The Apostle John was the last of the inspired penmen of the Holy Scriptures. He lived long enough to witness serious departure from the truth amongst professing Christians. Sorrowfully he wrote, “Even now are there many anti-christs; whereby we know that it is the last time.”
In this epistle attention is earnestly called to what is fundamental and basic, to that which is essential and of primary importance, that which, thank God, can never fail. His theme is light, love and life. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” therefore those who seek to walk with Him must be holy and walk according to the light.
Again, “God is love,” a fact twice repeated. Here is a sublime height of divine knowledge, never attained by any heathen or secular seeker after God, but reached by a simple fisherman, whose heart was illuminated by the grace of God, and who was inspired by the Spirit of God to put this revelation on record for us.
Then further, he bears witness and shows to us, “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us;” and he declares, “this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” All this is indeed a glorious presentation to us of God in Christ, and it has reached us in order that heavenly joy may fill our hearts.
In this epistle the saints are addressed as the children of God, though in our Authorized Version the word is sometimes translated as “son;” just as also the distinction between “children” and “little children” is not carefully observed. The former term indicates the whole family of God: the latter those in the family who are spiritually the youngest and least mature. The passages where the words, “little children,” occur, which should really be, “children,” are chapter 2:1, 12, 28; chapter 3:7, 18; chapter 4:4; and chapter 5:21. The contexts of these passages help us to see the point. In the first of them for instance, it is simple to realize that exhortation not to sin is one that embraces not one class only, but the whole family of God.
In reading this epistle we are struck also by the large number of verbs ending in “s” and “es.” Here are a few samples, taken from the first two chapters—cleanses, shines, hates, loves, walks, knows, goes, abides, passes, does, denies, teaches; and there are many more. There is no other book in the Bible, characterized by such a profusion of verbs in this particular form; which usually expresses a characteristic and continuous state, though occasionally it may indicate a solitary fact, which is characteristic.
As an illustration of this latter meaning, take the first verb quoted above. The blood of Jesus Christ “cleanses from all sin.” This is a fact. It is a solitary fact, for there is nothing else that can cleanse from sin. It is a characteristic fact, since it is the inherent property, or virtue of the blood of Christ.
On the other hand there is he that “believes that Jesus is the Christ,” and “that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” It would be a very sad thing if we thought that this believing and confessing was something that happened once, which sufficed to cover an after-life of indifference and silence as far as confession of Him was concerned. Here is rather a continuous state characterized by a lively faith in Christ and a lifetime of confession, either orally or, above all, by the testimony of a consistent Christian life.
This belief has altered our whole outlook, our life, our relation to our Lord, hence our confession of Him, which leads to a life of obedience, since, “he that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him” (3:24); for we are committed to a continuous life and state of obedience. Then we know that “He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.” The keeping, the dwelling, the abiding, all indicate states which are continuous.
But then this leads to love on our side, firstly to God and then to all His children, since, “every one that loves Him that begat loves him also that is begotten of Him.” The Apostle makes much of this, and he always uses the stronger of the two words used in the New Testament, that are translated “love.” This love is the nature of God, and has become the characteristic feature of those who are born of Him.
As to the second coming of our Lord, John mentions it with a practical end in view, at the beginning of his third chapter. We are now the children of God, but what we are going to be is not yet manifested; it will be when He is manifested, and then we shall be like Him. We have this hope in Him, and consequently it affects us. He who has this hope in Him, “purifies himself, even as He is pure.” Here again is a continuous process, leading to a settled state. It is well for each of us to pay diligent heed to such a challenge as this.
The Apostle John also sounded a solemn warning. Departure from the truth is always connected with unsound doctrines as to the Person and work of our beloved Lord. There was a section in the early church who held and taught that our Lord was not a real Man, but only an apparition in the likeness of a man. This was anti-Christian teaching, but there was evidently still power in the early church, sufficient to cause such teachers to depart from the Christian assembly. They went out, as stated in verse 19 of chapter 2, and thus made it clear that they had no part amongst true Christians.
These people were called Gnostics, a name derived from the Greek word for knowledge. They professed to be “the knowing ones,” whereas their teaching was anti-Christian and blasphemous. It was this that led the Apostle to instruct the saints to “try the spirits, whether they are of God.” Its warning to us is that we beware of theological novelties, and that we rely on what has been made known from the outset. The word is, “ Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (2:24).
For us also there is the happy assurance that we—even the “little children”—have the anointing, which is the indwelling of the Spirit of God. And to this the Apostle adds the assurance that, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” There are spirits that are in the world, and the world hears them, but so it is not to be with us. “He that knows God hears us;” the “us” being the inspired apostles, who had known the truth from the beginning, of whom John was the last survivor. Herein lies happy and blessed guidance for us in a difficult day, late in the church’s history.
The epistle has a truly magnificent finish. We are established in what we know, as revealed in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And He who is true is the One in whom we are, and in whom we stand. And He is THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE.
Anything that would divert us from HIM, or take the place in our hearts that belongs solely to HIM, is an idol. May we and all the beloved children of God be preserved from the assaults of our wily foe, through modern “knowing ones,” who abound today. Our Lord said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).