(3) Closely akin to Truth is Witness (tuiprvpla). This idea is never absent from St. John's mind, particularly in the earlier part of his Gospel. Every event in histciy, cvcrv i'\)H'rii-TMr. is valu- ableasa witness to tin- iiuili, ('Im-i i^ ilic centre, to whose Person ami rhiiniN i \ ciy thin:; testifies. The Father bears \Mliies, lonteniiiig Christ. Christ bears, and yet does not bear, witness con- cerning Himself (5^' contrasted with 8") ; the Spirit mil bear witness concerning Him (15-°; cf. 1 Jn 5" ' it is the Spirit that beareth witness, be- cause the Spirit is truth ') ; John the Baptist and the disciples bear witness (1' 15^); especially the Evangelist himself (19^^ 21=''); the Scriptures bear witness (o*^- *) ; and lastly, the ' works ' of Christ bear witness (10-'' 14^^). The 'witness,' therefore, is found in every avenue through which the truth can reach us. Converging from all sides upon the Person of Christ, it is the means of progressive initiation {Iva -yvCiTe koX yiyvda-KiiTc, l(f^) into the whole truth — that is to say, into the knowledge and \o\e of Christ. The contradiction in 3" and S'J is oiilv |i:iitiallv i'\|ilained. Christ makes a inii.|n.' ihiiiii loi liiiiisplt" (in 8"), as having full kimw Icil^r <>{ iKi^t, ]iirMMit, and future.
(4) Li(//if {<!w).- -When the First Epistle, putting into terse and <lefinite phrases the teaching of the Gospel, says that ' God is light' (1 Jn 1°), it means, in modern language, that it is the nature of God to communicate Himself. This self ■oniiiiiiunicatiim is eft'ected tlirougli the Logos as tln' iiriii(i|>li< of life. 'The life was the light of men ' i Ml ( 'hrist is 'the true light which lighteth every man as it comes into the world.' There is not mucli loom for doubt that this is the right translation of 1". The ' coming ' Ls repeated or continues ; cf . 9" ' whenever (STav) I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' The Evangelist certainly asserts that there were earlier partial Chri.stophanies, as there will be later and even greater Christophanies through the Spirit. And yet there is a sense in which Jesus could say, 'Yet a little while is the light with you' (12»=).
(5) The tight converges upon one ])oint, where it shines forth as Glori/ (56|a), anotlier very charac- teristic word. Christ was in glory with the Father l)efore the world was (17') ; an important pas,sage as negativing the pantheistic conception that tlie Word is only the life and light of the world — that tlie world is the complete and only exiiression of His being. He was incarnate to 'glorify' the Father on the earth (17°), and thereby was also glorified Himself (13^" 14"). The Spirit, too, will
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glorify Christ by making Him more fully known (16"). It has been said that in St. John tlie universe is the poem of the Word to the glory of the Father.
(6) Judgment (Kp/tris).— As at the creation God divided the light from the darkness, so the In- carnation necessarily and naturally divided man- kind, condemning tho.se who would not receive the light. This is ' the judgment ' (3'''). With regard to Christ's own function as .ludj^e, we have anotlier formal contradiction (cf. 12« S" lii« with 5~- " 9»» 5*"). The contrast is strikiiij;, Ijut tlie Evangelist's meaning is clear. The cominj; ot Christ disclosed an actual relation ; He made no new, more severe laws ; He only revealed, in all its unfathomable depth, the gulf that yawns between God and the devil, and between their respective servants. The 'one that seeketh and judgeth' (S'") is the eternal power of righteousness which is symbolized in the Law (5^=), and e.xpressed in the Gospel (\2*^<-). At the same time, the judgment is a j'crsoncd one, and is committed to Chi-ist as a. son of man (5"). Mankind is judged by a human standard, though by the standard of humanity at its best.
(7) World (K6<Tfj.os).-^lt is remarkable that St. John uses nbafios, while the Synoptics use alibv. The former is the Greek, the latter the Jewish way of envisaging reality ; for the Greeks pictured it more readily under the form of space, the JeAvs under that of time. The ' world ' is the smn-tot.il of existence viewed (by abstraction) without thi.' spiritual world. It is ' the things below ' (8^), as opposed to 'the things above.' The concept is therefore an abstraction for certain purposes, and has no real existence, for the world is upheld in being oidy by the Logos, who is ' not of the world. ' It comprises all that belongs to the categories of time and place. Christ ' came into tlie world ' at His incarnation, and He is 'in the world' till His death and glorification. He prays not that His disciples may be taken out of the world, but that they may be' kept from the evil. From this idea comes that of tlie world as human society as it organizes itself apart from God, hence the severe judgments passed upon the world ; e.g. 1 Jn S''* 'the whole world lieth in the wicked one,' and .similar phrases in the Gospel. Thus the world is that which' is external, transitory, and corrupt. The Evangelist, it need hardly be said, does not follow up Uie thought of the unreality of tlie world apart from God, into acosmistic speculations. Tliinkers who have done so have been driven into a purely negative conception of evil, and have often drifted into a dreamy pantheism. But St. John, as we have seen, presents us with an intense ethical dualism, including a belief in a personal or quasi- personal devil, who is the de facto prince of this world.