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 the one being who knows the truth thoroughly--_self_; and having lied, can get the lie believed,--
"Like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie." _Tempest_, Act I. Sc. 2.
Ver. 7. _Fresh._] There are two quite different words alike translated new in A. V.: one of these is the word used here (καινος); the other (νεος). The first always signifies _new_ in quality--intellectual, ethical, spiritual _novelty_--that which is opposed to, which replaces and supersedes, the antiquated, inferior, outworn; _new_ in the world of thought. (Heb. viii. 13 states this with perfect precision.) It may sometimes not inadequately be rendered _fresh_ ("youngly," Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_). The other term (νεος) is simply _recent_; _new_ chronologically in the world of time.
_Which ye heard from the beginning._] Probably a recognition of St. Paul's teaching at Ephesus, and of his Epistle to the Ephesians.
Ver. 8. To many commentators this verse seems almost of insoluble difficulty. Surely, however, the meaning is clear enough for those who will place themselves within the atmosphere of St. John's thought. "Again a fresh commandment I am writing to you" [this commandment, charity, is no unreal and therefore delusive standard of duty]. Taken as one great whole (ὁ) it is true, matter of observable historical fact, because it is realised in Him who gave the commandment; capable of realisation, and even in measure realised in you. [And this can be actually done by Christians, and recognised more and more by others], "because the shadow is drifting by from the landscape even of the world, and the light, the very light, enlighteneth by a new ideal and a new example."
Ver. 10. _Scandal._] In Greek is the rendering of two Hebrew words. (1) That against which we trip and stumble, a stumbling-block; (2) A hook or snare.
Ver. 11. The terrible force of this truly Hebraistic parallelism should be noted.
1. He that hateth his brother _is_ in darkness. 2. " " " walketh in darkness. 3. " " " knoweth not where he goeth. 4. " " " darkness has blinded his eyes.
The third beat of the parallelism contains an allusion to that Cain among the nations, the Jewish people in our Lord's time. (John xii. 35.)
In illustration of the powerful expression, ("darkness has blinded his eyes") the present writer quoted a striking passage from Professor Drummond, who adduces a parallel for the Christian's loss of the spiritual faculty, by the atrophy of organs which takes place in moles, and in the fish in dark caverns. (_Speaker's Commentary, in loc._) But as regards the mole at least, a great observer of Nature entirely denies the alleged atrophy. Mr. Buckland quotes Dr. Lee in a paper, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, where he says,--"the eye of the mole presents us with an instance of an organ which is rudimentary, not by arrest of development, but through disuse, aided perhaps by natural selection." But Mr. Buckland asserts that "the same great Wisdom who made the mole's teeth the most beautiful set of insectivorous teeth among animals, also made its eye fit for the work it has to do. The mole has been designed to prey upon earthworms; they will not come up to the surface to him, so he must go down into the earth to them. For this purpose his eyes are fitted." (_Life of F. Buckland_, pp. 247, 248).