CHAPTER 5
@1Jo 5:1-21. WHO ARE THE BRETHREN ESPECIALLY TO BE LOVED (@1Jo 4:21); OBEDIENCE, THE TEST OF LOVE, EASY THROUGH FAITH, WHICH OVERCOMES THE WORLD. LAST PORTION OF THE EPISTLE. THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS TO THE BELIEVER'S SPIRITUAL LIFE. TRUTHS REPEATED AT THE CLOSE: FAREWELL WARNING.
1. Reason why our "brother" (@1Jo 4:21) is entitled to such
love, namely, because he is "born (begotten) of God": so that if we want
to show our love to God, we must show it to God's visible representative.
Whosoever--Greek, "Everyone that." He could
not be our "Jesus" (God-Saviour) unless He were "the Christ"; for He
could not reveal the way of salvation, except He were a prophet: He could not work
out that salvation, except He were a priest: He could not confer that salvation
upon us, except He were a king: He could not be prophet, priest, and king,
except He were the Christ [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].
born--Translate, "begotten," as in the latter part
of the verse, the Greek being the same. Christ is the "only-begotten Son"
by generation; we become begotten sons of God by regeneration and adoption.
every one that loveth him that begat--sincerely, not in mere
profession (@1Jo 4:20).
loveth him also that is begotten of him--namely, "his
brethren" (@1Jo 4:21).
2. By--Greek, "In." As our love to the
brethren is the sign and test of our love to God, so (John here says) our love
to God (tested by our "keeping his commandments") is, conversely, the ground
and only true basis of love to our brother.
we know--John means here, not the outward criteria of
genuine brotherly love, but the inward spiritual criteria of it, consciousness
of love to God manifested in a hearty keeping of His commandments. When we have this
inwardly and outwardly confirmed love to God, we can know assuredly that we
truly love the children of God. "Love to one's brother is prior,
according to the order of nature (see on 1Jo 4:20); love to God is so, according to the order
of grace (@1Jo 5:2). At one
time the former is more immediately known, at another time the latter, according as the
mind is more engaged in human relations or in what concerns the divine honor" [ESTIUS]. John shows what true love is, namely, that which is
referred to God as its first object. As previously John urged the effect, so now he urges
the cause. For he wishes mutual love to be so cultivated among us, as that God
should always be placed first [CALVIN].
3. 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" (@1Jo 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.
4. For--(See on 1Jo 5:3). The reason why "His commandments are not
grievous." Though there is a conflict in keeping them, the sue for the whole body of
the regenerate is victory over every opposing influence; meanwhile there is a present joy
to each believer in keeping them which makes them "not grievous."
whatsoever--Greek, "all that is begotten of
God." The neuter expresses the universal whole, or aggregate of the
regenerate, regarded as one collective body @Joh 3:6 6:37,39,
"where BENGEL remarks, that in Jesus' discourses, what the
Father has given Him is called, in the singular number and neuter gender, all
whatsoever; those who come to the Son are described in the masculine gender and
plural number, they all, or singular, every one. The Father has given, as it
were, the whole mass to the Son, that all whom He gave may be one whole: that universal
whole the Son singly evolves, in the execution of the divine plan."
overcometh--habitually.
the world--all that is opposed to keeping the commandments of
God, or draws us off from God, in this world, including our corrupt flesh, on which
the world's blandishments or threats act, as also including Satan, the prince of this
world (@Joh
12:31 14:30 16:11).
this is the victory that overcometh--Greek aorist,
". . . that hath (already) overcome the world": the victory
(where faith is) hereby is implied as having been already obtained (@1Jo 2:13 4:4).
5. Who--"Who" else "but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God:" "the Christ" (@1Jo 5:1)? Confirming, by a triumphant question defying all contradiction, as an undeniable fact, @1Jo 5:4, that the victory which overcomes the world is faith. For it is by believing: that we are made one with Jesus the Son of God, so that we partake of His victory over the world, and have dwelling in us One greater than he who is in the world (@1Jo 4:4). "Survey the whole world, and show me even one of whom it can be affirmed with truth that he overcomes the world, who is not a Christian, and endowed with this faith" [EPISCOPIUS in ALFORD].
6. This--the Person mentioned in @1Jo 5:5. This Jesus.
he that came by water and blood--"by water," when
His ministry was inaugurated by baptism in the Jordan, and He received the Father's
testimony to His Messiahship and divine Sonship. Compare @1Jo 5:5, "believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God," with @Joh 1:33,34, "The
Spirit . . . remaining on Him . . . I saw and bare record that this is
the Son of God"; and @1Jo 5:8, below, "there
are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood." Corresponding to this is the baptism of water and the Spirit which He
has instituted as a standing seal and mean of initiatory incorporation with Him.
and blood--He came by "the blood of His cross" (so
"by" is used, @Heb
9:12: "by," that is, with, "His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place"): a fact seen and so solemnly witnessed to by
John. "These two past facts in the Lord's life are this abiding testimony to
us, by virtue of the permanent application to us of their cleansing and atoning
power."
Jesus Christ--not a mere appellation, but a solemn assertion
of the Lord's Person and Messiahship.
not by, &c.--Greek, "not IN
the water only, but IN the water and IN
(so oldest manuscripts add) the blood." As "by" implies the
mean through, or with, which He came: so "in," the element in
which He came. "The" implies that the water and the blood were
sacred and well-known symbols. John Baptist came only baptizing with water, and therefore
was not the Messiah. Jesus came first to undergo Himself the double baptism of
water and blood, and then to baptize us with the Spirit-cleansing, of which water
is the sacramental seal, and with His atoning blood, the efficacy of which, once
for all shed, is perpetual in the Church; and therefore is the Messiah. It was His
shed blood which first gave water baptism its spiritual significancy. We are
baptized into His death: the grand point of union between us and Him, and, through
Him, between us and God.
it is the Spirit, &c.--The Holy Spirit is an
additional witness (compare @1Jo
5:7), besides the water and the blood, to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship.
The Spirit attested these truths at Jesus' baptism by descending on Him, and throughout
His ministry by enabling Him to speak and do what man never before or since has spoken or,
done; and "it is the Spirit that beareth witness" of Christ, now permanently in
the Church: both in the inspired New Testament Scriptures, and in the hearts of believers,
and in the spiritual reception of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
because the Spirit is truth--It is His essential truth
which gives His witness such infallible authority.
7. three--Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth," are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus, copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples, with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the old versions omit the words. The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate manuscript which has them being Wizanburgensis, 99, of the eighth century. A scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts "there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS OF THE TRINITY. To this CYPRIAN, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using "three" (Greek) in the masculine, though the antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That THE TRINITY was the truth meant is a natural inference: the triad specified pointing to a still Higher Trinity; as is plain also from @1Jo 5:9, "the witness of GOD," referring to the Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water, and blood. It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth the divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. LUECKE notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses "the Father" and "the Word" as correlates, but, like other New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the Father," and always refers "the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not "the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first who quotes the disputed words as in the text; but no Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth is extant with them. The term "Trinity" occurs first in the third century in TERTULLIAN [Against Praxeas, 3].
8. agree in one--"tend unto one result"; their agreeing testimony to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship they give by the sacramental grace in the water of baptism, received by the penitent believer, by the atoning efficacy of His blood, and by the internal witness of His Spirit (@1Jo 5:10):answering to the testimony given to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship by His baptism, His crucifixion, and the Spirit's manifestations in Him (see on 1Jo 5:6). It was by His coming by water (that is, His baptism in Jordan) that Jesus was solemnly inaugurated in office, and revealed Himself as Messiah; this must have been peculiarly important in John's estimation, who was first led to Christ by the testimony of the Baptist. By the baptism then received by Christ, and by His redeeming blood-shedding, and by that which the Spirit of God, whose witness is infallible, has effected, and still effects, by Him, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite, as the threefold witness, to verify His divine Messiahship [NEANDER].
9. If, &c.--We do accept (and rightly so) the
witness of veracious men, fallible though they be; much more ought we to accept the
infallible witness of God (the Father). "The testimony of the Father is, as it were,
the basis of the testimony of the Word and of the Holy Spirit; just as the testimony of the
Spirit is, as it were, the basis of the testimony of the water and the blood"
[BENGEL].
for--This principle applies in the present case, FOR
which--in the oldest manuscripts, "because He hath
given testimony concerning His Son." What that testimony is we find above in @1Jo 5:1,5, "Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God"; and below in @1Jo 5:10,11.
10. hath the witness--of God, by His Spirit (@1Jo 5:8).
in himself--God's Spirit dwelling in him and witnessing
that "Jesus is the Lord," "the Christ," and "the Son of God"
(@1Jo 5:1,5). The witness
of the Spirit in the believer himself to his own sonship is not here
expressed, but follows as a consequence of believing the witness of God to Jesus' divine
Sonship.
believeth not God--credits not His witness.
made him a liar--a consequence which many who virtually, or
even avowedly, do not believe, may well startle back from as fearful blasphemy and
presumption (@1Jo 1:10).
believeth not the record--Greek, "believeth not IN
the record, or witness." Refusal to credit God's testimony
("believeth not God") is involved in refusal to believe IN
(to rest one's trust in) Jesus Christ, the object of God's record or testimony.
"Divine "faith" is an assent unto something as credible upon the testimony
of God. This is the highest kind of faith; because the object hath the highest
credibility, because grounded upon the testimony of God, which is infallible" [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed]. "The authority on which we
believe is divine; the doctrine which we follow is divine" [LEO].
gave--Greek, "hath testified, and now
testifies."
of--concerning.
11. hath given--Greek, aorist: "gave" once
for all. Not only "promised" it.
life is in his Son--essentially (@Joh 1:4 11:25 14:6);
bodily (@Col 2:9);
operatively (@2Ti 1:10) [LANGE in ALFORD]. It is in the second Adam, the Son
of God, that this life is secured to us, which, if left to depend on us, we should
lose, like the first Adam.
12. the Son . . . life--Greek, "THE life." BENGEL remarks, The verse has two clauses: in the former the Son is mentioned without the addition "of God," for believers know the Son: in the second clause the addition "of God" is made, that unbelievers may know thereby what a serious thing it is not to have Him. In the former clause "has" bears the emphasis; in the second, life. To have the Son is to be able to say as the bride, "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine" [@So 6:3]. Faith is the mean whereby the regenerate HAVE Christ as a present possession, and in having Him have life in its germ and reality now, and shall have life in its fully developed manifestation hereafter. Eternal life here is: (1) initial, and is an earnest of that which is to follow; in the intermediate state (2) partial, belonging but to a part of a man, though that is his nobler part, the soul separated from the body; at and after the resurrection (3) perfectional. This life is not only natural, consisting of the union of the soul and the body (as that of the reprobate in eternal pain, which ought to be termed death eternal, not life), but also spiritual, the union of the soul to God, and supremely blessed for ever (for life is another term for happiness) [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].
13. The oldest manuscripts and versions read, "These
things have I written unto you [omitting 'that believe on the name of the Son of God']
that ye may know that ye have eternal life (compare @1Jo 5:11), THOSE
(of you I mean) WHO believe (not as English Version reads, 'and
that ye may believe') on the name of the Son of God." English Version, in
the latter clause, will mean, "that ye may continue to believe," &c.
(compare @1Jo 5:12).
These things--This Epistle. He, towards the close of his
Gospel (@Joh 20:30,31),
wrote similarly, stating his purpose in having written. In @1Jo 1:4 he states the object
of his writing this Epistle to be, "that your joy may be full." To "know
that we have eternal life" is the sure way to "joy in God."
14. the confidence--boldness (@1Jo 4:17) in prayer, which
results from knowing that we have eternal life (@1Jo 5:13 1Jo 3:19,22).
according to his will--which is the believer's will, and which
is therefore no restraint to his prayers. In so far as God's will is not our will, we are
not abiding in faith, and our prayers are not accepted. ALFORD well
says, If we knew God's will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it
would be impossible for us to ask anything for the spirit or for the body which He should
not perform; it is this ideal state which the apostle has in view. It is the Spirit
who teaches us inwardly, and Himself in us asks according to the will of God.
15. hear--Greek, "that He heareth
us."
we have the petitions that we desired of him--We have,
as present possessions, everything whatsoever we desired (asked) from
Him. Not one of our past prayers offered in faith, according to His will,
is lost. Like Hannah, we can rejoice over them as granted even before the event; and can
recognize the event when it comes to pass, as not from chance, but obtained by our past
prayers. Compare also Jehoshaphat's believing confidence in the issue of his prayers, so
much so that he appointed singers to praise the Lord beforehand.
16. If any . . . see--on any particular occasion;
Greek aorist.
his brother--a fellow Christian.
sin a sin--in the act of sinning, and continuing in the sin:
present.
not unto death--provided that it is not unto death.
he shall give--The asker shall be the means, by his
intercessory prayer, of God giving life to the sinning brother. Kindly reproof
ought to accompany his intercessions. Life was in process of being forfeited by the
sinning brother when the believer's intercession obtained its restoration.
for them--resuming the proviso put forth in the beginning of
the verse. "Provided that the sin is not unto death." "Shall give
life," I say, to, that is, obtain life "for (in the case of) them
that sin not unto death."
I do not say that he shall pray for it--The Greek for
"pray" means a REQUEST as of one on an equality, or at
least on terms of familiarity, with him from whom the favor is sought. "The Christian
intercessor for his brethren, John declares, shall not assume the authority which would be
implied in making request for a sinner who has sinned the sin unto death (@1Sa 15:35 16:1 Mr
3:29), that it might be forgiven him" [TRENCH, Greek
Synonyms of the New Testament]. Compare @De 3:26. Greek
"ask" implies the humble petition of an inferior; so that our Lord never uses
it, but always uses (Greek) "request." Martha, from ignorance, once uses
"ask" in His case (@Joh
11:22). "Asking" for a brother sinning not unto death, is a humble petition
in consonance with God's will. To "request" for a sin unto death [intercede,
as it were, authoritatively for it, as though we were more merciful than God] would
savor of presumption; prescribing to God in a matter which lies out of the bounds of our
brotherly yearning (because one sinning unto death would thereby be demonstrated not to
be, nor ever to have been, truly a brother, @1Jo 2:19), how He shall
inflict and withhold His righteous judgments. Jesus Himself intercedes, not for the world
which hardens itself in unbelief, but for those given to Him out of the world.
17. "Every unrighteousness (even that of believers,
compare @1Jo 1:9 3:4.
Every coming short of right) is sin"; (but) not every sin is the sin unto
death.
and there is a sin not unto death--in the case of which,
therefore, believers may intercede. Death and life stand in correlative
opposition (@1Jo 5:11-13).
The sin unto death must be one tending "towards" (so the Greek),
and so resulting in, death. ALFORD makes it to be an
appreciable ACT of sin, namely, the denying Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God
(in contrast to confess this truth, @1Jo 5:1,5), @1Jo 2:19,22 4:2,3
5:10. Such wilful deniers of Christ are not to be received into one's house, or wished
"God speed." Still, I think with BENGEL, not merely the act,
but also the state of apostasy accompanying the act, is included--a
"state of soul in which faith, love, and hope, in short, the new life, is
extinguished. The chief commandment is faith and love. Therefore, the chief
sin is that by which faith and love are destroyed. In the former case is life; in
the latter, death. As long as it is not evident (see on 1Jo 5:16, on 'see') that it is a sin unto death, it is lawful
to pray. But when it is deliberate rejection of grace, and the man puts from him life
thereby, how can others procure for him life?" Contrast @Jas 5:14-18. Compare @Mt 12:31,32 as to the
wilful rejection of Christ, and resistance to the Holy Ghost's plain testimony to Him as
the divine Messiah. Jesus, on the cross, pleaded only for those who KNEW
NOT what they were doing in crucifying Him, not for those wilfully resisting
grace and knowledge. If we pray for the impenitent, it must be with humble
reference of the matter to God's will, not with the intercessory request which we
should offer for a brother when erring.
18. (@1Jo 3:9.)
We know--Thrice repeated emphatically, to enforce the three
truths which the words preface, as matters of the brethren's joint experimental knowledge.
This @1Jo 5:18 warns
against abusing @1Jo
5:16,17, as warranting carnal security.
whosoever--Greek, "every one who." Not only
advanced believers, but every one who is born again, "sinneth not."
he that is begotten--Greek aorist, "has been (once
for all in past time) begotten of God"; in the beginning of the verse it is
perfect. "Is begotten," or "born," as a continuing state.
keepeth himself--The Vulgate translates, "The
having been begotten of God keepeth HIM" (so one of the oldest manuscripts reads): so
ALFORD. Literally, "He having been begotten of God (nominative
pendent), it (the divine generation implied in the nominative) keepeth him."
So @1Jo 3:9, "His seed
remaineth in him." Still, in English Version reading, God's working by His
Spirit inwardly, and man's working under the power of that Spirit as a responsible agent,
is what often occurs elsewhere. That God must keep us, if we are to keep
ourselves from evil, is certain. Compare @Joh 17:15 especially with
this verse.
that wicked one toucheth him not--so as to hurt him. In so far
as he realizes his regeneration-life, the prince of this world hath nothing in him
to fasten his deadly temptations on, as in Christ's own case. His divine regeneration has
severed once for all his connection with the prince of this world.
19. world lieth in wickedness--rather, "lieth in the wicked one," as the Greek is translated in @1Jo 5:18 1Jo 2:13,14; compare @1Jo 4:4 Joh 17:14,15. The world lieth in the power of, and abiding in, the wicked one, as the resting-place and lord of his slaves; compare "abideth in death," @1Jo 3:14; contrast @1Jo 5:20, "we are in Him that is true." While the believer has been delivered out of his power, the whole world lieth helpless and motionless still in it, just as it was; including the wise, great, respectable, and all who are not by vital union in Christ.
20. Summary of our Christian privileges.
is come--is present, having come. "HE IS HERE--all is full of Him--His incarnation, work, and abiding
presence, is to us a living fact" [ALFORD].
given us an understanding--Christ's, office is to give the
inner spiritual understanding to discern the things of God.
that we may know--Some oldest manuscripts read, "(so)
that we know."
him that is true--God, as opposed to every kind of idol
or false god (@1Jo 5:21).
Jesus, by virtue of His oneness with God, is also "He that is true" (@Re 3:7).
even--"we are in the true" God, by virtue
of being "in His Son Jesus Christ."
This is the true God--"This Jesus Christ (the
last-named Person) is the true God" (identifying Him thus with the Father in His
attribute, "the only true God," @Joh 17:3, primarily
attributed to the Father).
and eternal life--predicated of the Son of God; ALFORD wrongly says, He was the life, but not eternal life.
The Father is indeed eternal life as its source, but the Son also is that eternal
life manifested, as the very passage (@1Jo 1:2) which ALFORD quotes, proves against him. Compare also @1Jo 5:11,13. Plainly it is
as the Mediator of ETERNAL LIFE to us that Christ is here contemplated. The Greek
is, "The true God and eternal life is this" Jesus Christ, that is, In believing
in Him we believe in the true God, and have eternal life. The Son is called "He that
is TRUE," @Re 3:7, as
here. This naturally prepares the way for warning against false gods (@1Jo 5:21). Jesus Christ is
the only "express image of God's person" which is sanctioned, the only true
visible manifestation of God. All other representations of God are forbidden as idols.
Thus the Epistle closes as it began (@1Jo 1:1,2).
21. Affectionate parting caution.
from idols--Christians were then everywhere surrounded by idolaters,
with whom it was impossible to avoid intercourse. Hence the need of being on their guard
against any even indirect compromise or act of communion with idolatry. Some at Pergamos,
in the region whence John wrote, fell into the snare of eating things sacrificed to idols.
The moment we cease to abide "in Him that is true (by abiding) in Jesus Christ,"
we become part of "the world that lieth in the wicked one," given up to spiritual,
if not in all places literal, idolatry (@Eph 5:5 Col 3:5).