1 John 1
1 John 2
1 John 3
1 John 4
1 John 5
1 John 1
This epistle brings before us the manifestation of eternal life in the Person of Jesus, the Word of life; a life that had not hitherto been seen, but was revealed not only that believers might see it, but that it might be theirs in the Son as a present possession. The presence of the Son of God in this world had brought wonderful things to light. God. Whom no man had seen at any time, had been declared in the only-begotten Son of His bosom; the Father's Name had been made known to the men given to the Son out of this world; and the believer in the Son had the right to take his place as a child of God. As born of God, and as having the Spirit of God, the believer has now the capacity and the power to enter into the great unfoldings of the Spirit concerning these divine communications.
Verse 1. The epistle commences with what was from the beginning of Christianity in this world, the beginning of something entirely different from Judaism. When, in incarnation, the Son of God came into the world, there was something brought in that had not been here before. So far as this world is concerned, eternal life is entirely new it had its beginning down here in Jesus; and it was manifested in One Who was seen and heard. That is, it was here in a Man. a real Man. Who was seen, heard, contemplated and handled. The humanity of the Lord Jesus was real and perfect. At Patmos, what John saw was in vision: but He saw Jesus in this world with his natural eyes: it was no vision, for the incarnation was a divine reality. The disciples heard the Son, saw Him, and contemplated what they heard and saw in Him. Moreover, to emphasize the reality of the incarnation, he says, "and our hands handled." Both before and after His death their hands had handled the body of the Lord Jesus. John had been in closest touch with Him; he had lain in His bosom. These things of which the apostle speaks concern Jesus as the Word of Life. He was not only "The Word" before and in incarnation, that is the One in Whom all the thoughts and mind of God find expression, but "The Word of Life " in Whom there has been expressed this life that God desired to bring before men.
1 John 1:2. If then the life has been manifested, there is no need for men to seek after it apart from Him in Whom it has been brought to light. It is there in Him for the delight of every believer in Jesus. Peter, even before he received the Holy Spirit, felt the attraction of that life in Jesus. The divine nature within him delighted in its perfections as its words fell from the lips of His Master, so that he could say, "Lord to Whom shall we go. Thou hast the words of eternal life." And what else was it that attracted John to the bosom of Jesus? There, in the personal love of Jesus, he enjoyed something of the heavenly life made manifest in the Son of God. The disciples were thus enabled to report as witnesses of the eternal life, a life that was with the Father, and which was manifested to them. If eternal life was new, so far as this world was concerned: it had been with the Father before time was. It was with the Father that the Son lived in this life: this is its divine and heavenly character. The life that man lived in naturally commenced with Adam in Eden: here was a life of a different order; it had its existence in eternity; it belonged to another world, although manifested here. It had not been manifested to Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, or any of the saints of a previous dispensation, for it was with the Father, Who had not been revealed until the Son came.
1 John 1:3-4. The object of the apostles' testimony was that believers might have fellowship with them in the enjoyment of those things they were privileged to communicate. This is true Christian fellowship, and what belongs to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. How much we would have lost had not these blessed communications been made to us: how much is lost if we do not avail ourselves of the precious privileges that are ours in the enjoyment of such fellowship. Fellowship here is vital; it can only be known by those who have eternal life: by those who are born of God and know the Father, for this fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. O the sweetness and joy of being permitted to commune with the Father and the Son: yea, and to commune with each other about the Father and the Son. We can have the same thoughts and feelings as the disciples of old had regarding Jesus, and regarding the Father. Moreover we can speak to the Son about the Father, and speak to the Father about the Son; listening too to hear what the Son tells of the Father, and what the Father thinks of the Son. What deep, heavenly joy possesses the heart as we touch these things. We tell the Father of our delight in the Son, knowing that the Father, from all eternity, has found His delight in Him. Here indeed our joy is full. It may he that the apostles had a special part in this fellowship, as having companied with the Lord upon earth: and especially as having been sent forth by the Lord in the promulgation of His testimony. Still our fellowship is with them, and with the Father and the Son, in the enjoyment of the same things, and, in some small way, as connected with the same testimony. Whether we think of fellowship in relation to communion in the circle of divine affections into which we have been brought, or in regard to the contemplation of the Father's counsels, or in connection with the interests of the Son upon the earth, there is for the heart a holy, heavenly joy, to fill every one to his capacity.
1 John 1:5. Now we have the message that the Lord Jesus gave His disciples to bring to us, for not only had there been in Jesus the manifestation of eternal life, but the revelation of God. No man had seen God at any time; He dwelt in the thick darkness; but He was seen in Jesus, and the Son desired that His own might find their rest in the knowledge of God. The fire, the darkness, the tempest and the shakings of Sinai made even Moses exceedingly fear and quake; but the God revealed to us in His nature of light sets us at perfect rest in His presence. Purity in its perfection is found in Him, and the divine nature in us finds peace and delight in this. There is not the slightest admixture of darkness in the nature of God; He is altogether pure. The clearness and transparency of His nature rejoices the heart in communion with Him. When in communion with God, peace possesses the heart, for we know Him; and know that we are before Him in perfect consistency with His nature. We are ever discovering fresh features of the flesh in ourselves and in others, features that are repulsive to the divine nature within us; but we find the nature of God pure and unchanging, a holy nature that exposes what the flesh truly is, and in which the divine nature within rests and finds its deepest pleasures.
1 John 1:6. The fellowship into which we are brought in the joy of eternal life is according to the pure, holy nature of God. Every professing Christian, by his profession. claims to have fellowship with God. The test for every one is, does he walk in the light of the revelation of God? There is no middle path here; one is either walking in the light or walking in darkness. It is impossible to walk in the light without the true knowledge of God in the soul, without the possession of the divine nature. Only as born of God, and being enlightened with the revelation of God in the Son, can we walk apart from the darkness of this world. But every professor of Christianity is brought to the test by this Scripture. Do we really walk in the light? Is the knowledge of God within us? Has He wrought upon us by His Spirit in the power of His word? If not, we walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth. What a solemn condemnation for many who claim to have fellowship with God! They cannot have fellowship with God in the nature derived from Adam, in the things of the flesh or of this world. It is false to claim fellowship with God without having had to do livingly with Him in Jesus. To be without God in His Son is to walk in darkness. We can only practise the truth as we know the truth in Him Who said, "I am the truth." To pretend to be a Christian without the life of God is to utter and practise falsehood.
1 John 1:7. But every true Christian walks in the light, and in the same light in which God is, the light in which He has been revealed in Jesus. The knowledge of God that has come to as in this blessed revelation abides in the heart of the believer, and it is the possession of this divine knowledge that makes the Christian different from every other man in this world. We take our way through the darkness of the present scene illumined with the true knowledge of the nature, character and will of God. His love has been learned in the Son, and the rich grace of His heart has brought us into the enjoyment of it. We may not always walk according to the light, for we have the flesh in us as well as the divine nature: but once in the light the Christian can never leave it. Our enjoyment of the knowledge of God will depend on the measure and character of our communion with God; but the knowledge of God in the heart can never be lost. As having the divine nature, and the presence within us of the Holy Spirit, we have the capacity and the power for the enjoyment of the revelation of God; a revelation believed through faith, and consciously known by the Spirit of God.
As walking in the light of the knowledge of God, we have fellowship with one another. All true believers have communion with each other in the precious communications given to them by the Son. They are bound together with living, indissoluble ties: they possess the nature of God and the life communicated by the Son; therefore the things belonging to the Father and the Son, the things pertaining to the life that is theirs as children of God, naturally engage them when they meet together. This must be distinguished from ecclesiastical fellowship, from what belongs to the testimony of the church. Church fellowship has broken down, and is in ruins today; but here is an aspect of fellowship that abides amidst the ruins of the church. So that when we meet true believers, wherever they may find their church fellowship, we instinctively become engaged with the things of Christ, with the realities of the divine revelation presented to us in Jesus.
As walking in the light, and as having fellowship with one another, Christians also have divine cleansing from the defilement that their sins produced. How could Christian fellowship be enjoyed with the stains of sins upon the spirit? The precious blood that is the ground of our justification from all guilt, from every charge of sin, removes from our spirits the sense of the defilement those sins had left. But there is no question of renewed application of the blood: what is brought before us here is the infinite and abiding efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins, or remove defilement from us, but the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. The Person of the Son of God gives propitiation its supreme and eternal value.
1 John 1:8. Although cleansed from our sins, we still have sin within us. The nature derived from Adam remains until the present life is brought to a close. We have been morally cleansed from the pollution of the old nature, even as the Lord showed in John 13, "He that is washed all over needeth not to wash save his feet;" but that nature is within, the flesh in which dwells the principle of sin. If the flesh is allowed to act, its defiling influence is felt in the conscience and on the spirit. So that, if any one say that he has no sin, he deceives himself. Moreover, the truth is not in such, for the truth that brings to us the knowledge of God also gives us to know ourselves. The truth within does not make us insensible to sin, but the rather gives a deeper consciousness of its true character.
The dreadful character of sin is not felt in the soul until God works there, nor is its working realised unless there is truth in the inward parts. Therefore he who claims to be without sin exposes himself to be ignorant of God, ignorant of what sin is, insensible to what is so abhorrent to God and self-deceived.
1 John 1:9. Having a sinful nature, the fruits of it manifest themselves, even in the Christian, when he is not walking in communion with God. But our sins are not to be covered up; they are to be confessed. Coming in confession to God, we learn that He is faithful and righteous to forgive. We can have the fullest confidence in God: His faithfulness is known in the forgiveness we receive. With each other, we may be very slow to forgive, and very grudgingly pardon those who confess to us their wrongdoings. But God is faithful in His forgiving; we can come to Him perfectly assured that He will forgive, if we confess our sins. Without the confession, the guilt lies upon the conscience, and the defilement on the spirit. Forgiveness on God's part is also a righteous thing, and this because of the work of the cross. God could not pardon the sinner in righteousness apart from the work of Christ; therefore His forgiving of sins magnifies the great work of propitiation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. Then there is the cleansing from all unrighteousness. Unrighteousness in the Christian calls for confession, not only that we might have the sense of Gods pardon, but also that the defilement produced on the spirit might be removed. This is not cleansing by a fresh application of the blood to the believer, but is produced through the action of the word of God on the defiled spirit. Our first coming to God as guilty sinners could not rightly be excluded from this verse; its abstract nature leaves room for this; but it is good for us as failing Christians at all times.
1 John 1:10. But it is a very solemn and serious thing for any to say that he has not sinned, to thus refuse the word of God. God has plainly told us in His word that All have sinned;" and for any one to refuse this is to manifest that God's word is not in him. God has magnified His word above all His Name, and it is grievous neglect to be unacquainted with it. And how grave the folly that rejects God's word. Men may think lightly of their treatment of the Scriptures, but God does not. Of such as say, in defiance of the word, that they have not sinned, God brings against them a serious charge. He does not say that they are mistaken, or that they are ignorant or deceived; but that they call Him a liar. No man will take lightly being called a liar, even if all men are liars: how much more does God, the God Who is light in His nature, feel the insolent refusal of the creature to accept His word.
1 John 2:1. These things were written by the aged Apostle to his dear children that they might not sin. He would have them sensitive to sin so that they would shun anything inconsistent with the place into which God had brought them in fellowship with Himself. But he supposes the possibility of his children failing: not taking it as inevitable. Alas, we have to say with James. "In many points we all offend;" but this is not an excuse for failure, but simply the recognition of our low practice in our mixed condition here. The normal path for the child of God is in communion with Him: but in grace He provides for our failures. If any one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteousness. Here we have a different aspect from that in verse 9 of the previous chapter. There it was confession, pardon and cleansing; here it is restoration of communion. If we sin, communion with the Father is broken, for we could not have divine communion with a defiled spirit. When such takes place, the Lord acts on our behalf, for He concerns Himself with all our affairs on the heavenly side. He acts to make us conscious of the break that has taken place, so that we might be led to confession and restoration of communion.
1 John 2:2. This blessed service of grace is maintained for us by Jesus Christ, our subsisting righteousness in God's presence. He is the righteous One; and this grace is for us in consistency with His character, as also in relation to the work accomplished on the cross, for He is the propitiation for the sins of His people, Israel; but not for theirs alone; it is a work that avails for all who put their trust in Him. Propitiation is the work that meets the claims of God, so that He can offer, on its basis, pardon to all who come to Him through Jesus, Who accomplished the great work; it is towards the whole world.
1 John 2:3. Obedience to the commandments of God brings to our souls the consciousness that we know Him. These divine commandments are in the Scriptures, and make known what God desires from His children in this world; they are not the ten commandments given to the nation of Israel, they are not given to us that we might endeavour to obtain life by keeping them, but they are the means of keeping us in the blessed sense of God's love. Every true Christian has the knowledge of God, and the measure of his consciousness and enjoyment of this knowledge is the measure of his obedience to the will of God, expressed in His commandments and words. This is developed for us in John 14:15, 21, 23. But there are those who profess to know God, yet know nothing of obedience to His revealed commands; their profession is utterly false, and the truth is not in them. Had the truth been in them, it would have been manifested in the obedience that delights in God's will.
1 John 2:4-6. As in John 14:21 and 23, a distinction is made between the Lord's commandments and His word. His commandments are clearly defined requirements, such as "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you;" "Pray without ceasing;" "Quench not the Spirit;" but His word is the spirit and scope of Scripture, the expression of His whole mind and will. As we obey the word of God, the heart enters into the true knowledge of God, and His love is known in the way that Jesus revealed it. God's love has been told out fully on the cross; it is there we learn it; but to keep in the enjoyment of that love we must walk consciously under God's eye, in the path of His will. When the love of God is perfected in us, when it has its true place in our hearts, we learn what our true place is before the Father. It is one thing to believe that we are in Christ, and quite another to be living in the consciousness that the Father has brought us before His face in the Son. This is our present portion, loved as the Son is loved by the Father. How wonderful it is that we can go through this world with the knowledge of God's love filling the heart, and realising that we share in love the Son's place before the Father. In the blessedness of this we are to abide, and as we do so we shall bring glory to the Father, even as the Lord said to His disciples, "He that abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. … In this is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and ye shall become disciples of Mine" (John 15:5, 8). If we profess to abide in Him, we ought to walk as He walked; we should be disciples indeed. Abiding in the Son, we draw upon His divine resources in true dependence, and so derive the grace and strength to be like Him in this world. It is therefore not difficult to understand that the measure of our abiding in Him will determine the reality of our discipleship.
1 John 2:7. To abide in the Son, and to walk as He walked, is the practical presentation to us of the life that is ours in Christ. This is not a new commandment, but in substance what the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples in this world, and what the disciples have passed on to us. It is called a commandment because it is a life summed up in the things the Lord asked His own to do; the formal expression of the divine life perfectly manifested in Him Who said, "I am altogether that which I speak unto you." If He asked His disciples to love one another, and thus express the divine life He communicated to them, He could add "as I have loved you." This holy life of love was conveyed to His disciples in His words, expressed livingly in His Person, and given in commandment, commandments that were not grievous, and which marked out the path that the divine nature within rejoices to take. This is true Christianity: it is in nothing different from what came out in Jesus here; there is no room for the introduction of human thoughts, or for commandments given by men; all proceeds from the Son of God incarnate, and all is seen in its divine completeness there in Him.
1 John 2:8. There is a new commandment, but it is essentially the same as the old. It is new because it is given from the new place occupied by the Son of God as Man in heaven, and also because what was contained in the commandment is now true in the saints. The divine life expressed in the old commandment was personified down here in Jesus; what is given as a new commandment is now set forth in those who belong to the Son. We do not look within to see what the divine life is, and how feeble is our expression of it; yet we rejoice to know that that life of love and beauty is ours in Him, and we delight to see all its lovely features coming out in His path of perfect devotedness and obedience to His Father's will, and in all the rich grace and love manifested to His own. What is commanded, the divine life, is true in Him and in those associated with Him on the risen side of death. The light of life having illumined our hearts is proof that the darkness is passing, and that the true light already shines. Once that light shone in this world, but in the rejection of the Son of God the world was left in darkness. Now the light shines from heaven, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and this light has shone in our hearts. Every one who believes in the Son has light from heaven, and witnesses to the passing of the darkness and to the light, the true light in Jesus. Soon the darkness shall pass, when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise.
1 John 2:9-11. But there are those who claim to be in the light of the knowledge of God, yet hate the saints in whom the features of the life of God are manifested. This is not hating the traits of the flesh in a Christian, but hating the believer because he has the life that was expressed in all its loveliness in the Son of God. It was of very religious people that the Lord said, "They have both seen and hated both Me and my Father … they hated Me without a cause" (John 15:24-25). Can we therefore be surprised if there is a generation in this day that hates the life that was hated by the religious Jews when it was expressed in Jesus? Such are in the darkness, they have not the knowledge of God in their hearts; but one who loves his brother, the depository of divine life, dwells in the light. A true believer loves the brethren because they are brethren, because they have the divine nature and belong to the family of God. Love may be hindered in its expression because of the manifestation of the flesh, either in ourselves or in our brethren, but love is there, and it is normal for the believer to express it. The flesh may give occasion of stumbling, but there is no occasion of stumbling in the Christian who abides in the light; and abiding in the light is the normal life of the believer. Again we read that he "that hates his brother is in the darkness;" he has never been turned from darkness to light; and even if he professes to be a Christian, in the principle of his nature he is like the heathen, devoid of the knowledge of the true God. The mere professing Christian may have many features that appear as traits of divine life, but without the true knowledge of God in his heart he walks in the darkness, his way is not enlightened by divine revelation. Such are not spoken of here as blind; they are like those of whom the Lord spoke in John 9, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." The light was before them; they professed to have the knowledge of God, but they hated the light, and were blinded by the darkness in which they lived, ignorant in heart of the love of God.
1 John 2:12-13. Having engaged his children with the manifestations of the divine life, obedience to God's will and love of the brethren, the aged apostle addresses them because their sins were forgiven them for His Name's sake; a Name they all knew so well. Though, all were alike forgiven, all had not reached the same state of maturity in the truth. The most advanced could be addressed as fathers; some were young men; those with the most elementary knowledge were babes in the divine family. The fathers knew Him that is from the beginning; they had a deep knowledge of Christ in their hearts, knowing Him as the One in Whom there was the complete revelation of God, in Whom the eternal life had been manifested, from Whom they had learned the Father's thoughts, and in Whom they had everything that God had given to them in the riches of His grace. For them, Christianity was a living Person, everything centred in the incarnate Son of God in heaven; without Him they had nothing, in Him they lacked nothing. Like the Apostle Paul, they knew Whom they had believed; and yet would say with him, "That I may … know Him." This is the great end to which God leads us; an end without finality in this world; divine knowledge in depths unfathomable in the Person of the Son, and no limit to the development of spiritual capacity for the apprehension of the wealth of truth presented to us in Jesus.
The young men are specially addressed for having overcome the wicked one; the babes because they knew the Father. How blessed that the youngest in the family of God know the Father. Paul told the Galatians that because they were sons, "God has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." This is the portion of all who, on believing the Gospel of their salvation, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here, in John's Epistle, the knowledge of the Father belongs to those who are born of God, and who have eternal life; it is not a mark of maturity. How wonderful is this, knowledge, infinitely beyond the ken of the greatest natural mind, yet possessed by the youngest of God's children. Neither Abraham, the friend of God, nor Moses, who could meet Jehovah in the holiest and on the mount, nor any of the great sages of old possessed this knowledge. Not until the Son came to reveal the Father could any know the Father, even as the Lord said, "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Again, from the lips of the Son we hear the words, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee (The Father) the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent."
1 John 2:14. Having addressed the fathers regarding their knowledge of the Son of God, the Apostle has nothing to add or develop concerning this. They had come to the shoreless ocean of divine knowledge in Jesus, where infinite and eternal treasures lay unexplored before them, and it was theirs to seek by the Spirit, through the word, these wonderful heavenly treasures belonging to the Son of God. John then shows the secret source of strength that enabled the young men to overcome the wicked one; the word of God was abiding in them, and by this they met and overcame the foe. If we are to become strong for conflict, the word of God must be known and cherished in the soul; it must be engrafted to form part of the inner man, to mould our thoughts, direct the heart, energise every inward spring, control the desires and feelings, and so give power and character to every action in our lives. There will be special occasions for meeting the enemy with the sword of the Spirit, even as the Lord met him in the three temptations; but whether in conflict as intimated in Ephesians 6, or in resisting the devil in other ways, the young men are able to overcome him by the word of God abiding in them.
1 John 2:15-17. Though triumphant over the wicked one, there was danger from another quarter for the young men; the world, and the different things that make up the world's system were a very real snare for them. Christians who had refused the world for them-selves have been caught in its meshes in giving way to their children. There are those who would not go to the theatre or the concert hall, yet enjoy the music and songs of the world in the secrecy of the home. We need to be before the Lord saying, "Search me O Lord, and know my heart;" lest some subtle influence of the world robs the heart of its spiritual vitality and joy, or lest while condemning something of the world in another we ourselves are seduced by a different allurement.
There is nothing in common between the things of the Father's world, and the things of man's world. Man's world consists of lust and pride, the things that appeal to fallen nature; but the things of the Father, which have been revealed by and centre in the Son, attract the divine nature in the believer. If a Christian is enjoying himself with an unbeliever, it is not in the things of the Father. We cannot be lovers of the world and lovers of the Father at the same time. If the Father's love is consciously known in the heart, the things of the world will be refused as objectionable to us. We are not here to please ourselves in the gratification of the flesh, or to have part with a world that crucified the Son of God: we are here for the Father's pleasure, to do His will, and to find our pleasure in communion with the Father and the Son. Very soon the world and all its lust shall have gone forever, but those who do the will of God will abide for eternity in the constant enjoyment of the things that we can even now enjoy in the goodness of God.
1 John 2:18-19. The babes are warned that they live in the last hour; they are not to look for fresh revelations from God, for all the truth has come in the Person of the Son: and it is in the last hour that antichrist comes, in whom evil reaches its full stature. Of antichrist the Lord had spoken when on earth, saying, "I am come in my Father's Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." He is named in 2 Thessalonians the "man of sin … the son of perdition:" and in Revelation 13. The "beast coming up out of the earth." In Isaiah 30:33, and Daniel 11:36, he is "the king:" and in Revelation 19:20, "the false prophet." Even in John's day, and ever since, there have been on earth agents of the devil, having the spirit and features of antichrist, endeavouring to lead the saints of God astray. Those of whom the Apostle spoke had gone out of the assembly of God, thereby proving that they did not belong to it; they were apostates. Alas, today, there are not only those outside, but those who remain within the Christian profession, those of whom Jude speaks, "certain men crept in unawares," who carry on the work of the enemy in seeking to corrupt and ruin the work of God; and the greatest danger for simple souls is from those within.
1 John 2:20-23. The babes had received the unction from the Holy Spirit which enabled them to detect the evil of the false teachers; an unction by which they could discern the true character of all things, and also for the apprehension of the truth ministered by the true servants of God. As having the divine nature, and the unction, the babes knew the truth; and therefore knew what was not the truth; but the Apostle desired them to know that no lie, no particle of false teaching, had its origin in the truth. If the unction within them detected evil, they would at once know the source from whence it came. Evil teaching is aimed at Christ's Person; the Jewish form is the denial that Jesus is their promised Messiah; but there is also the denial of the truth of Christianity revealed in Jesus, the Father and the Son. Men will pretend to honour the Father in their endeavour to dishonour the Son, but the Scripture is plain, "Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also." Deniers of the eternal Sonship of Jesus are known to boast of their worship of the Father. The enemy will attack any and every part of the truth, but his real object is the Person of the Son.
1 John 2:24-25. God's safeguard for the babes of His family is that they hold fast the truth that they have heard; what had come out in Jesus was to have an abiding place in the heart, to be cherished there, and to form them in the truth concerning the Father and the Son. This was the real substance of Christianity, that in which eternal life consisted, even as the Lord said in speaking to the Father, "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent." The enemy sought to rob the babes of the enjoyment of eternal life by taking from them the truth of the Person of the Son. If they lost the truth regarding the Son, they lost the truth concerning the Father, and would be deprived of the joys that these great truths bring to the soul. Unitarians deny the eternity of the Son; others deny the eternity of the Sonship of Jesus; all such wicked teachings are departures from what was from the beginning, and combine to detract from His glory, and to rob the saints of the true Christ that God presents to them. The eternal life that God has given to us is in His Son, a life which "God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2). What is from the beginning abides for us in this day, and is written for us in the Scriptures, so that we have the word of God to test all that is spoken. There is a double test, the Spirit of God within us as the power for the discernment and appropriation of truth, and what we have heard from the beginning — the Scriptures.
1 John 2:26-27. The aged Apostle cared for the babes, and not only warned them against the antichristian teachers, but told them of the divine safeguard in the unction within them. Abiding in them, the unction was the means of detecting evil. They did not rely on teachers to tell them what was true and what was false; this was the function of the unction of the Spirit. Teachers have their work to do in bringing before the saints the word of God, which carries its own authority and conviction to the soul; but divine truth is made good to us by the Spirit of God. Teachers may be true or false, but the unction is ever true; there is nothing false comes from this divine teacher. In simple dependence on God the heart delights in what the unction brings, and so abides in the Son and in the enjoyment of eternal life.
1 John 2:28. The Apostle now returns to address the whole company, exhorting his dear children to abide in Christ. John had heard the blessed Lord on earth say to His disciples, "Abide in me," and he passes on this word. Abiding in Christ they would bring forth fruit for the Father's pleasure, and those who laboured among them would have boldness for Christ's manifestation, and not be put to shame because of them. What a day that would be for the faithful servant, to see those among whom he had laboured glorified with Christ, each one there the fruit of God's grace, yet as having been true to Christ amidst all the evils of the world. What would it be for the servant of the Lord if those among whom he had laboured missed the joys of that day?
1 John 2:29. The last verse of the chapter properly belongs to the next chapter. Righteousness is a divine trait, and every one who practises righteousness is born of God. This is not righteousness of human standard, but what is of God. Law tested man for righteousness, and the sentence upon all was, "There is none righteous, no, not one." But God has a family on earth, each one born of Him, and bearing His character. We never could manifest the fruits of righteousness apart from being born of God. Righteousness was seen in its perfection, unmingled, in Jesus upon earth; He is Jesus Christ the Righteous; and the features of the Righteous One are now manifested in His own in the world out of which He is gone.
1 John 3:1. We are the children of God as born of Him, but the Father has expressed His love towards us in giving us to know that we are in this relationship with Him. This was not always so, for the children of God in former dispensations never knew the blessedness of this holy relationship of nearness in love to the Father. How could they know the love of a Father until the Father was revealed in the Person of the Son? Abraham was called "the friend of God," and had the privilege of knowing wonderful communications regarding God's purpose for His people on earth, and of Christ's day; but he never knew God as Father, nor the nearness and dearness of the place of the children of God. Like Abel, Moses, David, Daniel and all the other saints of Old Testament times, Abraham was a true child of God, but it was not until the Son came that any could know this relationship of children to God (see John 1:12-13). What joy and rest for our hearts to know that we are the children of God: to know the intimacy and favour of a relationship in which the love of the Father rests upon us with deepest pleasure. The Father desired to have His children near to His heart that they might find their joys in Himself and in His Son, in Whom He has been fully revealed.
When the Son of God was upon earth He said to the Pharisees, "Ye know neither me nor my Father. If ye had known me, ye would also have known My Father." They were unable to perceive the Father in the Person of the Son; they had not the knowledge of God in their hearts. Thus it is with the men of the world today; they are incapable of recognising that true Christians are children of God. The world that could not distinguish the lovely traits of the divine nature, manifested in their perfection in the Son of God, cannot discern the same features, produced by the same divine life in the children of God. (It is important to observe that the Spirit of God does not view the saints in their mixed condition. where there is so much of flesh and failure. In this portion of the Scripture we are viewed abstractly as children of God, manifesting the nature derived from God as born of Him.)
1 John 3:2. The aged Apostle desires his beloved to realise that this amazing relationship of children of God is for their present enjoyment. There are blessings, reserved for the coming day, which could not be enjoyed now, saving in hope; but nothing is to be allowed to hinder our enjoyment of the Father's love in the closest possible way. What has been set apart for us in the coming day has never been publicly manifested — men have never seen it — but God has not left us in ignorance concerning it. In the day of Christ's manifestation in glory, we shall be like Him, even as the Son said to the Father, "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them … that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me." If John tells us that "We shall be like Him," Paul says that God has predestinated us to be "conformed to the image of His Son." Outside, in the day of display, we shall share the glory with the Lord Jesus; inside the Father's House we shall see Him as He is. There were those who saw the Lord in humiliation, here on earth; the day is coming when "every eye shall see Him;" but to see Him "as He is" has been reserved for those spoken of by the Son, when He prayed to the Father, "As to those that Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world."
1 John 3:3. This blessed hope has been given to us that we might be affected by it in our practical lives, for every one who has this hope in Christ purifies himself according to the divine standard of purity that is in Him. The living prospect in the soul of association in glory, and in the Father's House, with the Son of God will keep us free from the friendships and alliances of the world that crucified Him. Having forgotten its heavenly calling the church has sunk to the level of the world; and if individual Christians are ignorant of their glorious destiny, or if the power of it has been lost in their hearts, they will become mixed up with the world's system, lose the joys of communion with the Father and the Son, and lose sight of the divine standard of purity presented to us in Jesus.
1 John 3:4. If there are those on earth who practise righteousness (1 John 2:29) thus manifesting that they are God's children, there are also those who practise lawlessness. The natural man will not have the restraint imposed upon him by the will of God: he desires to exercise his own unbridled will, which in its nature is sin. The translation of the Authorised Version is faulty in the rendering "Sin is the transgression of the law." Romans 5:13-14 clearly teaches that there was sin in the world before the law came. The verse should read, "Every one that practises sin practises also lawlessness and sin is lawlessness."
1 John 3:5-6. In wondrous grace the Son of God, in Whom there was no sin, came to take our sins away, removing them from before God's face in perfect righteousness by the work of the cross. The principle of sin was never in His holy nature: He lived as Man before God in a pure, sinless nature, and this sinless nature has been communicated to the children of God in the new birth. All the sins committed by us in the old nature, Christ has taken away in the cross, and now we are before God in the holy nature of Him Who took our sins away. Because of this it can be said, "Whoever abides in Him does not sin." So long as we are in our mixed condition (having the nature derived from Adam, and the nature derived from God) there will be failure; but as we abide in Him, living in the consciousness of His love in dependence and communion, we shall he preserved from the working of the flesh. But it is normal for the Christian to abide in Him; and it is in our normal character that we are viewed in this passage. In contrast, the one who sins, the man who has not the divine nature, but only the flesh; he has not seen God or known Him. It is only in the divine nature that God can be seen and known; the power for this perception and knowledge are not in man's nature or being.
1 John 3:7-8. If the saints of God are not to be led astray they must understand that good cannot spring from an evil source or sin come from righteousness. So that one who practises righteousness manifests that he is righteous, and that he belongs to Him Who is righteous. He has the nature of God, being born of Him, for only in the life of God is it possible to manifest righteousness. This is how God sees the believer — in His own nature before Him — and this is how we are privileged to view ourselves as in the Son before the Father. But there is another family characterised by sin — the family of the devil. It was by one man that sin entered into the world, but from the very outset of sin the devil has sinned: its origin is connected with him. Alas! under the influence of the devil. man brought sin into the world. To undo the dreadful works of the devil in this world, the Son of God has come: and wherever we trace His footsteps we see this Blessed One in grace undoing what sin and Satan had wrought on the poor fallen sons of Adam. With joy we look forward to the day when the Lord shall display His final triumph over all the work of evil, and when naught but good shall be seen in the universe of God.
1 John 3:9-12. The nature possessed by one born of God is incapable of sin, and it is in this nature we are taken account of here. As horn of God, the child of God does not practise sin, for sin is not in the nature received from God; the seed of God which abides in him can only practise righteousness. Each family is known by its features: the divine family manifests righteousness and love: the family of the devil displays sin, hatred and murder. From the beginning of Christianity the disciples were exhorted by the Lord to love one another. How different was the spirit and nature of Cain who hated and slew his brother. The two families were readily discerned in Cain and Abel, Abel by his righteous works, Cain by his hatred. Our hearts might well he sad to see the divine seed and the seed of the devil in the first human family, and to think that the first man to receive a brother lifted up his hand against him in murder.
We may not always be able to detect the children of the devil, nor would it be right for us to speak of any as such without Scriptural warrant. The Lord Jesus could discern them, saying to some who had manifested themselves before Him, "Ye do the works of your father, ye are of the devil, as father, and ye desire to do the lusts of your father" (John 8:14, 44). Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, denounced Elymas the magician as "Full of all deceit and all craft: son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness" (Acts 13:10). In Matthew 13:38 we find "The sons of the evil one" in the tares, the seed sown by the enemy. There are children of the devil that can be readily detected by the spiritually minded; but we must remember that many a rebel child of disobedience, who might have been mistaken for a child of the devil, has been broken down under conviction of sin, and brought to repentance through the goodness of God. But it is well for us to know of the two families, whose natures are diametrically opposed, and to be able to trace to their sources the good and evil that are found in this world.
1 John 3:13-14. The aged apostle, who had learned something of the true nature of the world, warns his brethren of the world's hatred. Nor had he forgotten the words spoken by the Lord, "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on account of this the world hates you" (John 15:19). If we have the world's hatred because of Christ, how good to realise that we have been brought into a circle of divine love, and in this circle we love those that are loved of God. Love for the brethren, for those that Christ loves and calls "My brethren," is in the nature of every one born of God. The fact that they belong to the divine family calls forth the affection of the divine nature within us; so that no matter where we meet a child of God, the heart goes out instinctively to him; Christ being the bond of the affection that draws us together. This knowledge, this affection, is the proof to the believer that we have passed from death unto life; for the love that attracts us to each other is not in the life that we derived from Adam, but in the life that we have in the Son of God. We should not find ourselves together as saints of God if we had not passed from death unto life. The interests of the world in all their varied activities would engage us, if we had not passed from the realm of death into the world of life where we live in the knowledge of the love of God. When we think of the different circumstances of life, the different stations, occupations, mental capacities, etc., that mark the brethren, it becomes evident that the link that binds them together is not in nature, but rather in the life they have received from Christ.
1 John 3:15-17. Any one who has not this divine love has not divine life; he abides in death. Hatred to one in whom the life of Christ dwells is murder, and no murderer has eternal life dwelling in him. It is not here a Christian being buffeted for his faults, but of his being hated because he belongs to Christ, because of the effect produced in his life by the word of God, because of the manifestation of the same nature that came out in Christ. We see this in John 17:14. The practical effect of the word of God in the heart is to manifest that we belong to God, not to this world, and this brings out the world's hatred. Hatred to Christ and to those who are His could never be found in the heart where there is the knowledge of the Father and the Son; divine love and hatred to it could not co-exist in any heart. But it was not in the brethren that we learned love; we learned it in Him Who laid down His life for us on the cross. Love has been thus made known to us that it might be reproduced in us in a very real and practical way. Christ went even unto death for us; are we prepared to go to this extent for the brethren? We ought to! But we may not be called upon to go so far; it may be only to meet the needs of the brother we see to be in need. Divine love would never manifest itself in the shutting up of the bowels of compassion; but the rather in ministering to the known needs of the saints of God. Not that it would stop here; for if an enemy hungered, we should feed him.
1 John 3:18-22. But love is not to be confined to words, Written or spoken; it is to be real and active; deeds manifesting its true existence. It is in deeds that the reality of the truth we profess is proved to our own hearts, and that too in the presence of God. If we have not answered to God's commandments or word, when we go into His presence to pray we have a bad conscience; our heart condemns us. And if our heart knows all about our lack of practical love, does not God know? Yes, He is greater than the condemning heart; knowing all about the shutting up of the bowels of compassion, or whatever failure it might be. Is God going to listen to us if we have not answered the cry of need from the poor brother? We might try to deceive our hearts, but we cannot deceive God. But if we maintain a good conscience, that is, the heart not condemning, we can go with boldness into the presence of God, knowing that we shall receive the things asked for. What enables us to have a good conscience is keeping His commandments, and practising the things that are pleasing in the sight of God. There is no room for self‑seeking here; it is the normal walk of the Christian to be in the path of obedience, walking for the pleasure of God. Walking thus in communion with God for His pleasure, what would the heart desire from Him but that which it could use in His interests or enjoy in His company? This being so there could not be a doubt as to receiving the things that are asked of Him.
1 John 3:23. But what does God really require from us? Faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one to another. It is not enough for us to say that we once believed on the Lord Jesus; our life down here is to be lived in the faith of Him in Whom we first believed. Do we not have this exemplified in the Apostle Paul, when he said. "I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Him-self for me" (Gal. 2:20)? Our eye should never be taken off the Lord Jesus: He should ever be the object of the soul. God's commandment then for us is that we should ever have the Name of His Son before us in its abiding efficacy (as it is for His Name's sake our sins are forgiven), in its sweetness and power to hold the heart in communion with God, and to direct the steps through the present course of things during His absence. Moreover, His commandment is also that we love one another. When upon earth He had given this commandment to His disciples, saying, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12); and in verse 16 He has told us how this love is to be expressed. Doubtless it is to this verse in John 15, and also to John 13:34-35, that we are directed in the words, "even as He has given us commandment."
1 John 3:24. As we obey the divine commandments so shall we continue in communion with the Father and the Son, and so shall we represent the Lord Jesus in this world. To abide in Him is to have the consciousness of the place of blessing that is ours in the Son before the Father, to be in the sense of dependence for all that we need and desire; and thus to find our joy and pleasure in Him Who is the source of all good. If He abides in us we shall be in the enjoyment of His love, and the divine life that is ours in Him will manifest itself unhinderedly, so that we shall be here for Him, bearing fruit for the Father's pleasure. This blessed knowledge of God's dwelling in us is brought by the Spirit of God, for it is by the Spirit's presence that He abides in us. How wonderful then to know that we are children of God, and to have the prospect of being like Christ and seeing Him as He is; to know that we have a life of righteousness, love and obedience, and that we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to bring us into the joy and blessedness of our present portion.
1 John 4:1. Having spoken to his beloved children of the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to them that they might know that the Father and the Son dwelt in them, the aged Apostle warns them about the spirits that spoke through false prophets, who sought to lead them astray. Through these false teachers, the enemy endeavoured to introduce among the saints of God doctrines destructive of the foundations of Christianity. At the beginning, even as in these last days, there were "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ;" being actually Satan's ministers (2 Cor. 11:13-15). It is not enough for a professed servant of the Lord to claim that he is speaking by the Holy Spirit to be heard by the saints of God. Indeed, where such a claim was made there might be good ground for suspecting that the source of the ministry was not divine. The spirit by which one speaks must be subjected to the divine test. The false prophets of whom John speaks here had once been among the saints of God, but they had gone out into the world, manifesting by their apostasy that they did not really belong to the Christian circle (see 1 John 2:19). From without they still sought to influence those within.
1 John 4:2-3. Here is the divine test: what do the spirits, by whom the prophets speak, confess regarding the Person of Christ? The Spirit of God confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh: the evil spirits refuse to make this confession. Evil spirits will not acknowledge the true Manhood of the Lord Jesus, or confess His Personal greatness. They do not confess that Jesus Christ came in flesh, for this involves His pre-existence and His divine glory. Every man that was ever in this world, apart from the Son of God, commenced his existence in this world; but Jesus Christ came in flesh. Ever dwelling in the bosom of the Father, He came into this world as Man, taking Manhood in its fulness and perfection, so that we see in Him the fulness of the Godhead and the perfection of Manhood. While upon earth, evil spirits knowing Who Jesus was called Him "Son of the Most High God," but would never call Him Lord: and indeed Scripture tells us that no one speaking under the power of a spirit can say that Jesus is Lord unless by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).
It will always be found that these false prophets, anti-christian teachers, actuated by evil spirits, attack the precious truths contained in the statement "Jesus Christ come in flesh." Their doctrines attack or seek to undermine the very foundations of the Christian faith, being specially aimed at the Person of the Son of God. We need not be in personal touch with the spirits to test them; the utterances of the false prophets through whom they speak are readily available, and clearly disclose to the matured Christian their true origin. Modern spiritism can thus be tested; it is neither necessary nor desirable for believers to attend the seances to try the spirits; the utterances of the mediums bear eloquent testimony that the spirits who speak through them are not of God. Although the personal anti-christ has not yet come, the spirit and power by which he will speak was already in evidence in the days of the early church.
1 John 4:4. If there was the danger of the babes being led astray, John could remind the whole Christian company that they were of God: and that they had overcome the anti-christian teachers, because the Holy Spirit within them was greater than the spirit of anti-christ that was in the world. What a wonderful resource belongs to the Christian in the indwelling Spirit of God. Earlier, when speaking to the babes of the many antichrists, the Apostle had told them, Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things … the unction which ye have received from Him abides in you, and ye have not need that any one should teach you" (1 John 2:20, 27); now, in speaking of the gift of the Spirit to them, he tells them that He is greater than all the power of evil in the world. They had not fallen as victims to the false revelations, given by evil spirits, which pretended to be truth from the Spirit of God. That which they had heard from the beginning abode in them, so that they were abiding in the Son and in the Father; thus enjoying the eternal life that God had given them.
1 John 4:5. If those to whom the Apostle wrote were of God; those of whom he wrote were of the world — they belonged to the religious system of this world, which has Satan for its god. Because they belong to this world, they speak with a worldly voice and of worldly things; bearing withal a worldly character. It is not difficult for the true Christian to discern the character of those teachers who are unsound regarding the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ: he has just to listen to the character of the ministry, the substance of the teaching; and it will be found that the living Christ, known within the soul by the indwelling Spirit, is absent from their dissertations. Again, the world listens to such; and no wonder, if the substance and character of their teaching is of the world. Let the Christian note this well: if a preacher or teacher is popular with the men of the world, it is eloquent witness that he belongs to this world.
1 John 4:6. Now the Apostle adds, "We are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us." Here is another proof as to where men are: the first is, are they sound about the Person of Christ; the next is, will they hear the Apostles? That is, will they listen to the Scriptures as the word of God? We have not the Apostles in person today, but we have their writings; and these writings are the inspired Word of God. The Apostles are of God: He sent them forth; they had a divine commission from the Son of God, Who, in speaking to the Father said, "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." A man therefore manifests where he is by his attitude to what the Apostles have spoken. If they will not listen to the Apostles, they are not of God; they manifest themselves as of this world. With the knowledge of God in the heart, the one with divine life is instinctively drawn to the word of God ministered by the Apostles; this drawing power within him is the proof that he is of God, born of Him. Any one who makes the church a teacher, or who would make any individual or class exclusive interpreters of the Scriptures, is exposed as not of God, for we are called to listen directly to the Apostles, through the word God has given to us by them. From this, says the Apostle, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. As to the first test; it may not even be the denial of Jesus Christ come in flesh: but there is not the confession of it; the vital truth of Christianity is conspicuous by its absence from their teaching; whereas the Person of Christ, in all the greatness that belongs to Him in Godhead and Manhood forms the vital kernel of the doctrine announced among those who are of God. Similarly, as to the second test; there may not be the denial of the Apostles having the word of God: but there may be the ignoring of it, and the substitution of all kinds of human ideas for the word of the living God.
1 John 4:7. Love to one another is to be expressed, because love finds its origin in God Himself; and love can only be shown by those who are born of God and know God. We are directed to God as the source of love, not to ourselves or to others in the family of God. It is true that we possess the nature of God, the only nature in which love exists: but we do not look within for love's expression, or to seek its origin. We know God as the source of love; and know Him because we have His nature, for it is impossible to know God unless we live in the life of God, the life of love that we have derived from Him.
1 John 4:8. The one who does not love, has not known God, for God is love. This has nothing to do with amiability in man after the first order; or of natural love in any of its manifold expressions: it is a love that belongs to a different circle to that of man in old creation. Love is the nature of God: and the one who loves not has not this nature, nor does he know God; for the knowledge of God though found in what lies outside of ourselves, in the expression that God has been pleased to give of it, could not be in any who have not the nature derived from God. And it is this that gives character to this epistle: we must have the things of which the Apostle speaks to be able to recognise them and understand his reasoning about them. Hence the man who has not the life, the only life that can express love, is utterly incapable of knowing God in His nature of love. Earlier, in chapter 1 we learned that God is light: now it is that God is love. The perfection of purity, transparency, and the total absence of anything relating to darkness, marks the nature of God; that which thoroughly reveals what God is in the thoughts, desires and feelings of His heart towards us, withal exposing what man is in thorough contrast to God Himself. Now it is positively stated that God is love; here is the nature from which all God's activities in grace towards us spring; that which prompted every movement for the blessing of the creature, that which sought a family of children capable of responding to His deep affections.
1 John 4:9. We have been exhorted to love one another, because love is of God; now we learn how that love has been expressed towards us. In John 3:16 we see its expression towards the world: here it is manifested towards us; those who have believed on the Name of the Son of God. When we were without life, God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. How great the love that thought about us when there was not a movement in our hearts towards God: that sent the only Son of His bosom that His own life might be communicated to us, so that we might be able to enter into the thoughts of His heart and mind; that we might know, believe and answer to His own great love. How this draws out our affections to Him Who gave His Son for us; and binds our affections around Him Who came for the accomplishment of the will of God.
1 John 4:10. But we were not only in a state of death before God, unable to enter into His thoughts or do one thing that pleased Him; we were guilty sinners, having done many things displeasing to Him; ever having sought, in sin, to please ourselves. Love has come in to deal with our sins as well as with our state: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son a propitiation for our sins." Love is indeed of God, so richly, so perfectly made known towards us; manifested at infinite cost to Himself, and to His beloved Son. God's love has been measured in all its infinitude by the gift that it gave; measured in the unfathomable depths of sorrow and judgment into which His dear Son went to accomplish this great work of propitiation. The Son Himself is the propitiation, for all the wonderful efficacy of the atoning sacrifice abides in Him where He lives before the Father: Himself, as the propitiation, the abiding witness to God's infinite and eternal love. What sovereign love! There was not a single feeling of love towards God that prompted the love to send His Son: in our natural estate as guilty sinners we did not love Him: all originated in God's own heart; the work was completed on the cross that enabled God to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, long before we thought of Him.
1 John 4:11. Well does the Apostle say, "If God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another." What a motive to inspire the heart of the Christian! The Apostle does not say, Now that you have the divine nature you should love one another: no, he bids us look away from ourselves altogether to the wonderful expression of the love of God; the love that thought about us in all our ruin and need, in death and guilt; the love that made the fullest provision for our eternal blessing; the love that cost God His only begotten Son. In verse 7 we are exhorted, "Let us love one another:" now it is "If God has so loved us, we ought to love one another." We must not plead that there is no motive to love: what motive prompted the love of God towards us? The motive for us is surely that the God Who so loved us desires us to show our love to one another. We have been brought into a circle of divine affections, there to learn what love is in God Himself: and there to respond to that love in expressing it to one another.
1 John 4:12. This verse reminds us of John 1:18, where God the Father is declared in the only begotten Son Who dwells in His bosom. Now, says the Apostle, if we love one another, the God Who was revealed in Jesus will be seen in us. If God abides in us, will not His features be manifested in our lives? The same lovely traits that were seen in the Son of God will be seen in those in whom God dwells. Moreover, if God abides in us, His love will be perfected in us; His love will be consciously known in the heart in the way in which His Son made it known down here; for there could not be the manifestation of divine love to one another unless it was first known and enjoyed by us. Here we see the force of the passage, "Which thing is true in Him and in you" (1 John 2:8); the divine life that was known and manifested in love in the Son of God is known and manifested by those in whom God dwells by His Spirit.
1 John 4:13. If love to one another is the proof that God dwells in us, how blessed that we also have the knowledge of our abiding in Him and He in us. This knowledge is brought to us by the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 3:24, we know by the gift of the Spirit that God abides in us; here God gives us of His Spirit that we might know the blessedness of our place before Him, as being in Him; and also all that His abiding in us means. The thought of intimacy and communion seem to be more connected with the giving of His Spirit; it is the communication of the Spirit that knows all the deep feelings of His heart, all His thoughts and desires. And as receiving of His Spirit, we are enabled to enter into the thoughts, feelings and desires of the heart of God, and especially here in relation to His activities in grace towards men. Knowing God's thoughts, and knowing that He abides in us; our whole life and spirit would be formed and characterised by this knowledge, so that we would desire to be here for His will and pleasure.
1 John 4:14. It is because we have received of God's Spirit that we can say with the Apostle, "And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world." We know by the Spirit the thoughts of the heart of God; and the Spirit has given us the perception to discern God's mind in sending His Son into the world. The fact that we, who once were sinners of the Gentiles, have received the salvation of God, and have received the Spirit of God, evinces that the Son of God was not sent only for the salvation of the Jews, but that He might be the Saviour of the world. But this knowledge is not only ours in an objective way, like the Samaritans who said, "We have heard Him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world," it is ours, as having received of His Spirit, as knowing the love of God consciously in the heart,
1 John 4:15. But God abides in every believer, and every believer abides in God, for "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." What comfort and grace for the feeblest heart! There is no doubt that we enter into the good of these things in the measure of our obedience to the will of God; the more spiritual we are, the more shall we enjoy communion with God, and the more shall we represent practically in this world what God is. Still, it is the portion of every soul that confesses Jesus as the Son of God; it is ours because we believe; it is known because we have the Spirit of God; it is enjoyed in communion as we walk pleasing to Him. But the knowledge that we abide in God and God in us is a word for the conscience too. Are our ways in this world in consistency with this wonderful grace given to us, with the communion that is ours with God, with the privilege of manifesting His nature in testimony before men
1 John 4:16. And it is because God abides in us that we know the love that God has to us; it is brought consciously into the heart by the Holy Spirit; as we read in Romans 5, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." But it was in the giving of God's Son, in His death on the cross, that God's love was presented to us for faith; so that not only do we know the love that God has to us, but we believe it. We learned it first by faith; then we knew it by the Spirit in communion with God. In the Gospel the Apostle writes that we might believe; here, in writing to those who have believed, he speaks of the consciousness of the love in a known relationship with God. Thank God that we both have the faith and the conscious knowledge of His love; so that we find our enjoyment of it as we are occupied with its wonderful manifestation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and also as we are engaged with it in communion with God, Who is love. This is the second time that we read that "God is love." The love that God has to us proceeds from Himself, from His nature; so that if we abide in love we abide in God, and God abides in us. This is the third time we read of our abiding in Him and He in us. In verse 13 we have the knowledge of it by the Spirit; in verse 15 it is the portion of faith, of all who confess Jesus as Son of God; in this verse we have it practically as abiding in love. To abide in love; to be in the practical enjoyment of it, is to be in communion with God, Who is love; and to be expressing it in our lives for the pleasure of God.
1 John 4:17. God has not only communicated life to us, and forgiven our sins, to show how great His love to us is; He has also provided for the future in perfecting His love with us. Love has made complete provision, so that not a single bit of dread should remain in the heart. Looking forward to the day of judgment has no terrors for us; God has given us boldness in view of that day, having now given us His Son's place before Him. We have not to wait for the coming day to learn whether we are in God's favour or not; even now the very best place that He could give us is ours as His children. His children will never come into judgment; they are passed out of death into life; they abide in Him, and He abides in them. They could never be taken from the place of eternal love in which they enjoy communion with God to face a tribunal regarding the eternal destiny of their souls. The question of their sins was settled long before God took them into His favour and gave them, in love, the children's portion before His face. Indeed, He has already told them what they are going to be; they are going to be like Christ, and to see Him as He is. Why then should there ever be a bit of dread in the Christian's heart when he thinks of the day of judgment!
1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love; and it is in love that we are before God; we have learned that love in all that it has wrought for us in grace, and in its being perfected with us. Fear then has been dispelled from the heart, for love and fear cannot dwell together; and certainly not the perfect love that has provided for us from the beginning until the end. Any Christian who has fear has not been made perfect in love; he has not entered aright into the knowledge of the love of God. The Lord Jesus Christ died to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. If our souls realise this; and ponder before God in communion His love made manifest in that death, and which has brought us before Him into the nearest and dearest relationship, as His children, the torment brought by fear of judgment would for ever disappear. God's love is indeed a perfect love; perfect in every aspect in which it is viewed; perfect in its expression in the cross; perfect in regard to the place into which it has brought us; perfect in driving every bit of fear from the heart.
1 John 4:19. To the revelation of such love there has been, there is, a response from the heart of the believer; but it was divine love that produced this response — "We love because He has first loved us." The love of God is a cause-less love; the motive was in the heart of God; there was nothing in us on which God's eye and heart could rest with pleasure; it was altogether a sovereign love. That love, shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit, finds its response from the divine nature that God has given us, and is empowered by the same Spirit by which we know the love of God.
1 John 4:20. It is easy for one to say "I love God," but it is utterly false if there is hatred towards those who are born of God. Love's response is towards that which produced it, even to the nature of God, which is love; and this nature is in those who are born of God. What is seen in the brother (and here the brother is viewed normally, that is manifesting the nature of God) is what is of God; and if any love not what is seen in the brother, how can he love God? No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another God dwelleth in us. And it is this one hates if he hates his brother.
1 John 4:21. What naturally flows from the heart of the Christian, love towards his brother, is now commanded. It may not flow when the flesh is allowed; but it is the normal flow from the nature born of God. But it is given to us as a commandment so that the divine nature may find its joy in obeying the commandment in which it delights. Such a command could not be obeyed in the flesh, for the law plainly demonstrated that it was impossible for man in the flesh to love God or to love his neighbour as himself. Now we love God the fruit of His own grace towards us, and of His nature within us; and in the divine nature there is the capacity for loving our brother, and in the Holy Spirit the power for its expression. Hence the deep delight in having such a commandment from God.
1 John 5:1. The opening verse of this chapter reminds us of what is written in the First Chapter of John's Gospel, "As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to be children of God, to those that believe on His Name; who have been born — of God." Living faith in the Person of Jesus is the proof of a divine work in the soul, and it should be of immense comfort to every Christian to know that His faith evinces that he is a child of God. Earlier we learned that "every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him" (1 John 2:29) and "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit (practise) sin" (1 John 3:9). Faith in Jesus, believing that He is God's Christ is a third evidence of the new birth.
Anything in us that gives pleasure to God is the fruit of His own gracious work, so that we can say with the Apostle. "We love because He first loved us." We love God Who has so blessedly revealed Himself in love to us; we love the Son of God in Whom there has been the full and perfect expression of God; but the divine nature, derived of God not only flows out in responsive love to the Father and the Son, but also to every child of God. So that, what is commanded in 1 John 4:21 finds an answer from the heart of every member of the divine family. If the flesh is allowed, the expression of the divine love will be hindered, but love for every child of God exists in the divine nature communicated to every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 5:2. But our love to the children of God is tested by our attitude to God and His commandments. Love and obedience, as we have learned from earlier chapters, are the marks of the divine life that God has given to us. So that if we are to prove our love to God in love to His children, this could not be by acting inconsistently with the commandments of God; by disobeying any word that God has given to us to direct our steps through this world. It is quite wrong to plead love to the children of God in taking a course contrary to the word of God. Such a course might be taken in ignorance, or in self-will; but disobedience to the commandments of God is not a proof of love to the children of God under any circumstances or pretence. If we are disobedient to God how can we say that we love Him? And if for any action the motive is not love to God, how can we plead that it was in love for the children of God? Natural affection, and perhaps brotherly affection, might seduce us into a course contrary to God's will; but the spring of our action in either case is not the divine nature within us, not love to God expressed in obedience to Him. The importance of this divine principle cannot be exaggerated, for many beloved saints of God have gone astray through allowing natural relationships, Christian friendships, and such things, to walk in a path that was clearly contrary to the expressed mind and will of God. Many a one has pleaded his love to the saints of God as an excuse for actions that he knew were not in accordance with God's word. At all times, and in all circumstances, the heart should be searched before God as to whether the motives controlling the life and actions are love to God and obedience to His commandments.
1 John 5:3. Love of God is now expressly stated to be obedience to the commandments of God. In John 14 the Lord said to the disciples, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. … He that hath My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me. … If any one love Me, he will keep My word" (verses 15, 21, 23). Love is expressed in obedience; the greater the love, the more constant the obedience, the greater the desire to carry out the commands and desires of the heart of God. What God has asked us to do is not grievous to the divine life that He has given to us; nay, verily, it is what the divine nature finds pleasure in. The flesh does not like to obey, for the mind of the flesh is enmity with God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be (Rom. 8:7); but what is born of God delights in all that belongs to God, and God's commandments are for the securing in us of what brings glory to His Name.
1 John 5:4. It is good for us to be able to distinguish between what is in us as derived from Adam — the flesh, and what we are as born of God; "For all that has been begotten of God gets the victory over the world." The world appeals to the flesh within us, but there is nothing in us derived of God to which the world can appeal; for there is not the slightest response from the divine nature to the temptations of the world. All that is in the world is lust and pride, and these things do not exist in the life of God. But there is that which puts the Christian in touch with God's world, even our faith; and it is our faith which has gotten the victory over the world. Occupation with the Son of God, where He is in the glory of God, gives that power to secure the victory over the world. It is by faith that the Christian is able to view himself as dead to the world and all its principles, and as living in the Spirit's power for the will of God.
1 John 5:5. It is therefore in the divine nature, and in the energy of faith that victory over the world is procured; and those who live by faith, and who allow the divine nature to express itself freely, get the victory over the world. Therefore we read, "Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God." To believe that Jesus is the Christ is proof that we are born of God; to believe that Jesus is the Son of God is the way to victory over the world. Paul showed the way to victory over the world, saying "I am crucified with Christ — I live by the faith of the Son of God — far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 2:20; Gal. 6:14). Living by the faith of the Son of God enables us to see the world in its true character, and empowers us to take our true place in relation to it but also gives us the strength to live for Christ's glory in this world. The Gospel of John was written that "ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God:" and here we have what that faith secures for us. How great the effect of contemplating Jesus in the height of His glory as Son of God! It is thus He is presented to us in John's Gospel; the One Who though here upon earth ever dwelt in the Father's bosom: into whose hands the Father had given all things: Who as the eternal Word expresses all the mind and thought of God, whether in creation or in incarnation. As the eye of faith rests upon Him, and sees Him in all the glory of His Person as Son of God, we shall have the grace and strength to get the victory over the world. And how blessed to be permitted to hear Him say, just before the cross, "I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
1 John 5:6. The One Who enables us to get the victory over the world, the Son of God, Who lives in the glory of God, in coming into this world came by water and blood. He was Israel's Messiah, Jesus the Christ; but He came not only to bring moral purification to His people, He came to make atonement for sins. There was a wonderful ministry of the word of God through Him, that which attracted such as Peter to Him and held him — the words of eternal life; and others had to say, "Never man spake like this man." He came indeed by water, the refreshing, cleansing power of the word of God: and others, each according to the work and strength given by God, had come by water; such as Elias, when he turned Israel from the worship of Baal; Jonah, when he turned the Ninevites in repentance to God; and John Baptist, when he preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. But not one had ever, could ever, come by blood: could undertake to carry out a work of redemption for the glory of God and the blessing of the creature. Moses had, in great love for the people, asked God to blot him out of His book, if by this He could forgive them: but Moses, a poor sinner like ourselves, could not be accepted as a sacrifice to take away the sins of any.
At the cross, John had witnessed the "blood and water" coming from the side of Christ, dead upon the cross; and it is to this he doubtless refers when he speaks of "water and blood." In the death of Christ witness has been borne to the completion of the work that He undertook to do when He came by water and blood. He came to effectuate an abiding work of moral purification, and an abiding work of propitiation. On the basis of Christ's death, God can cleanse the sinner from the foul state of sin that is his as being in the flesh; and can take away the guilt of his sins, forgiving and cleansing from their defilement. So that the water brings before us the cleansing efficacy of the application of the death of Christ to the soul; and the blood speaks of the propitiation that meets all the claims of the throne of God in relation to our guilt, enabling God, in perfect righteousness, to take away our sins.
In relation to Jesus coming, the Spirit is the witness, for the Spirit is the truth. He is the witness to the fact that the Son of God has been here to accomplish this great work on the cross for the Father's glory, and that having accomplished it, the Father has glorified the Son and set Him down at His right hand in heaven. When the Son was here, He could say, "I am the truth:" now we have the Spirit brought before us as the truth. The Son was the One in Whom the truth was presented objectively, in testimony in the world before the eyes of men; all that was in the Son is brought into the hearts of the believer by the Spirit, Who is the truth. So that the truth is made known to us for faith in the Person of the Son: and the truth is made good in our hearts, consciously by the indwelling Spirit. Of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus said, "He shall bear witness concerning me" (John 15:26): and all that He speaks of in relation to the Son witnesses to the Father's pleasure in the work accomplished for His glory in Him Who came by water and blood.
1 John 5:8. The words of verse 7 are evidently an interpolation, for there is absolutely no need for any witness in heaven; witnesses are required for men on earth, not for unfallen angels, or for the redeemed in the presence of the Lord. On earth, God has given us three witnesses, each with its own peculiar testimony, but all agreeing to the establishing of the same thing, namely to directing our hearts to the Person of the Son of God, and to the fact that in Him we have eternal life. The witness of the Spirit we have already referred to: He has come from heaven, from the Son and from the Father, to assure our hearts regarding the perfection of the work completed on the cross, and witnessed in the glory given to the Son in the Father's presence. As a witness, the water assures the heart of the great work of cleansing, moral cleansing, wrought out by the Lord Jesus, secured in His death. If we think of the state of defilement of our nature, received from Adam; can that hinder our reception of divine blessing? The water that flowed from the side of Christ, dead upon the cross, assures the heart that moral purification, to meet this, has been made. Can our sins hinder us from being blessed of God? No! The witness of the blood is to a work, gloriously completed, by which God can freely forgive in righteous grace. Therefore do these three witnesses speak of the greatness of the work completed by the Son of God, and tell us there is nothing that can possibly hinder the blessing of eternal life being given to us.
1 John 5:9. Two or three witnesses are accepted by men for the establishing of any matter; it is a divine institution for men, both under law and in Christianity. Human witnesses may err, even if their veracity could not be called in question, for all men have their weaknesses and imperfections. But look at the divine witnesses! One is a divine Person, come from heaven to declare what He knows, what He has seen, and what He has heard. The other two witnesses have come from the side of Christ in death; come to tell us of all the love made manifest in that death, and of the greatness of the Person Who was able to tell out that love and to accomplish such a work. How wonderful the grace that has stooped to our weakness to bring before us three witnesses, thus to persuade our poor hearts regarding what He desires to tell us of. God's witness is greater than man's because of the character of His witnesses, and because of the matter He desires to establish before us. All three witnesses direct our thoughts and hearts to the Son of God. There is no other that God desires to bring before us: it is the Gospel of God, concerning His Son. He would have us know what His Son has accomplished for His glory on the cross, and the place that He fills in His presence.
1 John 5:10. The believer in the Son of God has this three-fold witness in him, for the presence of the Spirit in the believer brings into the heart, not only His own witness of the glorified Son in heaven, but also the truth witnessed by the other two. We have then the conscious assurance of the greatness of the Son of God, the conscious knowledge of the place that the Son of God fills and of the work that He has done. As believers on the Son of God we have the knowledge that faith in Him brings; as having the Spirit indwelling us we have the witness within, the conscious knowledge of what God presents to us concerning His Son. For men to refuse the witness of God is most serious; it is to make God a liar; and this is what those who refuse God's witness in the Gospel are doing. God, in wondrous grace, has sent His Spirit, to bring before men His witness concerning His Son; to spread the fame of His glory, and of the great work of the cross; and it is this men refuse when they turn from the Gospel; they act as if God was not telling them the truth.
1 John 5:11. This wonderful witness not only tells of the Son of God, but also of the eternal life that God has given to the believer in Him. In the power of the Spirit, the water and the blood speak to us of a life communicated that death cannot touch, for the Son of God has died to make that life available to us; and it is from His place in exaltation that He gives life eternal to all that the Father has given Him (John 17:2-3). All the wonderful love, made known to us in the Son and in the Father, came to light in the death of Christ; and it is of the Son of God in death that the water and the blood speak to us. But this eternal life that God has given to us is never spoken of as being in us; it is in His Son; it is where we can never lose it, and where we can ever enjoy it. We possess it in Him: it is God's gift to us; it doubtless abides in the believer (1 John 3:15); it is ours in present consciousness and enjoyment now; it shall be ours in heaven with the Son for evermore.
1 John 5:12. We could not possibly have life apart from the Son, for "He that hath the Son hath life." Eternal life is in God's Son, and in having the Son we have this life. In the Son we have everything that God could possibly give us; without the Son, we have nothing. We have the Son as our life, for the life that God has given us has its source and joys in Him; it could not be possessed or enjoyed apart from Him. All the springs, desires, affections and resources of the eternal life are in the Son; and it is in Him and in communion with Him and with the Father that we find the deep abiding pleasures that belong to the scene from whence the Son came and into which He has gone. If then the life consists of those things that abide and centre in the Son, it becomes clear that "He that has not the Son of God has not life." Such are without the knowledge of the Father, made known in the Son; they have not heard the life-giving voice of the Son by which the believer passes from death into life; the testimony concerning the Son of God has not been received in faith, so that they remain in the distance from God and from Him in Whom the life is.
1 John 5:13. The things written in the Gospel of John were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life in His Name; the things written in the epistle of John were written to those who believe on the Name of the Son of God that they might know that they have eternal life. The Gospel was written that we might believe and receive life: the epistle, that the believer might have the knowledge of the things in which eternal life consists; that they might have the conscious knowledge of the life that God has given to them. The purpose was not to assure a young convert that he had salvation (many Scriptures would enable us to do this); but to instruct believers in the truth of eternal life; that they might have the knowledge of the things that belong to the life that they possess in the Son of God. In 1 John 1 the Apostle shows that the life was manifested in the Person of the Son; that it was with the Father before its manifestation in this world; in 1 John 2, it was the promise of God to us, and was the portion of every babe in the family of God; in 1 John 3, it does not abide in a murderer; in 1 John 5, that God has given it to us, and that we have witnesses to this in the Spirit, the water and the blood; that we possess it in the Son. And apart from the specific mentions of it, we learn that it is our life as the children of God; that it is manifested in obedience, love and righteousness, God abiding in us; and that we enter into its joys in communion with the Father and the Son as abiding in God.
1 John 5:14. Possessing such a life, in which we enjoy communion with God, we are marked by boldness in the presence of God, a boldness evinced in the knowledge that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. We know the thoughts of God and the desires of His heart, therefore we know what is according to His will; and we know what to ask for its accomplishment. But even if there should be ignorance regarding His will, there is still the boldness to ask before God, to make our requests known to Him; and the assurance in the heart that God will know best what answer to give.
1 John 5:15. When however there is the certainty that the request is according to the will of God, and we know that God hears, we know that we shall receive the things that we have asked of God. In 1 John 3:21-22 our approach to God with boldness depends on the state of the conscience; here it is the knowledge that we are seeking the accomplishment of the will of God. There too we receive what we ask because we are walking in obedience to God, and doing the things that please Him; and this is really seeking God's will in good conscience. We know very well that if we are seeking something from God to carry out our own will, He will not hear us; in this our conscience would condemn us.
1 John 5:16. The things that we ask of God may not be for ourselves, as this verse shows. Here is the case of seeing a brother in sin; not a sin that necessitates his being removed from the scene of testimony in which he has dishonoured the Lord; but a sin from which he can he recovered to take part in the testimony of God again. How great the privilege to seek before God the restoration of such; to ask the Lord to restore to health and strength one who has been laid low because of serious failure; and to have the conviction, yea, the assurance from God that there will be restoration. God is the giver of life, the One Who recovers; but the recovery is given to the erring one through him who intercedes with God on his behalf. But there are cases that are so serious that God must remove the offender from the earth. Ananias and Sapphira were two such; also those of whom we read in 1 Corinthians 11:30, "On this account … a good many are fallen asleep." It is not any particular sin that is in question, but one that God deems of such a character that the brother can no longer be left on earth to represent Him before the world. It may be that the offender knows that God is taking him away; but no doubt the Lord will make plain to those in close touch with the brother, and who are in communion with Him about him, what His mind is.
1 John 5:17. Every act of unrighteousness is sin: it is inconsistent with the nature and character of Him Who has called us by grace to be for His glory in this world. But not every sin is so heinous in God's sight as to require the removal of the sinner by death. The case mentioned in James 5:14-15 is of a sin not unto death; indeed there the discipline may or may not be because of sin. Many have lied since the days of Ananias, and many have behaved disorderly in the assembly since the early days at Corinth, and have not been removed in consequence; it is not any special sin that determines whether it is or is not a sin unto death, but rather the circumstances in which the sin is committed, and perhaps the motive and state of the one who commits the sin.
1 John 5:18. If the flesh is allowed, sin is the result; but sin comes from the flesh, from what is derived from Adam, and not from what is derived from God. As born of God we do not sin; there is nothing in the divine nature that sin can appeal to, nothing that the wicked one can touch. The wicked one was able to touch Adam, to entice him from obedience to the word of God; but he cannot do anything with the one that is born of God. With this knowledge, our safety lies in keeping the flesh in the place of death, for it is only through the flesh that the enemy can work; he has neither influence nor power over the divine nature, he cannot touch it, or touch us while living in the divine nature, in communion with God.
1 John 5:19. We know that the Christian company is of God, and entirely apart from the world which lies in the wicked one. The divine family in its nature and life belongs to God, and the affections, joys and relationships that God has given them belong to heaven. All that is in the world's system comes from its god and prince: the world, in all its varied parts, lies in the grip and power of Satan. What a great contrast between that which is of God, and the world! What is of God is eternal, is in the light, and is marked by love and righteousness; the world, which lies in the wicked one, is under sentence of divine judgment, and is passing; it is in darkness, and is marked by hatred and sin.
1 John 5:20. Not only do we believe that the Son of God has come; we know it. Our whole life down here is regulated and controlled by this knowledge. There never could have been the least responsive love to God, we could not have said Abba, Father, we never could have enjoyed communion with God, or known what it was to abide in Him and He in us, if the Son of God had not come. Eternal life with all its joys; the fellowship that we have with one another; the gift of the Holy Spirit; yea, all that we have and enjoy from God depends on the coming of the Son of God; and all these things give us the knowledge that the Son of God has come. It is the enjoyment of the blessings and privileges of Christianity that enables us to realise that the new life in which we thus live originated for us in the coming of the Son of God. From the Son of God we have the capacity, and ability to know God; and we know Him as revealed in Jesus as He that is true; One in Whom we can have the fullest confidence, on Whom we can ever rely. And our place before God is in Him that is true, even in His dear Son; so that we bear His character before God, and share His joys. Yet must we never forget the greatness of the Person in Whom we are thus blessed, for in His own glory He possesses what can never be communicated to others, what belongs to Him in the Godhead. But He is also the eternal life; and this eternal life of which He is Personally the expression; and which subsists in Him, He has communicated to us, that we might enter into its reality with Himself and with the Father.
1 John 5:21. With such a blessed Person as the object for our souls, and with such heavenly joys to engage the heart, why should we ever allow anything to displace the Son of God from His true place in our hearts; for an idol is anything that challenges Christ's right to fill the heart. The idol may be something right in itself, something that the affections are rightly engaged with, something that engages us in providing for daily needs, but if it holds an undue place in the heart, and displaces Christ, it becomes an idol.
Wm. C. Reid.