•• These tilings have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." In truth, he had in his mind all the different classes of believers — children, young men, and lathers: "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have over- come the wicked oneb." Of course, there is much in this, as well as in all the epistles, profitable to unconverted men : but I must, on the present occa- sion, attend rather to believers, and mark of what use this epistle is intended to be to them. It is intended,
I. To assure them, that in Christ they have all that they can need —
All who truly believe " have eternal life :" they have,
1. The substance of it, treasured up for them in Christ—
[The Lord Jesus Christ is the depository in which eternal life is placed: as the Apostle says in the preceding context; " This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son" The Lord Jesus purchased it for us, by his own obedience unto death: and to him it was granted, for our use and benefit; " that he might bestow it on as many as have been given him by the Father0." " In Him, through the good pleasure of the Father, it dwells, even all the fulness of itd." " Whatever can be conceived to be comprehended in eternal life, to him it is all committed ; and out of his fulness it must be received6."]
2. A title to it, conferred on them by Christ —
[The Lord Jesus, when he sent forth his Disciples to preach the Gospel to the whole world, commissioned them to declare to all, without exception, " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved." No one was recpuired to bring any measure of worthiness with him as a title: on the contrary, there was to be but one plea for all mankind ; namely, the promise of God to the believing soul. On that all were to rest ; and that was to be the one ground of hope to every child
b 1 John ii. 12 — 14. c John xvii. 2.
d Col. i. 19. e John i. 16.