tained by communion with God and by the habitual doing of His will. See on ii. 6.
Sinneth not. John does not teach that believers do not sin, but is speaking of a character, a habit. Throughout the Epistle he deals with the ¢deal reality of life in God, in which the love of God and sin exclude each other as light and dark- ness.
Seen—known. The vision of Christ and the appropriation of what is seen. Rev., correctly, Anoweth.
7. Little children. See on ii. 1. Deceive (7Aavdtw). Rev., better, lead astray. See oni. 8.
Doeth righteousness. See on ver. 4, and compare ii. 29. Note the article rv, the righteousness, in its completeness and unity. Not merely doing righteous acts. ‘In his relation to other men he will do what is just; and in his relation to the gods he will do what is holy; and he who does what is just and holy cannot be other than just and holy” (Plato, “ Gor- gias,” 507).
8. The Devil. Seeon ii.13. Compare John viii. 44. ‘‘The devil made no one, he begot no one, he created no one; but whosoever imitates the devil, is, as it were, a child of the devil, through imitating, not through being born of him” (Augustine).
Sinneth. The present tense indicates continuousness. He sinned zm the beginning, and has never ceased to sin from the beginning, and still sinneth.
The Son of God. For the first time in the Epistle. Hitherto the title has been the Son, or His Son. See on i. 7.
Might destroy (Avon). Lit., dissolve, loosen. Compare Acts xxvii. 41; xiii. 43. “The works of the devil are repre-