[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 is one of the few references to the Old Testament _history_ in St. John's Epistle (Gen. iv. 1-8). To the _theology_ of the Old Testament there are many references; _e.g._, light and life. 1 John i. 1-5; John i. 4; Ps. xxxvi. 9. There is, however, another historical reference a few verses above (1 John iii. 8)--a passage of primary importance because it recognises the whole narrative of the Fall in Genesis, and affords a commentary upon the words of Christ (John viii. 44). The writer has somewhere seen an interesting suggestion that ver. 12 may contain some allusion to the visit of Apollonius of Tyana to Ephesus. Apollonius incited the mob to kill a beggar-man for the purpose of placing himself on a level with Chalcas and others who caused the sacrifice of human victims. The date of this incident would apparently coincide with the closing years of St. John's life (_Philostrat. vita Apollon._, Act. ii., S. 5).
[235] Ver. 14.
[236] Vers. 14, 15.
[237] Ver. 12.
[238] Ver. 16.
[239] Ver. 17.
[240] Vers. 18, 19.
[241] Vers. 20, 21.
[242] "For _The Love_ I rather beseech thee" (Phil. v. 9). The addition in the A.V. (_of God_) rather impairs the sweetness and power, the reverential reserve of the original.
[243] Of Prof. Westcott.
[244] Ver. 17.
[245] It is suggestive that on Quinquagesima Sunday, when 1 Cor. xiii. is the Epistle, St. Luke xviii. 31 sqq., is the Gospel. The lyric of love is joined with a fragment of its epic. That fragment tells us of a love which not only proclaimed itself ready to be sacrificed (Luke xviii. 31-33), but condescended individually to the blind importunate mendicant who sat by the wayside begging (vers. 35-43).
[246] The word here is βιος not ζωη. "Βιος period of life; hence the means by which it is sustained, means of life." (Archbp. Trench.) It is to be wished that the R. V. had either kept "the good" of the A. V., or adopted the word "living"--the translation of βιος in Mark xii. 44; Luke xxi. 4.
[247] 2 John 3.
[248] 1 John i. 4, ii. 28, iii. 21, iv. 17, v. 14, iii. 19.
[249] 1 John i. 4.
[250] τα σπλαγχνα (ver. 17). This however is the only occurrence of the word in St. John's writings. The substantive σπλαγχνα = _emotions_, is found in classical poets. But the verb σπλαγχνιζομαι occurs only in LXX. and New Testament--and thus, like αγαπη, is almost born within the circle of revealed truth. The new dispensation so rich in the mercy of God (Luke i. 78), so fruitful in mercy from man to man, may well claim a new vocabulary in the department of tenderness and pity.
[251] 1 John v. 6, conf. John xix. 34.
[252] θεωρη, ver. 17.
[253] "The love of which God is at once the object, and the author, and the pattern." (Prof. Westcott.)
[254] 1 John iv. 19.
[255] Lord Meath.