PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John
Alexander, William · 110,912 words · 190 reading sections
_The Influence Of The Great Life Walk A Personal Influence._
And hereby we do know that we have knowledge of Him, if we observe His commandments. He that saith I have knowledge of Him and observeth not His commandments is a liar, and in this man the truth is not. But whoso observeth His word verily in this man the love of God is perfected. Hereby know we that we a…
363 wordsSECTION 62I.
The importance of _example_ in the moral and spiritual life gives emphasis to this canon of St. John. Such an example as can be sufficient for creatures like ourselves should be at once manifested in concrete form and susceptible of ideal application. This was felt by a great but unhappily anti-christian thinker, the…
884 wordsSECTION 63I.
"In the hour of need Of your fainting dispirited race, Ye like angels appear! Languor is not in your heart, Weakness is not in your word, Weariness not on your brow. Eyes rekindling, and prayers Follow your steps as ye go. Ye fill up the gaps in our file, Strengthen the wavering line, Stablish, continue our m…
540 wordsSECTION 64Ii.
It should be clearly understood that in the words "even as He walked," the Gospel of St. John is both referred to and attested. For surely to point with any degree of moral seriousness to an example, _is_ to presuppose some clear knowledge and definite record of it. No example can be beautiful or instructive when its …
289 wordsSECTION 65Iii.
The character of Christ in his Gospel is thus, according to St. John, the loftiest ideal of purity, peace, self-sacrifice, unbroken communion with God; the inexhaustible fountain of regulated thoughts, high aims, holy action, constant prayer. We may advert to one aspect of this perfection as delineated in the fourth G…
880 wordsSECTION 66Iv.
There is one word of encouragement which should be finally spoken for the sake of one class of God's servants. Some are sick, weary, broken, paralysed, it may be slowly dying. What--they sometimes ask--have we to do with this precept? Others who have hope, elasticity, capacity of service, may walk as He walked; but we…
487 wordsSECTION 67Notes.
Ch. ii. 3-11. Ver. 4. _A liar._] There are many things which the "sayer" says by the language of his life rather than by his lips to others: many things which he says to himself. "We lead ourselves astray" (i. 8). We "say" I have knowledge of Him, while yet we observe not His commandments. Strange that we can lie to t…
635 wordsSECTION 68Greek. Latin.
[167] "Nomen facile supplent credentes, plenum pectus habentes memoriâ Domini."--_Bengel_. [168] Εκεινος in our Epistle belongs to Christ in every place but one where it occurs (1 John ii. 6, iii. 3, 5, 7, 16, iv. 17; cf. John i. 18, ii. 21). It is very much equivalent to our reverent usage of printing the pronoun whi…
359 wordsSECTION 69Another Version.
Brethren, I write Beloved, no new no new commandment commandment write I unto you, but an old unto you, but an old commandment which commandment which ye had from the beginning. ye had from the beginning: The old commandment the old commandment is the word is the word which ye have heard which ye heard. Again, …
374 wordsSECTION 70Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Γραφω ὑμιν, τεκνια, Scribo vobis, filioli, ὁτι αφεωνται ὑμιν αι quoniam remittentur ἁμαρτιαι δια το ὁνομα vobis, peccata propter αυτου. γραφω ὑμιν, πατερες, nomen eius. Scribo ὁτι εγνωκατε τον vobis, patres, quoniam απ' αρχης. γραφω ὑμιν, cognovistis eum qui νεανισκοι, ὁτι νενικηκατε ab initio est. Scribo τον πο…
590 wordsSECTION 71_The World Which We Must Not Love._
I am writing unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I am writing unto you, fathers, because ye have knowledge of Him who is from the beginning. I am writing unto you, young men, because ye are conquerors of the wicked one. I have written unto you, little children, beca…
302 wordsSECTION 72I.
In the writings of St. John the world is always found in one or other of four senses, as may be decided by the context. (1) It means the creation,[180] the universe. So our Lord in His High-priestly prayer--"Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world."[181] (2) It is used for the earth _locally_ as the place wh…
1,369 wordsSECTION 73I.
These three typical summaries of the evil tendencies in the exercise of free-will correspond with a remarkable fulness to the two narratives of trial which give us the compendium and general outline of all human temptation. Our Lord's three temptations answer to this division. The lust of the flesh is in essence the r…
511 wordsSECTION 74Iii.
We may now be in a position to see more clearly against _what_ world the Primate of early Christendom pronounced his anathema, and launched his interdict, and why? _What_ "world" did he denounce? Clearly _not_ the world as the creation, the universe. Not again the earth locally. God made and ordered all things. Why s…
708 wordsSECTION 75Iii.
But there is such a thing as the world in St. John's sense--an evil world brought into existence by the abuse of our free-will; filled by the anti-trinity, by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Let us not confuse "the world" with the earth, with the whole race of man, with general so…
768 wordsSECTION 76Footnotes:
[179] After all deductions for the lack of accurate and searching textual exegesis, perhaps Bossuet's "Traité de la concupiscence, ou Exposition de ces Paroles de Saint Jean, 1 John ii. 15-17" (_Œuvres de Bossuet_, Tom. vii., 380-420), remains unrivalled. [180] The word κοσμος originally signified ornament (chiefly pe…
435 wordsSECTION 77_Use And Abuse Of The Sense Of The Vanity Of The World._
"The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."--1 JOHN ii. 17. The connection of the passage in which these words occur is not difficult to trace, for those who are used to follow those "roots below the stream," those real rather than verbal links latent in the sub…
357 wordsSECTION 78I.
There can be no doubt, then, that up to a certain point this conviction is a necessary element of Christian thought, feeling, and character; that it is at least among the preliminaries of a saving reception of Christ. There is in the great majority of the world a surprising and almost incredible levity. There is a dis…
690 wordsSECTION 79Ii.
But we have not sounded the depth of the truth--certainly we have not exhausted St. John's meaning--until we have asked something more. Is this conviction alone always a herald of salvation? Is it always, taken by itself, even salutary? Can it never be exaggerated, and become the parent of evils almost greater than tho…
689 wordsSECTION 80Ii.
Some two thousand five hundred years ago, towards the end of the seventh century before Christ, at the foot of the mountains of Nepaul, in the capital of a kingdom of Central India, an infant was born whom the world will never forget. All gifts seemed to be showered on this child. He was the son of a powerful king and …
655 wordsSECTION 81Ii.
For let us carefully note that St. John adds a qualification which preserves the balance of truth. Over against the dreary contemplation of the perpetual flux of things, he sets a constant course of _doing_--over against the _world_, God in His deepest, truest personality, "_the will of God_"--over against the fact of …
656 wordsSECTION 82Ii.
Let us take our verse together as a whole and we have something better than moralising over the flight of time and the transitoriness of the world; something better than vulgarising "vanity of vanities" by vapid iteration. It is hard to conceive a life in which death and evanescence have nothing that enforces their re…
660 wordsSECTION 83Notes.
Ch. ii. 12-17. Ver. 12, 13, 14. These verses cannot properly be divided so as to embrace three departments of spiritual, answering to three departments of natural, life. All believers are addressed _authoritatively_ as "children" in the faith, _tenderly_ as "little children;" then subdivided into two classes only, "fa…
453 wordsSECTION 84Footnotes:
[203] παραγεται. It has been said that this is not the real point; that what St. John here describes is not the general attribute of the world as transitory, but its condition at the moment when the Epistle was written, in presence of the manifestation of "the kingdom of God, which was daily shining forth." But surely …
446 wordsSECTION 85Greek. Latin.
Παιδια, εσχατη ωρα Filioli, novissima εστιν· και καθως ηκουσατε hora est: et sicut audistis ὁτι ὁ αντιχριστος quia antichristus ερχεται, και νυν αντιχριστοι venit, nunc autem antichristi πολλοι γεγονασιν· multi facti sunt, ὁθεν γινωσκομεν unde scimus quia ὁτι εσχατη ὡρα εστιν. novissima hora est. Εξ ἡμων εξηλθαν…
437 wordsSECTION 86Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Little children, it is Little children, it is the last time: and as the last hour: and as ye have heard that ye heard that antichrist antichrist shall come, cometh, even now have even now there are there arisen many many antichrists; antichrists; whereby whereby we know that we know that it is the it is the last…
587 wordsSECTION 87Another Version.
Little children, it is a last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, so now many antichrists are in existence; whereby we know that it is a last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us: but that they might be made manifest h…
297 wordsSECTION 88_Knowing All Things._
"But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things."--1 JOHN ii. 20. There is little of the form of logical argument to which Western readers are habituated in the writings of St. John, steeped as his mind was in Hebraic influences. The inferential "therefore" is not to be found in this Epistle.[213] Y…
712 wordsSECTION 89_Knowing All Things._
(2) Antichrist is also refuted by a principle common to the life of Christians and by its result. The principle by which he is refuted is a gift of insight lodged in the Church at large, and partaken of by all faithful souls. A hint of a solemn crisis had been conveyed to the Christians of Asia Minor by secessions fr…
764 wordsSECTION 90_Knowing All Things._
We should observe in what spirit and to whom St. John speaks. He does not speak in the strain which would be adopted by a missionary in addressing men lately brought out of heathenism into the fold of Christ. He does not like a modern preacher or tract-writer at once divide his observations into two parts, one for the…
707 wordsSECTION 91_Knowing All Things._
This profound saying is therefore chiefly true of Christians as a whole. Yet each individual believer may surely have a part in it. "There is a teacher in the heart who has also a chair in heaven." "The Holy Spirit who dwells in the justified soul," says a pious writer, "is a great director." May we not add that He is …
364 wordsSECTION 92Notes.
Ch. ii. 18-28. Ver. 18. A _last hour_,] εσχατη ὡρα. "Hour" is used in all St. John's writings of a definite point of time, which is also providentially fixed. (Cf. John xvii. 1; Apoc. iii. 3.) In something of this elevated signification Shakespeare appears to employ the word in _The Tempest_ in relation to his own lif…
664 wordsSECTION 93Footnotes:
"If you compare these three with the eight foregoing verses, you shall find them to be a summary repetition of what is there more largely delivered. There are three hinges upon which the precedent discourse turneth, namely, the peril of antichristian doctrine, the benefit of the Spirit's unction, the duty of perseveran…
652 wordsSECTION 94Footnotes:
[219] Ver. 19. [220] Bingham's _Antiquities_, i., 462-524, 565. [221] For other instances of this characteristic, see a subject _introduced_ ii. 29, _expanded_ iii. 9--another subject _introduced_ iii. 21, _expanded_ v. 14. [222] το αυτου χρισμα, ver. 27, _not_ το αυτο ("the same anointing," A. V.) "This most unusua…
256 wordsSECTION 95Greek. Latin.
εαν ειδητε ὁτι Si scitis quoniam δικαιος εστιν, γινωσκετε ὁτι iustus est, scitote quoniam πας ὁ ποιων την δικαιοσυνην omnis qui facit εξ αυτου γεγεννηται. iustitiam ex ipso natus Ιδετε ποταπην αγαπην est. Videte qualem δεδωκεν ἡμιν ὁ πατηρ, ἱνα caritatem dedit nobis τεκνα Θεου κληθωμεν, και Pater ut filii Dei nom…
361 wordsSECTION 96Authorised Version. Revised Version.
If ye know that He If ye know that He is righteous, ye know is righteous, ye know that every one that that every one also doeth righteousness is that doeth righteousness born of Him. Behold, is begotten of what manner of love Him. Behold, what the Father hath bestowed manner of love the upon us, that Father hath…
463 wordsSECTION 97Another Version.
If ye know that He is righteous, ye are aware that every one who is doing righteousness is born of Him. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God;--and we are. Because of this the world knoweth us because it knew not Him. Beloved, now are we chil…
250 wordsSECTION 98Notes.
Ch. ii. 29, iii. 9. III. ver. 2. "_Hope fixed in Him_" or "_on_ Him."] The English reader should note the capital letter; not hope in our hearts, but hope unfastened from self. Επι σοι Κυριε ηλπισα, is the LXX. translation of Psalm xxx. 1. _Is ever purifying himself._] "See how he does not do away with freewill; for …
761 wordsSECTION 99Notes.
Ver. 6. _That He might destroy the works of the devil._] The word here used for Satan (διαβολος) is found in John vii. 70, viii. 44, xiii. 2; Apoc. ii. 10, xii. 9, 12, xx. 2, 10. One class of miracles is not specifically recorded by St. John in his Gospel--the dispossession of demoniacs. Probably this terrible afflicti…
689 wordsSECTION 100Greek. Latin.
The rest of this verse is interpreted in the Discourse upon 1 John v. 4. Εν τουτω φανερα εστιν In hoc manifesti sunt τα τεκνα του Θεου και filii Dei et filii diaboli. τα τεκνα του διαβολου. Omnis qui non est Πας ὁ μη ποιων δικαιοσυνην iustus non est ex Deo, ουκ εστιν εκ του et qui non diligit Θεου, και ὁ μη αγαπω…
564 wordsSECTION 101Authorised Version. Revised Version.
In this the children In this the children of God are manifest, of God are manifest, and the children of the and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness not righteousness is is not of God, neither not of God, neither he he that loveth not his that loveth not his brother…
639 wordsSECTION 102Another Version.
In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil: every one who is not doing righteousness is not of God, neither he that is not loving his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that ye should love one another. Not as Cain was of the wicked one and slew hi…
335 wordsSECTION 103_Lofty Ideals Perilous Unless Applied._
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down, our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not l…
467 wordsSECTION 104Ii.
We have here love in its idea, "hereby know we love." Rather "hereby know we _The Love_."[242] Here the idea of charity in us runs parallel with that in Christ. It is a subtle but true remark,[243] that there is here no logical inferential particle. "Because He laid down His life for us," is not followed by its natura…
708 wordsSECTION 105Iii.
We have next the characteristics of love in action. "My sons; let us not love in word nor with the tongue; but in work and truth." There is love in its energy and reality; in its effort and sincerity--active and honest, without indolence and without pretence. We may well be reminded here of another familiar story of St…
313 wordsSECTION 106Iv.
This passage supplies an argument (capable, as we have seen in the Introduction, of much larger expansion from the Epistle as a whole) against mutilated views, fragmentary versions of the Christian life. There are four such views which are widely prevalent at the present time. (1) The _first_ of these is _emotionalis…
789 wordsSECTION 107Iv.
Now, as we have said above, in distinction from all these fragmentary views, St. John's Epistle is a survey of the completed Christian life, founded upon his Gospel. It is a consummate fruit ripened in the long summers of his experience. It is not a treatise upon the Christian affections, nor a system of doctrine, nor …
777 wordsSECTION 108Iv.
For of work for our fellow man it is that the question is asked half despairingly--"whoso hath this world's good, and seeth" (gazes at)[252] "his brother have need, and shutteth up his heart against him, how doth the love of God[253] dwell in him?" Some can quietly look at the poor brother; they see _him_ in need, but …
576 wordsSECTION 109Notes.
Ch. iii. 12-21. Ver. 12. A second reference to the Book of Genesis within a few lines (see ver. 8). It is characteristic of the historical spirit of St. John that he does not entangle himself with the luxuriant upgrowth of wild fable in which traditional Judaism has ever enveloped the simple narrative of Cain and Abel…
760 wordsSECTION 110Footnotes:
[230] Ver. 11. [231] John xv. 12-17. See also the stress laid upon the unity of believers; surely including love as well as doctrine in the great High-Priestly prayer, John xvii. 21-23. [232] "The message that ye heard _from the beginning_," conf. 1 John ii. 24. [233] "Contrariorum eadem est scientia." [234] This i…
555 wordsSECTION 111Greek. Latin.
Αγαπητοι, μη παντι Carissimi, nolite omni πνευματι πιστευετε, spiritui credere, sed αλλα δοκιμαζετε τα probate spiritus si ex πνευματα, ει εκ του Deo sint, quoniam multi Θεου εστιν· ὁτι πολλοι pseudoprophetæ exierunt ψευδοπροφηται εξεληλυθασιν in mundum. In εις τον κοσμον. hoc cognoscitur spiritus εν τουτω γινωσ…
258 wordsSECTION 112Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Beloved, believe not Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the every spirit, but prove spirits whether they the spirits whether are of God: because they are of God; because many false prophets many false prophets are gone out into the are gone out into world. Hereby know the world. Hereby ye the Spirit of G…
315 wordsSECTION 113Notes.
Beloved, believe not any spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and thi…
327 wordsSECTION 114Greek. Latin.
Αγαπητοι, αγαπωμεν Carissimi, diligamus αλ ληλους, ὁτι ἡ αγαπη invicem, quoniam caritas εκ του Θεου εστι, και ex Deo est, et πας ὁ αγαπων εκ του omnis qui diligit ex Θεου γεγεννηται και Deo natus est et cognoscit γινωσκει τον Θεον· ὁ Deum. Qui non μη αγαπων ουκ εγνω diligit non novit Deum, τον Θεον· ὁτι ὁ Θεος q…
678 wordsSECTION 115Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Beloved, let us love Beloved, let us love one another: for love one another: for love is of God; and every is of God; and every one that loveth is born one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth of God, and God. He that loveth knoweth God. He not knoweth not God; that loveth not knoweth for God is love. In …
754 wordsSECTION 116Another Version.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God in us, because that God hath sent His Son His only begotten Son into the world that we might live thr…
392 wordsSECTION 117_Boldness In The Day Of Judgment._
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."--1 JOHN iv. 17. It has been so often repeated that St. John's eschatology is idealized and spiritual, that people now seldom pause to ask what is meant by the words. Those who repeat them m…
298 wordsSECTION 118I.
We examine the general conception of "the Day of the Judgment," as given in the New Testament. As there is that which with terrible emphasis is marked off as "_the_ Judgment,"[261] "_the_ Parousia," so there are other judgments or advents of a preparatory character. As there are phenomena known as mock suns, or haloes…
656 wordsSECTION 119I.
Clear and plain above all such subtleties ring out the awe-inspiring words: "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment;" "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."[269] Reason supplies us with two great arguments for the General Judgment. One from the conscience of history, so to …
661 wordsSECTION 120Ii.
In dealing with many of the articles of the creed, there are opposite extremes. Exaggeration leads to a revenge upon them which is, perhaps, more perilous than neglect. Thus, as regards eternal punishment, in one country ghastly exaggerations were prevalent. It was assumed that the vast majority of mankind "are destine…
662 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.