Ver.11. St. John recognises no neutral attitude between ‘‘love” and ‘‘ hatred”. Love is active benevolence, and less than this is hatred, just as indifference to the Gospel-call amounts to rejection of it (cf. Matt. xxii. 5-7). Observetheclimax: “in the darkness is, and in the darkness walketh, and knoweth not where he is going”. ἐτύφλωσεν, aor. of the inde- finite past, where we would use the perf. (cf. Moulton, Gram. of N. T. Gk., i. pp. 135 ff.). The penalty of living in the darkness is not merely that one does not see, but that one goes blind. The neg- lected faculty isatrophied. Cf. the mole, the crustacea in the subterranean lakes of the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky.
Observe how St. John emphasises and elaborates the old-new commandment ‘‘ Love thy brother,” reiterating it, put- ting it negatively and positively.
Vv. 12-17. The Appeal of Experience. “T am writing to you, little children, be- cause your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake; I am writing to you, fathers, because ye Fave got to know Him that it is from the beginning
A - [ 12. γράφω ὑμῖν, τεκνία, ὅτι ἀφέωνται ὑμῖν at ἁμαρτίαι :διὰ τὸ
” > A ονομα αυτου. ἀρχῆς.
γράφω” ὑμῖν, | παιδία, ὅτι μονος τὸν πατέρα.
3
ών ὅτι ας τὸν ὃ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς.
13. Γράφω ὑμῖν, πατέρες, ὅτι ἐγνώκατε τὸν
ας. h άφω ὑμῖν, ‘veavioxor, ὅτι ὃ νενικήκατε γράφω ὑμῖν,
μμ - τή d Matt. x
22, XXiv. ®am ο) John
τὸν | πονηρόν. Rev il. 3.
14. Ἔγραψα ὁ όρων fate, xix. Ἔγραψα 6 τν νεανίσκοι, ὅτι Acts, ii.
ἰσχυροί ἐστε, kai’ 6 λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν μένει, καὶ νενικήκατε τὸν g John Xvi.
33; Rom. xii, 21. h iii. 12, v. 18, 19; John xvii. 15; Matt. v. 37, vi. 13, xiii. το, 38. i Ver. 18, 11, 17 (ν.].). k Eph. vi. 1ο. 11. το reff, 1το 9. 2 ypadw K, Vg., Aug.; εγραψα ΝΑΒΟΙ.Ρ, Syrve ph, Cop., Sah., Aeth., Arm., edd. 3 ro B.
I am writing to you, young men, because ye have conquered the Evil One. I wrote to you, little ones, because ye have got to know the Father; I wrote to you, fathers, because ye have got to know Him that is from the beginning; I wrote to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have conquered the Evil One. Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. Ifany one loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the braggart boast of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
The Apostle has been setting forth searching truths and is about to make an exacting claim; and here he pauses and with much tenderness reassures his readers: “I am not addressing you as unbelievers or casting doubt upon the sincerity of your faith. On the con- trary, it is because I am assured thereof that 1 am writing this letter to you and wrote the Gospel which accompanies it”
Ver. 12. Texvia, all the Apostle’s readers, his customary appellation (see n. on ii. 1). ἀφέωνται, perf., the Doric form of ἀφεῖνται. τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, the character, mind, purpose of God revealed in Christ. ‘‘The name of God” is ‘‘ whatsoever there is whereby he makes himself known” (Westm. Larg. Catech.).
Ver. 13. He now subdivides τεκνία into πατέρες, i.e., mature believers with a long and ever-deepening (ἐγνώκατε) experience behind them, and νεανίσκοι, who, though 4 ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός is strong within them, have conquered the Evil One by the aids of grace—an evid- ence of the reality of their interest in Christ. dm ἀρχῆς, as in i. t. The ancient interpreters took Texvia, πατέρες,