; and those who endeavor in sincerity to keep his commandments do not complain that they are hard. All complaints of this kind come from those who are not disposed to keep his commandments. Indeed, they object that his laws are unreasonable; that they impose improper restraints; that they are not easily complied with; and that the divine government is one of severity and injustice. But no such complaints come from true Christians. They find his service easier than the service of sin, and the laws of God more mild and easy to be complied with than were those of fashion and honor, which they once endeavored to obey. The service of God is freedom; the service of the world is bondage. No man ever yet heard a true Christian say that the laws of God, requiring him to lead a holy life, were stern and “grievous.” But who has not felt this in regard to the inexorable laws of sin? What votary of the world would not say this if he spoke his real sentiments? Compare the notes at Joh 8:32.
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 And his commandments are not heavy; not burdensome. Not…
And his commandments are not heavy; not burdensome. Not but that they comprehend what seems hard to human frailty, and especially to men carried away with the love of vanities in this world, who think it hard to comply with Christ’s doctrine of self-denials, of renouncing their inclinations, of suffering death, sooner than to sin against God, or to renounce their faith: but the love of God, and the promises of an eternal happiness in the next life, with the assistances which God gives them, make the yoke of Christ sweet, and his burden light. See Matthew xi. 30. How different is this doctrine from that of those late heretics, who pretend that God’s commandments are impossible, even to just men, when they employ all their endeavours. See the first proposition of Jansenius, and this heresy of Calvin condemned by the council of Trent, session 6, cap. xi. canon. 18. (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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain this is--the love of God consists in this.
this is--the love of God consists in this.
not grievous--as so many think them. It is "the way of the transgressor" that "is hard." What makes them to the regenerate "not grievous," is faith which "overcometh the world" (Jo1 5:4): in proportion as faith is strong, the grievousness of God's commandments to the rebellious flesh is overcome. The reason why believers feel any degree of irksomeness in God's commandments is, they do not realize fully by faith the privileges of their spiritual life.
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 3. Love… commandments—A still more explicit identification of love…
3. Love… commandments—A still more explicit identification of love with obedience.
Not grievous—Love loves to obey. The loving heart runs eagerly out to service. Love makes duty delight. When the cross of duty is heavy it is a sign of feeble love. When his commandments are grievous, it is because our heart is disobedient and our faith is low. We are then liable to be conquered by the world, and to sin a sin unto death.
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 3. For this is the love of God] Or,…
3. For this is the love of God] Or, For the love of God is this, i.e. consists in this: see on 1Jn_1:5. The truth implied in 1Jn_5:2, that love involves obedience, is here explicitly stated. Comp. Joh_14:15; Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23; Joh_15:10; 2Jn_1:6.
his commandments are not grievous] For two reasons: 1. Because He gives us strength to bear them; juvat qui jubet (Php_4:13); 2. Because love makes them light. They are not like the ‘burdens grievous to be borne’ which the legal rigour of the Pharisees laid on men’s consciences. Here again we have an echo of the Master’s words; ‘My yoke is easy, and My burden is light’ (Mat_11:30).
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Reason for the preceding statement. "For the love of…
Reason for the preceding statement. "For the love of God consists in this, (1Jn_4:17) that we keep his commandments: and these are not grievous." These are the words, not merely of an inspired apostle, but of an aged man, with a wide experience of life and its difficulties. "Difficult" is a relative term, depending upon the relation between the thing to be done and the powers of the doer of it. The Christian, whose will is united with the will of God, will not find obedience to that will a task.
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 His commandments are not grievous
1Jn_5:3
His commandments are not grievous
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The service of love
Viewing the Christian dispensation as a fuller expansion of the Jewish, we naturally look to the New Testament for additional motives rather than for additional commandments.
An unexpected meaning, indeed, was often brought out by our Lord from ancient enactments and precepts which had long lain in the statute book, were proved applicable to cases which they had never before been supposed to concern; but still the showing the hidden force of what is old is widely different from the introducing what is new. With respect, indeed, to the sanction by which law is accompanied, there was a vast accession through the preaching of the gospel. If we are not prepared to go all lengths with the theory that under the Mosaic dispensation men were not acted on at all by the engines of the invisible world, at least we must admit that heaven and hell were not so clearly made known as to effect by their realities the general deportment of society. And unquestionably it was a mighty throwing of life into the commandments of the law when Christianity opened up the mysteries of an after state of being, and showed men how by means of obedience or disobedience there was glory or terror crowding its unmeasured expanse. And yet after all there would have been very little done had Christ merely taught men what apportionments may be looked for hereafter. We can go further. We can say of Christianity, that though it brought no new commandments, it leads men to yield obedience to the old upon an entirely new principle. The way in which Christianity teaches you to serve God is by teaching you to love God. St. Paul describes the love of God as the fulfilling of the law, So that what fear could not effect, and what hope could not effect--results which would never have been brought round by the sternest threatenings and the richest promises--these follow most naturally on the implanting in the heart the simple principle of love to the Almighty; and precepts which man would have set at naught, though hemmed round by penalties and neglected, though attended by rewards, win all their attention and all their powers as coming from a Benefactor whom it is a delight to obey. The words of our text are in exact accordance with these statements. They contain, you see, two definitions: first, of the love of God, and then of the commandments of God. The love is defined as the keeping the commandments; the commandments are defined as not being grievous. Our text shows us, in the first place, that love makes men earnest to obey; in the second place, it shows us that the obedience which love produces it also renders easy. Let us examine both these points.
I. Love makes men earnest to obey--this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. Love makes it easy to obey--for His commandments are not grievous. Now, there followed on the entrance of evil into Paradise a great degeneration of human capacities, but not in strict truth an actual destruction. Love, beneath every state, has been, and still is, a working principle, so that on whatever object it fastens it urges at once whether to the undertaking of labour or the endurance of privation. You may perceive from the commonest instances of everyday life that from love considered as the working principle of man, springs all that complex mechanism which is made up of the business of an active population. We take this acknowledged fact as a fair groundwork of argument, that if the rational soul be driven out as it were from the circle of the animal, and man be taught to love the Creator, in place of centering all his affection on the creature, all his faculties will quickly be enlisted in the service of God. Thus it is quite demonstrable that the love of God must produce the keeping His commandments. You put a principle into the immortal part of man which causes that part to rise from her degradation and to vindicate the almost forgotten nobleness of her mission. God is then known, for until God is loved He is not and cannot be known. The reason is simple and Scriptural. Love is not so much an attribute of God as His very essence. And if, therefore, in order to our loving God, there must be a supernatural bringing home to the heart of the love which God hath turned on the wandering and the lost, it is evident that we know only as we love Him, seeing that to love God presupposes an acquaintance with God as love. From this reasoning we fetch fresh illustration that the loving God is keeping His commandments. It is not merely because I love Him I shall of necessity be anxious to please Him, and therefore to obey Him; but in the degree that I love Him, in that same degree do I know Him, and to know Him is to obtain altogether a different view of His character and properties from any which I have heretofore possessed. It is to have done with vague and indefinite notions, and to entertain others which are strict and unbending; it is to understand with something of precision the power and place of His every attribute, and thus to sweep from my calculation all those mountains of lies which the world are building out of mistaken properties of Godhead. And if through the act of loving the Creator I thus pass to such a knowledge of His several characteristics as have never hitherto found place in my mind, why, love must throw an inexpressible power into the commandments; it must make their every letter breathe of Deity.
II. Now we desire to show you, in explaining our text, that love not only makes men earnest in obeying, but that the obedience which it produces it also renders easy. The man who is making it the business of his days to endeavour to obey Gods commandments is only striving to exhibit to others the beauty of a system to which he himself is bound. Conscious of the glory of every property of the Almighty; conscious also that as a mirror each property figures itself in law with the most accurate fidelity, his efforts to fulfil the requirements of this law are so many struggles in the sight of the world, that men seeing His good works, may glorify His Father which is in heaven. If this be a true account of Christian obedience, it plainly follows that whatever Gods commandments may be to the man who merely observes their tenor, to the man who is striving with all his heart and all his soul to obey them, they are not, and they cannot be, grievous. He sees a beauty and a holiness and a wisdom in their every enactment, in their every requisition, even the beauty, the holiness and the wisdom of Him who delivered such a code to His creatures. And when, therefore, he sets himself to the keeping the law, and so to the endeavouring to express in living and legible characters the moral loveliness which has been disclosed to him by the Spirit, we see not how he can find it burdensome, though he may find obedience difficult in the writing, in the vivid tracery of action what God hath written in the rich alphabet of tits purposes. Are the commandments of Satan grievous to those who are His bondsmen? grievous when they bid them handle the wine cup, mix in the carnival, and gather the gold? And why not grievous? Are they not heavy with the chains of the prison house, ponderous with accumulated penalties, burdened with woe and wrath sufficient to weigh down creation? Yet to those who obey them, they are not grievous. The inclination is towards obedience; and when these meet there cannot be grievousness. In like manner are the commandments of God not grievous to those who are His children. And why not grievous? Are they not weighty with massive duties, laden with impositions under which the very giants in religion sink and bow down? We own it, yet we maintain that to those who obey they are not grievous. The desire is towards obedience; the wish, the longing, all are towards obedience. And if God by His grace have brought round such a revolution of the sentiments and affections, that keeping His commandments is synonymous with loving Him, you must show that loving God is grievous ere you can show that His commandments are grievous. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christs commandments not grievous
I. Religion is not an impracticable thing, as some men suggest, but it is possible for us to live up to it. Take the hardest part of the Christian yoke, that is to say, forgiveness of enemies, denying our worldly interests, and renouncing all we have for the sake of Jesus Christ. Yet there is nobody can say that these things are impossible. Thousands have actually done all these things, and that upon far lighter motives and considerations than Christs religion offers. And if these things be practicable, why must we not think the same of the rest of the Christian precepts, such as owning God for our Creator, and as such paying Him our constant tribute of worship, and prayer, and praise, using with temperance and moderation the good things He vouchsafes us, being honest and just and faithful in all our dealings, and showing kindness and charity to all our fellow creatures. Ay, but it will be said I have not fairly represented the matter; the impossibility of keeping Gods commandments doth not lie in any particular instance of duty; but the objection is that our duty is impracticable in the whole. But it was never intended to leave out of the account the gracious allowances that God hath promised by Christ Jesus to make for the infirmities of human nature.
II. As the commandments of God are not grievous upon account that they are impossible, so neither are they grievous in this respect, that they are unnatural, or a force upon the constitution of mankind. As long as human nature is as it is, the happiness of mankind can consist in nothing else but in using their liberty according to the best rules of reason, and those we are sure are but another name for the laws of religion. And the very transgressing those rules, though God had annexed no penalties to the transgression, would of itself have found a sufficient punishment. Ay, but it will be said, is it not plain that men are born with several strong inclinations to pleasure, to wealth, to power, and greatness, and the like? And doth not religion put a terrible curb upon all those appetites and passions, how then can you call the laws of it agreeable to nature? Why, to this I answer, that as to all the appetites and passions that men are born, religion, as it is taught .us in the gospel, doth not hinder the satisfaction of any of them. All that our religion forbids is the irregularity and exorbitancy of our passions.
III. Let our natural inabilities and our aversions to that which is good be as great as they will, yet the supernatural assistance we may expect from God for the carrying on of this work will be sufficient at least to make the scales even. Though the devil and our own corrupt natures may tempt us strongly one way, yet the spirit of Christ and His invisible attendants that pitch their tents round about us, do incline us as much the other way. Nor can there be any snares laid for us by the wicked one, but what by the assistance of this invisible spiritual army that fights for us we shall easily break and overcome.
IV. This ought also to be acknowledged in this argument, that though there be great difficulties in religion, though as the temper of mankind now generally stands it is much against the grain to serve God, yet these difficulties are chiefly occasioned by our prejudices and evil habits, by our being used to a contrary course of life. But then we are to remember that in a little time these difficulties will wear off and we shall find after some trial that a life of sincere religion will be far more natural and delightful than any course of sin that we were formerly engaged in. If custom and long usage have such a strange power as to make vice and sin not only supportable, but also pleasant to us, then much more will the same custom and usage make virtue so, than which, as we have seen, nothing is more agreeable, more natural to the minds of men. We shall then acknowledge that we never till now enjoyed our true liberty, and shall rather choose to die than to return to that hard bondage we before served in to sin and Satan.
V. Whereas it is urged against a life of religion, that there is much pains and watchfulness required to it: this is so far from being a real difficulty or inconvenience that really it is but the natural effect of our make and constitution. We cannot possibly be happy but in motion, and therefore to charge this as a hardship in religion that it set our wits at work, that it exercises our diligence, is a very unreasonable thing. That which makes any man uneasy in labour is not his being busy and intent upon a thing, but his spending himself upon such things or in such ways as are no ways agreeable to him. As, for instance, when he is either employed on such exercises as do more than ordinarily exhaust his animal spirits, and bring great heaviness and languor upon him; or when he lays out his pains upon that which no ways suits with his temper and genius; or, lastly, when he hath such a business in hand that he hath no prospect of bringing it to good effect, but his labour seems likely to be lost upon it. But now the diligence and application that we must use in this matter of virtue and religion (let it be otherwise as great as you please) yet hath none of those inconveniences attending upon it.
VI. Let all the hardships and difficulties of religion be magnified as much as we please, yet the mighty motives and encouragements we have from the gospel of Christ to undertake that way will very much outweigh them.
1. Let the difficulties of religion be never so great, yet we have Gods promise that He will stand by us, and enable us both to support them and to overcome them, if we ourselves be but honest (1Co_10:13).
2. Though our religion were attended with very great difficulties, yet is there nothing in that peace of conscience which every good man enjoys while he pursues virtuous ways for the smoothing those difficulties.
3. If to this we add the mighty unspeakable rewards that are promised to all faithful persevering Christians in the other world, and the sad portion that doth await all wicked men, let the difficulties of religion be never so great, yet there will be no comparison between sin and virtue, which of them is the easier, and which of them most recommends itself to the choice of mankind. (Abp. John Sharp.)
Gods commandments not grievous
It must ever be borne in mind that it is a very great and arduous thing to attain to heaven (Mat_22:14; Mat_7:14; Luk_13:24; Luk_14:26). On the other hand, it is evident to anyone who reads the New Testament with attention that Christ and His apostles speak of a religious life as something easy, pleasant, and comfortable. Thus, in the text, His commandments are not grievous. In like manner our Saviour says (Mat_11:28-30). Solomon, also, in the Old Testament, speaks in the same way of true wisdom (Pro_3:17-24). Again, we read in Micah (Mic_6:8), What doth the Lord require of thee, etc., as if it were a little and an easy thing so to do. Now it must be admitted, first of all, as matter of fact, that Gods commandments are grievous to the great mass of Christians. Accordingly, men of worldly minds, finding the true way of life unpleasant to walk in, have attempted to find out other and easier roads; and have been accustomed to argue that there must be another way which suits them better than that which religious men walk in, for the very reason that Scripture declares that Christs commandments are not grievous. Some have gone as far as boldly to say, God will not condemn a man merely for taking a little pleasure, by which they mean leading an irreligious and profligate life. And many there are who virtually maintain that we may live to the world, so that we do so decently, and yet live to God; arguing that this worlds blessings are given us by God, and therefore may lawfully be used moderately and thankfully. Now then let us proceed to consider how God fulfils His engagements to us, that His ways are ways of pleasantness.
1. Now, supposing some superior promised you any gifts in a particular way, and you did not follow his directions, would he have broken his promise, or you have voluntarily excluded yourselves from the advantage? Evidently you would have brought about your own loss; you might, indeed, think his offer not worth accepting, burdened, as it was, with a condition annexed to it, still you could not in any propriety say that he failed in his engagement. Now when Scripture promises us that its commandments shall be easy, it couples the promise with the injunction that we should seek God early (Pro_8:17; Ecc_12:1; Mar_10:14). Youth is the time of His covenant With us, when He first gives us His Spirit; first giving then that we may then forthwith begin our return of obedience to Him. Now it is obvious that obedience to Gods commandments is ever easy, and almost without effort to those who begin to serve Him from the beginning of their days; whereas those who wait awhile find it grievous in proportion to their delay. For consider how gently God leads us on in our early years, and how very gradually He opens upon us the complicated duties of life. A child at first has hardly anything to do but to obey his parents; of God he knows just as much as they are able to tell him, and he is not equal to many thoughts either about Him or about the world. And while on the one hand his range of duty is very confined, observe how he is assisted in performing it. First, he has no bad habits to hinder the suggestions of his conscience; indolence, pride, ill-temper, do not then act as they afterwards act, when the mind has accustomed itself to disobedience, as stubborn, deep seated impediments in the way of duty. To obey requires an effort, of course; but an effort like the bodily effort of the childs rising from the ground, when he has fallen on it; not the effort of shaking off drowsy sleep; not the effort (far less) of violent bodily exertion in a time of sickness and long weakness: and the first effort made, obedience on s, second trial will be easier than before, till at length it will be easier to obey than not to obey. Doubtless new trials would come on him; bad passions, which he had not formed a conception of, would assail him; but (1Jn_5:18; 1Jn_3:19). And so he would grow up to mans estate, his duties at length attaining their full range, and his soul being completed in all its parts for the due performance of them. Thus Christs commandments, viewed as He enjoins them on us, are not grievous. They would be grievous if put upon us all at once; but they are not heaped on us, according to His order of dispensing them, which goes upon an harmonious and considerate plan; by little and little, first one duty, then another, then both, and so on. Moreover, they come upon us while the safeguard of virtuous principle is forming naturally and gradually in our minds by our very deeds of obedience, and is following them as their reward.
2. All this being granted, it still may be objected, since the commandments of God are grievous to the generality of men, where is the use of saying what men ought to be, when we know what they are? and how is it fulfilling a promise that His commandments shall not be grievous, by informing us that they ought not to be? It is one thing to say that the law is in itself holy, just, and good, and quite a different thing to declare it is not grievous to sinful man. In answering this question, I fully admit that our Saviour spoke of man as he is, as a sinner, when He said His yoke should be easy to him. On the other hand, I grant, that if man cannot obey God, obedience must be grievous; and I grant too (of course) that man by nature cannot obey God. But observe nothing has here been said, nor by St. John in the text, of man as by nature born in sin; but of man as a child of grace, as Christs purchased possession, who goes before us with His mercy, puts the blessing first, and then adds the command; regenerates us, and then bids us obey. When, then, men allege their bad nature as an excuse for their dislike of Gods commandments, if, indeed, they are heathens, let them be heard, and an answer may be given to them even as such. But with heathens we are not now concerned. These men make their complaint as Christians, and as Christians they are most unreasonable in making it; God having provided a remedy for their natural incapacity in the gift of His Spirit. Hear St. Pauls words (Rom_5:15-21). And now to what do the remarks I have been making tend, but to this?--to humble every one of us. For, however faithfully we have obeyed God, and however early we began to do so, surely we might have begun sooner than we did, and might have served Him more heartily. Let each of us reflect upon his own most gross and persevering neglect of God at various seasons of his past life. How considerate He has been to us! How did He lead us on, duty by duty, as if step by step upwards, by the easy rounds of that ladder whose top reaches to heaven! What could have been done more to His vineyard, that He hath not done in it? And this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. Why, then, have they been grievous to us? Why have we erred from His ways, and hardened our hearts from His fear? Let us, then, turn to the Lord, while yet we may. Difficult it will be in proportion to the distance we have departed from Him. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
Love and law
I. What is the affection that a good Christian bears to Christ? It is love; yes, that is the Christian virtue, that is the Evangelical grace. It is the main difference betwixt the law and the gospel, timor and amor. Not that a Christian ought to be free from all kind of fear. There is a three-fold fear to which we are liable.
1. As we were in our primitive state of subjection, so we owe to God a fear of loyalty as good subjects to their Prince and Sovereign.
2. Our state of rebellion, that brought upon us the fear of slavery.
3. Our state of adoption, that begets in us a filial and son-like fear.
Fear, then, is not wholly excluded from the state of a Christian; but yet the grace that the gospel aims at is the grace of love (1Ti_1:5).
1. This love of God gives a chief title and denomination to Christians; it is their badge and cognizance (1Co_8:3). He sets much by such, and owns them, and highly accounts of them.
2. This love is the title and assurance of all His promises.
3. Love is the ingratiating quality of all our services; it is that which commends us and our services to Gods acceptation. It is love that is the fulfilling of the law (Rom_13:10). Thus Christ shows what kind of obedience He expects at our hands (Job_14:1-22). If ye love Me, keep My commandments.
The language of the gospel is not, if ye will avoid wrath, vengeance, escape damnation, then perform obedience to me; but, If ye love Me.
1. All other motives are base and servile without this willing and loving affection.
2. The service of love is only accepted because it alone is an ingenuous service, and of a right intention.
3. This service out of love is most acceptable to God because this kind of service is most honourable to God. God is a gracious sovereign, not a cruel tyrant, and so desires to be served as good subjects serve their king--out of love.
4. The service of love is the only service that God sets much by, because that service which arises from love is the only constant and lasting service. Love is long breathed and will hold out and persevere; whereas fear is a flincher and will soon tire and start aside.
II. The fruit of this loving affection, the action that flows from it, that is obedience. Herein is love, that we keep His commandments--that is the kindly proof of our love.
1. It shows our love to God must be an active, and operative, and working love. Indeed, love is seated in the will, the fountain of action; it rests not in our understanding, the knowing faculty. It is not a mere notion or speculation, swimming in the brain, but a devout affection rooted in the heart.
2. It puts another qualification on our love; it is not a love of equality, but a love of subjection and inferiority; such a love as the inferior bears to his superior that hath a power to command him.
3. It shows that our love to God must be a love regulated and restrained to what God commands us. Offer to Him not thine inventions, but His own prescriptions.
4. This shows our love to God must be entire and universal, of as large extent, as all Gods commandments. As before ye heard of a restriction, so here we meet with an extension. Love must be the fulfilling of the law.
III. What is the disposition and inclination that he which loves God finds in himself to Gods commandments?
1. Indeed, in some respects, it is most true, Gods commandments are exceeding heavy.
(1) Take the law of God at its full height and pitch of perfection, so it hath a great difficulty in it; yea, in a manner, an impossibility in it to all men since Adam.
(2) Take the law in the lowest pitch of righteousness, yet an unregenerate man cannot obey it. He is so far from fulfilling all the law that he cannot perform the least part of it. If the root be not good, which is faith working by love, the fruit, though outwardly specious, is inwardly vicious.
(3) Consider the law in the evangelical mitigation and abatement of it, yet still the saints of God find difficulty in it. A regenerate man is two men. That which is spiritual and renewed in him, that readily conforms to the law of God. The Spirit is willing, saith our Saviour. Aye, but the flesh is weak; nay, oftentimes wilful, stubborn, and resisting.
2. But yet it is most true what the text affirms, Gods commandments are not grievous. His service is no such hard service as the world accounts it. It is a hard service indeed (for why should we be left to a lawless liberty?), but it is an ingenuous service. Gods servants find no grievances in this employment.
(1) Look upon their state and condition. Gods people are not in any base, servile condition; but
(a) they are called unto a state of liberty, and liberty is sweet in itself and sweetens all our employments.
(b) As it is a free so it is an honourable service. As we know, the greatness of the Master dignifies and ennobles the service that is done unto Him.
(2) Look upon their task and employment, you shall find the service of God is no such wearisome service.
(a) The work which God enjoins them is possible to them. Gods commandments are made possible to a regenerate man (Php_4:13). Flesh and blood sees nothing in the law of God but impossibility; like the unbelieving spies--oh, we cannot conquer the land. But faith and love, like Caleb and Joshua, conceive it may be done, and undertake it readily.
(b) This work is easy; I said it even now.
(c) This work is not only possible and easy, but pleasant and delightful, a good Christian finds exceeding great pleasure and sweetness in it.
(3) Look upon the encouragements that Christians find in the service of God; they will make it appear that the service of God is no such irksome service.
(a) God helps and assists His servants in all their works. This He doth by putting their souls into a right frame of holiness.
(b) Gods merciful connivance. When His servants that desire to serve Him, yet fail, and fall short of what is their duty, God winks at their failings, and passes by them. See this graciously promised to us (Mal_3:17).
(c) The many heartenings and secret cheerings that God vouchsafes to His servants in the course of their obedience. He is no churlish Nabal, sour and harsh to His poor servants, but puts life and heart into them.
(i) He vouchsafes His presence to them, as Boaz to his reapers. The Masters eye, the cheerfulness of His countenance, is the mans encouragement.
(ii) He speaks cheerfully to their hearts. Well done, faithful servant (Act_18:9)
(iii) His loving acceptance of our poor services. Our faithful endeavours, our honest desires, our sincere intentions, are graciously accepted.
(d) His bountiful rewarding of us, besides the grand payment, the weight of glory, the reward of the inheritance. How many encouraging blessings and favours doth He bestow upon His servants, over and above? Besides their wages they have their avails out of their Masters bounty. David found it and acknowledgeth it. Thou hast dealt bountifully with Thy servant. (Bp. Brownrigg.)
The practicableness of our Christian duty
I. The laws of the Christian religion are reasonable in themselves; that is, they are agreeable to the natural light of our minds and the answers of inward truth, whenever we put the question to it. It is true, there are some few positive commands in the gospel which do not directly arise from any principle of natural reason, but then they are such as cannot be urged to prove the difficulties of revealed religion; yet supposing the truth of the Christian revelation, God had wise reasons for their institution.
II. The practice of religion lays the only foundation of inward peace and satisfaction of mind. This indeed is a necessary consequence of our acting as becomes reasonable agents. And who would not be content to undergo some slight trouble and inconvenience, or to deny himself in many things, provided he may have all things calm and quiet within?
1. The practice of religion has a natural tendency to secure the peace and freedom of our minds, as it preserves them in an even and sedate temper; as it removes every occasion of the disorders which are apt to ruffle us, and keeps our appetites within their due bounds.
2. Upon a moral account, religion gives us the supports of a good conscience, the assurances of Gods favour, and fills the mind with bright and pleasing ideas.
3. Christians, in a faithful discharge of their duty, have their hearts frequently filled with the delights of an overcoming and supernatural grace.
III. We are encouraged to the practice of religion by the assistances of a supernatural power and grace.
IV. We are further encouraged to the practice of our Christian duty by the proposal of a glorious and eternal reward. Conclusion:
1. Are the laws of religion reasonable in themselves? Let us then either follow them, or renounce reason.
2. Does the practice of religion conduce to the inward peace and satisfaction of our minds? Why do we oppose our own happiness? How strange is the infatuation of sin! How fraught with contradiction!
3. Have we indeed a Divine principle to assist us in the performance of our duty? Let us then, in all our spiritual wants and conflicts, be fervent in our prayers to God for the assistances of His Holy Spirit, and faithfully comply with them.
4. Besides all these motives to religion, has the good God still encouraged us to the practice of it by proposing to us the great and glorious rewards of eternity? Let us live as if we really believe them. It is impossible that any difficulty should stand before a firm and steady belief in them. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)
The commandments of Christ not grievous
Christs commandments cannot justly be esteemed grievous, because they are not--
1. Unreasonable.
2. Impracticable.
3. Dishonourable.
4. Dangerous.
5. Unpleasant.
6. Unprofitable. (S. Palmer.)
The perfection of the law of God
This does not mean that even the sincere Christian finds no difficulty in obedience. His life is a daily struggle. Does not the passage following our text speak of a victory? And does not victory imply the previous conflict? And yet, on the other hand, it is true that the yoke of Christ is easy and His burden light (Mat_11:30). I will not dwell on the mild and gentle character of the gospel ordinances, in contrast with the complex and burdensome ritual of Moses. But leaving this point, I ask whether the commandments of God are grievous when brought into comparison with the law of sin, when that tyranny is established in the soul? Oh, the labours, the toils, the vexing cases, the soul destroying practice, of those who are governed by Satan! Earthquake and pestilence, and famine and sword, have cut off multitudes; but who slew all these? If the hand of God hath slain in its direct judgment its thousands, wilful sin hath offered on its thousand altars its ten thousands. The commandments of God, indeed, are not grievous comparatively. But neither are they grievous considered in themselves absolutely, irrespective of all comparison.
1. For, consider the Lawgiver, is He not such a Being, that, could it be proved that any commandments, purporting to come from Him, are rigid and unbearable to a well-constituted mind, it would be at once a sufficient evidence that they did not derive their origin from Him? God, our apostle says, is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1Jn_1:3). Then, we are assured, that His commandments will be very pure, and strictly just (Psa_19:9). But God is love, benevolence, untinctured by any infusion of malignity.
2. Let us take another view of the subject, and contemplate the persons who obey these commandments. The commandments are grievous to the people of the world, it is admitted; for that which is the object of the minds distaste and hatred, must of necessity be burdensome. But every true Christian has a mind attempered to the will of God. He is born of God, and as the invariable consequence of this change a similarity of character, of judgment, of taste, is formed within him. God, and the child of God, therefore, view the commandments in the same light. God does not esteem them grievous; neither does he that is begotten of Him (Psa_119:128).
3. We shall take another view of the subject, by considering the assistances which are given to those who obey the commandments. The Holy Ghost is promised (Isa_40:30-31; Isa_41:10; Isa_59:19; Eph_3:16).
4. Regard their nature. Resolving the commandments into their most simple element, we find that love is the fulfilling of the whole law. There could be no defect in our obedience did such a love exist in its perfection. Then, I ask, can Gods commandments be grievous to the man who obeys them? Can it be a burdensome thing to the soul to overflow with benevolence?
5. Consider the effect of obedience to the commandments upon the happiness of life, and you arrive at the same conclusion--that they are not grievous. The statutes of the Lord, David says, are right, rejoicing the heart (Psa_19:8). In keeping them there is great reward. Great peace have they which love Thy law (Psa_119:165). And who shall say how many miseries are turned away from the lot of him who keeps in the narrow way of the heavenly precepts?
6. One further view of the subject is necessary to complete the argument for the truth of our text. Let us consider it, then, in the connection which exists between the observance of the commandments and the attainment of future glory. Obedience is a preparatory formation of the tempers of heaven; the tuning of the soul for the anthems of eternity. The labourer rises up early, and late takes rest, and eats the bread of carefulness; but his toil is reckoned as nothing for the wages that are to recompense it. The adventurer ploughs the stormy deep, travels over continents of ice, and explores the frost-bound north; and his labours are not grievous, even in hope, of some discovery with which his name shall in after days be linked. On every hand fatigue is cheerfully borne, privations are submitted to, for some recompense bounded by the present life. And is not the Christians glory lofty enough, and his crown bright enough, to induce us to say that the commandments, in obeying which he is preparing for it, are not grievous? (T. Kennion, M. A.)
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 Chapter 15
Chapter 15
BIRTH AND VICTORY
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1Jn_5:3-5
ST. JOHN here connects the Christian Birth with Victory. He tells us that of the supernatural life the destined and (so to speak) natural end is Conquest.
Now in this there is a contrast between the law of nature and the law of grace. No doubt the first is marvellous. It may even, if we will, in one sense be termed a victory; for it is the proof of a successful contest with the blind fatalities of natural environment. It is in itself the conquest of a something which has conquered a world below it. The first faint cry of the baby is a wail, no doubt; but in its very utterance there is a half triumphant undertone. Boyhood, youth, opening manhood-at least in those who are physically and intellectually gifted generally possess some share of "the rapture of the strife" with nature and with their contemporaries.
"Youth hath triumphal mornings; its days bound from night as from a victory."
But sooner or later that which pessimists style "the martyrdom of life" sets in. However brightly the drama opens, the last scene is always tragic. Our natural birth inevitably ends in defeat.
A birth and a defeat is thus the epitome of each life which is naturally brought into the field of our present human existence. The defeat is sighed over, sometimes consummated, in every cradle; it is attested by every grave.
But if birth and defeat is the motto of the natural life, birth and victory is the motto of everyone born into the city of God.
This victory is spoken of in our verses as a victory along the whole line. It is the conquest of the collective Church, of the whole mass of regenerate humanity, so far as it has been true to the principle of its birth-the conquest of the Faith which is "The Faith of us," who are knit together in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of the Son of God, Christ our Lord. But it is something more than that. The general victory is also a victory in detail. Every true individual believer shares in it. The battle is a battle of soldiers. The abstract ideal victory is realised and made concrete in each life of struggle which is a life of enduring faith. The triumph is not merely one of a school, or of a party. The question rings with a triumphant challenge down the ranks-"who is the ever-conqueror of the world, but the ever-believer that Jesus is the Son of God?"
We are thus brought to two of St. Johns great master conceptions, both of which came to him from hearing the Lord who is the Life-both of which are to be read in connection with the fourth Gospel-the Christians Birth and his victory.
I The Apostle introduces the idea of the Birth which has its origin from God precisely by the same process to which attention has already been more than once directed.
St. John frequently mentions some great subject; at first like a musician who with perfect command of his instrument touches what seems to be an almost random key, faintly, as if incidentally and half wandering from his theme.
But just as the sound appears to be absorbed by the purpose of the composition, or all but lost in the distance, the same chord is struck again more decidedly; and then, after more or less interval, is brought out with a music so full and sonorous, that we perceive that it has been one of the masters leading ideas from the very first. So, when the subject is first spoken of, we hear-"Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him." The subject is suspended for a while; then comes a somewhat. more marked reference. "Whosoever is born of God is not a doer of sin; and he cannot continue sinning, because of God he is born." There is yet one more tender recurrence to the favourite theme-"Everyone that loveth is born of God." Then, finally here at last the chord, so often struck, grown bolder since the prelude, gathers all the music round it. It interweaves with itself another strain which has similarly been gaining amplitude of volume in its course, until we have a great Te Deum, dominated by two chords of Birth and Victory. "This is the conquest that has conquered the world-the Faith which is of us."
We shall never come to any adequate notion of St. Johns conception of the Birth of God, without tracing the place in his Gospel to which his asterisk in this place refers. To one passage only can we turn-our Lords conversation with Nicodemus. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God-except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The germ of the idea of entrance into the city, the kingdom of God, by means of a new birth, is in that storehouse of theological conceptions, the Psalter. There is one psalm of a Korahite seer, enigmatical it may be, shadowed with the darkness of a divine compression, obscure from the glory that rings it round, and from the gush of joy in its few and broken words. The 87th Psalm is the psalm of the font, the hymn of regeneration. The nations once of the world are mentioned among them that know the Lord. They are counted when He writeth up the peoples. Glorious things are spoken of the City of God. Three times over the burden of the song is the new birth by which the aliens were made free of Sion.
This one was born there, This one and that one was born in her, This one was born there.
All joyous life is thus brought into the city of the newborn. "The singers, the solemn dances, the fresh and glancing springs, are in thee." Hence, from the notification of men being born again in order to see and enter into the kingdom, our Lord, as if in surprise, meets the Pharisees question-"how can these things be?"-with another -"art thou that teacher in Israel, and understandest not these things?" Jesus tells His Church forever that every one of His disciples must be brought into contact with two worlds, with two influences-one outward, the other inward; one material, the other spiritual; one earthly, the other heavenly; one visible and sacramental, the other invisible and divine. Out of these he must come forth newborn.
Of course it may be said that "the water" here coupled with the Spirit is figurative. But let it be observed first, that from the very constitution of St. Johns intellectual and moral being things outward and visible were not annihilated by the spiritual transparency which he imparted to them. Water, literal water, is everywhere in his writings. In his Gospel more especially he seems to be ever seeing, ever hearing it. He loved it from the associations of his own early life, and from the mention made of it by his Master. And as in the Gospel water is, so to speak, one of the three great factors and centres of the book; so now in the Epistle, it still seems to glance and murmur before him. "The water" is one of the three abiding witnesses in the Epistle also. Surely, then, our Apostle would be eminently unlikely to express "the Spirit of God" without the outward water by "water and the Spirit." But above all, Christians should beware of a "licentious and deluding alchemy of interpretation which maketh of anything whatsoever it listeth." In immortal words-"when the letter of the law hath two things plainly and expressly specified, water and the Spirit; water, as a duty required on our part, the Spirit, as a gift which God bestoweth; there is danger in so presuming to interpret it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needed. We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, but with ill advice."
But, it will further be asked, whether we bring the Saviours saying "except any one be born again of water and the Spirit"-into direct connection with the baptism of infants? Above all, whether we are not encouraging every baptised person to hold that somehow or other he will have a part in the victory of the regenerate?
We need no other answer than that which is implied in the very force of the word here used by St. John-"all that is born of God conquereth the world." "That is born" is the participle perfect. The force of the perfect is not simply past action, but such action lasting on in its effects. Our text, then, speaks only of those who, having been born again into the kingdom, continue in a corresponding condition, and unfold the life which they have received. The Saviour spoke first and chiefly of the initial act. The Apostles circumstances, now in his old age, naturally led him to look on from that. St. John is no "idolater of the immediate." Has the gift received by his spiritual children worn long and lasted well? What of the new life which should have issued from the New Birth? Regenerate in the past, are they renewed in the present? This simple piece of exegesis lets us at once perceive that another verse in this Epistle, often considered of almost hopeless perplexity, is in truth only the perfection of sanctified (nay, it may be said, of moral) common sense; an intuition of moral and spiritual instinct. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." We have just seen the real significance of the words "he that is born of God"-he for whom his past birth lasts on in its effects. "He doeth not sin," is not a sin-doer, makes it not his "trade," as an old commentator says. Nay, "he is not able to be" (to keep on) "sinning." "He cannot sin." He cannot! There is no physical impossibility. Angels will not sweep him away upon their resistless pinions. The Spirit will not hold him by the hand as if with a mailed grasp, until the blood spurts from his fingertips, that he may not take the wine cup, or walk out to the guilty assignation. The compulsion of God is like that which is exercised upon us by some pathetic wounded-looking face that gazes after us with a sweet reproach. Tell the honest poor man with a large family of some safe and expeditious way of transferring his neighbours money to his own pocket. He will answer, "I cannot steal"; that is, "I cannot steal, however much it may physically be within my capacity, without a burning shame, an agony to my nature worse than death." On some day of fierce heat, hold a draught of iced wine to a total abstainer, and invite him to drink. "I cannot," will be his reply. Cannot! He can, so far as his hand goes; he cannot, without doing violence to a conviction, to a promise, to his own sense of truth. And he who continues in the fulness of his God-given Birth "does not do sin," "cannot be sinning." Not that he is sinless, not that he never fails, or does not sometimes fall; not that sin ceases to be sin to him, because he thinks that he has a standing in Christ. But he cannot go on in sin without being untrue to his birth; without a stain upon that finer, whiter, more sensitive conscience, which is called "spirit" in a son of God; without a convulsion in his whole being which is the precursor of death, or an insensibility which is death actually begun.
How many such texts as these are practically useless to most of us! The armoury of God is full of keen swords which we refrain from handling, because they have been misused by others. None is more neglected than this. The fanatic has shrieked out -"Sin in my case! I cannot sin. I may hold a sin in my bosom; and God may hold me in His arms for all that. At least, I may hold that which would be a sin in you and most others; but to me it is not sin." On the other hand, stupid goodness maunders out some unintelligible paraphrase, until pew and reader yawn from very weariness. Divine truth in its purity and plainness is thus discredited by the exaggeration of the one, or buried in the leaden winding sheet of the stupidity of the other.
In leaving this portion of our subject we may compare the view latent in the very idea of infant baptism with that of the leader of a well known sect upon the beginnings of the spiritual life in children.
"May not children grow up into salvation, without knowing the exact moment of their conversion?" asks "General" Booth. His answer is-"Yes, it may be so; and we trust that in the future this will be the usual way in which children may be brought to Christ." The writer goes on to tell us how the New Birth will take place in future. When the conditions named in the first pages of this volume are complied with- when the parents are godly, and the children are surrounded by holy influences and examples from their birth, and trained up in the spirit of their early dedication-they will doubtless come to know and love and trust their Saviour in the ordinary course of things. The Holy Ghost will take possession of them from the first. Mothers and fathers will, as it were, put them into the Saviours arms in their swaddling clothes, and He will take them, and bless them, and sanctify them from the very womb, and make them His own, without their knowing the hour or the place when they pass from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. In fact, with such little ones it shall never be very dark, for their natural birth shall be, as it were, in the spiritual twilight, which begins with the dim dawn, and increases gradually until the noonday brightness is reached; so answering to the prophetic description, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
No one will deny that this is tenderly and beautifully written. But objections to its teaching will crowd upon the mind of thoughtful Christians. It seems to defer to a period in the future, to a new era incalculably distant, when Christendom shall be absorbed in Salvationism, that which St. John in his day contemplated as the normal condition of believers, which the Church has always held to be capable of realisation, which has been actually realised in no few whom most of us must have known. Further, the fountainheads of thought, like those of the Nile, are wrapped in obscurity. By what process grace may work with the very young is an insoluble problem in psychology, which Christianity has not revealed. We know nothing further than that Christ blessed little children. That blessing was impartial, for it was communicated to all who were brought to Him; it was real, otherwise He would not have blessed them at all. That He conveys to them such grace as they are capable of receiving is all that we can know. And yet again; the Salvationist theory exalts parents and surroundings into the place of Christ. It deposes His sacrament, which lies at the root of St. Johns language, and boasts that it will secure Christs end, apparently without any recognition of Christs means.
II The second great idea in the verses dealt with in this chapter is Victory. The intended issue of the New Birth is conquest-"All that is born of God conquers the world."
The idea of victory is almost exclusively confined to St. Johns writings. The idea is first expressed by Jesus-"Be of good cheer: I have conquered the world." The first prelusive touch in the Epistle hints at the fulfilment of the Saviours comfortable word in one class of the Apostles spiritual children. "I write unto you, young men, because ye have conquered the wicked one. I have written unto you, young men, because ye have conquered the wicked one." Next, a bolder and ampler strain-"Ye are of God, little children, and have conquered them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." Then with a magnificent persistence, the trumpet of Christ wakens echoes to its music all down and round the defile through which the host is passing-"All that is born of God conquereth the world: and this is the conquest that has conquered the world-the Faith which is ours." When, in St. Johns other great book, we pass with the seer into Patmos, the air is, indeed, "full of noises and sweet sounds." But dominant over all is a storm of triumph, a passionate exultation of victory. Thus each epistle to each of the seven Churches closes with a promise "to him that conquereth."
The text promises two forms of victory.
1. A victory is promised to the Church universal. "All that is born of God conquereth the world." This conquest is concentrated in, almost identified with "the Faith." Primarily, in this place, the term (here alone found in our Epistle) is not the faith by which we believe, but the Faith which is believed - as in some other places; not faith subjective, but The Faith objectively. Here is the dogmatic principle. The Faith involves definite knowledge of definite principles. The religious knowledge which is not capable of being put into definite propositions we need not trouble ourselves greatly about. But we are guarded from over-dogmatism. The word "of us" which follows "the Faith" is a mediating link between the objective and the subjective. First, we possess this Faith as a common heritage. Then, as in the Apostles creed, we begin to individualise this common possession by prefixing "I believe" to every article of it. Then the victory contained in the creed, the victory which the creed is (for more truly again than of Duty may it be said of Faith, "thou who art victory"), is made over to each who believes. Each, and each alone, who in soul is ever believing, in practice is ever victorious.
This declaration is full of promise for missionary work. There is no system of error, however ancient, subtle, or highly organised, which must not go down before the strong collective life of the regenerate. No less encouraging is it at home. No form of sin is incapable of being overthrown. No school of antichristian thought is invulnerable or invincible. There are other apostates besides Julian who will cry -"Galilaee, vicisti!"
2. The second victory promised is individual, for each of us. Not only where cathedral spires lift high the triumphant cross; on battlefields which have added kingdoms to Christendom; by the martyrs stake, or in the arena of the Coliseum, have these words proved true. The victory comes down to us. In hospitals, in shops, in courts, in ships, in sick rooms, they are fulfilled for us. We see their truth in the patience, sweetness, resignation, of little children, of old men, of weak women. They give a high consecration and a glorious meaning to much of the suffering that we see. What, we are sometimes tempted to cry-is this Christs Army? are these His soldiers, who can go anywhere and do anything? Poor weary ones with white lips, and the beads of death sweat on their faces, and the thorns of pain ringed like a crown round their foreheads; so wan, so worn, so tired, so suffering, that even our love dares not pray for them to live a little longer yet. Are these the elect of the elect, the vanguard of the regenerate, who carry the flag of the cross where its folds are waved by the storm of battle; whom St. John sees advancing up the slope with such a burst of cheers and such a swell of music that the words-"this is the conquest" - spring spontaneously from his lips? Perhaps the angels answer with a voice which we cannot hear-"Whatsoever is born of God conquereth the world." May we fight so manfully that each may render if not his "pure" yet his purified "soul unto his captain Christ, Under whose colours he hath fought so long":-that we may know something of the great text in the Epistle to the Romans, with its matchless translation-"we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us"- that arrogance of victory which is at once so splendid and so saintly.
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 3. This is the love of God. Its outward…
3. This is the love of God. Its outward manifestation is in obedience. See John 14:23. We may test our love thus.
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.